Caribbean Cruise Notes: Cruise Meetings

This is the second in a series of posts about a super fun birthday cruise that was planned by my friends, Sarabeth and Rhonda.  Read the first here.

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The Story of 12 Women who went on a Cruise, Part 2: Cruise Meetings

OR

How I went from being a Cruise Skeptic to a Cruise Addict

We booked our cruise at the end of February to cruise in June, so we had three meetings between booking and cruising.

Rhonda called the first meeting to discuss details. Some gals were not so much in favor of cruise meetings.  Others felt that the meetings helped to heighten the anticipation of our vacation.  Meetings were not mandatory as to accommodate both personalities.  Of course, after we had so much fun at the first meeting, no one wanted to miss the others.

Mostly because of Bev.

Now if you don’t already know Bev, let me just tell you this.  Bev likes to live life to the full.  She is a storyteller.  She can make you laugh and cry in the same minute.  But don’t feel alone, honey.  She’s laughing and crying right along with you.    If you ask her what she wants to do on her birthday, she says, Laugh!

So, Bev started off our first meeting by announcing that she would prefer from here on out to be referred to as Stormy.  This set off a cacophony of cackling.  Soon everyone else began trying on new names for the cruise.

Then, she suggested that we all wear feather earrings on the first night at dinner on board the boat, which quickly evolved into choosing themes for every night of our cruise.

Again, choosing a cruise name or adhering to the dress themes was not mandatory, as there were to be no rules on the vacation, only freedom.  But if playing along would increase your enjoyment of the experience, by all means, wear a hat on Tuesday!

At one point, I was on the floor laughing at Bev, I mean Stormy, because every time Sarabeth would try to talk to us about some business-y aspect of the trip (which was already funny, because Sarabeth would readily admit that she isn’t usually the business type), Stormy would interrupt her by waving her hand in the air and saying, Excuse me!  Excuse me! 

Then Sarabeth would say, Yes, Stormy.

And Bev would make another suggestion or ask another question until we were all in hysterics again.

Our second meeting was at Whitney’s house.  Whitney is my dear friend and sister in law and I talked her into rooming with me on the cruise, without even realizing at the time that this would mean I had my own personal fashion consultant.  We had loads of fun shopping for and putting together our cruise outfits.  We even chose theme colors.

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For the meeting, Whitney made wonderful Mexican food.  We had all been instructed to wear something that we would wear on the cruise.  I wore a dress of Whitney’s and new summer shoes.  Bev and Rhonda showed up in matching pajamas.

At this point we were still several months out from our departure date and I was already beginning to change my mind about cruises.  We were having so much fun getting ready for what we had now dubbed #cruisazy that I was more certain every day that I was going to have a marvelous time.  Also, I had quickly become mesmerized by the little red box on the Carnival website that tells you how many days it is until you cruise.  I kept going to the website and checking the number. I might be admitting to being a bit of simpleton here, but that little box never failed to excite me.  It’s brilliant, I tell you.

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Our last meeting was just about a week before our trip.  We brought and compared clothes.  We even swapped them around some.  Sarabeth and Rhonda gave us journals, plastic shot glass necklaces and bright colored earrings.  They also did door prizes at all the meetings.  I won the beach towel at the last meeting that I would take on the cruise.  I took it home and added it to my already packed suitcase.

I was ready to go.

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Next up: Road Trip to Our Cruise Port!