Surprise cruises

[sugar n spice]

I just did this for our DD who graduated from high school. Since she had never cruised, she didn't know to miss the preplanning. If there is a next cruise for her, we probably won't keep it such a secret. I had told her we were driving to the Florida Keys and that we would stop overnight in or near Miami before making the long drive into the Keys. I made sure our motel was on the highway that goes right by the port. When we drove by the port, we could see the cruise ships and I asked my DH ( a preplanned conversation) if we had time to just drive down there and look at the ships since our DD had never seen one up close. To make a long story short, she had no idea what was going on until we had the bags sitting on the curb. When she saw the bags, she asked what we were doing. It took 4 times of telling her before she truly realized that we weren't going to the Keys, we were getting on that huge ship. It was a total surprise for her. We took a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise. I think the most difficult part of it was keeping the cruise a secret from her. I almost let it slip a couple of times. The next hardest thing was getting her formal wear, dress clothes for nights at dinner and outfits for nights out dancing together and packed without her knowing about it. She had packed for a week on the beach so you can imagine what a teenager would pack for that!

[blackwing]

I would never try and surprise my wife with a cruise. She can't stand secrets and always manages to spoil whatever attempt at a surprise I come up with. One year for her birthday I gave her a "mystery weekend", which was simply a jaunt to Wisconsin for a weekend at a B&B. Within a few hours, she knew exactly where we were going, where we were staying, and what we were doing. :) I guess she doesn't like not knowing what to plan for or how to pack.

[blwms]

Our first..some thirty years agao. My boss called me into his office and asked what my wife and I would be doing "week after next". I said working. He asked if we would like to go on a 7 day cruise all expenses paid.(no security issues back then.) Knew absolutley nothing about cruises but we took it...the 21,000 ton Sitmar Fairwind...been hooked ever since!

[*CruiseFan*]

My cruise in 11 days is a suprise college graduation present from my boyfriend of almost 5 years :)

 

I was convinced it was a cruise until he, the sly devil, helped it "slip" that it was Las Vegas. Anyhow, the day of graduation he has this BIG box at the lunch after my ceremony and when I opened it it was a book he had put together. Each page said something different (started with, once upon a time there was a graduate named Ashley) and went on to say that on our trip there would be pools, great shows, great food and then said where can she find all this? Well, needless to say I was a little confused when after saying I couldn't find it in Texas, Canada, or even Las Vegas. The next page was our flight information, the ship, and the room!!! He won my brother over BIG TIME. Ahh, it gets me teary just thinking about it and how hard he worked on the book. He's the best. and I love him so much.

[madelinerose]

I booked for September 2006. Will tell DH approximately July 2006. I think he'll be surprised. ;)

[madelinerose]

My DH has absolutely no interest whatsoever in planning a cruise or any vacation, for that matter. If I didn't reserve and plan, we'd go nowhere. He does not get "excited" until a week or two before we leave. Once I tell him when and where we're going, he then knows he has to pack and bring along a fat wallet.

 

So, for us, it works out just fine. ;)

 

I think that one of the fun things about cruising is the anticipation and planning, so I'd feel a little robbed of part of the excitement if I were surprised with one. Judging by the number of posters here, I'm not alone.

 

Why deprive someone of that anticipation and planning?

[jimbug]

My mom is notorious for surprising me with all kinds of wonderful things...and I finally got my chance last year! Last September, she announced that she'd like to go on a cruise, and that she'd pay for my fare if I'd do all the planning & reservations, etc. I took her up on it (duh) and began to look into it. We had both initially decided we would cruise out of Galveston, since we could drive to the port. We also assumed it would be cheaper to cruise out of there anyway.

 

Turns out, we were very wrong. Because our cruise would be spring break week in the South, Galveston prices were sky high. I found a GREAT deal on an 8-night Celebrity Mercury trip to the Mexican Riviera out of San Francsico. It was way cheaper than a Galveston cruise, even with airfare. So, I booked the cruise and the air and set in for a surprise. It was very easy to do since I just paid for the trip on my credit card and she wrote me a check. I told her we were going on the Grand Princess out of Galveston. I could NOT wait for the day of departure when we piled up the car and I exited towards the airport rather than the highway towards Houston. muahahahaha

 

Anyway, to make a long story short, we ended up switching from the Mercury to the Diamond Princess (we wanted a balcony), but still out of California. She had no clue until Christmastime, when Princess ruined it for me. She checked her mail the day after Christmas and Princess had sent the pre-cruise docs to HER address...I'm not sure how or why because I only used my own, but she got them! She was really confused when it said "Port of Departure: Los Angeles" so she called me and I had to 'fess up. She was thrilled, though - maybe I'll try a better surprise next time.

[txteachers]

Anyone either given or received a "surprise" cruise from someone?

.

 

My sister & I surprised our Mom with a cruise for her 70th birthday - - She's had a lifelong dream to go on a cruise. She was thrilled to have 3 weeks to be excited and thrilled that all she had to do was pack her bag.

 

We had an awesome time!