11 More Days...

I am worried about Don. He has not been feeling well ...and if you have ever loved and taken care of someone fighting a disease, you know all too well that every little ache and pain is analyzed up one side and down the other! I have been doing this this very morning. Don told me that he was thinking about calling in sick to work! To most, this would not be noteworthy...but if you know Don, you would understand the implication that this decision holds. Don did not miss one day of work the entire first year he was on chemotherapy!!!!

His complaints surround joint pain and all over body aches. This is compounded by extreme lower back pain that has caused him to 'wander' about the house at night... He is going in to see the General Practitioner today.

Redirecting my Brain

As many of you already know, we chose to cruise with Celebrity. My full time job is with an airline and ironically the ladies who work with the cruise lines sit directly behind me. I took full advantage of their expertise when choosing both a cruise line, ship and itinerary!
We did not want to deal with children. This can prove to be difficult since it is still summer vacation, so every line can expect a certain amount of kids...but it helped us to cross through certain lines who seem to cater to children and families.. such as Disney and Carnival. We were interested in a more relaxed and elegant setting..not so much partying and 'noise'... with that we crossed out Royal Caribbean and Norwegian cruise lines..we were not interested in a sailing experience nor did we have the funds to experience the ultimate luxury of something like a Paul Gauguin cruise (my DREAM cruise for the future!) That left us with 3 lines to consider, Holland America, Princess and Celebrity. Out of these 3, Celebrity was our first pick and it was also the one we ended up booking.

We had a certain criteria. We wanted a balcony room. We NEEDED a full size sofa. Mose cruise rooms, unless you book a suite do not have full size sofas..but Celebrity does. We will have our beds made up together so that we can sleep next to one another during the cruise..but need the option of an additional place to sleep in case Don has a restless night. Other things about Celebrity turned our heads as well, such as constant excellent reviews, a more formal setting, especially for evening dining which at least to me, seemed to assimilate them to the old style cruise ships my Grandparents cruised on.