But sometimes the talk turned a bit more introspective. As I ate my morning cereal midway through the cruise, I listened to two women in their 60s seated together, huddled over their breakfast plates, reminiscing about past marriages:

“You didn’t want kids?”

“I did. He didn’t.”

“But that was unfair to you.”

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t have gotten involved, but I was 35 …”

Oatmeal with a side of O. Henry. There were a lot of conversations like that, the kinds of intimate talks that only happen when people are relaxed enough to let the words fall where they may. Whether the subject was pork loin or marriage, the topic at hand seemed less important than the state of togetherness.