Stateroom 342

The cruise we took wasn't our first vacation choice.  We were planning to go on a snowy vacation.  We don't ski, but I wanted a quaint ski village type of atmosphere.  We looked at Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Vermont, Northern California, Lake Tahoe, and all over Canada.  We eventually settled on Whistler, British Columbia.

But...we couldn't make up our minds.  We had a daily argument discussion about which hotel we wanted, what activities we wanted to do, how long we planned to stay, whether we'd fly or drive, etc.  It was an exhausting conversation.  Our friends, Marlaina and MacGyver were present for most of the discussions and although they offered their wise words about Canada, Ed and I couldn't come to an agreement.  So we decided to scrap the "ski" vacation and do something completely different.

Plan B came together when I blurted out, "How about a cruise?".  Ed agreed pretty quickly - he loves warm weather and he'd been wanting to go through the Panama Canal for a very long time - so that's what we did.  We found a cruise through Holland America that went through the canal, and since Ed wanted to leave right away we decided to do what they call a "Collector's Voyage" cruise - two cruises back-to-back, making one long voyage. Thirty-two days, six countries, thirteen ports of call.

We were very excited when we boarded the ship.  The first thing we did was visit the room and explore the ship before the mandatory safety drill.  This would be our home for the next 32 days:

Since we were used to traveling in an 8' x 11' space, this was going to be a piece of cake. What made it even better was room service, no cooking, no cleaning, no bed-making, no driving for over a month.

The no-driving part pleased Ed beyond measure.
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2014: The Higher The Hair, The Closer To God
2013: My Two Cents On Oscar Fashion
2012: A Little Nip Of A Love Affair
2011: It’s A Serious Addiction
2010: Why Play Fantasy Football When You Can Spend Your Time Making Lists For The Halle Experiment?
2009: I Hope There Isn’t Going To Be A Quiz
2008: Sunglasses Required
2007: Golden Eye
2006: Making A List And Checking It Twice
2005: Sorry, no post on this day. The blog didn’t start until May 2005!