Alcohol free, not Alcohol fuelled cruising

I love cruising...like seriously love cruising. If it was up to me, I would spend the rest of my life on a cruise ship and not have a home and just go from one cruise ship to the next. There's absolutely nothing that I dislike about it. I have probably been on about ten cruises in my life. The one that comes to mind that makes me think of trying to do a cruise alcohol free. Is my cruise to Antarctica about seven years ago. We got the beverage package, which was $100 USD or might have been the equivalent of 100 Aussie dollars per day. I was cruising with a very good friend of mine, both single girls (well I had actually met Gobinda but he was not in Australia yet) who loved to drink and we basically drank from sunup to sundown was great.

From my memory there was nothing bad about it, I never got messy, I never got out of control. We spent all day drinking; I woke up in the morning and we grabbed I grabbed an Irish Coffee before breakfast. We had a mimosa breakfast. When we went to lunch. This Sommelier (Dwayne from Jamaica) knew us by name, when he saw us he called out to us across the dining room like we were his past customers, which we very well may have been. I’m pretty sure we were definitely the most fun! He was like “Hello Ladies, so I'll be with you soon” He would bring us over a wine list, which he knew there was a very high chance the response would be “Sauvignon Blanc please” but we would mix it up a bit with a Pinot Gris every now and then just to keep him on his toes! We would likely have a couple of glasses with lunch – the cruise was predominantly at sea, so time was not an issue. It would continue into the afternoon we'd read the book lazily with a couple of cocktails or I would likely have a scotch and dry or a couple of beers maybe an afternoon nap a couple of drinks before dinner where at least three vinos all the way through to the end of the day when we would finish with a Bailey's on ice. So, yeah, I am not exaggerating we literally drank from sunup to sundown and beyond. And I loved it, it was great, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and alcohol played a major part. Being able to just sit and relax and wind down was brilliant.

So, I'm sitting here on the first night of the Alaskan cruise, we boarded four hours ago, I have purchased a quench beverage package which includes basically everything other than alcohol. Our coffee, mocktails which I intend on having quite a few, Perrier, smoothies, juices and soda’s. Everything I can imagine that is not alcoholic is included, I can go nuts on AF options and I am trying to be excited but as we know those neural pathways are deep. I'm sitting here in a lovely bar sipping on my Perrier and I am feeling decidedly uneasy. It would be damn easy to order a glass of wine I could start again after the cruise!

I'm looking forward to documenting my experiences over the next few days and no doubt there will be some revelations about what you can do how you can actually get through alcohol free on a cruise and if it's if it is, in fact, more fun. Is it more relaxing? I am looking forward to finding out how I can get the most out of this quench beverage package like I did the premier alcohol package on my Alaskan cruise. I'm under no illusions that it will be tough, but I can do it – I think - keep reading to find out!