Welcome to another edition of Meet Your Neighbors where we welcome Helen and Norman, who are embarking on their sixth around-the-world cruise. While their home base is in sunny Florida, they have already visited an astounding 166 countries!
Having firmly established themselves as world cruise aficionados, the idea of living aboard a residential ship came naturally for the couple. After considering their options, they ultimately settled on Storylines as they strongly resonated with the principle of experiencing travel as a lifestyle rather than a vacation.
"We've had some good fun... We've been blessed."
~ Norman
Helen and Norman look forward to participating in the activities onboard. Norman likes to chat with people and he is eager to utilize the sports deck which has a multi-sports court, jogging track, yoga sundeck and exercise equipment. Helen might get involved with playing cards with fellow residents. The couple are fans of slow travel and prefer to explore destinations independently rather than doing group cruise excursions. They look forward to having extended time in ports so they can hire cars and explore inland areas such as wine regions, and perhaps even do overland train journeys (they journeyed all the way across Russia by train in the past).
"I was excited when I learned that Storylines would have a lot of bicycles and scooters, because every time we go to (especially) smaller islands, we love to rent a scooter and go tooling around."
~ Norman
Unlike vacation world cruises, Helen and Norman are especially looking forward to not being restricted to eight hours in port. Spending the night in destinations on land before returning to the ship will be something of a luxury. Getting off the beaten track and seeing more than just the tourist tick-box destinations appears to be a theme of this couple’s experience, which fits right in line with Storylines’ immersive global travel lifestyle.
"With every other cruise you get there at eight in the morning and you leave at four in the afternoon. You have to have a plan if you wanna see the place. We're not people that get on pre-arranged excursions, because we just like to have adventures."
~ Helen
The couple looks forward to meeting their neighbors and we think they will fit in wonderfully with the onboard community. After all, they are already global citizens!
Thanks to Helen & Norman for taking the time to participate in Meet Your Neighbors and a special thanks to fellow resident Bethany for once again volunteering her time and excellent interview skills so we can get to know everyone.
Welcome to the Storylines community, Helen and Norman… we’re so glad you’re here!