Carnival Victory AGAIN

We booked another cruise !!! We are still interested in going to Bermuda for 2015  but since those schedules aren't out yet we decided to book a short cruise next February to hold me off :)
Carnival had a "National Cruise Vacation Month" sale with pretty good rates as well as offering on board credit so we jumped the gun. In addition to the great sale, we still had our 20% off a future cruise discount from our debacle during Hurricane Sandy last fall good for use on a 6 day or less cruise so we booked a 5 day from Miami.

There were 2 options we were looking at.
Option 1
Carnival Victory sailing from Miami 5 Days February
2 days at sea, 2 port days: Grand Turk , Little Stirrup Cay (Coco Cay)

OR

Carnival Sunshine (formerly the Destiny) sailing from Port Canaveral (Orlando) 5 days April
1 sea day, 3 port days: Nassau, Freeport, Key West

Ultimately the decision came down to the itinerary. The Sunshine is a completely new ship and all it has to offer is amazing BUT the itinerary is terrible. We LOVED Key West but probably wouldn't go back on a cruise. There is a lot to see and the area is 100% different that anywhere else in the US. It is slow paced and fun and there is A LOT of drinking going on. The Bahamas- I feel so so about. On our last cruise we were to call at Nassau & Freeport. Sandy came in and we were left with a couple of hours in Nassau. We had an awesome time at Atlantis but really there isn't much else to see. The vendors were also worse here than anywhere else we have been. From what I know, Freeport is the same deal. A couple of beaches and some shopping, not much else. Nassau is a frequent stop on most of Eastern Caribbean itineraries so I am sure we will go back eventually.

So with the Sunshine itinerary out of the question we ended up with Grand Turk and Little Stirrup Cay (pronounced Key). Grand Turk is the largest of the Turks & Caicos islands from what  I understand and the port area is great. The beach is right off the pier as is a large Margaritaville Party Pool Bar area. I'm sure we will be stopping here ;)


Now there is Little Stirrup Cay which I had seen on a couple of random itineraries. This intrigued me. Turns out that this is actually Coco Cay, one of Royal Caribbeans private islands, that they lease to Carnival sometimes. Having never been to one of the cruise lines private islands before I was excited!


I am also excited to be on the Victory again, we even got the same room! This ship may not have all the bells and whistles that newer or updated ships have but it will always be our first ship. I love it. The layout is great and the Panorama deck is a great location for our room to be.

And of course there is Miami- my favorite place to cruise from and I love South Beach. We aren't sure if we will do a pre or post cruise in Miami since this is a last minute trip, we have to have a last minute budget. 


LET THE PLANNING BEGIN! Interested in following our planning process? Subscribe to get all the latest posts to your email!

Bermuda anyone?

Good evening guys! I am always on the prowl for a cruise to book and decided to start looking early for Spring 2015. When trying to narrow down a cruise, we wanted to go out of Baltimore. We loved driving to Norfolk for last cruise as opposed to flying. We are interested in Royal so our options are Baltimore or Jersey for optimal driving distance.

We aren't interested in doing a Port Canaveral/ Bahamas cruise and although Royal offers amazing longer itineraries to the Caribbean from Baltimore, Bermuda sounded like an interesting choice. Since you are in port for 3 days, it is kind of like doing a cruise & a land vacation at the same time.

Any of you lovely cruise enthusiasts been to Bermuda? What were your favorite activities?

Has anyone been on a cruise that stayed overnight at your destination? What was it like to be able to come and go as you please?

Hopefully you guys will have some great ideas for me! Leave them in the comments below.

Happy cruising!

Sorry for the lack of posts!

Just wanted to come on here and give you guys an update. Unfortunately we decided to cancel our December cruise on the Oasis of the Seas. It was pushing $3k with airfare not including any excursions or extras. It was a really hard decision but I am trying to plan a trip next summer to Italy & France so I will be updating on that some since Naples is a cruise stop. We will most likely be visiting Naples (Capri, Amalfi Coast), Rome, Venice, & Paris! Hopefully it all works out as it is in the planning stages now but it is looking to be an amazing trip!

Remember- If you have any cruise questions please let me know! I love hearing about your plans and itineraries and would like to be able to help if I can!

Happy Sailing :)

Comparing the Worlds Largest Cruise Ships, Then & Now

I found this while perusing on pinterest lately and found it to be quite interesting. Check out the actual site where it can be found here

250 days !!!

250 days until we sail on the biggest cruise ship  in the world! We have never had to wait so long to cruise! The ship is a destination in its self so that's also going to take a lot of research. We don't want to miss a thing!

What do you do to pass the time between booking your cruise and embarkation day??

Ray-Ban 4148 Caribbean Sunglasses - Black/Crystal Green (Google Affiliate Ad)

Ebates

A little off topic but we all love saving money right? Well what if I told you there was a site that saved you money everytime you shopped online from many of the stores you already shop at? Consider it a cruise savings fund! Take a look, sign up, and start saving money!

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=pSQGKYW1nDsEJp5oLxJ1KQ%3D%3D

Hampton Inn Virginia Beach Ocean Front North

We spent an awesome weekend away in Virginia Beach and wanted to share a little about our hotel with you in case any readers are interested in a pre or post cruise stay when departing from Norfolk. Or maybe you are just interested in a taking a vaca to Virginia Beach. Either way we stayed at a fantastic hotel with excellent staff that I am sure many of you would enjoy!

We booked online via the Hampton Inn Virginia Beach North Ocean Front site with a great rate considering it was Easter weekend and lots of kiddos were on spring break.  We choose the king size room with whirlpool and were not disappointed. The balcony room was clean spacious and had a great view.

Both checking in and out was a simple process that took nothing more than 2 minutes. The staff was friendly and hotel was in a great location. All rooms are oceanfront with good sized balconies. The hotel offered free parking, free WIFI which worked well and free breakfast from 6-10 am(we didnt get to try this).

Since we checked in around 8 pm on Friday we decided to eat at the North Beach Bar & Grill inside the lobby. The front desk offered a 10% off entrees coupon, one of the VA Beach coupon books near the elevators offered 15% off. The food was good as was the service but it was a bit over priced. They offered a full wine and beer list as well as a large drink menu.

The hotel was very quiet and had a convenient location on the boardwalk.

Very few cons about this hotel, certainly nothing that would stop me from staying here again.
- The elevators move painfully slow. Both between floors as well as the time it takes for the doors to open once you have stopped.
-there are 16 rooms per floor and the elevators drop you off in between room 1 and 2. We were room 416 so we had to walk the entire length of the hotel to get to our room.