I really enjoy traveling. I mean, really. I don't do it nearly enough, but when I do, I tend to jump into the planning aspects...sometimes a bit too much. That being said, I don't overplan. I really like relaxing on vacation, but I want to make sure that I know what I am doing when, and I have all the information before I decide what to do for the day. I decided to write this blog to chronicle my research, decision making process for my vacations, then review my experience and hopefully help others in the process.
Now, who am I. Starting this off, I'm a 33 year old professional in the Biotech industry. I live in the Boston area and commute into the city everyday for my "9-5" career. I've been skiing since I was 2 (well, almost 3), and sailed and raced Laser dingys when I was young (10-18 or so). For those that don't know what a Laser is, its a small, single person sailboat that was made to go fast! I was fairly good as a racer, but never pursued it beyond the summers of high school. College racing wouldn't have been for me...they have to get up early for training!
I usually take at least one big vacation every year. I was lucky enough to be born to parents who liked to vacation, and vacation in style. Growing up, we would take a family vacation every February school vacation week (President's week for all those out of the New England area that don't when the "Massholes" invade ski country) up to the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel. Sadly, that experience can no longer be recreated, as the hotel has closed and all the material items from the resort have been sold off, with the plan to reopen as condos/timeshares 😒. I learned at an early age how to sit through a 2 hour dinner, properly set a 15-piece place setting, and which fork to use when. Every night, we would dress for dinner in the 5 star dining room, and after dinner, my parents would usually head off to one of the lounges, while us kids went to the game room to meet our vacation friends. Since they traveled in style, so did we.
When the age of the internet started to roll around, my dad would always need to "connect" with work while we were traveling. This really pissed my mom off, and so, we started cruising! At that point (early 2000's) internet on ships was virtually nonexistent. It was very expensive and very slow (now remember we are talking 2001ish, when the LAN infrastructure was just really getting off the ground here on land in the US) and my dad's boss was cheap and wouldn't pay for it, so my dad was again able to disconnect and enjoy himself. This led to us taking cruises as family vacations, and my love for them was born.
My favorite way to vacation is by taking a cruise...you arrive at your floating hotel, unpack once, and get to see many different places in one trip. I've been on about 15 or so cruises at this point, all with Royal Caribbean, so I cannot comment on or compare other lines. I started cruising around age 14 with my parents and still continue to cruise with them. Occasionally we make it a family affair and are joined by my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and even her parents. Its a good time to have some family time, but everyone is also able to do their own thing. There is so much going on, that you can barely see the people you are traveling with if you don't want to!
Cruising itself presents it's own challenges when talking about touring and enjoying your vacation. First, you need to get somewhere to start your vacation and you cannot be late. The ship will leave on time whether you are aboard or not. Second, since your hotel moves from port to port, you tend to have limited time to explore and experience each place you are visiting. And third, the ship itself is a destination to be enjoyed. To cruise means you need to balance all of these aspects while also relaxing and remembering to enjoy the experience.
And there you have it. Back to the reason I am writing this blog. I'm mainly doing it as a way to record what I am planning and why we made decisions we did so I can remember in the future if we do something again. Maybe in the process, someone else stumbles across it and finds it helpful. I'm not going to review all 19 years of travel experience, as I have a lot of things booked already for the rest of 2018 and 2019, but I will take a step back slightly in the coming posts to talk about my last cruise, since it is still fresh in my memory. That was the Oasis of the Seas, which we embarked April 15th, 2018 for a Western Caribbean itinerary. Upcoming trips with PLENTY to write about include:
- Vision of the Seas - September 11, 2018 - 12 night Mediterranean Greek Isles
- Harmony of the Seas - April 21, 2019 - 7 night Western Caribbean
- Anthem of the Seas - August 1, 2019 - 9 night Caribbean/Bermuda
- Ovation of the Seas - September 20, 2019 - 10 night Hawaiian Re-positioning
Posts about all of these will come later, along with any other "trips" I may be planning, whether they be day trips, weekend excursions or future ideas for what I want to do. I'm going to do my best with post names and labels to make finding things easier as this gets bigger and contains more information. Hopefully you will enjoy reading this as much as I will enjoy writing it. If you like things, have questions about what I am writing about or would like some more information on something you think I may be able to answer, leave a comment below and I will try my best to answer.
~Happy Sailing~
