Bon Voyage - Almost!

I've been reading my blogs from this past week and God! Have I been a crabby bitch! So let me move on to something a bit more positive.
The LSH & I are going on a cruise in a few weeks. We've both been on numerous cruises, but never together. He's a big fan of cruising, while my enthusiasm for them has waned through the years. It seemed the larger the ships got, the less I enjoyed them. Sometimes bigger isn't better! Having to choose which dinner seating you wanted, early or late, was, to me, a choice between bad and worse. Early seating (5PM) meant you had to be back to clean up for dinner at 4 and have your dinner rushed so they could get you out in order to clean up and get the late seating in at 8PM. If you had that seating, you usually missed out on the shows and you're not hungry for the midnight buffet, which normally are spectacular.
The assigned seating never worked for me either. What are the odds that you're going to be compatible with the people that you have been assigned to sit with for the entire cruise? It can become terribly uncomfortable when, after the initial small talk, you realize you have nothing in common and wonder how the hell you're going to sit with these folks through 7 excruciating dinners. Once, my ex and I lucked out and sat with 2 very fun-loving sisters and their husbands. We hung out with them for the entire week and had a great time. But, for me, that was the exception.
Also, as I got older, the less I enjoyed having to bring semi-formal clothing for the Captain's dinner and what-not. I think I've become a simpler person as I've "matured."
Eventually, I found the cruise that worked for me. We went on 2 sailings with Windstar Cruises. I got totally spoiled and thought I would never go on any other cruise line again.
However, situations change, and although the LSH would love to sail the Windstar, it's a bit beyond our pocketbook now. So, knowing how much he wanted to go on a cruise, I did some research and came up with NCL which promises no assigned dinner seatings or companions. Eat when you want, when you want in a number of different restaurants. I've read good and bad reviews of this concept, so we'll just have to find out for ourselves. We're sailing on the Pearl. Among the unique amenities it has are a bowling alley and a WII with a 2 story screen. We were also able to find an itinerary that stopped at places neither one of us has been to - Ports of call: Miami; Roatan; Belize City; Cozumel; Great Stirrup Cay and we splurged and got an outside cabin with a private veranda. We've already booked our shore excursions. I'm particularly looking forward to this one. We're also going to do some parasailing and hopefully, relax, reconnect and forget about the real world for awhile.
I'm glad I decided to post this today. Now I'm psyched again!