It is a group of 6 of us who have stayed close since college. We had one of our close friends pass away from cancer 3 years ago. At her funeral we made plans for our first trip to make sure we actually did it...we had been saying for 7+ years that we needed to do it and never had. It was going to be an annual trip, but we have turned it into one "good" trip and one get-together. We'll do a beach trip (or this time cruise) and then one casual weekend usually at each others homes again during the year. It is a lot of fun. The first time we went to Isle of Palms and cried a lot! The last trip was to the Ritz in Naples, FL and we laughed a lot and cried a little. It is wonderfully theraputic.
No, we're not cruising on
DCL. One of the group is very Democratic - she's a deathrow attorney. (I'm a Republican - it definitely makes for some interesting, if not heated, discussions) She has always had something against Disney - sort-of like a big brother watching type feeling and the whole huge corporate entity thing. Anyhow, we are sailing on
Royal Caribbean, actually on the same ship DH and I were on for our Honeymoon a mere 11 1/2 years ago! It should be fun to see how it has changed. I am also looking forward to being able to compare it to the
Disney cruise since this is only a 3 day cruise. So maybe a lot of the things I wasn't impressed with on DCL was because of the short length of the cruise. We'll see.
I don't mind planning the trip for this group - I don't feel responsible for them having a good time. I planned a trip for 19 women 2 yrs ago - women from our neighborhood and then friends of theirs, my sister, someone else's cousin, etc. It was a random mixed group. It was a disaster. I felt responsible for everyone and everything. I ended up not speaking to two of the women who we originally planned it to be a trip with just us three. It was just ugly. People were upset with whose table they were assigned to, where their cabins were located, who went to which place with so and so, and the list goes on of all immature, clickish junk. It was not a good experience. My sister and I had a great time together once I got away from everyone. I will NEVER EVER do that type of trip again. My silver lining to the trip was it put me one cruise closer to Platinum status on Royal Caribbean!
In my next life I want to be a
travel agent - parttime.
By the way, I have my Danielle Steele book I got for Christmas ready to go. I drank a beer over the weekend to prepare my liver and I will do some more prep work with that this weekend watching the Superbowl. Now I just need to find someone to watch my kids the day I get back so I can sleep!
Enjoy! 
