2026 isn't quite done yet, but I've taken four Royal Caribbean cruises in four months,

and of course they did that one Silver Sea cruise as well,

and I wanted to share what surprised me the most about every single one of them.

And when you talk about cruises in general,

I feel like you always get something that just jumps out to you about that particular sailing.

You can go on the same ship three, four,

five times and have not a different experience, but usually something about that cruise that makes

that particular sailing notable from the others. And certainly I felt like that was the case with me

this year because I went on a number of ships. I wanted the Utopia of the Seas twice. I went

to Brilliance of the Seas, and I went on Star of the Seas. And as I'm recording this right now, I'm actually going to be going on the radiance of the seas next week. I booked a cruise at the very last minute, but that's a podcast topic for another day. But today I wanted to share the things that really surprised me about going on real

green cruises this year. Number one is short cruise definitely felt more hectic than ever.

And I've just kind of accepted it. You know, one of the things about a ship like

Utopia or Wonder doing short cruises, three night cruises specifically, is that it is over

before you know it. and while we can sit here

and make this about how you know a waste class ship shouldn't do short cruises here's the reality ladies

and gentlemen they're doing them they're going to be doing them they're just too successful not to be

doing it regardless of how you or i feel that we prefer seven-night9 cruise. The bottom line is they see a market,

they Royal Caribbean, see a market with these short ship or these ships sailing short itineraries. And I think that's just going to be the norm going forward. So any, I don't know, hope or dream of it changing, I just don't see it. But when I go on a short cruise on like a utopia or wonder. Really, one of the things I had to like the realization I've had is I don't have to go onto that cruise and do everything and see everything.

Like I've just kind of accepted there are areas of the ship. I won't have time to visit.

You know, I remember when we were just on Utopia of the Seas in April for my wife's birthday,, I think I walked through the pool deck once. I never got to the Solarium. And there might have been one of their neighborhood. I never actually visited at all. But like, at first you think like, oh gosh, what a missed opportunity. And then I'm like, no, it wasn't. I still had a good time. I wasn't sitting in my room the whole time, twiddling my thumbs, bored, right? There's a lot to fit into one cruise. And when you're going on a short cruise, especially three or four nights at the most, you're going to have to kind of accept, I think, that you're not going to be able to see you do it all. That's not a problem. I use this analogy a lot. If you go to New York City,

or Chicago or L.A. or Miami, any major city as like, hey, we're going to go visit this city as a trip. You're not going to do everything in a weekend or even a week for that matter. I mean, when you go to those cities, you don't come away from New York City. They're like, oh, what a waste. I didn't get to see and do everything.

No, you appreciate what you got to see,

...