Back in 2005, hubby and I took our very first (and so far last) cruise.  We sailed on Holland America out of Fort Lauderdale with destinations of St. Maarten, Tortola (BVI) and Nassau.

We chose Holland America mainly because it is known for catering to an *older* population and the ships are smaller (i.e. we hate crowds and kids).  If you are the type wanting to stay up late and party with the 30 set or have a yen for being around 5000 screaming children on a Disney cruise, then Holland America isn’t for you.

Our ship was the MS Oosterdam, christened in 2003, she has the capacity for 1848 passengers with 812 crew members.  This pales in comparison to the Oasis of the Seas mega ship that holds 5400 passengers and 2394 crew members.  Everyone stuffed on board like sardines in a floating can.  Definitely not for everyone and the least they could do is make the booze all inclusive if you have to put up with being stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean with enough people to start up a new country…which I bet would be a dictatorship…

Cruise ships come with lots and lots of entertainment options, well, they kind of have to, or you may as well cruise in a row boat….from lounging poolside doing nothing, to zip lining across the top of the ship, rock wall climbing, skeet shooting, gigantic twisting pool slides, sports and nightly stage productions to name a few.  But the best thing about cruising I have found is that it gives you an enormous amount of time to do one of my favourite past times…. people watching…

Like this couple here….

I have wondered for the past 8 years what they were actually thinking….and I still giggle to myself every time I look at this picture….