Semester at Sea for Families with Travel Mom Melissa

Travel Mom Melissa joins us to share her family’s amazing Semester at Sea 100-day adventure.

We live in Hermosa Beach, California. We live close to the water and are an active family. Lots of biking, sports, swimming beach time. I am married to my husband John, and we have two children. My son Alex is 10 and my daughter Sammi is 8.

And we’ve traveled quite a bit as a family a lot within the states. And then we used to own a home in Lodamarcos, Mexico, which is a small city outside of Puerto Vallarta. My husband and I built that when we were getting married and then we turned it into an Airbnb and hosted weddings and lots of adventure and family travel there. Then we sold that in 2022 and said let’s start expanding our travel.

We just got back from the Spring Semester at Sea. It’s a study abroad program where college students live on a ship, and they sail to multiple countries while taking a semester of courses. It’s typically about 100 days and you visit around 10 countries. Your sailing time between ports can be anywhere from three to 10 days. It’s a unique and immersive experience.

My husband, John did Semester at Sea in 1994 and met all his best friends on it. Two years ago, he and his friend Rob started talking about taking our families. Then last summer work schedules aligned for everybody. And our kids were at the age when we could make it work. So, we decided to sign up for the spring voyage.

Anybody can go. There’s a program called the Lifelong Learner Program that anyone can sign up for. Anyone who’s not staff, faculty, or a student, and want this similar experience. You can choose to sign up for all of it or any part of it.

There were about 440 students on the ship. I would say the staff and faculty were another 120 and then 37 kids between the ages of three and 17, which was the So I would say another probably 70 with the lifelong learner program.

I think our youngest child on the ship was three. The oldest woman was 96.

It’s not your typical cruise experience. It’s not a Disney cruise. It’s not a Royal Caribbean. It was a very basic ship with a couple of cafeterias and a very small swimming pool.

Every person who’s on the ship, whether you’re a professor, staff, or child, goes to something called global studies. Every morning you take a class and it’s learning about the country that you’re going into. So, for five days, say we’re sailing from India to Kenya, you’re learning about Kenya’s politics, their history, their religion, their art, their food, their culture. It’s amazing.

We left on January 5^th and flew to Thailand about five days before we boarded the ship, and we spent New Year’s in Phuket which was awesome. I’ve never been, the food was amazing. It’s such a beautiful, kind country. Everybody was so sweet and lovely.

Then we flew to Bangkok and got on the ship. From there, our itinerary was Malaysia, India, and Kenya. We were supposed to go to Mauritius but there was a cyclone, so they detoured us to Mozambique. From there, we did South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, and Portugal.

The ship kept going to Germany where they would disembark, but we were meeting family in Portugal. So, we got off one port early and spent a month in Europe. We were in Portugal with some family for about six days. Then we went to Barcelona, Italy, Amsterdam and Paris.

They give you the itinerary months in advance, and you can start booking out your plans. Semester at Sea offers a lot of excursion programs in each country, or you can make all of your plans on your own.

We worked with a travel agent for the first four ports to make it easier, so Thailand, Malaysia, India, and Kenya booked out.

It was good too because we weren’t sure how good WIFI would be and it was not very good. But it is good because the whole purpose of this program is really for connection. So, you don’t want 440 college students on devices.

Then when we got to the next ports, I would hunker down for a little bit in a hotel room or Airbnb and just plan the next port.

Malaysia was really unique. We flew to a small island called Langkawi, and it was just very relaxing. We had a couple of days at a nice resort. Then we went back to Penang, which is right by the port, and they have this little area called Georgetown. And there’s just this huge immersive of culture there because it was a lot of Chinese and Indian European influence. We did an amazing food tour there. We visited some temples. We did a cooking class in a spice garden.

In Kenya, we got off the ship, went to this teeny tiny airport and got in a 12-seater plane to the Masa Mara for a six-night safari. We flew right past Mount Kilimanjaro on the way.

We stayed at the governor’s camp in the Masa Mara and did two game drives a day. We would get up before the sun and go out and watch the animals waking up and watch the sunrise. The best breakfast I ever had was on safari overlooking a hippo pond.

We were there in the spring so there were tons of baby animals. Baby giraffes, baby elephants, I think as a family, our favorite was the baby warthogs because they are just tiny and goofy.

The place that we stayed is a luxury tent. There were about 25 tents right by the Mara River. Every night, we would go to dinner and then a guide would walk us back to our tent because some elephants and hippos could be roaming around.

We also did a bucket list item – the hot air balloon ride at sunrise. You’re up in the air and you’re not seeing things up close, but it’s just amazing to see the migration of the animals as it’s so peaceful and quiet.

We also were fortunate to visit a local village and meet the families and learn about what life is like there.

Semester at Sea: Morocco

Morocco was amazing. Our port city was Tangier, and we had two trains, about five and a half hours, to get to Marrakesh.

We stayed three days in Marrakesh in the Medina in a typical Riyadh which was so cool. The architecture there and the details of everything, the mint tea in the morning, its vibrant colors, and the people. We did a camel ride in the desert. The kids loved that.

From Marrakesh, we went to Casablanca for a couple of days which wasn’t as pretty as Marrakesh, but we did go into the mosque there. One of the only mosques that you’re allowed to go into. It is huge and amazing. The kids enjoyed that. And then from there, we went back to Tangier for a couple of days and just did a little bit more on the coast.

It matured the kids in a great way. We had some really hard times. There were a lot of places where it was really hot. You’re in cars without AC. There’s no Amazon or DoorDash. You eat what’s in front of you and you don’t know when your next meal might be. It toughened us all up.

It gives you a lot of different skills and a different perspective. We’re fortunate to live where we do, but it’s a little tiny bubble and to be seeing people who don’t have as much as you or do, but just in a different way,

And then you get home and it’s hard. Re-immersion is definitely a thing.

You had this incredible experience that nobody can relate to. And how do you talk about it? And then you’re going back into your typical lifestyle, which is great, but you’re not the same. So it does take a little bit of adjusting.

It changed the kids in a really positive way. It taught all of us a lot of compassion and gratitude for sure.

It sounds overwhelming and hard in the beginning, but It’s life-altering.

I’m ready to go again. My husband has not been to Australia or New Zealand. So, we’d like to do that. I would love to do Machu Picchu and Galapagos. Probably not until next spring. I would love to go somewhere in the fall, but like I said, the kids, I think the kids are ready to be home for a little bit and have a little routine.