So Why A Cruise?

As mentioned above, Mary and I will both make the big leap into the 40something age bracket in 2005; she on June 22, and I a mere two days later. Since we'd rather mark this monumental occasion without the usual black balloons and "Lordy, Lordy, Look Whose 40" crap, we decided several years ago that it would be in our combined best interest to spend our birthdays at sea, where we could ease the pain of turning four-oh with a few tropical cocktails and a nice warm tradewind.

But since our birthdays are in late June, we decided that instead of traveling over the actual dates, we'd go in the middle of January. Why? Well, there are four decent reasons to our madness.

1 - The costs of cruising are considerably less during the off-season. 2 - It's a convenient excuse to escape the bitter cold of the Midwest in the dead of winter; odds are it'll be at least 80 degrees warmer in the Caribbean than it is at home. 3 - Hurricanes are (practically) non-existent during this time of year. Oh, sure - you laugh now, but when I booked this trip it was before the quartet of Hurricanes Bonnie, Charley, Francis, and Ivan made such a mess of things. Proof positive that I'd hate having to spend my cruise days huddled in an emergency shelter. 4 - Who says we can't celebrate a little bit early? That'll also give us time to dream up some other type of out-of-town escape when Black Wednesday and Black Friday arrive at the end of June.

A mighty wind...

The Booking Process
(Or: If You Dream It, You Can Spend It)

For years I talked up the 40th birthday cruise, and long about December 2003 I started looking seriously at making it so. I checked all the major lines - Carnival, Disney, Royal Caribbean, Princess, you name it. It seemed like just about every day I'd get a cruise brochure in the mail or a phone call from a friendly cruise representative who was more than willing to help me book my arrangements. It got to the point where I had to quit denying that I had ordered all this information, as Mary no longer believed me anyway.

My choice finally came down to between Carnival and Disney. Now, being the Disney "aficionado" (i.e. freak) that I am, the thought of sailing away with Mickey and pals for a week sounded mighty nice. But in the end, Carnival won out with their price and the lure of their brand-new ship, the MS Miracle. For the cost of Mickey's cheapest inside room, I could get a top of the line balcony room on Carnival's Miracle. Sorry, Mickey. Maybe next time.

So the decision was made - we'd book through Carnival. But when? I needed to wait for our tax return for the down payment, so I patiently (ha!) waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, on March 17, I received an e-mail from Carnival (another one of the perks of being on everybody's mailing list), announcing that the next day, Thursday, March 18, would be Carnival's One of a Kind, All Amazing, Super-Dee-Duper One Day Sale! Okay, it wasn't that grand, but it was a good deal. The offer was simple: Book a room at the lowest rate level for that type (inside cabin, outside view cabin, or balcony cabin), and get an automatic upgrade to the highest level available within that type. Nice, no?

It'd be a 7 night trip, leaving from and returning to Tampa, Florida. We'd have four ports of call: Georgetown, Grand Caymans, Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico, and Belize City, Belize. We'd eat, drink, see 3 foreign countries, and have a blast, all without having to unpack more than once. Mary and I sat down and picked possible travel dates in January or February, and finally settled on January 23 - a few weeks after the Christmas madness, and right when it should be good and frigid at home, yet warm and sunny in the tropics. What more could you want?

So bright and early on Thursday I called my friendly AAA travel agent, who got us upgraded from an 8A (lowest balcony) to an 8I (extended balcony) room at no extra cost. Sweet! I went down on my lunch hour, filled out the paperwork, put down my $500 deposit, and then went back to work, smiling. The cruise was booked, and in a mere 311 days we'd be on our way to a week of fun.

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Then came the hard part. Waiting 311 days.

The nice part of the wait was it gave me plenty of time to research all the fun stuff to do. Being the "thorough" person that I am (read: travel-retentive), I spent far too much of my free time reading everything I could find about the cities we'd be visiting, the ship, the excursions, what to expect on board, etc. It was fun for me - I've always really liked the planning side of travel. As far as Mary goes, she's a good sport and lets me do most of the research while she prefers to be surprised. It works out well for us that way, and I'm glad to do it.

But we still had to wait. And wait. To help pass the time we took care of a few minor pre-trip details. We both ordered passports, which took only a few weeks, a $65 fee, and a copy of our birth certificates (plus a really bad photo from yours truly) to get. Even though you technically didn't need them to travel to the countries we were visiting, we decided it would be good to have passports, just in case we ever do win that Lotto jackpot and have the sudden urge to fly off to Switzerland for lunch.

I also booked us airfare directly through Continental Airlines, which was about half the price of booking it through the cruise line, and made us pre-trip hotel reservations in Tampa. Since we're leaving Omaha in the dead of winter, it's recommended that you fly in the night before, in case there is a snowstorm that holds you up. (You'd hate to have the ship sail away without you while you're stuck waiting for snowbound flights.) I booked us to fly in on Friday, January 21, two days early. We'd get into Tampa late Friday afternoon, then explore the town on Saturday before returning our rental car and boarding the ship Sunday afternoon.

So we were all set. Cruise, hotel, airfare, rental cars. And the waiting continues. The nice part was that Carnival's Web site would personally greet me everyday. "Hello, Kevin. Only xx days until you sail away!" It helped the time pass a little faster. I reserved a stylin' black tux for the ship's two formal nights, and I ordered Mary some cocktail coupons for a belated Christmas present. Long before we were ready to leave, I knew it all - or at least I thought I did. I'd seen the daily schedules of onboard activities on the Miracle out of Tampa (the newsletter is the Carnival Capers, which I'd found copies of online), I'd read the 7 night cruise dinner menus and room service selections, I'd studied up on the ports of call and excursions, and I'd read everything I could possibly find about the ship. Trip reports, previous passenger's comments, you name it. I was a walking encyclopedia of cruise information - not bad for a guy who'd never been on one. Yes, I was as ready as I could be. But how would it go? That was the mystery, and the fun part. You see, as I type this part, it's still December, and we haven't actually left yet. It's coming up here rather quickly. But from here on out, this report will be brought to you in real time. So sit back, enjoy, and I'll join you again at Omaha's Epply Airfield in just a few days...

Let the countdown commence!