Okay! I’m finally up to my last travel post, heh. This one goes all the way back to fall of 2024. After going on the mini-cruise with Stephanie, I decided to book a transatlantic crossing over Halloween 2025. It would be my second transatlantic voyage, going the opposite direction and on a different cruise line. The trip got mentioned on my WhatsApp chat with the cruise group from Oct 2023, and suddenly, this became a reunion trip. Eight folks altogether signed up. A bunch of us used a TA to get rooms side by side, so we could open the dividers on the balconies and hang out as a group, and all eight rooms were very close to each other even if only five were in-a-row.

This trip started in Barcelona. I flew in a few days early and arrived at the airport around the same time as Brandi. Josh was already there with his boyfriend Greg, and they met us once we got through customs. We all drove back to Josh and Greg’s hotel, got brunch, and waited for Rainstorm to arrive. Greg was heading back to the US, the other seven reunion folks were arriving within the next two days, and everyone was staying at an airbnb together. But Rainstorm and I, knowing these would be our last couple days to spend together until all the divorce stuff worked out, got our own hotel.

Those days in Barcelona were awesome. Rainstorm worried about my cruise friends, about not fitting in with them, because on paper, it really doesn’t look like a group that fits together. We’re all very different, but somehow, it just works. None of us really knew if that would be the case after two years, but it was. We all just click perfectly. And it didn’t take long before Rainstorm laughingly told me, “Okay, I get it now.” By the time the cruise took off, both Rainstorm and Greg had been added as virtual participants in our group chat. We’d also picked up an Australian called Kylie who fit right in with us.

The cruise itself was okay. Two things kinda made it rough. First, everyone got sick. Not seasick, but cold-sick. We were all passing around meds trying to help everyone heal. A few people did get seasick too, as there were a couple rough days at sea. (I remain seasickness-free. I think I belong on boats, tbh.) Second, I do not do well with this direction of travel, time-zone-wise. I thought, when I did the first transatlantic trip, that it would be easier to go west since all the excursions would be at the beginning and you have plenty of time to rest as you cross. Nope. I grew progressively more exhausted from lack of sleep as the time zone changed but my body stayed stubbornly on Europe time.

Unfortunately, two of the big nights ended up being called off/changed due to weather, and both the PJ night and Scarlet Night were moved indoors. Lots of people were seasick on Scarlet Night. Mostly this all just meant we didn’t have the fun memories of jumping in the pool in evening wear, etc. But we made our own fun, our little group.

The ship stopped in three ports – Valencia, Casablanca, and Gran Canaria. Honestly, I was only planning to get off in Casablanca. The cruise and flights themselves were paid for pre-divorce, but I needed to go cheap on the rest. So I booked an excursion in Morocco but otherwise decided I would stay on the boat. Then, I didn’t end up getting off in Morocco (no crossing either Morocco or Africa off my bucket list…). There was a huge dust storm going on and I wasn’t feeling the best, as it was right when I was starting to catch the cold going around, so I stayed on board and ended up going into Gran Canaria (the next day) with friends. We took the Hop on Hop off bus. It was okay, but honestly, I was just really exhausted from the early tendrils of illness (I thought it was jet lag at this point).

On Halloween, my group of eight dressed up for the group costume contest, as the dysfunctional Addams’ family. And we won! Hurrah!

Honestly, most of the trip was a blur of silly things. All-you-can-drink brunch. So many rounds of Trivia. Brandi dressed in a blow-up unicorn costume. Burlesque and acrobatics performance. Adding a few more folks to our group chat, which became known as the Geriatric Drug Tug Halloween Frens chat. A naughty tshirt exchange. Sailaway party. Beautiful sunsets and rainbows on the water. Karaoke. Participating in an illusionist’s show. My new tattoo for Christabel. Mornings in a quiet lounge, drinking coffee and eating pastries as I wrote. We Fancy night. A big mix of exhaustion and fun times.

We want to do this again sometime. Not a transatlantic – several people have said “never again!!” to that idea – but a reunion trip together. Doesn’t have to be a cruise. Just the group, getting together to celebrate a friendship that formed in October 2023 against all odds, and which remains (again, against all odds) a wonderful and delightful thing.

And now, how crazy, I’m actually caught up with all the backlogged blog posts from the last few years!