The Hogan 2 week $1800 Voyage to the Southern Caribbean

I like to consider myself a saavy traveler. Matt & I, obviously, love to travel. Matt & I, being in our early 20s, just out of college and with no trust funds or internet start up fortunes to our name, are budget travelers. But this does not mean we're taking trips to the Mississippi River and going south for us is not going to mean Missouri. We do our research, we wait patiently, and we fall upon a sweet little (big) vacation such as this: I'm surfing the internet last November looking around at travel options when I decide to check out Royal Caribbean's website. I'm not usually on the hunt for cruises because we usually like to actually stay in the place we're visiting but I decided to go out on a limb and check it out anyway. And suddenly the heavens seperate and a golden light is shining down on my laptop. Royal Caribbean is selling one of their small ships to a European company and are practically giving away the last 2 of it's voyages. A 12 day Southern Caribbean cruise. $600 a person. This means that I'm going to be sleeping, eating all I want, and being dropped off in exotic locations for $50 a day. I can't even go on a vacation to the Mississippi River for less than that!

We quickly scoop this puppy up departing in late January (2 months away) and are granted another lovely moment when I find out that we can fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Iowa for the low low price of $900/person but pat myself on the back for all those frequent flier miles we've banked from our 6 years of long distance love and pay $10/ticket in taxes and 35,000 miles each. So glad I didn't use those miles on a $300 flight like I almost did!

Now I've been on cruises before and I know well enough that you only buy excursions from the cruise if you're desperate or they have something amazing. We found 1 such excursion and did our own planning for the 8 other islands. We brought $400 in cash and ended up not having to go to an ATM once. Yes, ladies and gents, we were in the Southern Caribbean for 13 days for a whopping grand total of $1800 including 1 night in San Juan before our early morning departure. If you have researched into vacations recently you'll know that this is a ridiculous deal. And what an amazing vacation it was!

The cruise ship was definitely smaller than any I've been on and our stateroom was pretty tiny but we couldn't have cared less. We were there to enjoy the islands and for the 2 days at sea there was still plenty of room and plenty of things to do. Considering the length and time of this cruise we were definitely about the only people under 30 in existence and we had to turn back to port in the middle of the night atleast 3 times to let people off for medical emergencies (I believe 3 people died on our voyage and atleast 3 others had heart attacks or other similar emergencies). It was great to see all the older folks living it up and we enjoyed being the babies of the group! This meant no screaming kids on the pool deck 24/7. I can definitely deal with that! Retirement didn't seem so bad :)

First Stop: St. Maarten (we took a short boat ride over to Pinel Island & it was gorgeous. This island has a great European flair with half of the island belonging to the Dutch and half to the French.) Second Stop: St. Kitts (we took a taxi to Cockleshell Beach where there was an amazing view of the island of Nevis and hundreds of starfish everywhere! St. Kitts was a suprise to us, absolutely exceeding our expectations) Third Stop: Antigua (pronounced "Ann-tee-gah" here is where we splurged on the cruise ship excursion which was well worth it. We took a catamaran cruise around the entire island, which boasts 365 beaches, and we even had a BBQ on this lovely little gem, Green Island. Antigua is a sailing mecca and Matt was in love)
Fourth Stop: St. Lucia (here was where meeting people on the cruise ship really paid off. We had been sharing a taxi with a few couples on the previous islands to save $$ and one of the couples had been to St. Lucia on a previous cruise and hired a local to take them out on his boat to snorkel near the famous Pitons, see a waterfall, go to the volcano, hang out at the beach. Well after getting on off the cruise ship we ended up finding this guy's mom who called him on her cell phone and he showed up to take us all out! It was awesome and in St. Lucia going by boat saves you hours of driving through the windy mountainous jungle, this place is gorgeous!) Fifth Stop: Barbados (Here was our only semi-disappointment on the cruise. I had been to Barbados previously to shoot a wedding and did not care for the island as an American (they don't like us very much). I've heard of people loving Barbados but my two times on the island have left me not quite in love. We did swim out and found some sea turtles which was fun. Other than that, the Caribbean has much better to offer in our opinion.)
Sixth Stop: Margarita Island, Venezuela (we pretty much just hung out in the dock/beach area as this location takes a bit of a jaunt to reach the neater areas. The market was fun and Matt enjoyed walking out atleast 100 yards into the ocean and it was still only to his ankles finding lots of shells.)
Seventh Stop: Curacao (this was our favorite stop. Matt found this awesome little secluded beach BlaauwBai "Blue Bay" where we found the best snorkeling we had ever experienced, enjoyed relaxing under the palm trees, as well as the amazing view. Later in the afternoon we went into Pondi, their downtown. The colors and authentic Dutch flair is so much fun and we can't wait to get back to this little island.)
Eighth Stop: Aruba (We took a "pirate" cruise on Aruba which was fun. They stopped in a few places to snorkel and use the rope swing. Aruba is a beautiful island which was confirmed by my most recent visit there last week. It is a very upscale island with tons to do and beautiful beaches).
It is possible to see the world without having money coming out your ears and this vacation definitely proved that to us. We have chosen to make travel a priority in our life and have chosen careers that allow us flexibility to take advantage of opportunities such as this Hogan Voyage to the Southern Caribbean. It was a vacation that we'll never forget, except at the bank :)

Some budget travel sites we visit often:
kayak.com (for all of our airfare, this website pools all the major airlines as well as the discounters like Expedia, Travelocity, & Orbitz, it's the best way to check everything all at once.)

HobbitTravel.com (this website has lots of vacation packages that include airfare from Minneapolis. When you're looking at a European cruise that included airfare can make a big difference! They also have lots of deals on land vacations as well as airfare.)

WorryFreeVacations.com (this is where we go if we know we want to go to Cancun or some of the other fairly popular Caribbean destinations-Puerto Vallarta, Jamaica, etc. as they work with charter airlines to get the best last minute airfare & hotel deals out of Minneapolis, St. Louis, and a few other major hubs)

VacationsToGo.com (this is where Matt has been finding some pretty awesome cruise deals lately)

AirfareWatchdog.com (sign up for their e-mail alerts. They allow you to put in your home airport/s and they email you with deals from that airport)