How I Accidentally Became a Back-to-Back Cruise Addict (And Why You Will Too)

By Community Member · Seven Seas Explorer (Regent Seven Seas)

I planned one two-week cruise. Six months later, I'm booking my third back-to-back on Seven Seas Explorer and I can't explain why—except I can.

I never thought of myself as a cruise person. Too touristy. Too crowded. Too much like giving up actual travel to sit on a floating mall. That's what I told myself until my best friend Sarah practically dragged me onto the Seven Seas Explorer for a fourteen-day Mediterranean itinerary last September. Three days in, I was standing on the Promenade Deck watching the sun set over Greece, holding a glass of wine that was included in my suite (because yes, everything is included on Regent), and I had this weird realization: I wasn't tired of being on a ship. I wasn't bored. I wasn't missing "real" travel. I was exactly where I wanted to be. What I didn't know yet was that I was about to discover the most deliciously addictive travel hack of my entire life: the back-to-back cruise. Here's how it happened. On day twelve of that first cruise, I was having dinner in Compass Rose, that gorgeous specialty restaurant where they seat you with other guests, and I mentioned to my tablemates that I was sad the cruise was ending. A woman named Patricia—probably in her late sixties, wearing the kind of effortless elegance that comes from truly knowing what suits you—laughed and said, "Then don't le…