Cruisin’ In Style

A seven day “vacation” from our full time traveling “vacation”.  It helps relieve the stress of too many days of doing just what we want.  Tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.  And do it we did, in style.

After our January Disney cruise, we had so much fun, we kept an eye out for a deal on another cruise.  We found an offer on Royal Caribbean we couldn’t refuse.  We boarded the Freedom of the Seas for our trip from Port Canaveral, FL to Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. 

Getting familiar with the ship was a challenge, this is one BIG baby.  At the time of its construction in Finland in 2006, it was the world’s largest.  (It has since been eclipsed by even bigger Royal Caribbean ships).  A funny aside, I was in Finland in 2006 and visited the shipyard where it was built and saw it there almost completed.  I remember thinking how cool it would be to sail on it, never guessing that one day I actually would.

              

Along with a nice stateroom which felt quite spacious for us, after living in our RV,

             

we had a balcony with some chairs to enjoy our own little slice of heaven.

             

Running down the center of the ship is what was called “Central Park”, a huge open space lined with stores and restaurants,

              

              

and even an unusual thing to be found on a ship… a British built Morgan sports car!

               

Our dining room was quite spectacular,

               

as well as the theater where we saw a bunch of excellent shows, magicians and other performances.

               

From time to time we’d see characters roaming the ship from many DreamWorks movies.  One time, while on the elevator, the door opened and in stepped Kung Fu Panda, nearly scaring Marti to death!  I took a quick snap of her face.

               

Thank goodness the ship had a nearby medical treatment for people scared out of their wits!

                 

Coming back to our room each night, we never knew what kind of animal we find waiting for us.

               

               

We swam in crystal clear water in Labadee, Haiti, at Royal Caribbean’s private island.

               

The ship put on a backyard barbecue lunch.

                

All too soon, we headed back to the ship to cool off and get out of the hot sun.  Even though we were slathered with sun block, our lily white skin was starting to burn, so we called it a day.

              

Next up, cruising above and below the sea.

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