I looked up the word “cruise” in the dictionary and it said: to sail about on a pleasure trip. I’m not certain there could be a more accurate description for our honeymoon! The cruise ship process is really quite impressive. The ships are far larger than anything you can imagine and when you stand next to it, really you just sort of stare! Basically, a cruise ship is an entire floating city!
The mister was concerned about sea sickness in all the days leading up to our trip. After one day on the ship all his concerns went away. I did learn a few things though due to our room placement. We had an ocean view room on the very bottom and very front of the ship. As a result, we felt things a lot more when we were in our room than in other places. The front of the ship is what cuts the waves and chops through the ocean as you are sailing so of course we felt it. I thought it just rocked me to sleep every night though, quite honestly!!! If we are ever lucky enough to go again I would definitely get a room closer to mid ship and higher up.
My favorite part of being on the cruise ship was dinner…and not just the food but the whole process. Every night I got to dress up and wear something nice, do my hair pretty, slap on some amateur make-up, and go “out” to dinner. There was always live music in the lounge an hour before our seating time so we would go sit on the couches in the lounge and listen to live music while sipping tropical juice and awaiting our dinner time. Every night in the main dining room is like eating at a fairly fancy restaurant. There are pretty glasses and shiny silverware and cloth napkins and beautiful place settings. The servers would pull out our chairs and put our fancily folded napkins in our laps and bring us menus already opened with delicious food listed in pretty fonts. When you couldn’t decide on something they just brought it all and we ate more than we have in our entire lives. Here is a tip for future cruisers: when browsing the menu, don’t ask your server which is the best dish between three, he will just bring all three to you! I loved our team of wait staff though and was sad in my heart when it was time to leave them. They learned in the first night that sour dough bread is my favorite and there was always a stocked basket on our table after that.
I know this so makes me sound like a fat kid but the food was endless. On our formal night, we were STARVING so we went up to the 24-hour buffet for a “snack” before dinner and ate pizza and mousse in our dress clothes on the open deck. I ate so much on this vacation I came home and didn’t eat for 3 days. I’m not lying either, ask the Mister. If you are going to skip a meal on a cruise, breakfast is the meal to skip. Don’t get me wrong, it is still delicious, but you can get breakfast anywhere!
During our time on the boat we enjoyed some theatre, some comedy shows, some casino time, some lounging on the deck by the pool, some fruity drinks, a turned down bed every evening and a miniature golf course. We spent our actual anniversary at sea and we thought we would celebrate with some golfing. However, the gale force winds weren’t very cooperative. We managed to make it a great time anyway though. We also got a special piece of cake that night at dinner.
I have not been on many vacations, but I will say as vacations go, cruising has got to be one of the best! I was over prepared for some things and underprepared for others, so if you are a first time cruiser, ask someone who has been on one before you pack 4 suitcases. With the affordable rates that a person can find to go cruising, I am hopeful it is a vacation we can repeat a few different times before we are too old to enjoy it.
the soon-to-be mister and I are discussing a cruise. . .still on the fence between that and an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean----not sure I want to be staring at ocean instead of white sandy beaches (on sea days)----you'll have to tell me more of that stuff---
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