Final Thoughts on My First Cruise

I have wanted to go on a cruise for a really long time, so I was super excited to get the opportunity to take a cruise this year.  Here are some final thoughts now that it's over.

Packing & Organizing:

As you've seen on my blog posts, I am a highly organized planner and tried to account for every potential situation while doing my packing.  Overall, I think I did a good job of only taking things that would be useful.  I used pretty much everything I took with me, except (thankfully) for some of the first-aid stuff.  

I was lucky enough to be in a Junior Suite by myself, so space wasn't an issue on this trip.  However, I still like to be unpacked and feel at home when I'm traveling, so here are some of the ways I made my cabin feel more like home:

• I used a hanging shoe organizer to keep all of my toiletries (and shoes) all in one place and to have them easily accessible while getting ready each day.
• I brought magnetic clips to hang up papers in my room, but ended up using them to hang my necklaces next to the full-length mirror.  This helped me remember to put on the necklaces when getting dressed.
• The Junior Suite came with a full-length cabinet with shelves.  It was very handy for keeping things out of the way and off the vanity area.
• Speaking of the vanity area, it was the perfect place to get ready each day.  I used the drawer to store all of my makeup.

Drink Package:

Before the cruise I decided to splurge and purchase the Ultimate Drink Package, which costs $65 per day and automatically includes a 15% gratuity on all drinks.  I wanted to make sure that I could relax on the trip and not worry about how much I was spending on drinks each day.  

Being the planner that I am, I went online and looked at all the drink menus for Royal Caribbean and made a list of all the specialty drinks I wanted to try.  I ended up with a list of 35 drinks, which is quite a lot for a 5-day cruise!  In the end I was able to try 26 out of 35 drinks on my list!

During the trip I wrote down every drink I had and when I got home I tallied up the total cost.  In the end I was $4.90 shy of breaking even, which is a pretty good deal!

Looking back I am happy I tried the drink package on my first cruise and was able to try that many drinks without worrying about how much each one cost.  Now that I've done it once, I probably won't do it again.  By the end of the trip I felt like I was getting drinks just to meet my "quota" and not because I wanted them.  In the long run, all of the fruity and frozen drinks ended up tasting the same!

Future Cruises:

Before going on this cruise I wasn't 100% sure if I would like it, mostly because people seem to fall into two camps of either loving to cruise or not liking it at all.  It turns out I am in the first camp and absolutely love it!  

I was so sad that this cruise was over that I have already booked my next one!  Nine days after getting off my first cruise I booked another cruise for September.  This one will be a 4-night cruise to the Bahamas and I will be in a balcony room (unless I get another free upgrade to a Junior Suite).  I may end up going by myself on this one, depending on whether anyone else is able to join me or not.  Either way, I am super excited to have another cruise to plan for and pack for!

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So that's the end of my trip report!  I think I've covered pretty much everything I wanted to share.  Please let me know if you have any questions that I can answer related to any upcoming cruises you have planned.  A great source of information is Cruise Critic!  The message boards are really helpful and informative, so definitely check them out if you have an upcoming cruise.