Details for Sixth Cruise (April 2018)

My sixth cruise is officially booked and the countdown has already begun!  It's been almost a year since my last cruise, so I decided to take a look at Royal Caribbean's website to see if I could find any upcoming cruises that I might want to book.  Originally, I was thinking I'd do a cruise later in the year, but I quickly realized that cruising in the summer is a lot more expensive because so many families take their family vacation when the kids are out of school.  

It ended up making more sense to book a cruise for the end of April, which is when I've sailed on 3 out of 5 cruises so far.  Thanks to a very helpful customer service rep at Royal Caribbean, Chris, I was able to find a great deal on a 6-night Western Caribbean cruise.  I'll be sailing on Freedom of the Seas, which is a sister ship of the first ship I ever cruised on, Liberty of the Seas.  If you'd like to go check out my trip report from that cruise, you can start here.  Or, if you'd like to see all cruise related posts, you can click the Cruise category on the right side of this page.  

Also, I made a YouTube video from my first cruise, so you can check that out here:

Quick side note: I do plan on writing an updated tips & tricks blog post now that I've been on a few more cruises.  Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions or if there's anything specific you'd like me to cover.

And now, let's get into the details for this next cruise!  Like I said, it's a 6-night cruise and it's going to the Western Caribbean.  I have been in this area before, but we're actually going to 2 ports I've never visited, so I'm really excited to see some new places!

​Here's a map of where we'll be going:

​​This is my itinerary:

• Saturday, April 21: fly to Fort Lauderdale & stay overnight
• Sunday, April 22: board the Freedom of the Seas
• Monday, April 23: sea day
• Tuesday, April 24: George Town, Grand Cayman
• Wednesday, April 25: Costa Maya, Mexico
• Thursday, April 26: Cozumel, Mexico
• Friday, April 27: sea day
• Saturday, April 28: arrive back in Fort Lauderdale, fly home to Denver

I originally debated flying in the day of the cruise and saving myself the cost of a hotel room the night before, but I've heard too many horror stories of people missing their cruises because of flight delays, so I decided to be safe and come in the night before.

The 2 ports I've never been to are Grand Cayman and Costa Maya.  I've been wanting to go to Grand Cayman for a long time, so I'm extra excited about that stop.  At first I was determined to go on the stingray excursion where you are in waist-high water and the stingrays are swimming all around you.  But, now I'm thinking I'd rather do an excursion where I can go see turtles.  I've only seen one turtle in all my cruises and it wasn't even up close, so I think that's what I'll plan on doing.  Who knows, maybe I'll find an excursion where I can see both turtles and stingrays!
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So far, I haven't made up my mind on excursions for Costa Maya, but I'm almost positive that I'll stay on the ship when we're in Cozumel.  I was just there last April and don't see any excursion options online that look too exciting.  Most likely I'll be ready for a quiet day after 2 busy port days, so I might just take advantage of a nearly empty ship and relax by the pool.

In terms of rooms, I am currently booked in a balcony room.  I made the mistake of cruising with a balcony for my very first cruise and I just don't think I'd ever want to go on a cruise without one.  Like I've said in previous posts, one of my favorite things is waking up in the morning and having room service breakfast on the balcony.  

As usual, I'll keep an eye on the prices and see if the Junior Suite price drops significantly.  Generally, there are quite a few cancellations once the final payment date comes around, so depending on what opens up there might be a good deal on an even nicer room.  ​For the meanwhile I'll stick to the balcony room I've got booked, so here's a quick YouTube tour of a similar room to the one I'll have on this cruise:
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I think those are all the main details of this next cruise.  There are just over 14 weeks left as of today, so I'm already counting down the days and looking forward to the trip.

Like I said earlier, I'll be doing a tips & tricks blog post sometime soon, so leave a comment if there are any questions you'd like me to answer.  I'm definitely not an expert, but I have learned a thing or two over the past 4 years, so hopefully I can be helpful!

​Stay tuned for the trip report once I get back!!