Honeymoon Cruise | Part I
Now that final exams are over, I finally have time to blog about the honeymoon cruise Austin and I went on last month! Although we did get married back in May, we decided to wait until November to take our honeymoon because we snagged an awesome deal on a 12-night Southern Caribbean cruise from Royal Caribbean. This also worked in my favor, as it gave me plenty of time to complete the whole name-change process—I honestly thought it would be as simple as filling out a form and poof, name changed. Boy, was I wrong. Plus, it was nice to have some time to recover from the stress of the wedding before enjoying the honeymoon. To all soon-to-be newlyweds, I highly advise waiting at least a month or two before going on your honeymoon!
Any who, our trip began with a laborious eight-hour drive to Minneapolis (the nearest big airport to Minot…). I spent this time finishing some last-minute homework assignments—I had to get two weeks ahead on homework as we would have no internet on the ship. Because of this, I honestly think the week leading up to our honeymoon was more stressful that finals week! When we finally got into the city, we hit up the Mall of America for a few hours to kill some time before going to bed.
Day 1: Sea Day
The next morning, we hopped an early flight to Baltimore, caught an Uber to the ship, and completed the check-in process! It was at this point we noticed that about 90% of our fellow passengers were retired folk. I had never been on a cruise this long before, but I guess going on back-to-back long cruises is the norm for some retiree. The remainder of our evening was spent enjoying fruity drinks, avoiding the freezing pool deck, and exploring the boat—The Grandeur of the Seas. At dinner, we met our table-mates (who would share the same table as us for dinner for the remainder of the cruise). They were all retired, frequent cruisers, and an absolute delight to meet! Throughout the rest of the cruise, we would often meet up with them at various events or shows on board, and they would slip Austin beers that they got from the Diamond Lounge (the exclusive room for frequent cruisers, which happened to serve free beer).
Day 2: Sea Day
On day two, I woke up bright and early and hit the gym (as you could probably guess, this habit didn’t last long). Austin and I then headed over the the buffet breakfast cafe, which always had a delicious assortment of fresh fruits and pancakes—I had this basically every morning. We popped into the casino to try our hand at the whole gambling thing (I had only ever played blackjack once, in Vegas, and turned out to be pretty good at it). We heard an announcement for a blackjack tournament and figured, why not! It was a $25 buy-in; there were a handful of qualifiers throughout the cruise and the finals would be held on Day 11. Basically, we were given 500 “dollars” in chips and played seven rounds. At the end of the seven rounds, they record how much you have left. At the end of all the qualifying rounds, the seven people that ended up with the highest amount advance to the finals. Austin turned his 500 into 900, and I ended with 850. For the rest of the cruise, we would keep an eye on the leader board and hope no one knocked us out of 4th and 5th place!
Day 3: Sea Day
After my morning workout (another one? Impressive!) and our breakfast buffet, we ventured over to the casino to participate in “Play Like a Pro” gaming lessons, where we attempted to learn to play craps (I now have an extremely vague understanding of this confusing game, and will likely still never attempt it in the future).
Later that afternoon, we tried our luck at bingo. Turns out we weren’t so lucky, but it was definitely enjoyable! After dinner we popped into the Centrum (the huge main area of the ship that can be viewed from all 12 floors) for an “If you know it, sing it” game show. Cruises frequently host random games like this throughout the day, so it’s always fun to unexpectedly pop in and end up belting your heart out along with the rest of the passengers!
Day 4: Sea Day
By day four at sea, I was getting pretty sick of being on the boat (literally, nearly sick). As it turns out, routes coming out of Baltimore tend to be some of the rockiest journeys when it comes to cruises, so we were frequently running into walls as we tried to navigate the hallways. Thankfully, this was the last day before finally reaching dry land!
At this point, we were near the Florida area so the weather was heating up. We spent a lot of time on the pool deck, lost at (but thoroughly enjoyed) some more bingo, and got called up for a 60 Seconds or Less game show in the Centrum—Austin had to bounce around a balloon in the air and I had to shake ping pong balls out of a tissue box that was strapped to my butt. My teammates were yelling “Twerk!” as I wiggled my derriere like there was no tomorrow, fully aware that there was a room full of retirees staring at me with brows raised. Hey, at least our team won!
Stay tuned for Part II when we finally arrive at the first island! Rum, sailboats, and monkeys, oh my!
Click here to view Part II of our honeymoon cruise.