Every detail is designed to make your journey feel effortless, elevated and unforgettable.”
According to British cruise line Cunard, this is what sets their voyages apart from other liners. In 2024, I had the opportunity to experience their claims for myself during a 39-night cruise sailing on the Queen Victoria. My journey began in Sydney and I would go on to visit 12 ports across eight different countries, ending in Cape Town, South Africa. As an avid traveller, I couldn’t wait to embark on this adventure.
I had cruised before, but it was nothing like this. Years earlier, a friend and I had dipped our cruising toes into the water with an eight-night cruise to Noumea, the Isle of Pines and New Caledonia. More recently, my cousin and I had tried a three-night “sampler” cruise that had no real destination but gave people a brief taste of life at sea. But 39 nights? This was new territory.
Having chosen a cruise that catered more to adults than families, I quickly realised I was one of its youngest passengers. Most of my fellow travellers were retirees happily investing their hard-earned superannuation into seeing the world. And while 39 nights felt like a long time to me, it was just one leg of a much larger world voyage that began and ended in Southampton, England. The whole world voyage took around 109 nights and docked at 32 global ports including New York, Namibia and the Canary Islands.
It didn’t take long for me to settle into life at sea. Every day was filled with new activities, from fencing classes to ballroom dance lessons (and yes, I tried both). I practised my Duolingo vocabulary at a Spanish conversation group, attended an art lecture on famous heists, watched the playful King Neptune ceremony as we crossed the equator and borrowed several books from the ship’s two-storey-tall library. And of course, there was the food. Lavish breakfast buffets offered everything you could want—decadent pastries for those who wanted to indulge, fruit and granola for those who preferred lighter fare, made-to-order eggs and so much more.
Port days required strategy. Knowing that you only had one or two days in each city forced you to do your research and figure out what you wanted to see or do the most. Some of my favourite activities included a gondola ride through a shopping mall in Singapore, watching the sunset on a beach in Sri Lanka and visiting Disneyland for the first time in Hong Kong. But if I had to choose just one highlight, it would undoubtedly be my first game drive in South Africa.
The difference between a safari and a game drive is that a safari is a multi-day or multi-week journey through the wilderness including accommodation at lodges or camps. A game drive is a specific guided vehicle excursion to see wildlife and can be done in a few hours. When the ship provided a list of shore excursions around Port Elizabeth, I knew that I wanted to do a game drive. However, the skies were grey on the morning of the game drive, and it began pouring steadily with rain as our group climbed into the open-sided 4WD.
“Don’t worry,” our driver assured us cheerfully. “The animals like cooler weather.”
He was right.
Not long after, we came across a majestic lion lying quietly on the grass. Some of our group openly stared while others quickly brought out phones and cameras. Within minutes, a lioness came slinking by and joined him. We watched in reverent silence until they rose and wandered off. Our next sighting was a towering bull elephant who met up with a younger male. Our guide explained that older bulls often mentor adolescents.
Hippos, rhinos, ostriches—the list of animals we saw grew longer and longer. Our guide asked if we wanted to go inside the lodge, take a break and get out of the rain. We unanimously declined, eager to see what was still in store.
Our patience was rewarded when a giraffe stepped directly in front of our vehicle and stood motionless for several minutes, as though posing.
By the end of the drive, we were all buzzing with excitement. None of us wanted it to end.
As someone who loves animals but was never allowed to have pets (sorry Mum, goldfish don’t count), that game drive felt like a tiny glimpse of heaven. I love zoos. I visit the two zoos in Sydney several times a year. I even have a season pass. But there is a profound difference between seeing animals behind enclosures and seeing them roaming freely in their natural habitat. And that difference made me think.
People sometimes worry that heaven won’t be as interesting as Earth. I’ve had conversations with people who secretly hope Jesus won’t return until they’ve accomplished everything on their bucket lists. They want to get married and have children, publish books and travel to Europe. They want to experience heaven on Earth (or their version of it) before going to actual heaven.
Don’t get me wrong—those are all good and worthwhile pursuits. But sometimes we forget that heaven isn’t the afterparty. It’s the main event.
As amazing as my safari was, it was only a few hours out of my time in South Africa. As incredible as my cruise was, it was only 39 of the 109 nights on that world voyage. And as wonderful and fulfilling as our lives on Earth can be, they are only the tiniest drop in the endlessly flowing river of eternity.
The Bible says that Jesus is preparing a place for us in heaven (John 14:2,3). It also says that He knows us well (John 10:14,15).
Random fact about me: I don’t like receiving gifts from people who don’t know me well. Although I’m always grateful for the thought, there’s only so much enthusiasm you can feign over the candle you’ll never use or the socks you’re already planning to regift. But gifts from people who do know me well? They’re intentional, personal and thoughtful. And they hit differently. The apostle Paul described the reality of heaven as something that far exceeds anything we can conceive or imagine
(1 Corinthians 2:9). Life on Earth can be rich and beautiful. It can feel like a grand voyage.
But if Earth is the cruise, heaven is the ultimate destination. And if the One preparing a place for us there knows us better than we know ourselves, we can trust that it won’t be boring or uninteresting. It will be truly effortless, elevated and unforgettable.
