Blog du Wren

Cruise First Impressions

In the three months since booking this cruise, my feelings towards it have ranged from intense excitement to cautious trepidation. The reasons for excitement were clear and what I touted when telling people about the trip: all-you-can-eat food, good shows, out of the way ports-of-call, etc. My trepidation, however was a little harder to explain. Basically I was concerned I just wasn't the cruise ship type. Dress up dinners, contrived scavenger hunts, lay by the pool, dissimilar demographics*. With both sides of the spectrum represented, I was curious to see how it all played out.

After less than 24 hours aboard , any thoughts about trepidations are long gone, replaced with excitement, curiosity, amazement, and down right giddiness. I was almost wishing I had one of those reality TV style camera crews following me for that first half hour as I explored with a ridiculous grin on my face. Everything is so nice, and not just in that way that cheap things try to look nice but aren't. It all feels so real deal.

And the food. So many all-you-can-eat places have food you stuff yourself with not because it looks amazing, but because you want to get your money's worth. The buffet here, not so much, and definitely not the table service meals. My pork chop was great!

Another thing I was concerned about was being nickle and dimed to death. I've been in situations where a cheap deal becomes much less so with all the fees*. While some of the services aboard do charge an add-on fee, it is always clearly advertised and on things that are totally non-essential. I foresee us easily making it 10 days without pulling out our wallets once.

Yep, it's safe to say I'm stoked (probably to an annoying degree to my dear Della). And with more of the ship to explore, tons of events planned daily, and 9 more days to enjoy it all, I'm thinking I will only get stokeder. Whatever the case, I'll keep you posted. Stay tuned.

Tuesday April 23 2013

File under: travel, cruise

Toggle Comments (6)

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on Tue 23rd Apr, 2013 05:56 am CDT Wren said:
With only ridiculously priced internet on the boat*, I was unable to post while in transit. I did, however, write posts so that they captured the spirit of the moment, rather than being after-the-fact recollections. I'll mete those posts out over the next couple days and then be caught up about and start posting about Portugal!
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on Tue 23rd Apr, 2013 07:49 am CDT Saxtor said:
Awesome! I'm excited by your excitement. Dress-up dinners, eh? No shorts allowed? I bet you wore cargo pants at least, so you could smuggle out some rolls*.
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on Tue 23rd Apr, 2013 12:19 pm CDT Kat said:
Happy you had so much fun! Can't wait to read more about it and see more pictures!
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on Tue 23rd Apr, 2013 06:32 pm CDT Stephanie said:
I want to just say that I like Saxtor's comment.
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on Wed 24th Apr, 2013 02:18 am CDT Horge said:
I want to hear about the ridonkulous things they offer on board. Rock-climbing wall? On-deck skiing? Tae bo? Frisbee golf course? Anything at all? Plus, more pictures please!
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on Wed 24th Apr, 2013 04:13 am CDT Wren said:
More pictures, impressions, stories, and stats on how many tiny boxes of cereal I managed to smuggled off-board in my cargo pants soon.
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