Join Alex May as she sets sail from Panama to Acapulco on the Explore and Restore wellness voyage aboard Swan Hellenic's luxury yacht. In this vlog, Alex shares her experience and offers a glimpse into the self-discovery workshops, daily meditation and yoga classes, cultural expeditions, and stunning accommodations. Watch her transformational journey unfold and the connections that form along the way:
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Transcript
Surprise! I'm going on an adventure, and I basically told no one. I'm just packing and leaving any second. As usual, here's the damage from packing. Can you guess where I'm going? I'll make you wait a little longer.
I don't know if I've ever taken a flight at 2 a.m. before, but the airport is dead, and I'm not mad about it at all. It's actually super nice.
We have a flight.
We made it to Panama City! The view coming in was beautiful. I just got to the hotel, and I'm still feeling a little under the weather. If you've watched my recent videos, you know I was in bed all weekend with the worst sinus infection. I'm so grateful to be feeling better now. I tested negative for COVID and am back on the mend.
I just checked in and decided to treat myself by going to the spa. As my friend Jasmine always reminds me, it's important to love myself up. I called to see if they had an opening, and they do, so I'm going to enjoy the sauna, hot tub, and a massage.
Tomorrow morning, we are boarding a Chopra explore and restore cruise. I'll give you all the details back in my room. I got this travel outfit at Beyond Yoga yesterday, and I think it's pretty cute.
I'm going on a Chopra meditation, breathwork, self-discovery, and nature exploration cruise with Swan Hellenic. I have goosebumps even talking about it. This has to be a manifestation experience. I have this place to myself. Hallelujah, this is exactly what my achy body needs after days of sickness and a nearly 7-hour plane ride.
The spa was divine, the shower was divine, and I came back to the room to work for a bit and have some tea. The view from my room is incredible. I'm blown away by my luck in getting this room with this view. I can barely handle it. Look at this really cool building that looks like it's made out of Legos. The light is so golden right now, and you can see all the way out to the ocean. I'm really happy to be here with this view.
Despite getting only 2 hours and 30 minutes of sleep last night, I wouldn't have even gotten that if I hadn't been blessed with a comfortable flight. They had an upgrade for a couple of hundred dollars, and I splurged. It was nice to get some sleep, even though it's hard to sleep on flights sometimes. I'm just taking in this view.
I met a lovely woman on my shuttle from the airport. She's here for the cruise as well and invited me to dinner tonight in one of the older areas of town at a restaurant the hotel recommended. It looks like a beautiful rooftop, so I might just go have dinner with a stranger. She's in her 50s and is studying to be a meditation teacher through the Chopra program, which I'm excited about. We connected over our meditation teacher training and compared notes. I'm thrilled to meet the first person from the cruise and know that it's going to be my kind of people here.
Today is the day we are boarding the boat in about an hour. I'm meeting everyone downstairs in 45 minutes, so I'm going to check out now and do a little work from the lobby. I haven't even given you all the full update because I've been so go, go, go. Look at this beautiful yellow tree. It's a beautiful day in Panama.
I'm so excited for this cruise. I'm not generally a cruise person, and I've only been on two cruises before. This one is different because it's smaller and more bespoke. That's why I'm so excited about Swan Hellenic. They are known for having gorgeous ships and being smaller and more intimate. This cruise has a capacity of only about 192 people. I'm looking for something more small, approachable, thoughtful, and intentional.
When I heard about these cruises, I was so excited, and then I manifested it. They reached out and invited me. I'm still in awe. This is an experience I would dream of, and now I'm here. I'm trying to take it all in, be grateful, and trust that I'm here for a reason. I'm open to the people I'm going to meet and all the experiences I'm going to have, from the beautiful nature to the mindfulness and self-discovery workshops, ayurvedic food, and more.
We are starting in Panama, going through Honduras and Costa Rica, and ending in Mexico. There will be a couple of days at sea and several days with breathwork practitioners, meditation teachers, and yoga sessions. I don't know the exact agenda yet, but I'm so excited. The timing is perfect. I've been feeling like I'm in a waiting room, not the person I have been, and not knowing what the next iteration of my life looks like.
I'm excited about all the new things, blending fashion with my new interests, and heading into a new season of partnership, marriage, and building a family. I feel so incredibly blessed and lucky. I can't even process it. I was listening to affirmations when I went to bed last night and this morning, being intentional about connecting to my gratitude for this experience.
When I go to new things, I get a little social anxiety and performance anxiety. I want to do the best job creating content and feel pressure to make sure everything I do is amazing. It's important to remember that just showing up as ourselves is enough. That's something I've struggled to accept for myself. I'm working on it, and meditation helps. Instead of letting nervous or insecure thoughts sweep me away, I recognize them and ask for all fear-based thinking to be removed from my mind.
I'm all packed, they grabbed my bag, and I'm meeting Emily virtually to go over a project we just booked. I'll bring you all on the bus and the boat. If you don't watch my Instagram stories, you might have missed my funny moment with a Snickers bar from the mini bar. It reminded me of childhood, always wanting mini bar snacks but never being allowed to have them. The Snickers bar was $7, so I replaced it with a cheaper one from a store. It saved me $5. It was a funny moment, and I wish social media could combine all my silly little adventures.
We are all checked in, and this is the most aesthetic cruise ship I've ever seen. I'm blown away by the beautiful decor. It looks like a well-appointed living room. I'm feeling emotional in the best way, feeling taken care of.
We’ve never done a room tour on a boat before. This is the time. I wasn't expecting it to be this beautiful. Cruise rooms are usually small, but this one is so aesthetic. I have a little balcony with a table, and the coffee setup is unreal. It's like a Soho House on a boat.
Here’s the full room tour: a sitting area, a coffee table, a writing desk, a TV, and a gorgeous coffee setup. There's so much storage and a fireplace screen that projects embers. The bathroom is the nicest I've ever seen on a cruise ship with marble countertops and a waterfall shower. There's a makeup mirror, fluffy terry robes, slippers, and even binoculars to see off the coast.
We just had the most incredible meditation and sound bath upstairs and now we're taking off from the port. The sunset is beautiful, turning the sky pink and fluorescent.
It's humid here. I'm headed to dinner and decided not to change because why bother?
The gratitude I feel is immense. The captain is not driving the ship, so who's driving? Tomorrow's yoga class will have people who know what they're doing and then the rest of us, hoping no one looks. I'm in the latter group.
The conversations tonight have been wild. These women are wild. Yoga and meditation people can be freaky! I'm officially in heaven. I did not know life on a cruise could be this good. Meeting such incredible women has been the best part. We had so much fun at our table, and it was effortless and easy.
Good morning, everyone. I'm in my yoga outfit from Beyond Yoga, and it's time for sunrise yoga. We set the clocks back an hour, and I was up way too late again. I usually don't sleep with my phone in my room, so when I have it with me, I scroll way too late. But I'm not going to miss this beautiful experience. I have to show you the view outside.
Waking up to this is unbelievable. I thought it was 6:55 a.m., but it was actually 5:55 a.m. I'm tired, but I'm not going back to bed. I'm going to cry. I feel like I'm being gifted all these beautiful moments. There’s a massive rainbow and a pod of dolphins.
We just did a beautiful meditation session around "Who am I?" We talked about who we are with labels like mother, friend, etc., and who we are in relation to everyone else versus our authentic selves. We released difficult emotions and created a "Who am I?" affirmation sentence. It's been such beautiful work. Right now, I have a view of dolphins casually swimming by, and there's lobster on the grill for lunch. This is the best day ever.
Dolphins around the ship! They're announcing that there are dolphins surrounding the ship right now, and we all stopped our yoga session. Everybody is just running around trying to find the dolphins. We're going to see these dolphins!
We're all running because we heard they're on the other side. Holy crap! Sorry for my eloquent language. First of all, I just got back to my room. I'll tell you where I was, but let me show you this. I got back to my room and there's an exquisite, chic, high-end mint pillow. Mint from this... I don't know. This looks pretty legit. It has a seal. I don't know what this is; it's obviously some fancy chocolate here, dark chocolate. Oh, it's from Salt Lake City randomly. It must be a good one though because I ate it last night. A mint on a pillow is absolutely elite.
Also, I look like I'm absolutely out of my mind because I just got one of the best spa treatments—honestly, like top 51 I've ever had in my life. I've had a lot of spa experiences in my life, and this was aboard a boat. It was like rocking me gently, and I was transported to another portal. You know when you're in that zone between wake and sleep, and you're just kind of in that perfect bliss state? It felt like a deep, deep, deep meditation. It was incredible. She had the most healing hands. She was from Bali, lives in Bali, and comes aboard the ship for several months at a time, which is just so cool.
One of my favorite things so far has been meeting all of the officers and staff and everybody involved. They are all from different parts of the world: Russia, Germany, India, Spain, the Philippines, Bali. Everyone is from all around the world, and just the camaraderie is so cool and special to be with people from all over the world. Oh, somebody was from Mexico. It's just so cool to be with passengers and crew alike who are from different places and all different ages.
I joined this group called "The Sixth Pack." I think I was like the seventh pack, but anyway, it's a group of women that met on the first day. They came and I ended up meeting them. This is the group I've been laughing with and having so much fun with. Today, I realized that the youngest member is in her 20s and the oldest member is in her 70s. We span six generations of women from all different backgrounds, all over the world, with different life experiences, and we are all in this soul-connected sisterhood. We are holding space for one another, wanting to be our best selves, and wanting to further develop who we are and be of service to other people. It's just very cool to be somewhere with people that are all on the same wavelength as you. Even though on paper you look so different, you can bond deeply.
Back to the spa—I did this treatment called... I'll have to tell you the name later, but it was something about relaxing and sleeping. I'm clearly relaxed and sleepy. It was a scrub followed by a body mask. While your body is sitting in this mask, wrapped up like a little hot burrito, she did a facial on me. After the facial, she wiped the body mask off and then gave me one of the best massages of my life. It was just feet, back, arms, and scalp, but it was still one of the best massages I've ever had.
I want to rebook with her to do a hot candle massage. They have this candle that almost smells like frangipani or plumeria, and they drip it all over you. I was like, give me that Ricky Martin music video, baby, I want it. Her hands were just so healing, and I have to come back to her. I know this is wild, but I'm going to get an actual massage from her on Sunday.
During the workshop today, I felt like I had a breakthrough of just like, I do deserve to be happy and enjoy myself. If it's in the budget, and I'm being responsible, my bills are paid, my work is done, and my people are loved, then I'm allowed to treat myself and have fun. We were working through some really cool limiting beliefs today, doing an inventory of our life in all these different areas. I would love to share it with you all in case you want to do it, but I'm not in the right mind frame to do so at this moment.
There's a little cocktail party tonight. I'm looking at the schedule for every day, trying to decide if I want to go get dinner. I'll check in with my little pod squad, but honestly, I'm really feeling like wisdom tonight. What's loving to myself tonight? Let's check in on that because that's what this whole thing is about. This whole time, we're working through these four soul questions, a framework that Deepak Chopra and the Chopra Institute work through.
The first question is, "Who am I?" The second question is, "What do I want?" The third question is, "What is my purpose?" And the fourth question is, "What am I grateful for?" That was introduced to us during each yoga flow. Oh my gosh, you guys, that yoga flow—we had a restorative yoga tonight with samples, and they made the announcement about the dolphins. We all ran and caught the most beautiful sunset: dolphins leaping, flying fish, turtles. It's just... I can't even process how incredible this has been. Today's the first actual day, and I cannot wait to see what else is going to come. I'm just so unbelievably grateful.
I'm feeling like wisdom tonight for me is to take a hot shower. When I asked that second question, "What do I want?" What do I want right now? I want to take a hot shower in that waterfall shower with those delicious products. I want to put on my towel and order something delicious from room service. I want to go to bed hella early, listening to affirmations, and get up early for the sunrise meditation. We are going to Costa Rica tomorrow, to a beach. We are headed to Panama and Costa Rica, and we are going to do a cultural experience there. There are a few different excursions, so I'm not sure exactly which one I'm doing yet, but I need to figure that out.
Step one: shower. Step two: figure that out. Step three: order room service. I guess I should order room service while I'm figuring that out. And then go to bed early because we've got a big day full of adventure tomorrow. Since I came from being a little rundown, if you guys can hear me, I'm feeling like I've been pushing it a little bit—too late nights, too much energy expended. There's a lot of energy expended today, and this is a big, energetic group. I think I just need a little downtime to integrate, rest, and honestly, just ground because I know we're going to have a beautiful day in nature tomorrow, and I want to have all my energy. Sometimes it's really hard and I have FOMO because I'm like, everyone's going to have fun without me.
I discovered there's a secret hot tub at the spa. It's supposed to close at 9:00, but the spa lady was like, you can still access it on the other bridge. That sounds fun. I did the steam room too. There's a steam room, a sauna, and a hot tub at the spa. When I go back on Sunday, there's a treatment room that has a window with an ocean view. I'm going to see if I can get that room because that's literally top-tier spa moments of my life.
I think it's time for me to do my thing, but I thought I would do a little check-in because I'm on cloud nine. I've decided in this video, we are going to work through the four questions. So take a moment to reflect on: Who am I? Who are you? Today, we talked about labels. I touched on this earlier, but are you a teacher? Are you a mother? Some of these labels are assigned to us; some of them we take on. Some of them don't fit us anymore. Think about who you are. Think about which of those labels you identify with and which you no longer want to identify with. You can release the ones you don't want to, and you can also claim new ones. Just think about who you are. How does that feel to you? What does that mean? Who decided that? We'll keep talking about that through the rest of this video.
Life continues to smile on me. I just took the most incredible shower. Having a lot of water pressure and hot water on a boat after sweating multiple times doing yoga—oh my gosh, it was amazing. I come out to this room service. Honestly, it smells so good. The whole room smells like this amazing meal I'm about to eat, and I have this beautiful fruit plate for dessert. Honestly, I'm the happiest girl on the planet. I'm not exaggerating; that was truly one of the best steaks and best fruit plates I've ever had. I ordered a second fruit plate—don't judge me. It's free, and the fruit was so good. I could always save it for breakfast if I wanted, right?
Anyway, my dream life goal is to be asleep by 10:30. It's not quite 10:00 now, and I'm so tired I could go to sleep so easily. The boat is rocking me to bed like a sweet baby in a crib bassinet, Rock-a-bye Baby in the Treetops.
Good morning! I just did a meditation, but look at the view that we woke up to. We are going to Costa Rica today. This is so gorgeous I can't even handle it. It somehow keeps getting prettier and prettier. I just love these beautiful formations coming out of the water. I ended up changing. I was wearing the Little Gab Thea swimsuit, but we are doing yoga on the beach today. I decided to wear this little one-piece from Girlfriend Collective. I cannot get over how beautiful it is here. I'm so excited to swim in the ocean and be out in nature today.
I did not know what to wear tonight. I don't love this outfit, but it's already dinner time, and I'm very hungry. I feel like I have friends at this point, so it doesn't necessarily matter. Here's my dress from Anthropologie. I love this dress. It's hard to tell in this mirror, but you know there are mirrors that make you feel good about yourself and mirrors that don't? My only complaint about this room is that this mirror doesn't make me feel the cutest, but I do feel cuter with my hair up in a little bun. It makes me feel more chic, so we're going with this.
Imagine pulling up to a deserted island, and they have this whole setup for you when you get there, including live music. It's wild. That was the most epic sunset on the balcony. This is what I'm wearing to dinner. I feel like it's cruise chic. I don't really know what we're doing. Like I said, I didn't pack the best for this, but who cares?
I feel like I did a bad job vlogging today. We boarded a boat that took us to a private beach on an island that is essentially deserted, with only a couple of local families there. We got to swim in the ocean, and they brought music. It was another level. If I look windblown, it's because I just got back from a sound bath under the stars on the roof of the boat. It got a little windy, but it was so beautiful, with so many stars out.
How magical is this? I'm starting to feel so sad that we have to leave. We've had so much fun at dinner and started a group text on WhatsApp. We're calling ourselves the Swans because we're on Swan Hellenic. We've agreed to start a monthly Zoom call to check in on each other. I love it. We span from our 20s to our 70s, and it's just incredible.
Tomorrow is Easter, and I'm looking at the itinerary. We have sunrise yoga and meditation on the roof at 7 AM, a self-discovery workshop at 10:30 called "What Is My Purpose?" with Jennifer, a sea turtle presentation, another self-discovery workshop called "What Am I Grateful For?" and a wildlife watch. We have a big, fun day tomorrow.
Yoga this morning was amazing. Dolphins joined us again. It was just such a beautiful morning. Now we're going up to another self-discovery workshop, working through the question "What Is My Purpose?" Something I've been asking myself, so I'm very excited to work on uncovering that.
I just got an amazing massage, went in the steam room, and now I might pop into this hot tub. Imagine a jacuzzi with the most beautiful view of the ocean. We are off to explore a little town in POA. We could have gone snorkeling or looked at textiles, but we decided to do our own unofficial tour, saying goodbye to the ship for a few hours.
We are back from POA, and it was really fun. This is my little fit for touring the bridge, where I get to see where the captain and crew steer the boat. We're going to that now, and I'm really excited.
I do not feel ready for this. It is our final night, and I'm so sad. They're having a walk down memory lane with a video of the stuff we did. We just had the most incredible Yin, like restorative yoga. I'm wearing my Gabi Thea Fresca dress, which I think is super cute. It feels like the right move tonight. I'm feeling so emotional. I just don't feel ready to go. I've been in this perfect little bubble for a week, and it has flown by too quickly. There's still so much more I want to do.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh my, look at this. This is so pretty. I just had one of the most magical nights of my life. First, we had a movie moment where we started a dance party, and everyone jumped out of their seats at dinner and started dancing. Then I jumped in the pool. We came back to pack, and one of our group members messaged that there was bioluminescence at the front of the boat. We watched the bioluminescence gather and jump at the front of the boat, with a dolphin swimming through it. During our dance party, we saw a meteor, and it was just... I can't even describe how magical that was.
It has been an incredible trip. Every moment has been filled with beauty, joy, and connection. I am so grateful for this experience and the wonderful people I've met along the way. This has truly been a transformative journey, and I can't wait to carry these memories and lessons forward into my life. Thank you, Swan Hellenic, for an unforgettable adventure.
