Shipboard Life

I’m getting the hang of this “cruise ship life” and wanted to share some of my impressions!

1) I had it in my head that most of the people aboard the cruise would be the “high society” ones – NOT – everyone onboard the ship are pretty normal looking – whatever that means in your book!

2) When I read about the dress code in the evenings, we had 5 “smart casual” nights and 2 formal nights – I of course packed WAY too many “nice” clothes for the smart casual nights – I had no idea that blue jeans and flannel shirts would be acceptable for dinner – it is – guess everyone will think Glenn and I are the “high society” types as we’re DRESSING for dinner each night!

3) I also believed that on formal night, we would look underdressed as Glenn wouldn’t be wearing a tie and that was SO FAR from the truth – most of the women had on nice slacks or skirts with a sparkly top and most of the guys just had regular suits on.

4) Except for the food which is included in the price of your stateroom, everything else on board COSTS!! I don’t mind paying for drinks or special coffee but really, you have to pay for a bingo card to play bingo??? $.75 per minute for the internet??? $3.95 to just get logged on to the internet!!! Photos taken by the ship photographer that are a minimum of $20.00 a sheet which is basically one 4 x 6 and a couple of smaller ones??? All I can say is BE PREPARED to spend some money!!!

5) I LOVE LOVE LOVE our room!! From the towel creations each night along with the chocolate, to having your ice bucket filled 2 or 3 times a day, to your bed turned down each night – I could get used to this!!

6) The bed is SO comfortable – we have a variety of pillows – hard, soft and medium so you can take your pick!! And my favorite – fantastic reading lights!

7) There is plenty of storage for all the hang-up clothes, lots of drawers and shelves – and a nice long desk that I can type at!

8) I couldn’t find the hair dryer at first and then later found it in a drawer in the desk – pretty strange place for the dryer – then I discovered why it was where it was!! There are no electrical outlets in the bathroom!! So you just dry your hair at the desk where there’s also a magnifying make-up mirror – cool!!

9) Every day we get mail – a daily program which describes everything going on for the day along with the times and locations! Info on shore excursions and anything else we might need to know!

10) SUPER friendly staff – everyone always speaks to you!

11) We rarely use the elevators as I figure we need the exercise going up and down the steps but we have used it a couple of times and guess what – the rug on the floor on the inside of the elevator tells you what day it is! Kind of keeps you on track because when you’re on vacation, you have NO idea what day it is!!

So I’m pretty impressed with the cruise line industry and have already made up my mind that this trip will certainly NOT be our last!!