We are at sea today on our summer vacation cruise of Scandinavia. Yesterday we were in Copenhagen, and today we are sailing toward Tallinn, Estonia.  We are on a Royal Caribbean ship, although we have cruised on different ones in the past.  As we were pulling out of the harbor yesterday, there were several other cruise ships also departing, including ships from MSC, Holland America, Costa, and Disney. The Disney one caught the attention of our family because the first cruise we ever went on – 10 years ago this year in the Caribbean – was on the Disney Magic.

Surprisingly, when we pulled even with the Disney ship, we saw it was the Magic in Copenhagen on the same day we were. It must have left the harbor right after we did, because as we steam across the Baltic today, she is nearly right along side us.

This has gotten me reminiscing about time and place. The memories we make and how our lives have changed over 10 years. When we were on the Disney Magic in 2005, our lives were coming together. Our son was 7 years old (just in first grade) and it was a great vacation filled with Disney entertainment and warm weather fun. I was doing well in my career, but a small, lower deck, port-hole cabin was a real luxury. Today, we are 10 years older, but still enjoying a cruise as a family (my son is heading toward his senior year in high school). We’re also enjoying a much more sophisticated cruise in a good-sized suite, on a high deck, with private balcony. I don’t think we are having any more or less fun than we did so long ago.

Where will we be in another 10 years?

Still enjoying time as a family, but my son will be 27 years old and off on his own in the world. Maybe we will go on a cruise with him and his future wife at some point (my treat, I’m sure). Additionally, I will have been retired for a full decade. Many of our good friends and former coworkers will also likely be retiring. Hopefully I won’t have been bored of travel and high seas adventures. 

Hopefully we’ll find the Disney Magic somewhere on the sea again.

Image Credit: Pixabay