Matthew Comer Agile Scrum Master Project Manager at IBM Unicorn from Austin, Texas

How many of you like to travel?
How many of you like staying in a Hotel, a fancy hotel, an all-inclusive hotel?
Yeah me too.

Now, imagine a mile-long stretch of 25 story buildings in New York City. If you can picture that, then you get the idea of the size and scale of a modern-day cruise ship.

It dwarfs the Titanic.
Just to put that into perspective, here is a behemoth cruise ship as compared to the notorious Titanic!

It is like staying in a luxury all-inclusive hotel…. Not waterfront, water-on. A hotel that travels and shows up at a new town every few days for you to explore.

Late last year, I took my family on our first cruise together. Today, I want to tell you all about the cruise ship that we went on, then our experience on a cruise ship vacation, and finally some pro tips that we learned that might help you, if you decide to book a cruise yourself.

Our ship was one of Royal Caribbean’s newer and larger ones, the “Liberty of the Seas”.
Upon boarding we were amazed as we stood upon the top deck, level 14. And saw the enormity of the ship that we were on. You see nothing but the crystal-clear blue water of the many pools and hot tubs. And theater size screens showing the football game, and a running track around the whole thing.

But that’s not it, beyond that area, there is a basketball court, a rock-climbing wall, 2 water slides that out off the side of the ship and back, and another water slide for tubes. And the best feature, the FlowRider. A surf simulator where you can either boogie board on your knees or standup and surf!

Our destination was the Caribbean, with excursions for each port of call. In Cozumel, Mexico, we basked in the sun on a secluded beach lined with palm trees at a Beach Club. On the island of Grand Cayman, we went to Stingray City where we swam with stingrays (that had their stingers removed). As you can see here, my daughter absolutely loved it! And in Jamaica we climbed the famous Dunn’s River Falls without falling down! Which was quite a feat! Trust me!

But the one thing that all cruisers can agree on, is the food! And there is a lot of it!
The main dinning hall was set up as a buffet, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with literally everything imaginable.

And there are many other restaurants around the ship, but the formal dining hall is where you can enjoy a 3 course dinner with excellent service. One night, my wife and I were given 3 lobster tails each. And once waiters they found out that I liked Indian food, they would then bring me a 4th course of a different curry dish each night. We would be so full that we would go back to the room, take a nap, then go out to the evening or late night shows.

The Main Theatre that held over 1,400 people. There, the Cruise Director hosted a late night show with a full band and orchestra, similar to the “Tonight Show”.
Also, there were some funny Comedians, they would do an early family friendly act and then a late adult only show.
But there were more shows;

• a juggling variety show
• a Trapeze show
• lounge acts
• Karaoke
• Bingo
• wacky contests…
• There was even an ice skating rink on the ship where you could ice skate, but it also a great ice skating show!
• And even a Broadway musical, “Saturday Night Fever”!

Although we are far from pros, I got some pro tips for you, about what we learned.
For less roll and sway, it is best to have a centrally located stateroom on a lower deck.
But that’s the only reason to have a room located in the center. It gives you much more flexibility to amenities, remember how big the ship is…? We found out the hard way, as our room was located at the front of the ship, but almost everything was at the back of the ship. We were constantly crisscrossing the ship every time we left our room. But this may not be a bad thing, considering how much we ate!

The internet package is around $15 a day, but it only includes 1 device. We didn’t opt for it. And it was really nice not having a phone to check or a computer to do work on… I think a lot of other passengers declined as well. As it was so refreshing not to see everybody staring down at their phones.

Also, we didn’t opt to get the alcohol package, I know, Cardinal sin, I get it! But my wife doesn’t drink. And that is the way they get you, is that you cannot buy just 1 drink package, if you get a drink package, then your partner is required to also get a drink package. However, you can bring on 2 bottles of wine. But I did notice upon boarding the ship, they give you one last chance to purchase an alcohol package, but at Buy One, get one for ½ off…

Well, there you have it, I hope that you learned about cruise ships, an cruise vacation, and with some additional pro tips.

Cruising is a relaxing way to travel and explore destinations comfortably, and affordable, especially for what you are getting. They run around $69 a night, per person. And back in the day you would incur additional costs to fly to Miami to depart. Nowadays, being able to depart from Galveston makes cruising much more affordable for us Texans.

Now if you want to book your own trip, I am now I am a registered cruise line agent and happy to sign up anybody after the meeting. Ha-ha, just kidding, Thank you very much!