I just go back from my cruise, and am catching up on my blog.  While I did have Internet Access on the cruise ship, it was .50 cents a minute.  As a result, I wrote my blog entries, and minimized my time online to just pasting and posting my articles.   I still ended up spending $10 for internet access.

Overall a good cruise. I’ve now been on three different cruise lines; Carnival, Norwegian, and now Royal Caribbean. Norwegian definitely had the best food. Royal Caribbean the best entertainment options. Carnival was my first, and was definitely the most convenient as I was able to take a cheap 3 day cruise.

While I enjoyed the cruise, I always leave the cruise (and any resort) experience feeling guilty. I always feel guilty about “living it up” when I know so many of the people serving me often come from impoverished 3rd world countries. Because cruise ships are typically registered in the Bahamas and do not operate technically in the U.S., they are not beholden to U.S. labor laws.  As a result cruise ships pay many of the service people the bare minimum in terms of wages.  Nearly all the compensation comes in the form of gratuities. This is not to say these are bad jobs for the people working at them. For many people these jobs represent a fantastic opportunity to lift themselves and their families from poverty.  They work hard, and I believe deserved to be tipped well.

The other sense of guilt I feel is purely on consumption. There’s so much food on board. I wonder how much of it ends up going to waste? I also wonder how much oil does a cruise ship use sailing around? It might be that cruise ships are very good about conserving food and energy. It’s not like I wouldn’t be eating and using electricity at home. However, the truth is I don’t know. I plan on spending the next week doing a little more research into the matter, and come up with an environmental impact study.