cruise ships

I always think about the line from Fight Club, when Edward Norton's character says that he thinks of the people he meets on airplanes as "single serving friends." Though Tyler Durden chastises him for being too clever, I think Norton was onto something.

On a recent Disney cruise with my family, we really hit it off with two other families that had young kids the same age as our youngest daughter. One of them lived in Texas, the other all the way in the UK—both a far cry from Georgia, where we lived. We follow each other passively on social media, but for that one week, we were the best of friends and spent big chunks of every day together. Another time, I met a girl on a Greyhound bus when I was about 19 and going from Tempe, Arizona to Los Angeles to visit a friend. We talked the entire way, into the morning hours as we passed stunning desert rock formations and cacti as far as the eye could see.

People We Meet on Vacation isn't just a great romance novel by Emily Henry. It's a strangely beautiful phenomenon of life. The flings, romances, friendships, or even strange alliances usually don't make it back to the real world. And if they do, it's rarely the same as it was in the bubble of isolation. But that doesn't mean those connections don't leave a mark on us, sometimes forever.

A woman named Kat recently took to Reddit to share an old photo she came across. It was a younger version of herself, standing next to a "really nice" guy she met on a cruise way back in 1996.

You never know who you'll meet on a weeklong cruise. Giphy

She writes that they hit it off big time when they met aboard the boat after Kat's high school graduation, and that she thought he was cute. Romantic sparks flew, and Kat writes that they "kissed on the last night," but adds that the then 19-year-old boy was a "total gentlemen" for anyone whose mind might be in the gutter.

They exchanged letters for a while but, as people do, eventually lost touch. But she still remembers the time with him fondly. Her post was just a little bit of nostalgia; a way to relive a nice memory.

(The photo and original post were later taken down because, well, you'll see.)

Commenters then began chiming in with their own stories of friends, flings, and loves that they met on vacation and never saw again:

"Back in 2001 I was visiting family in Greece and met the most beautiful girl. The summer was amazing and full of memories. She was truly my first love and I had accidentally lost her contact info and over the years of going back never ran into her again.

Fast forward to 2025 married with children, I took the family to Greece and as I’m walking down the street I see her in front of me with a family of her own. We stopped and chatted for a minute with introductions to our families. As we parted ways and exchanged a quick hug she told me she had thought about me often and what could have been and was happy to see me married with a beautiful family. Memories are to be cherished and sometimes things aren’t meant to be. I was glad to have run into her and see that she was well," one user wrote.

"In my teen years in 2005, went on a carnival cruise to Jamaica, Cayman Islands and perhaps other stops. I met a blonde-haired girl named Joy. I don’t know her last name and we didn’t exchange numbers/other info. We kissed every night on the boat…and what a Joy-ful memory that has always been," added another.

You can become better friends with a stranger in one week of vacation than people you've known for years. Photo by Alonso Reyes on Unsplash

Even people who were kids at the time remember forming instant, powerful, unforgettable friendships—even if they were short-lived:

"When I was like 8? Maybe 9? I met this girl at some boring adult event and we ran around all night getting into trouble. We instantly became like best friends. And then I never saw her again. I still think about her sometimes," someone wrote.

"When I was about 5 years old, I was in an airport with my family for a few days. I met a girl there about my age and we had a great time playing together in the airport. The girl and her family had to fly out before mine so we had to say our goodbyes. It was really hard on both of us. This was back in the 90s when it was really hard to stay in contact with people. It should've been possible but I guess our parents didn't think a long distance friendship between 5 year olds could work (and they were probably right). ... Her mom took us to a shop in the airport that had those machines where you insert a quarter and get a cheap toy. She got two rings for us. We put them on and she said that it would help us remember each other. We shared a long hug and said our goodbyes at the gate and that was the last time we saw each other," wrote another. "I wore that thin aluminum ring til it fell apart."

"When I was about six years old I flew across the country to visit my grandparents in Arizona," a user chimed in. "I ended up seated next to a teenage boy and talked his damn ears off the whole 5ish hours of the flight- I was a chatty kid- and as an adult I can’t get over how nice and friendly and patient with me he was. Wherever you are in the universe, dude: you were really very kind and I hope you’ve stayed that kind!"

A shocking number of people remember brief friendships from cruises and airplanes when they were kids. Photo by Hanson Lu on Unsplash

Some people were able to take their vacation romance out into the real world, even if it still didn't last:

"I met a boy on the pool deck of a Carnival Caribbean cruise in 2005. I was newly 21, from the small town cornfields of the midwest... and he was 20, straight out of Brooklyn. We spent 4 days and nights totally inseparable and damn near fell in love. We kept in touch daily and 6 months later we decided to move to South Florida together. We stayed together happily for 5 years, and even had a pet iguana. My first real love. No regrets," one user wrote.

Dozens more stories just like them poured in, and the sign offs were always heart-wrenching:

"if you're out there, I still think about you."

"I have never seen her since. I hope she is doing good!"

"Still wonder about that dude."

"I still think of him"

"I still think about that girl every now and again and it’s been 10 years"

"If you see this, Drew… miss ya bud"

"I still think about you." Giphy

Emily Goulet writes for Philly Magazine that being away from home has a way of bringing you together with people you might otherwise never connect with, for reasons beyond just that you don't live close to each other.

She recalls making friends at a resort pool once: "Perhaps unsurprisingly, we were also on completely different political sides from our [new] friends, but we all quickly glossed over that. Who wants to debate social issues on vacation? We’ll never see each other again, we figured, so let’s set our differences aside [and] have a few drinks ... We were in a hazy, sun-dappled bubble divorced from reality, an alternate universe where nobody works and men walk around shirtless and people ride Segways."

When we're away from our usual routine, we open ourselves up to new experiences. We try new things, interact with people in different ways, and aren't bogged down by the realities that make real-life friendships and romances so difficult. Vacations friends and flings are perfect in that way, preserved in time when everything was great and nobody had a care in the world. They don't get tainted by anything, and maybe that's why the memories are so wonderful to revisit.

The man from Kat's story, John, eventually showed up after another poster recognized him and clued him into the viral thread.

In fact, the photo had to be taken down because people began unwittingly sharing John's personal information in the thread. Turns out, Redditors are a little too good at tracking people down.

"Thank you for posting this! I don’t have that picture and it totally brought back memories of talking and joking with you. I don’t remember your name either, but I remember your face and smile. ... It’s so nice to know you have had kind thoughts of me and well wishes. I’ve felt the same about you and others I’ve been lucky enough to bull shit and connect with. Too many to name (get it) and it sounds like a lot of people on this thread have been as lucky as us," he wrote. "I had so much fun hanging out with you and it totally made my cruise! It is so cool that our time stirred up memories like ours on this thread, thanks for motivating that."

It wasn't the case of two star-crossed lovers reuniting. John is married with kids, and Kat writes in a reply that is she is widowed. But the two will always have happy memories of the week they spent together. And, clearly, they aren't the only ones with such a story.