OMG! I am going on a cruise! ( The Pre- Research)

On a whim, my partner and I decided that our next vacation would be a cruise. ( Lies, We actually heavily debated it)

When the idea came to mind, I had envisioned a hotel room floating to a destination. Piles of free food, drinks and all the entertainment at my fingertips.

I love ships! And I was super excited to explore a floating metropolis.

 We researched:

https://cruiseline.com/advice/how-to-book/pick-a-line/how-to-compare-the-best-cruises-lines

We landed on this. 

https://youtu.be/Gd3qb3UWaJE   <-----the beach="" carnival="" cruise="" from="" iracle="" long="" mexico.="" p="" ship="" to="">

 And so....we booked our first cruise.

This is where it gets squishy.....

   .We received an email stating we needed to have a passport that doesn't expire for 6 months after the cruise.

What?
Crap! Ours expire in 5!
And we have less than a month to 

  -get updated passports. (Not going to happen)

So, we went to department of licensing to get enhanced drivers license. They *may* show up in 3 weeks (that is a super squishy timeline),and they also need to punch a hole in our current license.......which we need for the cruise if the enhanced license doesn't show up in time.

Also, we contacted department of transportation, Costco ( who we got our cruise through) and Carnival ( none of them were helpful,it was like being trapped in a swirl of misinformation)

Lessons learned
-cruises are a pain in the ass
-have your paperwork squared away and pay attention to timelines.

Lesson learned after: 

 Don't sweat the paperwork. They didn't even question it. 

Cruises are fun- Its more casual then I imagined

Carnival cruise focuses on fun