We Are Not Cruise People

My name is Julie Vargo. I am married to Mike Vargo. It’s nice to meet you! For the purposes of this website, here are a few things you might be interested to know about us on the lead up to our next big adventure.

Mike and I are not “cruise people.” Certainly I am not. We’ve been on a few over the years: a vegan cruise, a Disney cruise, a Bahamas cruise. And I admit we did have fun. But those trips were mostly initiated by other people — because we are not cruise people. Maybe Mike is a little bit. But not me. I won’t bore you with the details but I have my reasons.

That said, we are travelers. Mike is a happy, adventurous guy who has been to far more places than I have (note his considerable head start paired with cushy international consulting gigs) but we’ve both been fortunate to visit many different countries and we’re both eager to continue. In fact, our life plan a few years ago was to retire early and then travel. Miraculously, we retired early. Step one, check. Yay! And then… the pandemic. Our schedules all cleared up and nowhere to go. Whant. Whant.

Homebound, we swapped Santa Monica for suburbia to spread out, renovate and enjoy a house — with a yard! It was definitely a shithole fixer. We moved in and renovated and mowed and renovated and weeded and renovated and rented a jackhammer at one point and renovated and went to Costco on our special days out. We marveled at all of the available space in the parking lots of stores. We composted and got solar panels and traded our electric compact car for an electric SUV. We ate at home mostly. We became suburb people.

We already knew that I am not a cruise person. We were finding out that Mike is not a suburb-during-a-pandemic person. Truthfully I wasn’t either, but the whole thing got to him faster, and just as the world was beginning to reopen. So what next? We had never dreamed any of this would happen. What could we dream up?

The only logical option was to take a post-pandemic dive headlong into the germiest location possible, which also happened to be the most exciting: New York City.

We sold the now-gorgeous house, packed whatever would fit into a hypothetical one-bedroom apartment and drove across our great nation to rest our heads in the city that never sleeps.

Shortly into our Manhattan sojourn, my husband achieved peak-Mikeness. He bounced more when he walked. He smiled wide on the subway. He’d confidently declare that any inconvenience was easy to endure whenever it was raining or freezing outside, which felt often.

Although I was slower to thaw, I, too, was appreciating the perks of New York over Los Angeles. New Yorkers are direct and surprisingly considerate. The grid system makes sense. It’s easy to get around. There’s a ton to see and do and eat. It’s not so self-aggrandizing. We even started to contemplate buying a place. Things were shaping up!

In May, with Central Park finally blooming, Mike received an Instagram ad: “Experience a brand-new way to travel and see the world!” We suspected it was a scam, but it piqued our interest nonetheless.

By September we were fully in. We broke our lease, sold our car, stored all of our furniture, informed our friends and family, and planned to leave bustling New York to go LIVE ON A CRUISE SHIP FOR THREE YEARS.

Did I just say that? A freaking Instagram ad? Is this real? Yep. We are going to cram ourselves into a 182 square foot cabin where we will SHARE ONE CLOSET? So we can sail? On a cruise ship. Around the world! WTF?!?

We will live on the MV Lara for 1,095 consecutive days thanks to Life at Sea Cruises. It’s the first-ever, three-year, all-inclusive world cruise from Miray. We leave Istanbul on November 1, 2023, meander way up, down and around the globe, and return to Istanbul on November 1, 2026.

We are going to experience and share so much of this precious world: all seven continents, 140 countries, ~350 ports — all from the same bed each night. And despite the pitfalls of typical cruising that I usually despise avoid, I rather expect this to be different and fabulous. Truly.

We’re both so excited that it feels surreal! It’s going to be quite an adventure. We invite you to follow along with us.