#7

. . . and beyond

This was sunrise on our first full day of cruising, April 13th.  I had told myself that I'd be up on the top track, doing laps every day of the cruise.  Well we all know that didn't happen. That first morning was just gorgeous!  As a matter of fact, every morning, NO every day was superb.  You couldn't ask for nicer temperatures or calmer seas.  I won't go into wordy details, but yup, nice weather for a cruise.  Spring seas are calmer than the fall, just in case you were planning something soon. *grin*

Our cabin was neat and clean and had a nice balcony,  We don't spend much time inside, so it was just fine for sleeping.  We were in the back third of the starboard side (right) of the ship.

We came back from dinner the first night to find this little fellow on our bed, reading the program for the next day.   Really cute.

#6

. . . and beyond !

How can so many kids be on this cruise ship in the middle of April?   This isn't Disney.

Don't get me wrong, I love our 3 grown up kids and all 5 of our little grand kids, but I really didn't expect to see so many in the Caribbean during regular school days!  Half of the pool and open deck area is catering to little people and the little people are enjoying it . . .  a LOT . . .  and with gusto. ( this just means noise, and lots of it! )  This really wasn't what we had in mind when we booked this relaxing, peaceful cruise.

There is an area toward the front of the ship that has a little more adult flavour, but with one side of the ship dedicated to smokers, there aren't enough lounges or enough room on the other side for the non smokers.  I fail to understand how half of the two upper decks have been designated as smoking areas, when less than 20 % of the guests on board actually smoke!  The math just doesn't work.   Frustrating ! ! !  We literally walked into clouds of smoke on the top deck track every time we did the port side.  There were usually only a handful of smokers, but they were there, right along the running/walking track. I think there was a bit of a design flaw in that setup.

#5
. . . and beyond !

The shuttle to Port Canaveral was to pick us up right in front of our hotel mid morning so we had time to have a nice breakfast before we headed off to the ship.  The trip took almost an hour and a half by the time we picked up from some other hotels and stopped at three separate terminals to drop people off at their respective cruise lines.  Not to worry, we arrived at our ship in plenty of time and went through the boarding process without too many hassles.  One glitch was that we weren't allowed to use our pre-paid U.S. currency card for our on board account.  For some reason, the shipping company didn't recognize the prepaid Master Card, so we opted for cash only, for the time being.

Royal Caribbean has been our cruise line of choice for a few years now, but we won't rule out others until we've tried them.  Let's face it, if you're going to pay out for a one week vacation, it might as well be the vacation that you want.  Cruising seems to be that vacation for Mike and I.  See . . .

This ship is BIG ! 

                                       The interior promenade full of shops and cafes etc.

                                                       
                                             The H2O zone kid's splash pad and pool area.

                                                       The theater at the front of the ship.
                                           

#4
. . .  and beyond

The day for our departure FINALLY  arrives.  Our friends drive by our place at 9 a.m. and we start out for Syracuse airport.  One regular suitcase and a carry on.  That's more than enough luggage for a one week Caribbean cruise.  Sandles, swimsuits, a couple of outfits for dinner, what more do you need?  I fit enough clothes, and shoes, for the week into this 21 inch carry on.  The dressy clothes for the formal dinner had to go into Mike's suitcase, but I usually find that I need about half the clothes and twice the money for any holiday.

Check in was a breeze and we boarded the plane on time for our 2:30 takeoff.  We had a short stop over and plane change at Washington D.C. but were scheduled to be in Orlando before 8:30 that night.  The operative word here is "scheduled" because it wasn't the fact.   We hit heavy turbulence with thunder storms and lightning about an hour out of Orlando.  Our pilot announced that we would be in a holding pattern until further notice.

We landed late, but we were all alive,  What more could you ask.  By the time we got our luggage and took the shuttle to our hotel, it was almost 10:30 and we hadn't had much food that day with all our travel.  How about dumb luck . . . there was an Italian restaurant right across the road from our hotel, and it was still open.  We dined a little late that night, but the pasta was more than delicious.

#3
. . .  and beyond?

After our plans were set and the cruise was booked, it turned out that our friend wasn't able to get the time off work to accommodate the drive both ways.  Thus we had to really scramble to get

    - parking in Syracuse while we're on the cruise
    - flight tickets from Syracuse to Orlando and back
    - hotel accommodations in Orlando
    - shuttle bus from Orlando to Port Canaveral and back

Whew, I don't know how she managed, but everything just seemed to fall into place, and in a hurry. Well done, Mrs. G.  You could be a travel agent with those talents.

It turned out that there weren't any direct flights from Toronto that would get us to Orlando at the right time.   We had to coordinate a shuttle ride to Port Canaveral so we would be there before the ship's loading cut off which was about 2 p.m.  Things were getting a bit too complicated and if we have to do this another time, my choice would be to simply fly into Fort Lauderdale, take the 5 minutes taxi ride to the port, and be done with it!

Oh yes, everyone is more than ready to have a relaxing, soothing, tranquil holiday in the Caribbean.
 

#2

 . . . and beyond?


Several months ago, (maybe even a year ago, now) close friends had come to visit and play some cards.  During the evening conversation the topic of travel came up.  Yup!  We were all at the age that we wanted to do MORE travel and LESS work, so we planned a couple of excursions, both of which involved cruise lines.

After weeks of reviewing itineraries and comparing prices, we decided on a Caribbean cruise on the Freedom of the Seas, a rather large, but not gigantic, Royal Caribbean ship.  In fact the ship was larger than any other we had been on . . . yet.  It could hold 3600 passengers and 1300 staff and crew. WOW indeed!  Mid April was the timeline and we could hardly wait.

Mike and I thought that it might be interesting to drive to Florida, hop on the ship and then take our time to drive back after the cruise.  So we opted for a 7 day cruise that left from Port Canaveral, did a few stops on the western side of the sea, and then back to Canaveral.  That wasn't a great decision!

#1 .  .  .  To Infinity and Beyond !

Now that the cancer scare seems to be over for us, (hopefully for ever!) we have decided to travel a lot more and live our lives as though we actually want to explore the items on our bucket lists.
This year alone, we have taken on three journeys,

In April we went on a Caribbean Cruise, in August we drove to the east coast, and in September and October we tried a Mediterranean Cruise.

Like any well rounded travelers, we have taken our fair share of pics and I plan to bore everyone to distraction with breath taking views and silly selfies.  Be warned that this will be a fairly typical blog about travel, but maybe, just maybe, there'll be some fun involved too.

I plan to write a page a day for the next few weeks, but that could change without notice.  Life gets in the way of things from time to time.   Enough said!