Family Vacation 2013: Retrospective

This was my seventh cruise in the past five years - six of which have been "adult" charter cruises. So, it may be fitting to compare and contrast my cruise line experiences. While there is no way to actually compare apples to apples, I now see what I am getting for the extra money spent on those adult cruises: nightly theme parties, top-notch entertainers, and relaxing quiet time by the pool.

For this cruise, I really enjoyed the three days at sea - particularly the last two days spent slowly sailing home. This provided a nice vacation for the body allowing time to just sit in the sun, read, chat, laugh, and spend quality time with my sister. It has been some time since I have spent an entire week with my biological family, but seeing everyone at dinner each evening allowed for relaxed conversation as we all told stories of how we spent the day. 

My date and room mate

Although there were roaming packs of teenagers everywhere, my nieces chose to keep each other company during the day. In the evenings, I had the exquisite privilege of escorting my 18 year old niece, Kristin, to late night stage shows, competitions, disco parties, and strolls through the casino. To others, I may have appeared as a creepy old man hanging out with a very young woman, but I was overjoyed to spend my evenings squiring her around the ship before she heads off for her first year of college. We were also sharing a room for the week; it was like the best slumber party ever!

Apples and Oranges

I have now cruised on 3 different cruise lines: Holland America, Star Clipper, and Royal Caribbean. Each has advantages and disadvantages:

Royal Caribbean: 

Dad and Linda

The Good: Spacious rooms with lots of storage, efficient boarding and disembarkation process, all-you-can-drink premium passes for $55/day, family oriented activities, excellent specialty restaurants, friendly event staff, international staff mainly of Hispanic and Caribbean origin, family-oriented.
The Bad: Tiny verandas due to larger rooms, inefficient tendering process, serve-yourself buffets, average food quality, limited food service times, pedestrian entertainment options, the adults-only pool is under glass and allows 16 years and up (those kids never get out of the hot tubs), ice buckets are by request only.

Star Clipper: 

Kaitlin

The Good: Romantic sailing adventures in tall masted sailing ships, dining room tables are all eight-tops requiring you to meet and greet your fellow passengers, small friendly staff, more exotic destinations since the ship does not require a deep water harbor.
The Bad: As you can imagine, the rooms are quite small, the amenities are limited, dining is during specific hours (no sleeping in), food is of average quality (lunches were outstanding), limited entertainment options, days tends to be early-to-bed and early to rise - unless there is a party! 

Holland America

The Good: Large verandas (chaise lounge size), cook to order breakfast, the buffet is not serve yourself and is open from 6:00 AM to 3:00 AM, excellent specialty restaurants, room staff is efficient and friendly, ships are designed to accommodate both the sun lover and those who prefer the shade, private poolside cabanas for rent, international staff mainly of Filipino descent, affordable bottle service in your room, ice buckets are always full, very relaxed atmosphere.
The Bad: No all-you-can-drink passes, $0.75 / minute internet service

Full Disclosure

I have been on five Holland America cruises and my opinion could be influenced by the fish bowl nature of an all adult cruise experience as compared to the kid-friendly atmosphere of Royal Caribbean. I mean, clothing optional decks are out of the question with so many free-range children and herds of impressionable teenagers roaming the ship.

Additionally, I am booked on another Star Clipper cruise in February 2014. With these trips there may not be the hotel feeling of a large cruise ship, but the romance of boarding a sailing ship with 200 potential new friends is irresistible.

Holiday Hangover

2012 Hangover Recovery Kit - New Year's Eve Party Gift

Tuesday was my first day back to work following the holidays. In order to get an early start on my 2012 resolutions, I was up at 6:00 AM and at the gym by 6:30 for my first workout of the new year. It was cold and dark, but unlike the after work hours, the gym was pretty sparsely populated - just the early morning usual suspects. I was home by 8:00 and in the office all shiny and clean by 9:00 and I was in a great mood.



The day started with the normal holiday stories and recap. As I looked back at all of my holiday events, I realized that my goal of constructive boredom was not actually realized:

• Dec 24 - Christmas celebration with extended family
• Dec 25 - Christmas celebration with friends (thanks Janice and Greg for hosting), night with the pub bitches - everyone was there!
• Dec 26 - Christmas celebration with immediate family (hosted by my sister - well done!)
• Dec 27 - My Dinner Party
• Dec 28 - Recovery from Dinner Party and retail therapy
• Dec 29 - Laser hair removal, lunch with my sister and nieces at the mall, shopping with my nieces at another mall.
• Dec 30 - Shopping for my birthday followed by birthday celebration with friends at the pub
• Dec 31 - Dinner with Clodagh and Jerry followed by a few drinks - then Niki and Steve's Awesome New Years Eve Party
• Jan 1 - Sleep late, meet Rafe and Patricia for New Year's Day lunch at Beasley's (awesome food and I got to meet celebrity chef Ashley Christensen!) De-Christmas the condo, clean condo
• Jan 2 - Take decorations to Dad's for storage followed by long lunch with Dad in far away Spring Hope, reseal shower, finish laundry, tidy up for beginning of work week.
• Jan 3 - Back to work

After a bit of thought, I may have to reconsider what retirement could be like. First, I will need to arrange for my new, portable liver to be constructed because this party schedule brought tears to the liver I was born with.  Secondly, I did not accomplish nearly as much as I intended, so a strict schedule will be required. Thirdly, I am going to need a lot more money.

On the bright side, my party muscles have been properly stretched and exercised, so there was no need for the 2012 hangover survival kit so generously provided by Niki and Steve. Now I just need to stay focused on the other muscles to prepare for my next big adventure - a Caribbean cruise scheduled for February with my best buddies - John and Jay.

Happy 2012 to you all!

Goodbye 2011 - Hello 2012

This morning, as I was lying in bed wondering if everyday of my 49th year was going to feel like a hangover, I reflected on the past year and started thinking about the year to come. One nice thing about having a birthday at the butt end of the year is that the retrospective holiday special includes all twelve of the previous months.

2011 was a year of travel beginning with our yearly Caribbean cruise in February with John and Jay from Fort Lauderdale, as well as with friends from Chicago, Germany, England, and other far-flung parts of the world. The ports were pretty boring in themselves this time out, but we kept busy with massages, excursions (ATV tour, zip lines, and Mayan ruins), parties, dinners, and trips to the shipboard clinic for John's crushed finger. This was followed by a trip to Chicago over Memorial day, an unexpected trip to Asia to visit the branch of the family taking root on the other side of the world, and a Thanksgiving excursion to visit John and Jay.

2011 was also a year of huge work projects as well as several large organizational changes that have left me feeling a bit rudderless. I was chatting with Alex last night and told him changes with my job were slowly sucking away my mojo - of course that comment could also be due to the end of the year blues, the slow progression of the years, or the gathering gravitational force of my sofa. Nonetheless, besides the several end of year trips I have taken, I have been quite the homebody over the past six months - early to bed, early to rise, and mostly hangover-free....

At Christmas dinner, my dear friend Clodagh asked everyone at the table about their new year resolutions. Since I had not started thinking of them as yet, I came up with the boring response of working to be more frugal while still maintaining my semi-fabulous lifestyle - hence my frenzy of retail therapy to close out 2011 - a boy has to shop after all!

This morning, between the pulsation of PBR-induced head pains, I conducted a more thorough inventory of the things I would like to work on in the coming year.

1. Break out of my comfort level and take more risks (career choices, relationships, spiritually)
2. Pay off my car by July (two years early) and increase my emergency fund by $5000
3. Have no credit card debt at the end of the year (The trip to Asia slammed my budget, I have two more big trips planned, but there are no regrets on that account)
4. Read at least 10 more of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century (only 31 to go)
5. Rearrange my work schedule to go to the gym in the morning before arriving in the office
6. Spend more time with cherished friends and make the effort to cultivate new friendships
7. Have at least two fully planned and executed parties for friends and family
8. Plan "Glenn days" for body and soul replenishment
9. Say "I love you" more often - but only when I mean it

It is going to be a busy year! Stay tuned.

Here's to wishing you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012.
Much love,
Glenn