Jennifer Ruiz never anticipated that her birthday trip to the Mediterranean with her partner would end in a breakup.
The Florida-based travel writer and her partner had planned the January 2023 cruise around destinations like Greece and Turkey for six months.
That wasn’t their first trip. The pair had previously traveled together and sometimes argued, but that didn’t deter her excitement. As a seasoned traveler, Ruiz was used to navigating airports, but her partner struggled with flying. “We saw air travel as a tense thing because of his preferences and my preferences,” she said. Suffering from tinnitus, he didn’t like flying and would want to “isolate” while she was more relaxed. “They didn’t necessarily mesh with the way we traveled, especially because you’re stuck in a tube for however long.”
Ruiz felt like the disunity between her and her partner’s travel styles escalated other issues they had in the relationship. “They’re aggravated by the setting,” she said, despite no one really being right or wrong. He had a strict diet, and felt uncomfortable asking for specific requests, while she just wanted to enjoy all the food onboard.
Onboard the cruise ship together, Ruiz said the lack of space – “that element of being stuck (in a cabin) and being on the water – continued to add to the tension throughout the trip. It was her partner’s first time on a cruise, and as someone who liked to stick to his routine, he ended up being…
