Surprising Friends on a Cruise

Quite a while ago friends of ours (Barb and Craig) who we have sailed with numerous times.  Who have visited us in our old home.  We have also visited their home. Got in touch with us to say they would be on the Caribbean Princess sailing Quebec City to Fort Lauderdale in the Fall with a stop in Sydney.

Here we are all together a few years ago

At the time we were not sure if we would be home or not as our plans for the Fall had not been planned out as of yet.

As the time got closer and they kept asking if we would be home we started to do some research.

In the end we decided why not just join them on the cruise and surprise them.  This would be much better than just seeing them for a few hours in port.

So that is what we did.  

We booked the re positioning 13 day cruise on the Caribbean Princess.  The itinerary is not the reason for going. Heck we are basically sailing in our back yard with stops in ports within a few hours drive from our home.  But we loved the idea of joining the ship in Quebec and seeing friends again, and then ending in Fort Lauderdale.

Since we are now on a fixed income we had to be conscious of the costs so we booked an inside cabin.  We love insides and sometimes we prefer them.  This is one of those times.  With the itinerary sailing in mainly cooler climates in October we knew a balcony would not be utilized enough for us to warrant the added costs.

We also love the Caribbean Princess.  We sailed her for three weeks last summer.  Follow the blogs from that cruise here.

We had talked about flying into Quebec early but it again came down to dollars and cents.  We love Quebec but we had just spent a week there last year and we could not justify the added costs this year.  So we decided to fly in the day of embarkation.  Yes a risky move but not so for this sailing since the ship actually overnights in Quebec the first day and does not set sail until the following day.

To save money on flights we were able to redeem air miles for fights to Quebec as well as back from Fort Lauderdale.  That was a savings of about a $1,000.  

So I will not be posting this blog until we set sail as I want to keep it a surprise.