While we are off the road and standing still in Texas it seemed like a good time to go on a cruise. Actually we try to do a cruise every year for our anniversary. We usually book the next one when we get off the last one. We have been wanting to do a Panama Canal cruise and when we got off our Hawaii cruise last September we immediately looked for one we would go on this year. The one we really liked was a partial passage through the Canal and hit some places we have never visited before such as Aruba, Bonaire, Cartagena, and Costa Rica. It wasn’t available until December so our September anniversary cruise turned into a December delayed anniversary cruise.
Saturday, December 2, 2023- We packed up all our last minute stuff and at 1 pm Hana showed up to take us to the airport. We had to fly to Dallas before flying on to New Orleans and didn’t get in until 9 pm. We took a taxi to our hotel The Hilton Inn and Suites. The hotel has been converted from what was once a warehouse near the docks. We had a beautiful suite and the hotel offered shuttles to the nearby Carnival Port. We got in late but were starving so we ordered pizza delivered to our room and then it was off to bed.
Sunday, December 3, 2023- We got up early and walked around the hotel. Nearby was The Scrap House a memorial to Hurricane Katrina. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/23873 . We got pictures with it before heading back to our hotel to pick up our suitcases and head to the port.
We got on the Carnival Glory about noon and enjoyed exploring and lunch. The ship didn’t leave port until close to 5 pm but we still had some daylight as we sailed down the Mississippi toward the sea and our adventure.
Monday, December 4, 2023- Our cruise has quite a few destinations that were spread out so that meant during our 15 day cruise we had six days at sea. We love to get involved with ship activities and we joined a duck exchange our first day at sea. We also met a couple people to play Canasta with and another group which we enjoyed playing Left, Right, Center on all the sea days.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023- Second day at sea we participated in an ornament exchange and played games. It was nice just spending some time reading and relaxing. We dressed up for elegant night and had our picture taken.
Wednesday, December 6, 2023- Got to Jamaica today. Did a hop on hop off tour of the city. We were impressed and had a good time. We’ve have been to Jamaica before and it can be kind of a scary place so it was nice to be with a group. Then back to the ship for entertainment at the comedy show.
Thursday, December 7, 2023- Another sea day and hanging out with friends we had met and playing games. We enjoyed seeing all the towel animals the crew had made, including the ones left in our room.
Friday, December 8, 2023- Today we got to Aruba. We had never been there before and it is really a beautiful island. We went on a whole island tour. We visited the Aruba’s natural bridge which had collapsed but there was so many things to see there including a smaller bridge and rock sculptures that people had left behind. It began to pour rain just as we were reboarding our bus to head to the next sight. https://www.aruba.com/us/explore/natural-bridges .
It poured on our whole drive back in to the Aruba Butterfly Farm. We were worried we wouldn’t be able to see the butterflies as they wouldn’t be flying with all the rain but by the time we had arrived the rain had stopped and we had an amazing tour and learned so much about all the beautiful butterflies of the world. I even had one land on my dress. https://www.aruba.com/us/explore/butterfly-farm .
Then it was off to the beach to play in the waves and stretch out on the beach before heading back to the ship.
Saturday, December 9, 2023- Today we arrived at Bonaire which, along with Aruba, is part of the Netherlands. Dutch is spoke is spoken throughout the island and the street names on both islands reflect the Dutch influence. https://bonaireisland.com/ . We walked around the town in the morning and admired the many colored buildings.
Then in the afternoon we went out in a glass bottom boat. The coral and fish were so pretty to look at, unfortunately they didn’t show up very well when we were taking pictures through the glass bottom. Still, we very much enjoyed our trip before heading back to the ship.
Sunday, December 10, 2023- Another quiet sea day. We played games and hung out in the hot tub and enjoyed our time to relax before our next stop.
Monday, December 11, 2023- Got to Colombia today and docked at the port of Cartagena. We did a sea and land excursion which allowed us to take in the sights around the big city of Cartagena. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/colombia/caribbean-coast/cartagena
After our boat ride we boarded a bus to Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. The area around the Castillo was crowded with street peddlers trying to sell their merchandise so it made it hard to enjoy our time there.
Then we headed on to the old city where we were able to get out and walk the streets and see buildings that had been there for centuries. It was a very full, long day which we enjoyed but by the end we were exhausted and glad to head back to the ship.
When we got back to the dock we were able to go through an area with Howler monkeys, Anteaters, and Birds. It was a beautiful way to end the day.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023- Arrived at the Panama Canal today. There are two canals that go through to the lake, the old canal and the new canal. Ships are assigned a canal and we went through the new canal while we watched another cruise line going through the old canal. It took three hours to get through the three locks to the lake. Since our cruise was only a partial passage our ship hung out in the lake until time to go back through to where we began. Many people were so excited to have a good place to watch the journey through the canal they camped out on the deck overnight but we were fortunate to find a good place to watch the journey. Unfortunately that meant we were in the sun during the trek so by the time we arrived in the lake we were ready for a rest before watching part of the return trip. A crocodile managed to escape the lake and travel through the canal with us back to the ocean. https://pancanal.com/en/ .
Wednesday, December 13, 2023- Today we arrived in Limon, Costa Rica. It rained off and on throughout the day but that didn’t affect our enjoyment of our visit. Our tour took us to a banana plantation where we got to see how they harvest bananas.
Then it was time to take a canal tour through the rain forest where we saw sloths, lizards, birds and a crocodile. I am glad we had brought our ponchos from the ship so we were fine even when it did rain.
Thursday, December 14, 2023- It was a sea day and we were ready to rest a bit. We played games with our friends once again and I won Left, Right, Center which made up for all the times I had lost. It has been so fun to make friends and get to know the other passengers. It is sad the trip is winding down but we had had a wonderful time.
Friday, December 15, 2023- We arrived in Cozumel today. We have been there so many times we stayed on the ship except to head into a local pharmacy to pick up some Dramamine. We had never gotten sea sick on any of the cruises we have been on, but due to storms, they said we could hit waves as high as 25 feet tonight on our way back to New Orleans. By dinner time the winds were gale force and people could hardly walk around the ship. Of course tonight was the night we had scheduled our dinner at the steak house but luckily neither of us experienced any seasickness and we were able to enjoy ourselves. It was quite impressive to watch the water in the pool splash up to the deck above it as the ship hit waves.
Saturday, December 16, 2023- It as a pretty rough day today on the ship but we were still able to meet up with our friends to play some games and I won once again. Tonight we packed our suitcases as we leave bright and early tomorrow morning.
Sunday, December 17, 2023- Long, long day today. Once we hit the Mississippi it was smooth sailing and our ship got in early. Everyone had to wait on ship while they brought 8 ambulance to pick up people who had fallen and gotten hurt in the rough weather. Finally at 8:30 we headed off the shop but it was almost an hour wait in line to get our luggage. We caught a bus to the airport where we had to wait for them to allow us to check in for the flight. There were so many people needing wheelchairs we had another long wait to get Frank one. Then there was no one to push him so I pushed him through the airport to our gate. We didn’t take off until after 5 pm so we didn’t get into Hobby airport until 6:30 pm. Edwin, Sara and family picked us up. It was another hour back to our RV so we were glad to get home and go to bed.
Monday, December 18th, 2023- Our little grandson was so happy to have us back that he came running to see us when we stopped by the house the next day.
Hana and her boyfriend Blu had stayed at our RV with our cat Teddi while we were gone and they had kept the place nice so all we had to do when we got home was unpack and put things away.
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