Live From Azamara Quest: Pillow Talk

A lot of my clients ask me about jet lag when flying to cruises in places such as Europe and South America. I have a lot of experience in long distance flights, and of course provide the tips and tricks I've learned along the way.

But there's one thing I find which affects my sleep and adjustment to a new time zone more than the flights: the pillows onboard ships.

I don't know about you, but a pillow is a very individual and personal thing to me. Judging by the number of different types I see in stores, I must not be alone. I even have clients who pack up their own pillows in compression bags to pack and take them along when they travel so they can sleep.

Many times, I find myself waking up more the first few days onboard a ship due to discomfort caused by the unfamiliar (and often downright hard or thin) pillows onboard than due to difficulty in adjusting to time zone differences.

On most lines, unless you're in a suite, all you can do is ask for more pillows, or hope they may have one or two different types to choose from, sometimes hypo-allergenic or similar. But once again, Deluxe and Luxury cruising takes this very important factor in your comfort very seriously, and you're not left suffering in the middle of the night.

On Azamara, even without consulting the "pillow menu", I knew they would have feather, hypo-allergenic, body, and isotonic pillows to choose from, among others. I use a combination to create my pillow wardrobe from which I fashion something similar in feel to what I have at home. Never quite the same, but close enough to sleep soundly.

Sometimes, it's really the little things which make a difference. In the scheme of life, a bad pillow isn't going to cause a catastrophe. But having a good pillow that suits your preferences makes everything else onboard your cruise nicer.

While I look forward to curling up tonight in my own bed at home with my own pillow, I didn't lose sleep on the Quest because I was missing it. I may even find myself reaching out in vain for the Quest's body pillow the next few nights.


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