Surprising my wife with the cruise of her dreams

[MicheMommy]

I'm loving reading about your surprise!

 

But you better be super careful - is it likely she will get nosy and start checking your browser history? It would lead her right to this post and any websites you've been viewing to get pictures and ideas.

[mali06]

I did not have 11 but I did have three teenage sons at the same time . . . and always an empty fridge the day after grocery shopping! LOL I can't imagine handling more but we always wanted 12 . . . the Lord just had other plans! I too have an extremely romantic husband . . . how he kept the secret of not one but TWO China trips I will never know! We have always had great times but since my cancer (I am a 2 1/2 year survivor) he goes out of his way to grant me my every wish. Thus the 11 night cruise to Southern Caribbean next January on the Sun. Keep up the good work Sir! We wives greatly appreciate everything you wonderful husbands do!

[terrific_surprise]

You just have to post some pics of you and your wife so we have faces to connect with this wonderfully sweet surprise!

 

Well, I was trying to stay anonymous, but I guess pics without names hopefully will be safe (if anybody who knows us has read this far, they will already know who we are anyway).

 

So here is our Christmas 2010 family photo (the most recent one we have). My wife and I are on the far right. Our oldest with his wife and our grandson are at the upper left.

 

 

It's a bit of an offbeat photo (it's hard to get so many people to smile at the same time), but in many ways it does show some character traits of family members (and yes, we are in some ways a bit of an offbeat family).

[terrific_surprise]

I'm loving reading about your surprise!

 

But you better be super careful - is it likely she will get nosy and start checking your browser history? It would lead her right to this post and any websites you've been viewing to get pictures and ideas.

 

I agree - it would be just horrible if what I am doing in any way causes her to be suspicious of me or (:eek:horrors!:eek:) think that I have an Internet girlfriend! I'm pretty sure she has never before checked my browser history, but again this is about "trust" -- very important not to undermine it.

[terrific_surprise]

I did not have 11 but I did have three teenage sons at the same time . . . and always an empty fridge the day after grocery shopping! LOL I can't imagine handling more but we always wanted 12 . . . the Lord just had other plans! I too have an extremely romantic husband . . . how he kept the secret of not one but TWO China trips I will never know! We have always had great times but since my cancer (I am a 2 1/2 year survivor) he goes out of his way to grant me my every wish. Thus the 11 night cruise to Southern Caribbean next January on the Sun. Keep up the good work Sir! We wives greatly appreciate everything you wonderful husbands do!

 

Wow, your husband sounds like someone I would like to meet!

 

We talk about having a "full quiver" -- but we also recognize that God gives each family the appropriate size "quiver" to full.

 

When something like cancer enters your life it really puts things in perspective. And I'm sure (putting myself in your husband's shoes) that ordeal helped him to see what is truly precious (or in this case, who).

 

Many blessings as you look forward to your 11 nights next January!

[terrific_surprise]

This morning after I gave my wife another little golden envelope, she inquired "what's the deal with all of the gold? Is it because of my 50th birthday?"

 

"Yes," I confessed, "I intended to write you a clue specifically about that, but I guess you figured it out first. The clue would have said that if a 50th anniversary is a Golden Anniversary, a 50th birthday should be considered a Golden Birthday."

 

At the surprise party for her 49th birthday, I had given her a large present (in gold wrapping paper with a gold bow), which was actually a series of presents-within-presents, all wrapped in gold. (I had found a good deal on gold wrapping paper at an after-Christmas sale.) One of the presents was also a shiny little gold box, which included the note-clue "until the time that you are ready to put all the pieces together" (giving her a place to keep the puzzle pieces I would be giving her). And of course the final present was a little gold envelope.

 

After her birthday, I had thought that all of this "gold" may have been lost on her, but I'm glad to know that it wasn't.

 

Some of you may have already realized the way that all of these "Golden" clues will relate to the venue for the 50th birthday surprise. (But it may be a few days into the cruise before she connects the dots on that.)

 

--

 

We slept last night in our van, using the excuse that the weather made it too difficult to get home (but in truth, we just wanted more time together after the two days of pretty intense meetings). When we woke up, we were looking right out on a hill that looks like the hill to the "pillboxes" in Oahu. I had already given her a photo of the Oahu "pillbox" hill, so I asked her if the hill where we are today looked familiar. She immediately associated it to the clue (while I assured here that it wasn't the actual hill but just coincidentally looked like it).

 

Here's the Oahu "pillbox" hill photo I gave her:

Edited April 14, 2012 by terrific_surprise

[Arzeena]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! How sweet of you to do this!

Keep posting and have a wonderful time planning the cruise!

[CM2J2R2S]

I am loving this thread for 100 reasons!

[Talisker92]

I think it is terrific and a wonderful you are doing for her. It sort of reminds me of my proposal to my wife.

We were watching the Food Channel one day, and were watching Rachel Raye. Kathy happened to mention that Rachel got married on the Greek island of Santorini. I said, “Hey! We are going to go to Santorini on this cruise!”

Well, that got my wheels turning, and I Googled Santorini Weddings. It turns out it is a very popular place for weddings, and there are a number of wedding coordinators on the island. I e-mailed one named Anna, and she was very helpful with the information.

I then called Kathy, and told her my suggestion, and she started laughing. I asked what was so funny, and she said, “Do you know what my first thought was?” I said yes, I do, you thought,”What will I wear?” because you are a woman. And Kathy said, laughing, “You are absolutely right”.

After a flurry of e-mails, all the arrangements were made, and we will be met at the top of the tram by the wedding arranger and a car.

While all of this was going on, I had a flash of inspiration! We would need wedding rings, so I went on the internet and Googled Greek Key wedding rings. The first site I hit had a beautiful ring with the Greek key design. I printed out the

picture, and showed it to Kathy. She thought it was beautiful, so I ordered a set for us after we got our fingers sized at a local jewelry store. The rings arrived, and I tried them on, and much to my dismay, they were too tight! I have jewelry store near my office, and I took the rings in to be resized. The lady explained that the other store used the wrong ring sizer to measure our fingers. They should have used a wide ring sizer rather than the narrow one they used.

Fortunately, the rings are quite heavy and the jeweler was able to resize them up so they fit comfortably. I told Kathy that we would have to eat the light meals for a week so they would still fit!

We anchored of the island of Santorini, and took the tender in to the dock. The dock was at sea level, but the towns were on the top of the island. There were 2 ways to get there, a zigzag route by donkey, or by cable car.

 

Our appointment was at 11, but we were not sure of how long the wait would be for the cable car. We arrived at the top in plenty of time, and looked around at some of the shops.

At 11 sharp, a lady showed up with a sign with our names on it and escorted us to the car. We were driven to the church of St. Irene, and waiting there was the photographer, the videographer, and the official who conducted the ceremony.

[terrific_surprise]

I think it is terrific and a wonderful you are doing for her. It sort of reminds me of my proposal to my wife.

We were watching the Food Channel one day, and were watching Rachel Raye. Kathy happened to mention that Rachel got married on the Greek island of Santorini. I said, “Hey! We are going to go to Santorini on this cruise!”

Well, that got my wheels turning, and I Googled Santorini Weddings. It turns out it is a very popular place for weddings, and there are a number of wedding coordinators on the island. I e-mailed one named Anna, and she was very helpful with the information.

I then called Kathy, and told her my suggestion, and she started laughing. I asked what was so funny, and she said, “Do you know what my first thought was?” I said yes, I do, you thought,”What will I wear?” because you are a woman. And Kathy said, laughing, “You are absolutely right”.

After a flurry of e-mails, all the arrangements were made, and we will be met at the top of the tram by the wedding arranger and a car.

While all of this was going on, I had a flash of inspiration! We would need wedding rings, so I went on the internet and Googled Greek Key wedding rings. The first site I hit had a beautiful ring with the Greek key design. I printed out the

picture, and showed it to Kathy. She thought it was beautiful, so I ordered a set for us after we got our fingers sized at a local jewelry store. The rings arrived, and I tried them on, and much to my dismay, they were too tight! I have jewelry store near my office, and I took the rings in to be resized. The lady explained that the other store used the wrong ring sizer to measure our fingers. They should have used a wide ring sizer rather than the narrow one they used.

Fortunately, the rings are quite heavy and the jeweler was able to resize them up so they fit comfortably. I told Kathy that we would have to eat the light meals for a week so they would still fit!

We anchored of the island of Santorini, and took the tender in to the dock. The dock was at sea level, but the towns were on the top of the island. There were 2 ways to get there, a zigzag route by donkey, or by cable car.

 

Our appointment was at 11, but we were not sure of how long the wait would be for the cable car. We arrived at the top in plenty of time, and looked around at some of the shops.

At 11 sharp, a lady showed up with a sign with our names on it and escorted us to the car. We were driven to the church of St. Irene, and waiting there was the photographer, the videographer, and the official who conducted the ceremony.

 

That must have been an amazing wedding! I had never heard of Santorini before, but I just searched for some images and looked for it on the map. Wow, what an incredible place to get married!

 

About 7 years before my wife and I were married, when we were just high school sweethearts, I promised her that if we had any children who were shorter than her at age 14, I would take her on a trip to Europe. (She is 5'3" and I am 6'4" and in high school I used to rib her about being "short." She would insist "I'm not short, I'm average!" which led to the Europe "bet.")

 

Perhaps increasing her chances on going to Europe motivated her to want more children. ;) Anyway, so far all of our 14 year olds have been taller than her! :D She has been a good sport about it, for the most part (just occasionally expressing good-natured frustration about it).

 

The Santorini wedding story made me think of our engagement story (possibly the best surprise I have given her before now). She had never been to Yosemite before, and my plan was to ask her to marry me at Emerald Pool, which is between Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall. But to get her there I had to get her to walk up over 600 steps to the top of Vernal Fall. She kept wanting to stop, saying "I can see it fine from here," but I kept insisting "it will be worth it at the top!"

 

Then when we finally got to the bridge between Emerald Pool and Nevada Fall I read her some verses from Proverbs about why a wife is a gift from God (struggling to keep my composure), and then we went down to Emerald Pool where I pulled out the ring. (We had just casually been browsing a jewelry store a few months earlier so I knew which ring she seemed to like the most.)

 

Without hesitation, she answered "yes!" (Though she does confess today that if she had known then that we would have 11 children together, she might have hesitated -- a bit. :rolleyes: ) She did agree that I was right, that it was definitely "worth it at the top!" :)

 

Attached is a photo of us at the bridge below Vernal Fall on our honeymoon (9 months after the engagement). (Sadly the photos we took at our engagement spot didn't turn out well -- too shady.)

[terrific_surprise]

Yesterday during the pastor's sermon in church, he told us to look at the person next to us and proclaim "the best is yet to come!" So I turned to my wife and said the designated phrase, with a little smirk (thinking of course of the coming cruise). The look on her face as she said the phrase back to me made me think that she knew exactly what was on my mind (which I have often found to be the case). Of course the pastor was referring to something much better than a cruise to Hawaii, but it's nice to have some relatively short-term goals too.

 

Before I began this process of giving her clues, I had already made a list of enough clues to carry us through to the goal, knowing that when my creative juices are flowing I am full of ideas, while at dry times I can be literally "clueless." I think I will save "the best is yet to come" to give again later as a written clue, timed at a point when we have been reminiscing about our past cruise experiences, hoping to tip her off to the fact that the cruise to come will likely be significantly better.

 

Managing the clues is already becoming a bit of a challenge -- both for me and for her. A couple of days ago she was trying to make sure she still had all of the clues, so I was helping her look through what I have already given to her. I have a series of folders on my computer containing the clues (with folders for clue-photos to edit, clues ready to print, clues printed, and clues given) along with a spreadsheet keeping track of what has been given (and other related notes).

 

While going through the clue-photos, she came to this photo (see attached) which was the second clue I gave her, the day after her 49th birthday party. Previously I had put a little Godiva chocolate wrapper into the gold box which holds the clues. So as we were going through the clues, I gave her the wrapper and said "you should put that with this."

 

"Why?" she asked.

 

"It's a Godiva chocolate store," I explained. (It's the Godiva chocolate store on the Golden Princess, but of course I didn't tell her that part. The wrapper was from a chocolate she had eaten from a bag of Godiva chocolates one of her friends had given her on her birthday -- purely by coincidence.)

 

Incidentally, for any who are concerned about how my secret postings on this thread may undermine my wife's trust in me, I figured out how to deal with it. If she asks me, I will just say that I am keeping a journal about the process of giving her these clues, but that I don't want to share the journal with her until all of the clues have been given.

 

Through the process of planning her 49th birthday surprise party there were a few times that what I was doing looked suspicious, but of course she was glad to see how things turned out, so I'm sure that the above explanation will tell her what she wants to know.

 

Last night my wife was holding our #7 son's pet guinea pig when it seemed to have some kind of seizure. Over the following hours she compassionately cared for the pet -- and for our heartbroken son -- until the guinea pig died early this morning. So she didn't get much sleep even though she has a busy day of ministry today (dealing with people problems, not pet problems).

 

My wife is truly an amazing treasure.

 

(I must confess that I don't have much patience for pets in recent years, especially dogs, because our dogs have caused a great deal of trouble -- yet Saturday night I slept with my wife on one side and a dog on the other side, because it was too cold outside for the dog. That's the first time I have ever allowed that to happen.)

[25years2gether]

I'm loving your thread. What a beautiful love story. I'll be anxiously reading over the next year and am so excited for the two of you and your upcoming cruise:)

[bean24]

Such a nice thing to do for your wife

[mali06]

Thanks for your kind words Terrific Surprise! You would really love my Paul . . . everyone does! He is the best person I know! 40 1/2 years and counting!... 34 years ago I almost died from another wierd disease and at that time we made a pact that NOTHING was ever worth fighting about! And we have never fought since . . . no harsh words ever between us. We learned to forgive and forget very quickly! We also decided to make a concerted effort to enjoy everyday and live life to its fullest. I counted everyday after I had my miracle of health restored as an extra day . . . one that I should not have had but did! So when the cancer hit, I figured it was pay up time! I had more then my share of extra time and it was over! But with a lot of good care, love and faith I am well again. Who knows for how long? They make no promises you know! But somehow God saw fit to give me more time. So Paul and I have really cranked up the volume (so to speak) on our life together. You think that you can't love someone anymore than you do right this minute, and then you DO! It is an amazing journey to love so deeply and so well! I think you two also are on this journey! Enjoy!

Edited April 17, 2012 by mali06

[25years2gether]

Thanks for your kind words Terrific Surprise! You would really love my Paul . . . everyone does! He is the best person I know! 40 1/2 years and counting!... 34 years ago I almost died from another wierd disease and at that time we made a pact that NOTHING was ever worth fighting about! And we have never fought since . . . no harsh words ever between us. We learned to forgive and forget very quickly! We also decided to make a concerted effort to enjoy everyday and live life to its fullest. I counted everyday after I had my miracle of health restored as an extra day . . . one that I should not have had but did! So when the cancer hit, I figured it was pay up time! I had more then my share of extra time and it was over! But with a lot of good care, love and faith I am well again. Who knows for how long? They make no promises you know! But somehow God saw fit to give me more time. So Paul and I have really cranked up the volume (so to speak) on our life together. You think that you can't love someone anymore than you do right this minute, and then you DO! It is an amazing journey to love so deeply and so well! I think you two also are on this journey! Enjoy!

 

I can feel that this is going to turn into a beautiful thread of beautiful stories -- all because of a wonderful husband doing something so sweet for his wife. I have had 2 cancer surgeries and both cruise critic and planning memorable vacations with my family and friends has gotten me through some low times. My husband is also a wonderful man. He knows how much I enjoy cruising and spending time with my family and friends that he works hard at side jobs just so we can travel. Just today I got home from work to a note on the counter (he had woke up from 6 hours sleep, spent 7 hours at his side job and is now at his 'real job' for another 9 hours). His note said - "Good day, more $$$$ for your trip". Gotta love these wonderful men!!

[Talisker92]

What I would like to add to our story is that we both lost our spouses about 7 years ago, and neither of us will see 60 again. We met through a grief recovery group. My wife is truly a blessing!

We will be celebrating our 5th anniversary on the Paul Gauguin with the special Tahitian ceremony they perform on board.

Edited April 18, 2012 by SJGOCH

[25years2gether]

What I would like to add to our story is that we both lost our spouses about 7 years ago, and neither of us will see 60 again. We met through a grief recovery group. My wife is truly a blessing!

We will be celebrating our 5th anniversary on the Paul Gauguin with the special Tahitian ceremony they perform on board.

 

I can't think of a more memorable way to spend your 5th anniversary. Enjoy, the two of you deserve it.

[mali06]

Oh, two great stories! See? It just goes to show that true love is alive and well even tho the media tries to declare it dead! Glad you are also lucky ones! We just have to enjoy the good times and make more of them! Maybe that's the secret after all . . . we make our own good times . . . we don't just wait for them to come around! And then we enjoy them just a little deeper!

[mali06]

SJGOCH . . . we celebrated our 40th anniversary with a vow renewal on the Carnival Spirit to Alaska last July. Paul always said he married me twice (once in my Lutheran church and once when I turned Catholic) so he was SO married he'd never have to do it again. But since we have no idea if I will still be here for our 50th (I hope so tho), we decided to do it again. Took 8 of our friends and family along too. Also celebrated 50 years of friendship with my bestest friend on that cruise! What a celebration of love and life we had! So I hope that you have the perfect 5th anniversary and it turns out to be all you hoped for! Wish I could be a little bird and get to watch the Tahitian ceremony!:)

[terrific_surprise]

Thanks for your kind words Terrific Surprise! You would really love my Paul . . . everyone does! He is the best person I know! 40 1/2 years and counting!... 34 years ago I almost died from another wierd disease and at that time we made a pact that NOTHING was ever worth fighting about! And we have never fought since . . . no harsh words ever between us. We learned to forgive and forget very quickly! We also decided to make a concerted effort to enjoy everyday and live life to its fullest. I counted everyday after I had my miracle of health restored as an extra day . . . one that I should not have had but did! So when the cancer hit, I figured it was pay up time! I had more then my share of extra time and it was over! But with a lot of good care, love and faith I am well again. Who knows for how long? They make no promises you know! But somehow God saw fit to give me more time. So Paul and I have really cranked up the volume (so to speak) on our life together. You think that you can't love someone anymore than you do right this minute, and then you DO! It is an amazing journey to love so deeply and so well! I think you two also are on this journey! Enjoy!

 

Thank you, mali06, for your beautiful example of love. (I am struggling to find words to express my thoughts here.) I do think, as you say, that we are on the same "amazing journey," but I also have to say that we are far, far behind you. While I'm sure that my DW would say some nice things about me if given the chance, the truth is that I cause her far too much pain, and this cruise surprise pales in comparison to the many problems I have caused her. We are both very strong-willed people and when presented with problems (like teenagers and dogs) our perspectives are often polar opposites. Even just the past few days we have faced such difficulties -- even on days when we are supposed to be focusing on "ministry" together. (Just trying to be honest here.) I don't want anyone thinking I am such a "wonderful" husband without realizing that things aren't always quite as rosy as they may appear.

 

On the other hand, when we have been on a cruise, I don't think we have had any such problems (even when faced with external difficulties such as falling for a timeshare pitch in Puerto Vallarta, being driven 30 minutes away from the ship and thinking that we might not make it back to the ship). It seems like then such problems have just drawn us closer together.

 

I appreciate the opportunity here to learn from people like mali06, 25years2gether, and others, but I just felt it important to explain that my DW and I still have a long way to go. I do hope that this year of anticipation leading up to the cruise will help us toward the goal of a more consistently harmonious relationship.

[terrific_surprise]

I must confess that I have been having second thoughts about the wisdom of posting on this thread. A few days ago I entered some phrases into Google just to see what would happen, and I was quite shocked to see this thread appear toward the top (in one case, at the very top) of the searches!

 

I obviously knew that this would be public on the Internet, I just didn't know that it would be quite so easy to find! I have created several websites over the years (many of which are still hard to find) but obviously SEO (search engine optimization) has not been my specialty. I guess I could learn some things from CC (not just about cruises).

 

So now what do I do? Do I just abandon the thread? Do I try to delete it (if that is even possible)? Or do I just throw caution to the wind and not worry about whether she finds it?

 

Well, it seems that once Google has it, the bell cannot be un-rung. And it further seems that my first post in this thread already gives away the big surprise (the cruise destination) so I guess that now that I have "made my bed" I will have to "lay in it." I will try to be a little more careful, though, perhaps using more abbreviations or maybe even some deliberate misspellings (if it even matters).

 

Whether or not this spoils some parts of the surprise for my DW will ultimately depend upon what search terms she uses. I did borrow her phone tonight to see how these CC boards appear on her screen (while it looked like it would probably be difficult to view through the small browser, there is apparently an app that might make it much easier). But that experiment may have backfired, serving only to make her wonder what I was looking for on her phone!

 

Tonight as my DW and I spoke together to a small group of young adults, I used this unfolding 50th-year surprise as an example of why it is important not to take shortcuts in life, and why it is important to enjoy the journey and not be in too big of a hurry to get the destination. In front of the group, I asked her "you wouldn't want me to give away the surprise before you get all the clues would you?" Of course she answered "no," but if she really found this thread on her phone, could she resist the temptation to read it? (Probably not.)

 

I do realize that my worry on this borders on the ridiculous, so please don't tell me how ridiculous I sound :o. Whatever happens, I'm sure it will be wonderful!

[youngestof9]

what phrases did you put in? Google is very smart. From your computer it knows you come here and frequent CC. If your wife were to come from a different computer, it may not lead her to CC with the same phrases. If you're on the same computer, then there's an issue. I could use those same search phrases and it may not lead me here.

 

But - if your wife were to use the same computer...AND put those phrases in, would she necessarily pick a message board forum to find her answer? Would she just choose one of the top selections? I personally look to see what kind of website Google is leading me to before I click. Maybe she's the same?

 

Don't let it go - even if she does find it and it's early in the process, she will certainly read the amazing work, effort and love that's gone into her surprise.

Edited April 20, 2012 by youngestof9

[terrific_surprise]

what phrases did you put in? Google is very smart. From your computer it knows you come here and frequent CC. If your wife were to come from a different computer, it may not lead her to CC with the same phrases. If you're on the same computer, then there's an issue. I could use those same search phrases and it may not lead me here.

 

But - if your wife were to use the same computer...AND put those phrases in, would she necessarily pick a message board forum to find her answer? Would she just choose one of the top selections? I personally look to see what kind of website Google is leading me to before I click. Maybe she's the same?

 

Don't let it go - even if she does find it and it's early in the process, she will certainly read the amazing work, effort and love that's gone into her surprise.

 

You're probably quite right, youngestof9. :o I am embarrassed to admit that I just don't understand much about how Google works (even though my college education was focused on computer programming and my current work includes designing websites). Thankfully my wife almost never uses my computer.

 

I don't remember the exact phrases I searched for, but if I try to think reasonably (as opposed to obsessively, which is what you can probably tell I have been guilty of doing), I'm sure that it is unlikely that she will search for them. But if she does, she does. Life goes on.

 

One of our favorite movies ("Bella") begins with a line something like "when we make plans, God laughs." So if in the end my plans result in more laughter, I guess I can live with that. :rolleyes:

[terrific_surprise]

Yesterday DW was focusing on a housing need for one of our clients. She was unable to find any existing facility which had room for the client, but the need was urgent. For several months we had been praying that a particular building would become available for us to use for our clients in such situations, and it just so happened that yesterday she found out that it was now vacant!

 

So we hurried to look things over at the newly-available property. We had been there a number of times before, but on this particular occasion she pointed to the many palm trees there (22 of them), exclaiming "we should call this 'H*waiian G*rdens!'" (To me this is just an indication of what is on her mind, and hopefully not an indication that she has discovered my plans.)

 

When she wasn't looking, I slipped a little golden envelope into the butter compartment of the refrigerator in the building. As we were about to leave, I asked her, "did you notice what was in the butter compartment?"

 

When she opened the refrigerator and saw the envelope, she said (sarcastically) "how did this get there?"

 

The clue inside the envelope was this photo of a dolphin statue:

 

 

On the back of the photo, I had written "Lots of fun photos, but will we keep any?"

 

With a puzzled look on her face, she asked "what kind of photos do you mean?" She seemed a bit concerned (apparently she understood the word "fun" somewhat differently than I had intended).

 

Then she asked "so am I supposed to understand how these clues relate to each other?"

 

"No," I explained, "each clue pretty much stands on its own."

 

Later, as we drove home, she asked "why were you searching for [a specific phrase] on my phone?" She had seen a test search I had done the day before to see if she could find her way here! (I thought I had covered my tracks, but apparently not!)

 

"I was just testing something," :o I sheepishly responded.

 

"Was it supposed to be a clue?"

 

"No, not really."

 

"Well it was really interesting, because I found someone else with my name who was getting surprised with a cruise for her 50th birthday." (There are some other cruise-related surprises other people have experienced that can be found through the specified search, but I'm pretty sure that she didn't find this thread -- not yet anyway.)

 

So maybe the search phrase turned out to be a clue after all (but I didn't intend it that way of course).

 

Wow, for a computer programmer I can sure be careless when it comes to using computers (and smartphones)! :( I need to wise up and stop being so obsessive about this!

[Teacher_91]

Wow! Where is the "LIKE" button on Cruise Critic?!? :D

 

I just accidentally stumbled on this thread and am so GLAD I did! I love a romantic surprise. Coincidentally your wife and I share the same birthday. I turned 50 this year on March 27th. My husband planned a surprise birthday dinner for me at a favorite restaurant and invited my kids (grown and from a previous marriage) parents, and sister and her family. He couldn't stand it and the day before the dinner he'd already given me enough *hints* that I'd figured it out... AND... he only planned the surprise the week before. I hope you are able to hang on to your surprise as long as possible. It truly is part of the fun!!!

 

Like many who posted before me, I'll be following your story as it unfolds!

 

P.S. The Mr. is also 6'4 and I'm 5'3. I've always wondered if we'd had children together how tall they'd have been. :)