My boyfriend introduced me to cruise vacations. We've taken 4 cruises in the past 2 years--3 to the Caribbean (twice aboard Carnival and once on Holland America) the most recent trip was my 40th birthday gift from my last month to Alaska on NCL's Star...I know, I'm a lucky girl. I love the experience of putting the cellphone away for a week, having date nights every night for a week, exploring new ports each day, people watching and laying out on the Lido deck.

We've had a charmed experience on the past three cruise, finding insanely reasonably-priced fares, perfect weather, zero travel issues I started to think we had things down to a science. Let me tell you about the 40th Birthday cruise that almost didn't happen!

I was flying out of Chicago, took the elevated train from the city to the airport which experienced some unforseen delays. What usually takes 45 minutes took an hour and 15 minutes. That loss of 15 minutes made all the difference. I arrived with just under an hour to check-in. Southwest Airlines check-in was 8 lanes deep. Security was equally packed for a Saturday a.m. At the gate I was told my seat had been given up and the plane...with my boyfriend aboard, taxied the runway. Southwest immediately put me on the next flight to Seattle and apologized for the long delays. New flight was due to arrive at 2:50pm...an hour and 10 minutes before the 4pm departure time! I should have allowed more time to arrive at the airport clearly but I really appreciated the airlines' quick response to get me to Seattle. Read more