We’ve always loved to travel. Before kids, we went on lots of amazing holidays and created so many amazing memories. New York, Hawaii, California, Vail, the Caribbean, Dubai, Hong Kong and Thailand are just a few of the places we visited. After kids, we’ve still managed to do a fair amount of holidaying, we’ve done a couple of long haul holidays, but have mainly stuck to Europe to take advantage of the short flight times.
However, if I had to choose my favourite and most memorable travel moment it would have to be a cruise on the Mexican Riviera (the western coast of Mexico) in 2003, for one very special reason, which I’ll get to later.
*Please note #MyTravelMemory is quite old and we don’t have any digital photo’s of the trip so the photo’s reflect their age – hopefully it adds to the effect!
Okay, so let me set the scene…
Simon and I had been dating for about nine months. We’d known each other for about five years and our families had been friends before we’d got together. In fact, our parents had previously been on a couple of cruises together. When we got together, our parents decided it would be good fun to all do a cruise together.
We added on a couple of nights in Los Angeles as a pre-cruise stay and had an amazing time exploring everything LA has to offer – I love the USA!
I’d cruised before, but Simon hadn’t. Fortunately he loved it. Many people have a certain perception of what a cruise is like, particularly the younger generation, but actually cruises are a great way of exploring lots of places, whilst enjoying amazing food and facilities.
Anyway, although the trip itself was fantastic, there’s a particular moment that makes this trip my most memorable, so here’s without further ado…
A few nights into the cruise, Simon and I decided to dine at one of the restaurants on our own, rather than in the main dining room with our families. Simon had been acting a bit weird that evening. His slightly odd behaviour, coupled with the fact that he hadn’t let me into the safe in our cabin for the whole trip, meant that I had a feeling something was going on.
We ate our meal, enjoyed some champagne and generally had a lovely time. After the meal we decided to go for a walk on the top deck. It was wonderful to feel the warm ocean breeze and look at the stars in the crystal clear sky.
After a spot of star gazing, Simon asked the question that would change our lives for ever…! Yep, that’s the one! It didn’t quite go as you see in the movies. It was more along the lines of, me: “I love you”, followed by Simon: “Do you love me enough to be my wife?”! Not quite something you hear everyday! He pulled a beautiful diamond ring out of his pocket and, well I’m sure you can guess the rest..!
So, what about the rest of the trip…
Well, our families were delighted and being on a cruise provided the perfect surroundings for celebrating. We had a cake delivered to the table one evening, with the waiting staff singing “Happy Engagement to you…”; our cabin was decorated with balloons and a congratulations banner and we drank ALOT of champagne.
The places in Mexico we visited were all pretty amazing too. We stopped off at Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas (more partying/celebrating) and Mazatlan.
Definitely an amazing holiday and one that I’ll certainly remember for a lifetime!
That’s #MyTravelMemory. I’d now like to hear Stephanie’s, Kara’s and Nicolle’s favourite travel memory too.
J xx
This post is my entry into the Celebrity Cruises #MyTravelMemory competition, the competition is open for entries until Sunday 31st January 2016. All you need to do is describe your favourite holiday memory in a blog post and tag three of your blogging friends to do exactly the same in order to be entered to win a 7 night cruise to make more incredible travel memories! For more information please visit the Celebrity Cruises blog here and here (for the terms and conditions) and good luck!