Lessons Learned

KK -


We had a great time on our cruise.  Here are some lessons learned from our first cruising experience:


-Bring more than 1 bottle of sunscreen.  We left our only bottle of sunscreen on our snorkeling excursion on the 2nd day.  At the next port, they only sold sunscreen with SPF 4 or SPF 8 (bronzer).  We paid a ridiculous amount for the SPF 8 and tried to hide our white Seattle skin from the bright scorching sun.


-Never bring young children.  We went on the cruise without our boys.  It was hard to leave them, but I am glad we did.  We saw other people with young children, and it did not look enjoyable.  Unless you do a Disney cruise, the atmosphere and entertainment are not suitable for young children.  I decided that once our kids are capable of going through a buffet line without any assistance, then they can come with us on a cruise.


-Cruises are great places to people-watch and meet interesting people.  We got a kick out of just watching people.  There was such a variety of people on the cruise.  The funny part is that even though there were 3,000 people on the ship, we still saw that "crazy" guy everyday on the ship.  We also met some fun people.  Our favorites were: older-couple-on-their-1,204th-cruise, 20 yr anniversary couple, cute honeymoon couple, totally fake boobs couple, and the nice TN couple who talked to us about BYU football, mormon missionaries, retirement, and raising kids.


-You will make friends.  We did not do the assigned dinner seating.  Luckily on one of the first nights we got seated next to a cute married couple from TX.  They were the Mary Tyler Moore couple.  We had a such a good time, that we ended up eating dinner with them every night.  We became great friends, and thanks to the miracle of facebook, we are officially friends forever.  Maybe we will do another cruise with them someday.


-Minimal clothing should not be an option for everyone.  This may sound harsh, but there were too many people wearing too little clothing.  We saw more unattractive skin than we would have like to have seen.  Yucky.


-You don't need alcohol to dance with the locals, but a little helps.  We were on a catamaran excursion at our first port.  We boarded a beautiful boat, and they handed us some cool fruit punch.  Then we went snorkeling in some gorgeous water, then boarded the boat again to go to a private beach.  They played music on the boat and handed out fruit punch again.  This time around, the fruit punch tasted different... it was a little "rummy."  It was rum fruit punch.  Next thing you know, I was standing with the local tour guides on the boat dancing my little heart out.  Let's be honest, I would have joined in the dancing without the alcohol.  I asked Big D later if I looked silly up there dancing.  He replied, "No, you just looked very white."


-The cruise ship will leave you.  At our last port, we got back on the ship 10 minutes before it pulled out.  We found out later that night, the cruise ship left 3 people in port Nassau, Bahamas.  We suspected that they may have consumed too much alcohol by that point.  Alcohol is served everywhere you turn on and off the cruise ship.


We enjoyed our first cruise.  Maybe we will do another down the road.  


-Miss T