A Little Winter Escape on the Nieuw Amsterdam

This cruise came into being after we discovered we would be new grandparents and would need to adjust (shorten) our winter get away so as not the miss the much anticipated birth of our adorable grandson!  We were more than happen to shorten our trip to PV but as time went on and I was feeling the need to get away in the fall, which was not going to happen, I talked Dave into adding a second short winter getaway.  With the single digit temps we have been experiencing I am sure glad we are getting away now! Add to that the fact I had a bad knee issue which interfered with the first half of our PV trip, so kind of felt like we deserved a "do over"! Tomorrow we fly to Fort Lauderdale, stay the night in an airbnb then board the Nieuw Amsterdam for 1 week in the Western Caribbean. We have been to all these ports before, except Dave has not been to their private island, Half Moon Cay, which I think is the best private island, I can't wait to go back :)



For this cruise I booked an obstructed ocean view guarantee to save money :)  In the past I have always been upgraded to full ocean view.....well not this time, I got what I paid for!  Yesterday I was excited when I received an email offering me a balcony upgrade for 99.00 each, so I called.  After being on hold for ever I was informed by a Cruise.com TA it was an error made by Holland, we could upgrade to a full ocean view for 79.00 per person or balcony for 169.00 per person.  I passed, I will keep our fully obstructed room.  The travel agent from Cruise.com told me she would wait and after we are on board and ship just pulls away ask if there are any upgrade rooms available.  I may try that!
I prepurchased a wine package for this cruise which we have never done before, not sure if it is a better deal or not so we will see :)
We leave in the morning and we are still not packed! So that is definitely on my agenda for today along with last minute getting ready like mani and pedi (do myself) eyebrow tinting (do myself), reserve rental bikes in Key West, get some cash, pack up Scout's stuff, clean house, and pack!
I will be posting to my blog when we have internet and when I have the time.  I really just use this as a way to journal so if anyone is following along it is not always very exciting! I really like to be able to look back to remind myself of what we did.  My only regret is that I didn't start this sooner so that I would have all of our European adventures documented :(
Now off to start packing!