{"id":323433,"date":"2025-11-28T21:19:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/going-from-mom-friends-to-real-friends-on-virgin-voyages-adults-only-cruise\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T21:19:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:19:33","slug":"going-from-mom-friends-to-real-friends-on-virgin-voyages-adults-only-cruise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=323433","title":{"rendered":"Going from ‘Mom Friends’ to ‘Real Friends’ on Virgin Voyages Adults-Only Cruise"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I knew our cruise was going to be a success as soon as we found the candy bar at the Social Club on night one. Without a word spoken, we both grabbed bags to fill with red licorice and gummy bears and a side bag for some salty popcorn. We had just finished up a night of karaoke and were ready to tuck in to our cabin on the Resilient Lady, our home for seven nights as we sailed around Greece and Sicily and Spain. It was maybe 10 pm\u2014the ship\u2019s nightlife was just shifting into full steam ahead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not for us though. For these two moms, longtime friends but first-time travel companions, we wanted our pajamas. A glass of wine delivered to the room. Candy, popcorn, and a rewatch of <\/span>Mamma Mia<\/span><\/i> ahead of our morning arrival in Mykonos. Curled up on our single beds, our room decorated with scarves and straw hats and colorful clothes we would never wear back at home, we relaxed into this new stage of our lives. We prepared for a week without partners or kids or anything to define us other than\u2026 us. And it worked right away.<\/span><\/p>\n

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No longer just \u201cmom friends.\u201d Now we were turning into \u201cfriend friends.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

S and I first met when our kids started kindergarten more than 20 years ago. We followed the usual pattern of these friendships. Chatting while the kids played turned into longer chats as they headed into the classroom in the morning. This turned into cafe hangs then walks then movies with our little group of mom friends. We talked about our kids, our worries, our parents, our recipes. And a part of me worried, as our kids grew up and away and independent of us in all the right ways, if our friendship could survive the loss of them to their own lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so we decided to go on a <\/span>7-day cruise from Athens to Barcelona<\/span><\/a> together. An adults-only cruise on a sleek and shiny Virgin Voyages ship no less, which felt fitting for us as we try to figure out how to live in a bit of an adults-only world. The voyage took us from Athens to the sun-bleached island of Mykonos before heading off to Catania in Sicily, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, and finally Barcelona in Spain. We had our planning sessions ahead of the cruise. We talked outfits, especially for Virgin\u2019s\u00a0 infamous Scarlet Night themed-party. We talked excursions, and S said over snacks on her deck, \u201cLet me figure something out for Mykonos.\u201d The gift of having someone else plan literally anything for me. Delightful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding our groove together and apart.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Virgin Voyages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n