Nerve Endings Firing Away

Ash and I spent the previous week aboard the cruise ship Carnival Conquest for our belated honeymoon (hence the silence on this blog). Our hectic schedule in India left us little time for a honeymoon which I would have definitely preferred to spend in Kerala. Traditionally, a honeymoon vacation is supposed to be at a far-away resort where you spend a week in near-isolation whereas the cruise is quite the opposite although you can stay cooped up in your cabin. The idea of a cruise appealed to us when we heard favorable reviews from our work colleagues. Ash diligently researched the various cruise options and read through the various forums at Cruise Critic (hat tip: Lekhni) which were a great help especially if you are a first-time cruiser. We opted for the Carnival Conquest that sails from Galveston mostly due to favorable reviews, price, and the destinations. The port destinations were Montego Bay (Jamaica), Grand Cayman Island, and Cozumel (Mexico). These port destinations offered one of the best options in the Caribbean in terms of offshore excursions and of course, scenic value.

The experience aboard a cruise ship is quite unique and happening especially the ones that sail to the Caribbean that offers sunshine throughout the year sprinkled with couple of months of hurricanes. The views are spectacular, the food delicious, and activities and excursions exciting. traditionally cruises started off as ideal vacations for the rich elderly who didn’t want to bother themselves with hassles of vacation planning and running around trying to see the sights. But in recent times mostly due to efforts of Carnival, cruises are rapidly becoming viable for all age groups and demographics. We had quite a few Texas A&M students who were on spring break as well as families. Heck, there were a few old geezers as well who seemed to be on their last vacation. There were people who should only wear bikinis all the time and also people who should never ever wear one.

We chose the seven-day cruise to the Caribbean that was slated to dock at the destinations mentioned above. initially we thought seven days would be a tad too long and we might end up getting bored but on the contrary, we kept busy throughout the day that included taking long afternoon siestas :) The three offshore excursion days were exhausting and when you returned to the ship, you are ready to hog dinner and crash to sleep but only if you chose to miss the onboard entertainment. Although I was skeptical of a cruise vacation, I was completely sold on the idea after taking one. the beauty of a cruise is that it lets you spend your time as you wish while taking care of the nitty gritties like food, accommodation, and travel. Best of all, you are forced to stay offline for the entire duration of the week (Internet access charges are exorbitant) thus letting your indulge in your hobbies like reading, lounging around people-watching, or dropping off to sleep while doing either.

I don’t wish to launch into a day by day description of what we did on our vacation as I did for our wedding chronicles but rather give an overview of the cruise probably spread over few posts regarding different aspects of the cruise which hopefully will give you an idea of our experience as well as help you plan your first cruise if you haven’t been on one already.