Molly's Dream (Nightmare?!?) Vacation (Tomorrow Is Another Day...)

I must admit, when thinking about a title for this post I maaaay have let a little bit of my personal bias influence my final decision. I can't help it, when I hear the word "cruise" my mind goes to some very bad places. Even so, reading this post, I find myself missing those vast buffets and tasty dinners and the feeling of being waited on around the clock. Not to mention sailing from one incredible port of call to another while the ocean rocks you into a blissful sleep. And if I'm being entirely honest, the topic of a Caribbean cruise has come up between Colby and me from time to time, so I guess what I'm saying here is, Molly, I fully endorse this dream vacation!

When Angela asked for guest posters, I was more than excited to volunteer to write about my dream vacation. It’s been quite a few years that this vacation has been percolating in my mind, but it’s always been just a “someday” kind of thought. When I found this excuse to actually research the trip, my occasional daydreams quickly turned into a more-than-welcome assignment. Knowing that the divine Miss A is a seasoned cruise veteran, and knowing how her cruise went, I figured she’d definitely warn me off this adventure. But what can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment.

Now, I’ve only taken one cruise in my life. But let’s just say it nearly ruined me for vacationing any other way. For our honeymoon, the handsome hubby and I jumped on a big old ship and headed for Alaska. Even though we brought the median age on the ship way down, and I mean WAY down, it was a fantastic adventure. Not only was Alaska breath taking, the ship was luxurious, the food was belt looseningly outrageous, and we were treated like royalty by the crew. I realized that cruising, for me, is ideal in that it accommodates two conflicting character traits. I have a deeply engrained wanderlust and consider seeing more, more, more to be the best use of vacation time. However, I'm also a lazy bum and don’t really want to have to work too hard.

See where I'm going with this? By boarding a cruise ship I can unpack my bags one time (lazy bum) and wake up smack dab in the middle of another adventure (wanderlust) every morning. How perfect is that? Well, I agree it is totally perfect.

So, since I completely ignored Angela’s advice settled on a cruise, all that was left was figuring out which boat to catch. Enter Holland American Cruise lines (that’s who we went with for Alaska and they were top notch). After looking through pages and pages of cruises, but mainly focusing on the ones through Asia, I discovered the 32 day Grand World Voyage. For a large part of my life I’ve dreamed of travelling through Asia and this cruise includes Australia too! Ummmm, yes please.

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As I started looking into each of the ports my eyes widened and my jaw went slack. After researching five or six stops there was a bit of drool forming on my lower lip and I was utterly mesmerized. This cruise looks to be the absolute perfect combination of big bustling cities and quiet (semi) secluded beaches. There are thoroughly modern cities like Hong Kong and ports like Lembar, Indonesia that might require a bit of time travel to reach them safely.

Hong Kong
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Phuket, Thailand
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Colombo, Sri Lanka
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Goa, India
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Plus, can you imagine living in the lap of luxury for 32 full days? What if I threw in a few sea sick patches? Then is it sounding better? The cruise ship, the ms Amsterdam, holds about 1300 people but boasts a crew of more than 600. I kinda like those odds. While I haven’t traveled on the Amsterdam, I did get acquainted with her sister five years ago. I can assure you that the ms Westerdam was one bad broad. I'm guessing the family resemblance will suit me just fine. I hope so, because looking at the itinerary there are several days at sea. And I don’t want to be eating, lounging, reading, eating, spending quality time with the hubby, eating some more and otherwise laying around like a lazy bum on a ship that is less than top of the line. Can you blame me?

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Alright, so who’s coming with us?

I'm incredibly grateful to Angela for opening up this guest posting opportunity. Thank you, thank you, thank you, friend. Not only has it given me a chance to day dream a bit, it’s given me a reason to be excited about the budget discussions on the table with the hubby next week. When there’s something THIS AMAZING to look forward to, I'm willing to cut a few more coupons and scrimp and save where necessary. To see if I'm still excited after the budget discussions, come by and visit my blog A Foreign Land.

Until then, Bon Voyage!

Comments

wow, that is an awesome cruise path, geez!

Posted by: Krystal/Village | August 27, 2011 at 05:39 PM

A cruise has never sounded appealing to me until this post. I always thought the boat just docked in very touristy spots. Clean, boring beaches. Busy, tourist trodden typical spots, etc…. Some of these locations look very exotic and wanderlust-satisfying indeed! Great guest post, Molly!

Posted by: Rachael | August 31, 2011 at 07:20 PM