The Price Was Right

I am always keeping my eyes out for cruise deals so I was ready when Princess announced their 3-for-Free sale in the fall of 2018. The cruise that caught my eye? A 28-day cruise to Hawaii and the South Pacific on the Emerald Princess. The sale offered free stateroom upgrades, free gratuities, and a little bit of free onboard credit. And...the best part...it was round trip out of Los Angeles. That meant no long flights!

Bob hesitated when I told him that there would only be 8 ports on a 28 day cruise, but when I gave him all of the reasons why cruising to the Polynesian islands was such a great deal compared to flying, he gave in and said "book it." 

Over the next few months I spent time getting to know fellow cruisers on the Cruise Critic roll call message board, found decent flights through the Princess EZAir program, researched and booked a few independent tours...but I could tell Bob just wasn't excited about going.

Then, after experiencing some health issues while we were on our long cruise to Antarctica in February (long story...I had 2 broken ribs) I started worrying a bit about what would happen if a major health scare happened while we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Advanced medical care could be days away! 😧

As a result of my worries and Bob's reluctance to having so many sea days, we cancelled the cruise. 

But going from February 2019 (our South America/Antarctica cruise) to spring of 2020 when our next trip is planned was much too long of a gap with no travel. I needed to plan SOMETHING. In my search for a moderately priced fall cruise, I was stymied by the outrageous airfare prices. I refused to pay more for a 3 hour flight than a 7 day cruise so I gave up my search.

In July, I stumbled across a Holland America cruise that was ridiculously cheap. Turns out the ship was originally scheduled to go to Cuba but had to be rerouted after Trump declared a ban on Cuban travel. Unlike most of the other Caribbean cruises, this one on the Veendam left mid-week on a Wednesday. When I checked airfare prices I was amazed to find great round trip fares from Minneapolis to Ft. Lauderdale. The cost using miles was even better...in fact as low as I had ever seen.

Holland America Veendam

I quickly got the go-ahead from Bob and booked a "collector's cruise" which is Holland America's name for combining multiple shorter cruises into a longer single cruise. Here is the itinerary...

Veendam Caribbean Cruise

A month or so later, good friends of ours were here visiting from Georgia and I was telling them about our cruise. I jokingly said..."want to come along?" To my surprise they said "YES!" and in a few hours they were booked! 

The cruise instantly went from being just a warm-weather getaway to one that would be full of fun and laughs!

As you are reading this, the cruise is past tense. As much as I admire people who do live blogs I have decided taking notes and posting when we get home works much better for me. The dates associated with each post will be correct, but just published after the fact.

So...come along as I share about our wonderful cruise to the Caribbean!