A Vacation to Recover from the Holidays?

Trips to spend time with family are precious and must be valued.  But once you are back home with all of the comforts and peace and quiet of your own home, do you sometimes wonder what you were thinking a few weeks ago when you were so looking forward to making that trip?  Holiday trips to spend time with family can be stressful even in the best of situations.  In the worst, we all hear about those family stabbings on the 10:00 o'clock news each year in which an argument broke out over a turkey leg and it wound up in fatalities. I'm not sure what makes us think that any single year might be different than others.  But they usually all turn out about the same way.

I am very fortunate.  I am one of the few people I know who truly enjoys spending time with each member of my family.  Some more than others naturally.  :-)  But I never walk away thinking, if I could only get Goober alone in a dark room full of knives.....  Even though I enjoy spending time with family I still found myself day dreaming during the second half of the Cowboys game about my upcoming cruise.  If you aren't already planning a vacation for late winter or early spring, I don't know how you were able to make it through Thanksgiving and especially that Cowboys game.  It is probably all that saved me.

You see for me, planning the vacation and the anticipation of it are half of the fun.  For months prior to a vacation anytime I am sad or stressed, I just go to my happy place where I imagine standing on deck 4 at muster as the ship pulls away from the dock and all of my troubles are left behind.  It's very therapeutic!  It works the same way with vacations that don't include a cruise ship.  Just imagine yourself turning off all electronic devices as the flight attendant points out the emergency exits and demonstrates the oxygen masks. It's the same thing.  Either way, all of your troubles are centered around your home and office and you are leaving them.

For me on a cruise vacation, I don't actually feel totally relaxed until I walk into my cabin the first time.  That is when all of the worries just turn to liquid and drip away.  I'll never forget the first time my nephew, Matt and I walked into our cabin on Rhapsody of the Seas in July of 2007.  I had booked the cruise late (less than a month prior to sailing) and requested a balcony but we didn't get a cabin assignment until we arrived at the terminal and still didn't know where the cabin was located until we found it on the ship.  It turned out to be on the aft port corner.  It was a large room with a balcony almost as big as the room.  It wrapped around to the side and had lounge chairs as well as a table and chairs.  When we walked in, we both went nuts!!!!  He called his mom immediately and I called my parents to let them know we were in the greatest room ever!  We each spent a LOT of time on that balcony that week.  Here are a few pictures of Matt on that balcony...

 Don't bother asking why all but one of these pictures were taken while we sat at the dock in Galveston either prior to sailing or upon returning.  I can't answer that question.  But they are the only ones I saw that were taken out on the balcony.  I have heard that the rooms with this wrap around balcony were done away with when Royal Caribbean renovated the ships.  If so, I am sorry to hear that.  It was the most fantastic room I have ever had on a ship.  In the picture below you can see that we actually did leave Galveston during this cruise.  You can tell that by how blue the water is that Matt is looking out at.

The photo to the left was taken as we returned to Galveston on the last morning.  I didn't want to leave this balcony.  Matt was probably anxious to get home to his then girlfriend, now wife, Melissa.  I just wanted to stay on that ship and keep anybody else from ever coming back into that cabin claiming it Mine!  All Mine!!!  But we did leave.  I have never found another cabin like that one.  I am sure that cabins like that still exist.  But not for the price of a regular balcony.  They are now probably part of a suite.

On my cruise in January which, by the way, sets sail in 55 days (I have a countdown app on my cell phone) we are staying in cabin 9692.  It is a balcony on the back of the ship.  But it is in the middle of the back.  It was the only aft facing balcony available and it did cost a little more than the other balconies.  But I hope that it will be worth it.  You see I normally end up with port side balconies which is not a problem except that I always wonder what they are looking at on the starboard side of the ship when they wake up in the morning.  With an aft facing balcony, I can turn my head from port to starboard and see what everybody on each side of the ship has seen.  I'll simply be the among last to see it.

My parents will also be on this cruise along with some friends from my childhood and of course my travel buddy who I'll be sharing a room with.  We also found out after booking the cruise that a friend Jenny and I used to work with and her daughter and friend will also be on board.  So, maybe one evening, we will have a big party on our balcony.  If so, I'll take plenty of pictures to post.  Otherwise, you just might see pictures of my travel buddy Jenny out there as we leave and return to Galveston.

Have a great week and if you need a trip to day dream about over the holidays as you spend more time with family, drop me a line!