Beyond Our Past, An Amazing Adventure.

After several days at sea, we are currently in the middle of the 2nd largest ocean on earth, three days away from mainland Spain. From there, what lie ahead for us are several ports of call and then a week in the middle of Paris cozying up with each other in a boutique hotel. It’s a travel dream that Julie and I are living and we are extremely grateful to do so. We’re sailing on the new Celebrity Beyond… if this were a typical travel blog post, I‘d bore you with endless photos of the ship and of the ports of call… but I won’t. The Beyond is the most beautiful vessel on the seas (by far) but I’ll leave the images to your imagination and a browse of the Internet.

What exactly makes the Beyond so beautiful and so able to resonate and engulf a person’s happiness and emotions so completely?

To quote Hunter S. Thomson,

“Turn back the pages of history and see the men who have shaped the destiny of the world”

Our history and culture are full of the songs and stories of great seafaring explorers, warriors and captains…all men. To say the world’s oceans historically are a “man’s world” is an understatement, one as big as the Atlantic Ocean. But what truly is living and the enjoyment of life’s happiness?

Does history show us the way it will always be? Should be? Or can our seafaring future be far richer and more imaginative than the sums and songs of our past? Every cruise ship company (every company and city) should be asking themselves the very same questions, if for no other reason than 50% of their customers are women. But that’s the simple answer to the questions above, not the complete answer.

The Beyond’s strengths are its unequalled attention to design elements, “hygge” spaces & materials, (the chair selection is especially strong) the arts including visual, sculpture, performance and culinary, nature & plant materials and guest services (I’ve never seen a more perfectly manicured garden in the world than the roof top garden on the Beyond.) You can feel it all over the ship; you can feel it in the ships staff.

Yes, I know every other cruise line has these same components, but in all cases they are an afterthought, a historical tether to the decisions and days of the sea where a man is the captain of the ship. They are merely existing securely in the decisions of our past. I give great credit for the Celebrity Beyond to the decisions of a female CEO and a female Captain creating an elevated and unequalled experience at sea.

Julie and Captain Kate

As just one example, when Julie and others heard that Captain Kate was onboard as a guest, you could sense the excitement both in the guest and in the staff. For many it was seeing a woman do something that was not possible in their life, for some it was female leadership to aspire to and for some it was hopefulness for their daughters and future generations. Having Captain Kate on board literally changed the enjoyment of their cruise, difficult for a man, for me, to understand.

Again, the simple answer to the question is that 50% of all customers are women. But the real answer, the far more important answer, is that women in leadership positions have made this cruise line and this ship far better and more amazing for its guests than it otherwise would have been. It’s not just about being equal, or inclusive, all too often that can manifest and masks itself by trying to be better and wanting to outperform or punish men. No, what Celebrity has done is make it better than it ever was, and they have done so by calling on all their human resources and all the various strengths required in leadership position at sea…. not just from half their available resources.

This time to paraphrase Hunter S. Thomson,

“As an afterthought, it seems hardly proper to write of life without once mentioning happiness; so we shall let the reader answer this question for themself: who is the happier person, the person who has braved the storm of life and lived or the one who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?" Celebrity Cruise lines and Captain Kate braved the storm of life… rather than “staying on their shore” and merely existing in a world as it had always been. They have changed their industry, now far richer; they have greatly improved our world at sea.

So sing their songs… write their stories….give witness to history.

Bravo Celebrity!

Peder