[bmw626]

Hello everyone, I am in need of some travel advice.

I will be enlisting in the Marines soon and after my 3 months of boot camp I will have 10 days vacation before I have to report for duty.

My family, of 5, has never been on vacation and my dad works 14 hours a day, and my mom is a full time housewife, no one ever eats dinner as a family, and honestly, I want to get everyone together one last time before I don't see them for 4 years and just be able to enjoy ourselves. So my solution was to provide my family with a cruise from the money I earn from boot camp, which I will openly say is going to be approx. $5200

I have googled around for the best place to go and keep coming up with the Caribbean so I am sure that is going to be my destination. My question though is when I search rates online they give the option of Southern, Eastern, and Western... Which is best?

In regards to which cruise line, people like to brag on Royal Caribbean alot but like I said, I only have approx $5200 for 5 people for a 6-8 day cruise.

Can I get some insight to which destination and cruise line will suite me best for my situation? I don't come from a rich family so we don't need suites with plasmas everywhere; an interior room will be fine. But I would like to pamper my parents with at least one 5 star fine meal and a nice spa treatment.

They don't know of my idea yet but I am sure when it comes time to tell them, my dad would be more than willing to pitch in some money for meals and activities. But I'd rather not rely on them much. I want show that I love them and appreciate all that they've done for me by trying to do this all on my own from my heart.

Thanks again.

[Sweettrips]

You can make travel reservations through travel agencies, by contacting providers directly, or through travel services on the World Wide Web.
Before you make your reservations, you should consider the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. Even consider gathering information on the web and using it with the other strategies to help you plan your trip and find the best options.
Step 1 Decide on the location for your trip.
Step 2 Determine the dates of the trip. (There may savings on certain travel packages depending on how long you plan to stay, especially when booking airline reservations.)
Step 3 Determine which type of agency, service, or provider to use based on the type of travel services you need and the information provided. (See the section "Comparison of travel agencies, electronic travel services, and travel providers" of this publication for more information.)
Step 4 Prepare your budget. Make a list of your travel needs and the costs involved. List all options you wish to consider. Use the attached consumer worksheet to help you determine the total cost of each option you consider.
Include potential added costs, such as airport fees, fees for printing airline tickets, miscellaneous fees, food, rental car, and so on.