Three weeks from today my husband Marty & I will board the Carnival Vista for a one week cruise in the Caribbean, Marty's favorite vacation spot. This cruise is to celebrate Marty's 60th birthday. It has become something of a tradition for us to celebrate his milestone birthday's by cruises, our anniversaries too. My birthdays, not so much, but that's another story. Anyway, I wanted this birthday to be celebrated in a big, BIG way, and I started planning it about 2-years ago.
Just a little background on his last two birthday cruises. The first was for his 49th birthday, and we celebrated it on our only Mexican Riviera cruise in January 2006. It was a great trip, at least from my perspective. Only our 3rd cruise at the time (We are veterans of 26 or so cruises as of todays date), it was the trip that made me fall in love with cruising. We sailed on the beautiful Sapphire Princess out of Long Beach, CA for a 7-day trip that included Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Cabo San Lucas.
The following year we did a true 14-day Caribbean Cruise on the Sea Princess. We actually didn't sail until April because Marty wanted to go as late in the season as possible to ensure it was warm (Our Mexico cruise had a few chilly days at sea). This was not one of my favorite cruises, but again that is a story for another time.
So for birthday #60 I asked Marty when would he like to sail, his actual birthday in January 2017, or the month before in December? You see, Marty is in commission sales, and January his store holds a big sale all month long and he makes the big money (So mama can book more cruises), but December tends to be a slow month, so a great time for us to go away. In fact we have cruised in December the last three years in a row, and 4 times all together since we began cruising in 2004. December, as long as you avoid Christmas/New Year sailings can be a great time to cruise. Fares are cheaper, and fewer children. Marty, super competitive and driven to be the #1 salesman in his company, which he is, picked December. So I looked around, and settled on the Carnival Vista sailing December 17-24. By picking this sailing I also got in our wedding anniversary (the 17th), and picked the 18th as the day we would officially celebrate his birthday on board.
I normally hate planning this far out, but there were good reasons that in this case, I had to start early. My plans have waxed and waned like the moon, at times my planning had spun out of control (Mostly financially), and other times I had despaired if it would be an "Extravaganza" at all. It will be a full-month before I know if I was successful, giving him the vacation of a lifetime in fun and memories, but hopefully he won't be disappointed.
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