My sister, my friend, and I had always joked about going on a cruise. We even went so far as to try and plan one a couple of years ago, but finding a date for all of us didn't pan out then. So, we decided to try again. This time though, we decided to invite three more people. To our surprise everyone invited wanted to come, and was serious about doing so. The planning began.
We looked at a couple of different cruise lines, but ultimately we decided to go with Royal Caribbean. One of the ladies joining us had gone on a Royal Caribbean cruise with her family when she was a kid, so she had previous experience with them. We also saw many positive reviews about the cruiseline, and they had two ports within driving distance from us. No airfare = Money saved.
The next step in the planning process was choosing an itinerary that would work for us. The ultimate deciding factor was finding a date that would work for everyone. We knew that we didn't want to risk booking during peak hurricane season on our first cruise; we also didn't want to go during the summer months that would be more expensive, but we also had to wait until our one cruising companion was done with college exams. The end result, a seven night cruise departing on May 25th. The departure date would be followed by a day at sea, Florida, Coco Cay, Nassau, two more days at sea, and then our return home.
After choosing our itinerary, we had many, long days to wait. We kept the time filled by researching what to bring on our cruise, deciding our excursions, getting passports, and broadening our knowledge on what to expect. We had a group text going where we would countdown days, and we held the occasional meetings to plan our excursions and go over who was bringing what. We were excited beyond belief, and eagerly awaited our vacation!
Part 2 to come!
