Cruising has been a great vacation choice for my family, and so when the idea of a vacation came up again the choice to cruise was an easy one. We have cruised four other times. Three of those were on Carnival, and one was on Norwegian. Neither of those lines has done anything that makes us particularly loyal, so when I began to research cruises there were really three factors that went into the choice. The first was itinerary. I wanted a cruise that went to ports that we had not visited previously. Since the four prior cruises had been east and west Caribbean itineraries, I decided to look for a southern Caribbean route. The second factor I was looking for was the embarkation place and date. I wanted a port that was easy and relatively inexpensive to get to. My wife and I are owners of a small winery, and the best time for us to leave is the first week in January when the shop is slow. That also happens to be a good time for my kids and their school schedules. The last consideration as I researched cruises was an interest in trying Holland America Lines (HAL). My wife had heard some years ago that HAL has a tradition of having a Catholic priest on board every ship, and that they provide mass times every day for those that are interested. Since she attends mass most days when at home, the idea of being able to attend mass on the cruise appealed to her greatly.

Things fell together when I discovered there was a HAL cruise leaving from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 3. This was a seven day cruise that went to southern Caribbean destinations that we had never visited before. Fort Lauderdale is easy to get to from our home in Columbus, Ohio, a sail date of January 3 was perfect for our schedule, and since we had wanted to try HAL anyway, it seemed like a perfect fit. The ship was called the Westerdam, a smaller ship, (around 1800 passengers), that started service in 2004. The itinerary went to Half Moon Cay, (HAL's private island in the Bahamas), Aruba, and to Curacao, three places we had never been before. My research on the Westerdam turned up a lot of very good reviews, and so I decided that this was the cruise for us.

Booking the ship was an interesting adventure through a couple of cruise travel agencies. My wife and I have two sons still at home, and so I wanted to have a cabin for ourselves and a cabin for them. I also invited two of our older sons, one of whom is married, to cruise with us. That meant I needed a total of three cabins. Read more