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Ready to Set Sail

October 30, 2015

Our Marketing Director sets sail on the Enchantment of the Seas tomorrow for her honeymoon. She has graciously agreed to blog during her trip, starting with a peek at her pre-cruise preparations!

The Ever Disorganized

Here we are the day before my very first ever cruise. Being the workaholic that I am, it seems to have snuck up on me. I’m not packed, I haven’t booked my excursions, I haven’t set up cruise parking, and I haven’t checked in online. When at work I am the most organized person you have ever met, but in my personal life I have always procrastinated down to the last minute.

If I didn’t know about Go Port I would be in a panic trying to pull it all together. Thanks to working here I know last minute cruise parking is cheap and easy to book. We live in Orlando so we opted not to book a hotel night before our cruise. I have stayed previously at the Hilton and International Palms for my wedding and bachelorette party. Both are on the beach and I was happy with the rooms and the service.

For everything else I am picking the brains of my coworkers, who are long time cruisers, and have over 30 years experience collectively working in the industry AND taking cruises.

Last Minute Hiccups

Excursion Bookings

Well, procrastination always seems to cost me in the end! Remember when I mentioned that I hadn’t booked my excursions yet? Turns out that you cannot book your excursions online the day before Sail Away. Oops! That means that my husband and I will be making a stop at the reservations desk to reserve our Coco Cay snorkeling boat party. That is slightly annoying since I was planning to start my vacation the second I got on the boat. Lesson learned!

Luggage Tags

Surprise! I can’t print my luggage tags less than 13 days out either. This just means that I will have to get my tags from the porter. Not really a big deal, but I really should have taken our full time writer’s advice and planned much sooner. Next time!

Pre-Cruise With Royal Caribbean

Overall, I have to say booking with Royal Caribbean has been very easy. They have a cruise count down that—if I had followed it’s recommendations—would have resulted in booking everything in a timely manner.

The cruise planner, on the other hand, I have not been too impressed with.

I found building my itinerary difficult, and I decided to change the My Time Dining so that we could watch the Sail Away at each port. That resulted in my previously booked dining being cancelled, which wouldn’t have been a problem if the system had reserved the new time. Alas, it did not. I tried rebooking today when I realized that it was not on my itinerary, but that booking option is not available online 4 days before you set sail. A small amount of panic washed over me, but my coworkers assure me that my husband and I won’t have to starve, and we can go to the dinning area at any time. We may just have to wait for a table. The other option is to order room service, which is included in cruise. I am so excited to try that!

Itinerary

Today (Thursday October 29th)

5:30 PM – Grills Restaurant Port Canaveral – Pre cruise party with the roll call party from Cruise Critic(CC).

Jeffrey and I are very excited to meet the people that we have been chatting with online during the lead up to this cruise. I highly recommend getting active in your roll call on the forum. You meet so many amazing people to share your vacation with!

Tomorrow (Embarkation)

11:00 AM – Get on Board!

Once on board we will have to swing by the desk to book our excursion, and get the necessary paperwork for an express debarkation. I obviously plan to to go to work the Monday we return (workaholic remember?) so an express debark is a must.

Once on board we plan to have lunch at the Windjammer and spend an hour, or two at the pool.

2:30 PM – Oasis – CC Roll Call Sail Away Party

Another get together with all the people I met on Cruise Critic’s roll call forum. This one will be much bigger. While many are arriving today, the day before Sail Away, there are just as many who are driving in tomorrow.

4:00 PM – SAIL AWAY

My husband and I plan to wave at the Port Canaveral shore, and Cocoa Beach as we set sail.

Nassau October 31st Happy Halloween

12:00 PM Arrival (Docked)

My husband and I left this day wide open for exploring the ship. We have reservations about getting off the ship alone in Nassau to explore, and none of the excursions really caught our eye.

5:30 – On Board Halloween Festivities

We believe the formal night has been replaced with a costume night since it is Halloween. We are picking up costumes tonight at Target. There’s that procrastination again! Hopefully, we can still get costumes this late. We plan to go as a cop with her inmate, since this is our honeymoon we thought a ball and chain on my husband is fitting.

11:59 – Departure

We are not going to go to the Sail Away for this port. I am pretty sure that by this time I will have a few mojitos in me, and will be lighting up the dance floor.

Coco Cay November 1st

8:00 AM – Arrival (Tendered)

Our excursion isn’t until the afternoon so Jeffrey and I plan to spend the morning exploring the nearby areas. We tend to be early risers and morning people, but after a night of Halloween fun we may need some extra sleep to nurse our regrets from the night before. Hopefully, we don’t have too many, and we get up in time to get lots of exploring done.

12:00 PM – Snorkeling Boat Party

This is the only excursion we were really drawn to. Being newly weds who close on our first home the day we get back from our cruise means money is tight. When looking at the excursions I immediately eliminated anything that cost almost as much as the cruise. I also hit the forums and review sites to figure out where we could get the most bang for our buck. This excursion was affordable at $46 per person and is 2 hours in length. Some of the reviews also indicated that the drinks flow cheaply on this excursion which is great news for my mojito addiction.

5:00 PM Sail Away

We plan to watch this one from the stern. It marks the end of our island adventures and the start of our journey back to the mainland.

Debarkation November 2nd

7:00 AM – Debarkation

Jeffrey and I will be up for breakfast around 6 AM and then we will express debark. We want to be off the ship, and on our way back to work as soon as we can. Depending on how many people also debark early we are hoping that our shared shuttle back to the parking lot gets us there before 8 AM. The shuttle has to fill up before it will head to the lot so if we are lucky, lots of people will express debark.