<\/p>\n

I’m pretty 100% in the anti-cruise camp with Arthur Frommer<\/a>, unless that cruise is incidental to a small trip (like the great overnight cruise I took from Sweden to Estonia over the Midsummer holiday), or something as wacky as the recently-launched North Korean cruise. Yes, you read that right, appropriately enough, cruises — er, a cruise — has come to North Korea, pictures of which can be seen here via Gawker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the looks of things, it appears this pleasure cruise involves lots of school children waving flags, plastic dining room sets, and of course, a questionably-looking buffet. All in all, par for the course for a typical cruise.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, I present to you, 10 ways a cruise resembles an isolated totalitarian state:<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> Complete insulation from the outside world and foreign cultures.<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong> Substandard dietary standard compared to other societies.<\/p>\n

3)<\/strong> Shuffleboard.<\/p>\n

4)<\/strong> Highly regimented schedules involving activities requiring limited physical exertion.<\/p>\n

5)<\/strong> A devoted following within its society easily offended by outside criticism.<\/p>\n

6)<\/strong> Attempted defectors usually end up drowning.<\/p>\n

7)<\/strong> Deviled eggs.<\/p>\n

8)<\/strong> Favored article of clothing is baggy T-shirt and shorts.<\/p>\n

9)<\/strong> Bingo is considered a pleasurable activity.<\/p>\n

10)<\/strong> Never-ending desire to leave as soon as possible stifled by\u00a0impenetrable\u00a0borders, lack of resources and cultish-like belief that things will get better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m pretty 100% in the anti-cruise camp with Arthur Frommer, unless that cruise is incidental to a small trip (like the great overnight cruise I took from Sweden to Estonia over the Midsummer holiday), or something as wacky as the recently-launched North Korean cruise. Yes, you read that right, appropriately enough, cruises — er, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,2578],"tags":[291,1837,551],"yoast_head":"\n