This picture was taken at my first restaurant in Rome, on my first trip to Italy, on our way to our first Transatlantic Cruise.  I am using the word "first" as a positive that there will be many more such adventures.  This one was certainly a long time in the making, most of which was spent dreaming about it for years and years and years.

I realize that to a lot of folks this is nothing.  You decide you want to go to Italy, you want to take a cruise,or whatever and you just book what you want and go.  Well good for you!  Please oh please fill me in on what stocks you bought, what business you developed or what lottery you won, because so far my small dabble in the stock market has been just that, a small dabble.  And despite being in a lottery group at work for years, well that hasn't worked yet either.  Sooooo, I am left to my own devices to achieve travel excitement the good old fashioned way...work, save money, work some more, but most importantly...look for the MOST BANG FOR THE TRAVEL BUCK!

My Husband of 16 years (Trent) and I have had wonderful adventures on a smaller scale before this dream trip.  We have been on four other cruises together.  Alaska.  Canada/New England.  Key West/Cozumel and a Pacific Northwest one.  I will talk about those later, but suffice it to say that three of the four were most-bang-for-the-buck cruises, while only the first...the Alaskan one was a gift.  A beautiful generous gift given by my Mom after my beloved Stepfather passed away.

In addition to the cruises we have shared together, we have had many trips to see our own children.
Yes, you read that right.  We have five kids between the two of us.  None of which live near us.  Trent's daughter lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (my biggest travel bargain challenge!), while his two sons (and brother) live in Minneapolis.  My oldest son, his wife and their two little ones (yes, I'm a Grandma now!) just moved to the Pacific Northwest from Florida, while my youngest son and his wife are now living in Washington, DC.  If all that isn't spread out enough, we are in Raleigh, NC.  Jobs are here (mine for 36 years), family here (my Mom,  my Dad, my sister & brother-in-law).  We even just moved into a new house after having lived in the same darn one that I built in 1991 with my ex.

So we have had many trips together to visit family, to get away for a weekend, even to get married.  All of which have had the same theme...most bang for the travel buck!  Yes, even our wedding in 2001 was planned around best-bang-for-the-hotel-buck in Vegas...not to mention most-bang-for-the-wedding-buck!  (Little Chapel of the Flowers could be had back then for around $300 which included a minister, flowers, video, and even a limo ride.)  

My intent for this blog is to share bargain-travel experiences, and that can mean different things.  To me it means getting the MOST-BANG-FOR-THE-TRAVEL BUCK!

I am going to start by reviewing our first European adventure (albeit a short one), followed by a 15-night Transatlantic on the Celebrity Silhouette this past November 2016.  If you love cruising and want the-most-bang-for-the-cruising-buck, you must look into TA's.  Because they are re-positioning cruises they are often pretty darn good prices, but you have to be careful that one-way airfare doesn't cost more than the cruise!