Ah, the now infamous cruise! Here are the highlights... We took over 200 photos.
Well the best laid plans of mice and men. Everyone knows that travel during the holidays is hectic, then add on the fact that the country was getting snow and more snow from coast to coast. Why the heck would anyone want to travel, let alone try it? To escape the snow and ice!
Considering the snow that fell on Friday, we were hopeful that we would be able to fly out first thing Saturday morning.... Well we got to the runway to take off when we were called back and sat on plane for 1 1/2 hrs. Realizing that we were cutting it close to missing our connecting flight in Atlanta we kept happy thoughts. We landed in Atlanta to find out that our plane left 10 minutes before we got there. Crud (keeping it clean). Soonest they could get us to Tampa was Sunday... there was a bowl game or something in Tampa and all flights were full. Go figure! So we thought, rent a car and drive, 6 hrs... wouldn't make the ship in time.
Catrina on one of many phone calls trying to figure out if we could get this chaos to work out.
What the heck does one do in Atlanta?
Take a nap?
Eat at the Waffle House... kids tried grits!
Take a trip down to Columbus, GA to the Civil War Naval Museum.
Ship at front of the museum that they are restoring.
As you can see, Mackenzie was trying to put on a good face, but museums are just not her thing!
Cute little stockings hanging at the museum.
Take a trip to the High Museum to see the First Emperor's Terracotta Warriors. No photos allowed so here is a scan of the postcard the museum was handing out. Mackenzie is so not happy with this one... Another museum.
I think we were all amazed at how detailed all the terra cotta figures were. Some still had paint on them.
It is now Monday, we headed to the airport early as that place is a zoo. Had plenty of time once we got there... then even more time, because of a maintainance problem at the gate they had to move the plane, didn't get the bags on very quickly, then got stuck in the traffic jam of planes taking off. We should have had 3 hours once we landed in Grand Caymans to get to the ship... Any guesses on how long we had once we landed???? 45 minutes to get off plane, through customs, get luggage, catch cab, get the little boat to get to the ship! We were not thinking it was going to happen. This was so becoming the trip from Hades. Luckily for us we managed to make it and got on the ship. Bad news, we only saw a few minutes of Grand Caymans. From what we could see in the taxi and from the plane, it is a place we would like to go back and actually see.
Yeah, we see the ship.
Matthew sitting on the little boat.
Mackenzie and Catrina sitting on the little boat waiting to go over to the ship.
Once on the ship we had to go check in for our room. Up to the Purser's desk we go.
The gal said they upgraded our room. Ken and I thought cool, but why? It wasn't the cruise lines fault that we didn't get on in Tampa. So we get escorted to our room and instead of going down, we went up. Way up.... Deck 12 up.
Going out our room door.
We spent an hour in the room oohing and ahhing! These are the pictures of the Penthouse Suite. Apparently these are seldom used suites and not available for purchase/rent.
Inside the main atruim. From here, our room is the top floor where the elevator is at and then wrapped around to behind where I was standing.
The boys out on the balcony... the only suites on the ship that had them.
From the balcony of the room looking to the back of the ship
From the running track/mini golf deck (13) looking back.
One of the many towel critters that we enjoyed. We found out that the housekeeping people are not required to make these but they do it because they know the guests like them.
Mackenzie on the back deck of the ship by the little kids water slide.
One of the scrumptious dessert... This is strawberry shortcake. Overall the food was pretty good. We only did one of the "dress-up" dinners. Personally, I thought the buffet food was better. We really liked the "sweets."
Leave it to me to have to try a couple of the funky drinks. First one was some bird something or another and didn't taste so good... second was a blue margarita, that was pretty good.... then there was this mango thing, it was excellent...
Pulling into the dock at Cozumel, Mexico
The pier at Cozumel... very much set up for tourists. Very colorful and clean as compared to some other areas we saw on our bus ride to the horseback ride of the Mayan ruins. It seems that there are some areas that are still rebuilding from the last hurricane that went through.
Holiday tree in the center of the pier area. Carnival Destiny and Inspiration are in the background.
From on the bus, picture of the Caribbean Sea.
This is a very big iguana.
Mackenzie, Matthew, Ken and Catrina ready to ride.
The next couple of pictures are from the Mayan ruins at the Buena Vista ruins site. I have no idea what the particulars are as I was at the end of the pack of horses and couldn't hear what the guide was saying.
This picture is of the garden at the ranch.
Sunset from on the ship.
Once we got off the ship we rented a car and headed down to Treasure Island to spend a couple of days on the beach. Arriving on Christmas Day, I knew pickin's would be slim for dinner, but I honestly didn't think that 98% of restaurants would be closed. We spent the day walking on the beach, by the pool and just enjoying the view. Pictures below....
We decided to take a day trip over to Busch Garden's Tampa, African style.
Tree made up of poinsettias.
Giraffes 
Big kitty
Hippo 
Butterflies made of flowers
Sunset from hotel room.
Catrina leaning on palm tree at hotel.
Mackenzie, Ken and Matthew in the Gulf.
Crane on beach. We were standing about 10 feet from the crane.
The trip got off to a horrible start; but in the end, we didn't want to come home. We were enjoying ourselves on the beach and the warm temperatures too. Snow and gunk waiting for us at home was not very appealing. It was a long day by the time we got home, and lots of laundry to do. The dogs and cat were glad to be home from the kennel too.
The trip got off to a horrible start; but in the end, we didn't want to come home. We were enjoying ourselves on the beach and the warm temperatures too. Snow and gunk waiting for us at home was not very appealing. It was a long day by the time we got home, and lots of laundry to do. The dogs and cat were glad to be home from the kennel too.
