Mum’s first cruise at 80! Why you’re never too old to cruise

Rose Jacobs' mother (right), at 80 years old, joined her on a Celebrity Cruises inaugural sailing from Christchurch to Sydney. Photo / Supplied

Everything you need to know about taking your elderly mum on her inaugural cruise, by Rose Jacobs

If you’re wondering if you’re too old to try something new, then let this be the message you need to hear today. My 80-year old mum has just joined me as my plus one on the Celebrity Cruises inaugural sailing of The Edge from Christchurch to Sydney.

Or, as she liked to tell all other 3000 guests onboard, she was my “significant mother”. I had some hesitations around bringing mum on this trip – would she like it? Would she feel trapped? Would I push her overboard? This was how it went.

I should firstly mention that although mum is 80, she’s still pretty spritely, especially in the mind.

She is a slow walker after a double hip replacement, and she does tend to get easily distracted, so I needed to slow my pace with her for the week and gently usher her past the duty-free shops onboard and the various art installations where she could happily stand and be absorbed for hours.

But in terms of embracing all things new and novelty, she was all in. Live stage productions in the evenings, yes. A Zumba class during the day, bring it on. A cooking class with Masterchef’s Brendan Pang who whipped up some delicious dumplings, oh yeah.

An afternoon lounging in the Thermal Suite (a day spa full of various steam rooms and saunas and heated daybeds), no brainer. An evening dinner complete with animated figures projected onto our table called Le Petite Chef, she was gobsmacked.

The cruise offered a wide range of activities, from live stage productions and Zumba classes to cooking classes with Masterchef's Brendan Pang. Photo / Supplied

And when it came to the all-important part, the food, I was relieved to see that mum was genuinely blown away. The word ‘buffet’ for mum brought up visions of greasy food and gaining 5kg on the trip (of which she had lost in the months leading up to the trip so she could fit into her specially chosen “cruising wardrobe”).

So, to see her expression of delight when she realised that the buffet was in fact bursting with fresh fruits and salads, baked vegetables, curries, seafood, exotic flavours and the freshest ingredients, I couldn’t have been prouder of what cruising has evolved into today. Mum was in her element.

It’s true that as we age we tend to take comfort in the simplest things like being warm, not waiting in long queues, a good coffee, friendly service, a quality glass of wine, and like-minded individuals.

And for mum, it also means not having to cook the meal in the evening, or do the tidying up, someone making your bed for you. As I said, the smallest, simplest things that become like luxuries later in life. This cruise offered all of this and more for mum.

In fact, she repeatedly said (to all 3000 of her new best friends on board) that she felt like a queen, being treated like royalty.

We unpacked once and explored the ship from top to toe, returning to our cabin for our little afternoon siestas whenever we needed and there were no flights, taxis, waiting in lines or dragging suitcases involved from start to finish!

Our personal butler Leandro would tidy our infinite stateroom cabin for us every time we left the room, folding mum’s pyjamas, making our bed with the pillows in a different design each morning, placing fresh towels in the bathroom and even chocolates on our pillows of an evening. Yep, mum had found her happy place!

She had put aside all her assumptions about cruising and was embracing this luxury life at sea. Every evening we would try a different restaurant for dinner and order as much of anything we liked – escargot, wagyu steak, pistachio crusted salmon, New York cheesecake, all with matching wines, and all included in the fare.

The dining experience offered a buffet offering fresh fruits, salads, seafood, and exotic flavors. Photo / Supplied

We even dared to do a shore excursion in Dunedin, which meant boarding a smaller boat and heading out to sea to see tiny dolphins and observe albatrosses in the wild. I wasn’t sure if mum would be exhausted by this but she was exhilarated.

It was a burst of new energy, something completely unfamiliar and fascinating. The look on her face when she saw baby sea lions being born on the rocks was magic and something neither she or I will ever forget.

Quality time spent on Celebrity Cruises. Photo / Supplied

But perhaps the part that mum appreciated more than anything was that we were doing this adventure together.

There were no partners or grandchildren we needed to focus on. No trips to the supermarket or doing the laundry. No feeding the dogs. It was just us, mother and daughter, exploring something new and exciting together, being spoilt and pampered, so we could just genuinely enjoy some quality time. And I’m pretty sure there’s not an 80-year-old alive who wouldn’t say that’s time well spent.

As we said goodbye to Leandro and thanked him yet again for looking after us, and mum tried one last time to find a secret hiding spot so she could be a stowaway onboard the ship, we reflected on how quickly the time had gone, and yet how much we had managed to do in that short week.

And how much we were looking forward to our next cruise again together as soon as possible.

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