There’s much to be said for cruising, not that Smiling Kodiak has ever said any of it. To see the Greek Islands in a short time, he discovers having a boat helps. As an American, Smiling Kodiak knows how to squeeze too much into a short vacation. A Mediterranean cruise is a marvel of efficiency, like having a mobile floating second-rate Las Vegas casino hotel magically deliver you to a new world every morning. The disadvantage is that you wake up in a mobile floating second-rate Las Vegas casino hotel. In Smiling Kodiak Takes a Cruise, Smiling Kodiak leaves his Australian home to experience the wonders of the Middle East, Rome, the Greek Islands, and Turkey — with 3,500 other passengers expecting the time of their lives. As with casinos, there will be more losers than winners. Smiling Kodiak Takes a Cruise is no guidebook. It provides insights and anecdotes that you may find hilarious, shocking, offensive, poignant, bizarre – perhaps all of the above. But travel isn’t about where you go or how you get there, it’s about what unfolds.