If you have never been on a cruise, but are trying to decide....read on ! My wife and I have a business which takes up 120% of our time and for the first time in 5 years we had the chance to take a week and get away. We do a LOT of travel, but it is usually pack, plane, hotel, plane and home... lots of packing and unpacking and traveling without actually seeing anything. We have a number of friends who have been on quite a few cruises and we  really - I mean REALLY - didn't understand why they went back time and time again.

Well, we decided to take the plunge and called Costco (of all people) to arrange a 7 night cruise. Personally, I didn't care where, as long as my cell phone was OFF.

After a night on the town in New Orleans (ouch my head!) we made for the ship. Embarkation was a breeze and it didn't take long for us to start relaxing. Everyone was out to have fun and you could see the stress lifting from people as they boarded. Very quickly we realized that there was probably no one on the ship who knew us and we would likely never meet anyone again, so the inhibitions started to fall. (I can now line dance with the best of them...I think). Read more