Create the cruise experience at home
Well, it’s May! April FLEW by, and March felt like the longest month ever. Am I right?
Our family continues to “shelter in place” as we ride out this uncertain time. While we continue to fine tune the routines of daily life (work, school, eat, sleep, dream of cruises, repeat), we’re sneaking in some ways to bring the cruise experience home! Here are 5 fun ways to get creative during the “cruise pause”.
1- Channel your inner chef (or bartender)
We’re loving the stories of landlocked cruisers recreating their go-to cruise meals and cocktails at home. If you haven’t tried it yet, you may be surprised at just how easy it is to find recipes and inspiration. This is such a great way to bring the cruise experience home. If you want to start with something exotic, try the Mayan Heat, one of Princess Cruises signature cocktails. You can browse Princess Cruises cocktail recipes here.
In case you missed it, we mixed up 4 cruise cocktails LIVE last week on our YouTube channel. This virtual bartending event was one of my favorite all time live events. It was such a welcome break to laugh and reminisce with our cruising community as I showed off my (very) novice bartending skills! In our first ever Sail Away Social Hour Virtual Event, our friends had a blast making fun of me for sipping on 4 cocktails in one hour.
Don’t worry, I didn’t finish all of them! I wanted to, but I didn’t. Anyhow, be sure to catch the replay and see how easy it is to mix up a Jalapeno Cucumber Margarita from Sabor, the Restorative Basil Drop and Forty is the New Twenty from Carnival’s Alchemy Bar, and my own wacky version of the Quarantini – a wellness inspired Vitamin C, lemon and honey inspired cocktail.
Still dreaming about that meal you had on the high seas? Try out a few faves at home with readily available recipes from Carnival Cruise Line, like Chicken Parmigiana followed by scrumptious Melting Chocolate Cake. Just don’t forget the vanilla ice cream! If you’re looking for more meal inspiration, check out our Top 10 Fave Cruise Foods of all time live.
2- Go beyond the photo album
Photos have always been a big part of the cruise experience. While photo albums may be a thing of the past for some, we love to turn our cruise memories into photo keepsakes. With so many options for printed and digital photo storage these days, now is a great time to relive your best cruise memories through photo treasures.
While I mostly like to preserve my photos digitally, there’s nothing better than creating our yearly wall calendar and Christmas ornament with Shutterfly. Since Junior was born, we’ve ordered the same style of ceramic photo ornament each holiday season, and it’s so fun to add them to the tree each year, and watch how he has grown! And Mr. CTTV loves the photo steins to keep his diet coke cold. We keep them in the freezer, and bust them out for an every day frosty mug experience.
3- Plan a date night
Are you missing the main dining room part of the cruise experience? Us, too. Yet, we’re also finding joy in this time together at home. But every so often, it’s nice to see one another in something other than our jammies and work from home wear! So, we’re implementing a twice monthly “date night in”. We’re going to dress to the nines! I’ve dusted off my favorite cruise fashion and favorite Effy jewelry pieces and we’re gonna work some of those cruise recipes into a candlelit dinner. What do you think? Should we enlist Junior to play “garcon”?
4- Dream a little
While it is certainly not the time for travel, we’re finding this is an excellent time to do some in-depth research on our next dream cruise destination. Here’s a tip: Follow your favorite destination hashtags on Instagram to get real, local tips on ports and cities you’d love to explore. For example: we were due to cruise to Japan this month, but our cruise was cancelled. We fully plan to visit again in the future. So, even though we can’t see those spring flowers for ourselves this season, we’re following the hashtags that allow us to daydream until we return. Check out #sakura to see what we mean.
5- Create your ultimate cruise playlist
Music has a way of bringing back the best of memories. Not only is music a mood lifter (especially during times like these), it has the power to transport you to another time, or another moment. Between cruises, we love to browse for cruise-tunes and create a playlist that takes us back to those best moments. If you’ve been a part of our community for a while, you may remember the story of our first cruise, and how music played a part in the experience, and the memories. Check our playlist, which has certainly evolved over the years.
We can’t wait to hear how you’re bringing the cruise experience home. Keep dreaming, keep planning, and hang in there! Soon, we’ll see you on the high seas!
Thank you…
Thanks so much for reading our Princess Cruises cancels sailings post! We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and we’d love to hear from you! Please feel free to direct message us on Instagram or Facebook with your thoughts, and until next time, we’ll see you on the high seas!
