Cruising For The First Time

I grew up beside the ocean and have always loved boats and owned a few myself.

So why not try a cruise for a vacation? Sounds ideal, that is until I remembered all the cruise lines commercials which proudly features dozens of plus sized adults frolicking in a minus sized swimming pool. I am not a big lover of highly chlorinated pools and I more often head away from crowds than towards them.  Therefore I doubted than any number of those frozen cocktails with the little umbrellas in them that are everywhere in the ads could get me enjoy such shipboard merriment. Cruises are for other people I would mutter as I tossed yet another glossy cruise brochure away. It is in this way that I put off taking my first cruise for far too long.

(Note to cruise lines and their ad agencies …you might be scaring away more people than you attract especially in the staid northeast with your “frolic with us” approach. just a thought)

My wife and I wanted a travel experience that was new to both of us. Neither of us had taken a cruise so we gave the idea another chance. It did not take long to learn what other cruise veterans already knew. Cruises are a great travel value. Even with my math skills I quickly determined the daily cost to us of traveling to the Caribbean, unlimited meals, a private room with an ocean view, nightly entertainment and all the sun we could want came in at about $100 per day per person.

We could easily blow that on any one of these items alone in our beloved Manhattan. I was not entirely kidding when I quipped that we “cannot afford to stay home at that price.” When we factored in that we would be exchanging a chunk of January in the northeast with its snow, ice and cold for the 80 degree trade winds of the Islands we started thinking we really could be “pool people”afterall.

We being cruise virgins we decided to play it safe and float the cruise idea past our trusted travel agent, Annette  at  Liberty travel  . She quickly calmed our fears and advised us “get a fairly new ship” and “get a balcony” both of which she thought was more important that the cruise line . She soon worked her magic on her computer with the dates we had available and found a six night cruise to the western Caribbean departing out of Miami on the Royal Caribbean’s ship Freedom of the Seas.

Rooms were being reserved even while we sat with her but we still wanted to sleep on it so we left with our credit card balance intact. The cold walk home and the local news predicting more cold on the way was all the further convincing we needed. I was Annette’s first customer the next morning and we confirmed our reservations.

We are going on a cruise!

More to follow, Miami, The Islands ,The ship, Do’ and Don’ts.

Jeff Salisbury, The Travel Guru