Win One of Four Free Cruises During Plan A Cruise Month!!

Five cruises and a whole lot of memories…Looking back at all the pictures from 2004 when I took my first family cruise to Alaska is making me quite nostalgic.  The thing about cruises is that they bring people together whether it be family or friends, large groups or small.  With my family, I have found that cruises are the best way to compromise on travel.  I am a bit more adventurous than some of my family, and a cruise allows us the comfort of knowing that we have somewhere to go back to at the end of the day which in turn makes it easier to visit places that aren’t quite as common to tourists.  For my friends, in college, it was about all being together and having fun with minimal responsibilities.  As we have gotten older and have demanding jobs and schedules that are typically not in the same city, we can unite during a holiday weekend for a quick getaway.   

 

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Why am I am in this reflective mood eager to share all of the amazing cruise memories I have had in my life?  Because, October is “Plan a Cruise Month,” and the cruise industry is kicking off the annual #CruiseSmile #sweepstakes to celebrate!

 

Now through October 31st, enter your best #CruiseSmile selfie each day for a chance to win one cruise vacation of choice each week in October.  Yes, EACH WEEK.  That means a total of 4 cruises in 31 days.  You could win a luxury voyage to Tahiti, a European river cruise to Paris and Normandy, a magical family-friendly seven-night Caribbean cruise at sea and even a 14-day cruise to Asia stopping in Shanghai and Hong Kong.  Are you smiling yet?  Cuz I am.   

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Here is how to enter Plan A Cruise Month #CruiseSmile Sweepstakes:

 Simply upload your “cruise smile” selfie at www.CruiseSmile.org and share the entry with friends. For more chances to win, post your photo on Twitter and/or Instagram using #CruiseSmile and #sweepstakes and share your #CruiseSmile with friends to earn even more entries into the sweepstakes.

 

All of this Plan A Cruise Month talk has made me quite nostalgic.  I started looking at photos from past trips and just started writing about each of my experiences and couldn’t stop, so I decided that I had to share a timeline of all of my past cruises.  Hopefully, one of these experiences will resonate with you and inspire you to enter the sweepstakes.  And the best part is that you have four chances to win a free cruise this month!  It would be so awesome if one of my World on A Whim readers won.

 

Plan A Cruise Month Sun Princess

 

August 2004. 

Sun Princess

I will never forget sitting in a hot tub on the main pool deck overlooking an ubiquitous amount of glaciers.  The contrast between the warm water and the freezing exterior was startling, but greatly treasured.  On this first cruise with my family, we completely overdid it on excursions…like I am talking 2-3 a day.  We just wanted to pack it all in and not miss out on anything.  We went hiking, rafting on a lake, explored mines, and my favorite, dog sledding.  A lot changed after that cruise, but those memories will always be there.  Honestly, if you are a first timer looking to do a cruise, I think Alaska just might be the best one.  It truly was the most unique and while there is always more to explore, you leave the cruise feeling like you have experienced Alaska.

 

August 2010. 

Carnival Glory

I can’t believe I am writing this and that it will live in infamy online.  My mom and I went on a soap opera cruise to Halifax and Nova Scotia in Canada.  What is a soap opera cruise you might ask?  Well, a soap opera cruise is when actors from a daytime soap opera go on a cruise with their fans and do panels and photo sessions all together.  It was here that I learned that I have no interest taking photos or selfies with celebrities, even though I love these characters on TV and enjoyed seeing the actor’s real life persona.  Also, when the cruise ends in New York and you get to see multiple Broadway shows, then it is totally worth it.

Plan A Cruise Month Carnival cruise

 

September 2010. 

Carnival Splendor

Nine of my closest friends went on what you might absolutely call a booze cruise as it was 3 out of the 9’s 21st birthdays that week.  There were tears, there was laughter, banana boating, costumes, and a situation in Cabo where we didn’t realize that the boat we were sailing on to Lover’s Beach said “Hooters” on the side of it.  That week-long cruise bonded us so much and there is not a friend’s going away to business school party or graduation from medical school celebration that we don’t all reflect on these shenanigans.

 

December 2011.

Carnival Inspiration

We had so much fun on that last cruise, that my friends and I decided that we needed to take on another one.  However, this year we had all graduated and therefore were on completely different ends of the country or world, as I was teaching English in Spain at the time.  With our new work schedules, the one time we could all come together was when we were home for the holidays and could go on a New Year’s cruise for the weekend.  We boarded on Friday and disembarked on Monday, which was just the perfect amount of time for our new busy post-college lives.  Oh, and you know the regal staircase that leads into the main dining room…well I fell down, all of them…every single stair in front of everyone.

 

Plan A Cruise Month Alaska Cruise

 

 

August 2015

Regal Princess

When the kids are grown (I’m talking about myself and my baby bro), it’s extremely difficult for my family, and I’m assuming most families, to find a location and style of trip that pleases everyone.  And that’s where cruises come into play.  The Baltic Cruise that I took with my family last September checked many of the boxes for us.  My mom wanted to go to Europe, but I wanted to go somewhere in Europe that I had yet to explore, and the Baltic States were places that I had not yet ventured to.  Furthermore, when you are frantically visiting all of the sights at ports all day, every day, it is really just incredible to come back to a ship where you can relax, have a 4-course dinner served to you, watch some nighttime entertainment and head to bed.    

 

Have you ever been on a cruise?  If so, where? And, if you are a “cruiser” and have been on multiple ships, what itinerary has been your favorite?  Please share in the comments below.  And let me know if you entered the Plan A Cruise Month #cruisesmile sweepstakes! 

 

This is a sponsored post thanks to CLIA.  I take my partnerships very seriously, and if I had not thought that Plan A Cruise Month was an incredible chance for my reader’s to win one of four free cruises, I would not have participated.  

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