Cruisin' Along

I think I mentioned briefly that my folks are taking us (along with my sister and her husband) on a Caribbean cruise to celebrate mom's birthday this year. I'm really looking forward to it - Tim and I have wanted to go on a cruise for several years but just never worked it into the schedule. Now, I'll admit that probably a large part of that is due to the fact that while I really do want to go on a cruise, there is still that underlying terror or boats that I have to contend with. I'm hoping that the cruise ship is large enough that it isn't an issue.

Then there's the seasick thing. I've not yet been on a boat where I haven't gotten at least mildly nauseous. Of course, these have all been smallish boats - the largest  being the ferry to Catalina Island and my sister reminded me that there was really nasty weather during that particular ride. Even still, I'm in the midst of researching motion sick bands, because Dramamine keeps me from being ill but it also conks me out. And I don't really think being comatose for  9 days in the cabin was quite what my parents were angling for with the whole family vacation idea.

Beyond that I'm trying to figure out the right balance between sightseeing and beach/water activities for our time in port. I'm not a crazy beach person (see: sunburns to a crisp in an instant, no matter what sunblock applied), but I would love to do some snorkeling or SCUBA. I'm certified for the latter, but it's been so long since we dove that I'm a tad nervous about doing it without some kind of refresher before hand. Plus there's the whole never actually done SCUBA in anything other than freshwater thing. And the incredibly embarrassed by how much weight is necessary to sink me in fresh water and can only imagine the humiliation required when adding the extra buoyancy of salt water thing. So I'm trying to talk myself (and Tim) out of diving. Which seems silly on the one hand but, well, see above for the other hand. Plus, I really would like to do some sightseeing and I suspect we'll really only have time for one or the other.

Right about now I suspect my mom and sister are rolling their eyes and wondering just when I became so neurotic. I have no good answer to that question.