Most travelers who write a trip report are excited to share a description of all of their wonderful adventures. They can be practically effusive in their praise of things like how they were greeted when they arrived at the boarding gate, the variety of snacks the hotel provided in the arrival gift basket, how the cabbie stopped trying to scam them once they said “No thank you” to him in his own language.

It’s only natural. When someone is writing about his/her travel experiences the good and the bad are all good.

But whogo isn’t like most trip reporters. In fact, here is how he describes himself and his reporting style and he prepares to author a live, as it happens, report of his cruise trip to Hawaii:

If you are looking for news of my interaction with the captain, you won’t find it here. I am never sure which one is the captain. Want descriptions of the Neptune Lounge? We aren’t entitled. Want to hear beautiful descriptions of exotic ports? If only I had the ability! This ain’t literachur. Want lavish praise of the hard working cruise? I am not good at gushing.

 

I have never had a bad cruise, but as a pessimist I always expect the worst. The advantage of being a pessimist is that things always turn out better than feared. Our flights did not arrive late or go down in flames. I even had a delicious in flight meal (that I brought from home). It’s great! Things may continue to go well, but I will post anything that does not as long as I can remain anonymous. …

 

Everyone else on board will have a different cruise than I do. I am bound to have a better cruise than my wife as I have a better traveling companion than she does. If you want honest, biased opinions that does not sound like HAL marketing, stay tuned. If not, get out now, you were warned.

Call me a glutton for abuse, but how can you not want to read the rest of this report.

At the time of this writing, whogo and his fellow cruisers haven’t made it much past San Diego due to an onboard medical emergency that caused the ship to turn around on Day 1. A bad omen to be sure, as they will be at sea for the next four days and, as whogo says:

I can’t think of a gentle way to put this. There are a lot of old and infirm people on this cruise. I have been concerned for their safety, glad I’m not responsible for it

I have no idea how this report will turn out, but I’m glad we have whogo onboard to provide us with all of the not-so-glossy details.

Read the thread in its entirety: Live: A grouch’s Veendam Hawaii cruise, January 2015