BACKGROUND INFO: My husband, Scot, (age 38) and I, Stephanie, (age 38) took our first cruise in the fall of 2005 on the 4 day Disney Wonder to the Bahamas. I immediately fell in love with cruising. He enjoys it and is certainly a willing participate, but doesn't think of cruising constantly like I do;) We are budget travelers. I want to get the most vacations I can for my money. I love to research to find the best deals wherever we go.

In November 2006 we sailed a 4 day cruise to Key West and Cozumel on the Carnival Fascination. We knew we wanted to cruise again this fall and started checking out our options. I knew we wanted to sail out of Miami and my husband was only willing to be gone one Sunday. I was hoping to try our first 7 day cruise, but couldn't find anything that would put us gone only one Sunday and fit our budget. We decided on a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Pearl October 14 - 19, 2007. I was very excited about the concept of Freestyle cruising. We take our cruise to spend time as a couple and we were looking forward to tables for two at dinner every night. We booked through an online travel agency.

TRAVEL TO PORT: Friday, October 12th we loaded up the kids who were on fall break and our luggage and headed to Indianapolis. First stop was at my SIL house we picked her up and headed to the airport where she dropped us off and left with our children and our vehicle. Drop off service and babysitting, can't beat that. We flew Delta with a connection in Atlanta because I wanted to use a travel voucher I had with Delta. Our flights were smooth and on time. During our layover in Atlanta we ran into some friends from home and chatted with them for a while. Read more