Good-bye Oregon; Hello Caribbean!

TRAVEL THERE; GOOD-BYE OREGON; HELLO CARIBBEAN!

It’s a good thing I finally finished my series on Oregon, because I just got back from my cruise and I can’t wait to tell you about it!

Post Trip Blues

When we first came home from Oregon, I feared my husband would never travel with me again. According to him, I’d crammed entirely too much vacation into twelve days and he was none too happy about it.  However, just like mothers forget the severity childbirth pain and have a second child, the trials and tribulations I’d caused us in Oregon soon faded.  Also, I pointed out how on a cruise or a package trip, someone else (besides me) would be in charge.  That got him over his travel phobia. Eventually, he agreed that he might be interested in a cruise – something that docked in Galveston, but didn’t go to Mexico.

Well, that search resulted in zero choices.  All cruises out of Galveston make a stop in Mexico, so it was back to the drawing board. Widening my net, I discovered other places he didn’t want to go: Haiti and Jamaica.  And Alaska was out, because he preferred something tropical.  And Hawaii was out, because he wanted to depart from the continental United States. This also wiped out all the Southern Caribbean cruises which left from San Juan. Eventually Bermuda and the Panama Canal were culled out, too.

That left The Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean.  My next guidelines?  Nothing over seven days, nothing less than a five star ship – oh, and I should really keep an eye on the bottom line. Some folks would have given up, but not me.  If it means I can go somewhere, I’ll go through almost anything.  My partner in crime through all this was my best buddy, Deb Shera.  We’d convinced our husbands to turn the vacation into a super-sized double date and we couldn’t wait.

Finally, we booked a late February sailing on the Norwegian Epic that included three days at sea and three ports of call.  If you’re thinking about your first cruise, let me warn you of something.  The advertised price of this cruise on Priceline was $899 per person based on double occupancy.  So, the first thing most of us have to do is multiply the advertised price by two.  Still affordable right?  You can spend $130 a day at home – right?  But when you go on a cruise, the advertised price is just the beginning.

Then you have to add taxes and insurance and transfers and perhaps a night in a hotel and shore excursions and specialty restaurants and airfare and, and, and… Well, when it was all said and done we were close to doubling the price per person.  It was still a travel bargain, but if you’re looking at your credit card limit and think you just might swing $899, be aware that it’s only the beginning.

All that being said, go on a cruise.  It is just one of those things that every one should do – and they should probably do it as often as they possibly can.  I’ll tell you more about our cruise in the coming days.