Caught in a Net of Wonder

Several years ago, my mother had a brain hemorrhage and I found myself suddenly in charge of her finances. She and my father had worked hard all their lives to save a modest nest egg. Imagine my shock when I looked at the numbers and realized that their 40-plus years of savings would be used up in five years if she entered a nursing home.

Luckily, she recovered and that didn’t happen. But the experience served as a wake-up call for my husband and me. We were in the process of saving money for our retirement. The realization that what we were really saving for was to pay a nursing home to take care of us was disturbing. That inspired the decision to take our first substantial vacation in years.

One of us, for health reasons, is not able to fly, so cruising seemed like an ideal mode of travel. Many people recoil at the idea of being "stuck" on a ship. To the contrary, we fell in love with cruising. Sitting on our balcony with a good book, listening to the lapping of the ocean against the ship and feeling the invigorating sea air was a little piece of nirvana. Sometimes we just fell into an alpha state watching the undulating ocean waves.

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."—Jacques Yves Cousteau

Our cruise ship as seen from a museum in the port of Tortola, BVI.

We have seen schools of dolphins frolicking near the ship and witnessed the marvel of flying fish gliding above the waters. From the main decks, we have tracked storms as they traveled from the distant horizon all the way to our ship. We have seen incredible rainbows, breath-taking sunsets, and a night sky filled with sparkling rivers of stars. All this, between ports along the Atlantic or Caribbean coasts. The pace is slow and we like it that way.

Passenger liners originally were a way of transporting people long distances prior to the development of air travel. The concept of pleasure cruising came later and was generally an off-season way of keeping ocean liners full. Cruising has only been around since the late 1800s. Here are some highlights, thanks to Paul Timmerman at cruiseshipodyssey.com:

Blazing sunset off of Maine.

• 1867—the paddle wheeler, Quaker City, makes the first transatlantic cruise from New York to Europe and the Holy Land. One of the passengers on board was Mark Twain, whose book (1869, The Innocents Abroad) offers a detailed account of the voyage
• 1881—the Ceylon, one of the first real cruise ships, sails under the English shipping company, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) after being converted from a liner to a cruise ship. Ships were organized as “excursions for travelers who look for adventure”
• 1899—the American Line SS Paris (former USS Yale) sails on a three-week voyage to the West Indies to visit the battle sites of the Spanish American War (not sure why battlefields of a ten-week war would be a draw; perhaps the same reason why history buffs flock to Gettysburg and Omaha Beach)
  
• Post-1900—passenger liners returning from New York and Canada to Europe were often half empty. So, gradually, these return trips were marketed as pleasure cruises. On-board standards were improved, and liners were built with an emphasis on luxury rather than speed: White Star Line's Adriatic in 1907 introduced the first swimming pool on the high seas. HAPAG Lloyd's Amerika featured the first a la carte restaurant, the Ritz Carlton, and the first electric elevators aboard a passenger vessel
• Between WWI and WWII, new liners were built for the transatlantic route including the Normandie, Queen Mary. Rex, Conte di Savoia, Nieuw Amsterdam, Bremen and Europa. Passenger ships, referred to as “Floating Palaces,” were lavishly decorated, reflecting the interiors of land-based hotels or country estates. The luxurious accommodations were meant to draw the attention of the traveler away from the raging seas they had to cross. This style of passenger ship interiors lasted until the beginning of the 1930s
• 1920-1933—America’s Prohibition, banning the consumption of alcohol, made cruises to nowhere, or the so-called Booze Cruise, very popular. It offered Americans an opportunity to drink legally outside US territorial waters. Ships like Cunard’s Mauretania and Berengeria offered these trips between their Atlantic crossings
• 1922—Laconia, owned by British Cunard Line, made the first ever world cruise. She departed from New York, transited the Panama Canal, then visited Japan and other countries in the Far East, and continued via the Suez Canal, through the Mediterranean and back to New York. The following years, Cunard offered world cruises with a duration of six months, almost twice as long as a world cruise offered today

The fog envelops our ship off a New England port.

• 1927—the world’s first purpose-built luxury cruise ship, the Norwegian Stella Polaris was introduced. This vessel resembled a large yacht, and 200 passengers were looked after by a crew of 130. The impeccable service and her long cruises to remote places, only to be enjoyed by the happy few with enough time and money to spare, set her apart from other cruise ships and made her probably the most famous cruise ship of all time

• 1927—the French introduced the Ile de France, which is regarded the first passenger ship completely decorated in a modern, contemporary style. This ship introduced the modernistic art-deco style. The Ile de France marked the end of the Floating Palaces

"I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by." —John Masefield

When a ship can't dock, a tender boat carries passengers to shore.

• 1930s—The German Labor Ministry organized cruises for German workers (a kind of incentive cruise). The NAZI-fleet included the Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley. They were called the Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) ships. These ships introduced a new feature in cruising: large numbers of cabins with exactly the same layout, found today on every cruise ship afloat. All cabins were outside cabins, making the Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley forerunners of the All Outside Cabin layout, re-introduced by Royal Princess in 1984
• 1948—After WWII, most surviving passenger ships were still engaged as troop transports, and after their service in this role ended, they were returned to their pre-war owners. Among these ships were a handful of full-time cruise ships, mostly in the luxury segment, like Cunard’s Caronia and Bergen Line's Stella Polaris
• 1959—Six months after the first commercial flight crossed the North Atlantic, for the first time, more people flew across the Atlantic than sailed; the passenger liner era came to an end
• 1950s-1960s—The standard of living improved significantly and more people had money and time to travel. Cruising wasn't just for the rich anymore. Borders between classes on board diminished

Rainbow after a storm.

• 1964-1972—four companies that today are often referred to as the Big Four were founded: Carnival Cruises (now includes Cunard and Holland America), Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (now includes Celebrity), Princess Cruises and Norwegian Caribbean Line.

"At night, when the sky is full of stars and the sea is still, you get the wonderful sensation that you are floating in space."—Natalie Wood

Of course, this all transpired long before we stepped across our first gang plank. From our maiden voyage, the sirens of Titan mesmerized us, as surely as they had woven their magic with previous generations of travelers. Our adventures have instilled a deep sense of kinship and respect for the restless power of the sea. As John F. Kennedy once observed, "We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came."

Would You Like More Happy Time?

"One of the gladdest moments of human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy."—Sir Richard Burton

Americans love their vacations. I can say this with some authority as I am, in fact, an American and I love my vacations. Naturally, I would not expect you to rely on a sample of one to support such an audacious claim. I have asked several dozen other Americans as well. And, yep, they also place a high value on their vacation time. That may be because there is so little of it.

 Sunset off the deck of a cruise ship. Ahhhhh.

Did you know that the United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation time? This is according to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. They found that 1 in 4 private-sector workers in the U.S. does not receive any paid vacation or paid holidays. My husband is one of them. Time off equals no pay. Since I am self-employed, the same applies to me.

We are not whining, though. We are grateful to have work in these difficult times. Still, a lousy job market does not justify giving less benefits to employees, especially since these conditions also existed in the best of job markets. It is, however, a handy excuse for doing so.

Let’s go back to the report, entitled No-Vacation Nation.* This report, which came out in 2007, prior to the big economic worldwide meltdown, found that European workers are guaranteed at least 20 paid vacation days per year, with 25 and even 30 or more days common in some countries. The gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world is even larger when holidays are included. The U.S. does not guarantee any paid holidays, but most rich countries provide between 5 and 13 per year, in addition to paid vacation days. Current economic conditions have not changed this.

“Too much work, too much vacation, too much of any one thing is unsound.”—Walter Annenberg

This may be shocking news to some of you, but according to one of the report’s authors, John Schmitt, “Relying on businesses to voluntarily provide paid leave just hasn’t worked. It’s a national embarrassment that 28 million Americans don’t get any paid vacation or paid holidays.”

Are you embarrassed or is it just me?

To give you an idea of who has the most time to enjoy life—and who has the least—here is a handy chart of government-mandated paid time off, which was reported in the study. Notice the U.S. at the bottom.

Based on the above chart, if you want to “work to live rather than live to work,” the best places to set up shop are France, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Italy or Belgium. They all have an average of 30 or more days off a year that are government-mandated.

“Socialism!” you may cry, worried sick about Big Business and how CEOs will ever survive. Hey, hate to tell you, Pal, but Big Business loses no sleep over you. Here’s something to think about: despite our lame economy, the 25 highest paid CEOs in this country made between 15 and 87 million dollars last year, according to the AFL/CIO website. They also have vacation packages that are guaranteed through employment contracts. Not so for the rest of us poor rabble.

In fact, for the average worker, the U.S. lags far behind the rest of the world's rich countries. The lack of paid vacation and paid holidays in the U.S. is particularly acute for lower-wage and part-time workers, and for employees of small businesses. So the people who make the least amount of money also have the least amount of time off.

Why can our European counterparts supply guaranteed minimum vacations for their citizens and we can’t? I have no idea. You may find it interesting to know that government-mandated time off is not limited to the world’s wealthiest countries, either. Here are other countries, not nearly as well off as the U.S., that provide guaranteed vacation benefits, according to CNBC (notice that the U.S. proudly maintains its position at the bottom of the chart):

So from an R&R standpoint, Brazil, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, South Korea and even India look better than the United States. Holy cow!

Again, why can European countries as well as poorer countries like Brazil, South Korea, and India provide more guaranteed time off than the U.S.? Don’t know. Maybe they just all like to goof off more than we do.

Or maybe not. A recent article in The New York Times put it this way: In Europe, people work from the time they get to work in the morning until they leave. They do not talk at the water cooler or otherwise socialize. They put in a solid 8 hours of work. Yet, when 6 p.m. rolls around, everyone leaves. In the U.S., more time is spent at work, but our productivity is much lower, since people socialize and often surf the web during their workday. Despite the different approaches, overall productivity, according to the article, is fairly similar with both approaches. Given that our work output is supposedly equivalent, it is curious that Europeans receive government-mandated vacation and holiday time and we don't.

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.”—Bertrand Russell

In Europe, people pay considerably higher taxes than we do, but in return, they have socialized medicine, subsidized university costs (varies with country), and government councils that safeguard guaranteed vacation times and employee benefits. They also have broad safety nets for extended unemployment, maternity leave and illness. Yes, this is called socialism. I am sure it is not perfect and has lots of problems, but I do not think this way of life deserves the vehement vilification that our wealthy politicians and their well-heeled lobbyists rant about. Why would our well-to-do legislators and corporate-owned media want us to hate socialism so much? Well, socialism tends to be bad for the rich and not so bad for the average person.

Neither the U.S. nor European systems is flawless. I am certainly no expert on either. I must confess, however, that whenever I consider the 30 days of vacation my European, Brazilian, Russian and Lithuanian counterparts enjoy, I suffer from an incredible case of leisure envy.

*No Vacation Nation is available for your reading pleasure at: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/no-vacation-nation/