The easiest part of packing for a cruise is the overnight bag. The only thing that will go in it are the necessities for boarding day!!!!
For instance… our boarding attire
And, of course, our shoes and toiletries.
And everything fits!!!
So as far as I’m concerned, this bag is done. And 3 weeks early!
Now it is time to do other pre-cruise necessities such as scheduling hair and nail appointments and COVID test, and ordering water for our stateroom. You know. the other stuff that needs to be done before a cruise.
I would say it happened by accident. And in a way, it sort of did. I blame Carnival Cruise Line. While we were on our Carnival Vista cruise, I received an email offer. I did not see the email until we returned home.
I opened the email on September 5th and who wouldn;t want to open an email that says Get $500 onboard credit and get back to FUN!! This sounds to good to be true but it definitely got my attention. The offer was really good, almost to good to be true. $99 deposit per person and $500 OBC to get back to FUN. Valid for sailings from January 2022 to December 2022, expires on October 31st. I told Jim about the offer and we both agreed that it was too soon to even consider booking a cruise. We had just returned the day before.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. For days I kept thinking about the OBC. I was secretly looking at cruises as well. And by secretly, I mean I did not mention anything to Jim. I’m the type of person that likes to have a plan in place or at least an idea of what I want to do, just in case. I knew I did not want to go on the Vista so soon so I began to wonder but if we did, I would want a different itinerary. The more I thought about it, the more I really did not want to go on the Vista, at least not just yet.
I started thinking I would really love to go on a birthday cruise. Jim regularly goes to Branson to play golf for his birthday, I should go on a cruise for mine. Its only fair, or so I kept telling myself!
I started to wonder if the $500 OBC applies to 5-day cruises. I decided I wanted to look for a 5-day cruise leaving Galveston fairly close to my birthday. It did not take long to find one that matched perfectly. Now, the only thing left to do was call my PVP and ask about the OBC. I sent him an email asking for him to call me and that it was not anything urgent. And, if at all possible to call me before Jim got home from work.
Unfortunately, he did not call before Jim got home. I let Jim know that I was expecting a call from our PVP because I wanted to find out about the OBC a and 5-day cruise. I also told Jim that I was looking at a cruise for my birthday and I would like to do it, but only if the OBC is as shown on the offer.
When I received the call from our PVP, he did some checking and found that the OBC for a 5-day cruise is $500. SOLD!!!! I already knew what ship, stateroom location, preferred dining time, prepaid gratuities, and insurance.
On September 10th, 6 days after our cruise on the Carnival Vista ended, I booked us on the Carnival Breeze. I will be on a cruise for my birthday!
By September 11th, I had made our parking reservation as well as pre-cruise hotel reservations, but that a story for another time!
our life reality 