Vacation Recap

Kenny and I have worked very hard this year.  When it came time for us to plan our vacation, we were just desperate to get away and relax.

It took us a long time to decide what we wanted to do.  Did we want to go on another cruise?  Our 4th year in a row that we’ve gone on a cruise?  Or did we want to do something different?  We weighed a lot of options and decided that no matter what we did, the cost would be about the same.  Cruises are expensive, but when you consider hotel, travel, entertainment, food, ect for any other vacation destination…  It comes out to about the same.

So it came down to this.  Did we want to be pampered and catered to for a week?  Or would we rather go somewhere else?  Uh, pampered please!!

In the past we had woken up super early, caught an early flight and then caught a shuttle from the airport directly to the cruise port.  It makes for a very long exhausting day.

This time we decided that we would fly down the day before and stay overnight in a hotel.  So, Friday we flew to Ft. Lauderdale and stayed overnight at an almost brand new Best Western near the airport.

I honestly could have cared less about the hotel.  I just wanted a bed for one night.  But Kenny wanted it to be special, so he secretly upgraded us to a suite.  It was a really, really nice room.  The bed was nice and comfy.  And it was nice to have a fridge so we had cold drinks in the morning.

After we checked in, we walked across the street for dinner.  On our way out we passed no less than 5 cats hanging out and sleeping on the sidewalk.  On our way back, we saw a couple of them slinking under the fence in front of the dumpster.  I’m guessing it was dinnertime for them too.

In the morning we headed down to a not-so-continental breakfast and spent some time watching the September 11th tributes on CNN.

Eventually it was time to get on the shuttle for the port.  After some minor drama with the shuttle we were on our way.  The shuttle was overbooked.  People were in other people’s laps.  Kenny got to stand at the front with a couple other men and I got to rest half a butt cheek on the edge of someone’s seat.  That was comfy.  Luckily it was a relatively short ride.

In the past we’ve always cruised with Carnival.  This time we decided that we’d try Royal Caribbean and we boarded the Grandeur of the Seas.  Boarding was quick and easy and after a short wait we were allowed into our stateroom.

The first thing I always do is unpack everything and we were surprised to find so much storage space in the stateroom.  There were drawers and hidden shelves all over the place.  It was awesome.

As we were leaving the port, a plane flew overhead with a 9/11 message.  It actually circled the ship a couple of times.

On the second day we stopped in Key West, Florida.  We’d never been to Key West before.  We walked around and checked out some of the shops, but we didn’t go on any excursions.

There was an island nearby that I decided I would like to live on.

On the third day we stopped in Cozumel, Mexico.  We had stopped in Cozumel on 2 prior cruises, so we decided to stay on the ship and enjoy the ship’s emptiness.  The ship is really awesome when no one else is on it.

Our fourth day was at sea.  I love taking pictures of the water.

Our fifth day we stopped in Coco Cay, Bahamas.  I didn’t realize it until we got there, but Coco Cay is actually owned by Royal Caribbean.  It was kinda theme park-y.  It was dressed up to look authentic and ethnic.  But we had been to Nassau, Bahamas before and could really tell the difference.  It was a nice island, but it just felt way too staged for us.

On the sixth day we were back in Ft. Lauderdale.

The ship itself was a smaller, older ship, but it was nice.

The dining room was really nice.

The ship had some pretty cool artwork.

Oh, and an indoor, adults-only pool.  Very nice!

In the past we had taken 7-8 day cruises and it just felt too long.  This time we decided to listen to ourselves and take a slightly shorter cruise.  That way it would give us time to chill out and relax at home before rushing back to work.

More pictures can be found on my Facebook page.  And I’ll be posting a Carnival vs. Royal Caribbean review soon.