The Cruise That Changed My Mind

I've always been a Disney and beach kind of guy when it comes to vacations.

I love the beach because you can set up your chair, listen to the waves, enjoy the ocean, and your whole day is pretty much set.

And Disney? Well... it's Disney. There's just something about being in the Disney Bubble. The Imagineering, the rides, the food, the music, walking down Main Street... it's just one of my favorite places to be.

That's just the kind of vacations we took.

Then we took a cruise.

To be honest, I wasn't the one pushing for it.

Back in the spring of 2022, my daughter was graduating from college. She was getting ready to start teaching that fall, and instead of having a graduation party she said, "Let's go on a cruise."

My first thought?

"I think I'd be bored."

I mean, you're on a ship for four days. How much is there really to do?

They found a four-night Royal Caribbean cruise on Independence of the Seas that stopped in Nassau and Royal Caribbean's private island, Perfect Day at CocoCay, and eventually talked me into giving it a try.

Here's the thing though...

This was the spring of 2022.

Cruise lines were finally starting to get back to normal after COVID, but there were still a lot of rules. We all had to test negative within three days of sailing before we could even get on the ship.

We went to an urgent care near home to get tested before driving to Florida.

Each of us got called back to a different room.

Then came the waiting.

I had already had COVID once, and thankfully it had been a pretty mild case, but I still sat there wondering, "Are we actually going on this trip?"

The part that made it even harder was not knowing how everyone else was doing.

My test could come back negative, but what if someone else's didn't?

Those 15 or 20 minutes felt like forever.

Thankfully, we all came back negative.

For the next couple of days we pretty much kept to ourselves, packed the car, and headed to Port Canaveral.

I have to give Royal Caribbean credit. Their app, online check-in, and boarding process made everything really easy. Before we knew it, we were walking onto our very first cruise ship.

After the cruise started, we found out something kind of interesting.

We were on Royal Caribbean's first full-capacity sailing out of Port Canaveral since the pandemic. Before that, they had still been limiting the number of passengers onboard.

Looking back, you could tell the crew was still getting back into the swing of things, but honestly, we didn't care.

We were having too much fun.

We spent time by the pool, enjoyed our Deluxe Beverage Package, went to trivia in the Schooner Bar, watched the shows, listened to live music, and just enjoyed being together.

My daughter ordered shrimp every single night in the main dining room and discovered she absolutely loves crème brûlée.

And then I found my favorite part of cruising.

I've always been an early riser.

Every morning I'd quietly slip out of the cabin while everyone else was still asleep, stop by Café Promenade for a cup of coffee, and head up to the pool deck.

There's something special about standing out there with almost nobody around, coffee in your hand, watching the sun come up over the middle of the ocean.

It's peaceful.

Even now, it's still my favorite part of every cruise we take.

By the time we got home, I had completely changed my mind about cruising.

I wasn't wondering if I'd ever take another cruise.

I was wondering when we could book the next one.

That first cruise is also one of the reasons I decided to get certified with Royal Caribbean when I joined Curated Travel Collection as a Disney travel advisor.

Disney is still my favorite vacation. I don't think that'll ever change.

But cruising? It's definitely become part of who I am now too.

I love helping people who are thinking about taking that first cruise because I remember exactly what it was like. I had all the same questions. I wasn't sure I'd even enjoy it.

Now, after several cruises, I get to help other families avoid some of the mistakes, answer questions they didn't even know they had, and hopefully help them come home saying the same thing I did...

"When can we book the next one?"