After Milton and I returned from our first cruise on the Carnival Destiny, we were excited to tell others about our experiences. One of the things I loved about cruising was that there was no dragging suitcases around. Once you are on the ship, you unpack once at the beginning and don’t have to deal with the suitcases for the week. I much prefer living out of drawers and closets than a suitcase!

We were visiting my brother, David, and his wife, Leslie, about our trip to Las Vegas and then our cruise trip on The Destiny. Leslie commented that when they had gone to Vegas, they were not able to do much because they had their kids with them. I told them about Club Carnival for kids on the ship and how that frees up the parents to have a vacation for themselves as well as the kids.

I told everybody about our cruise and Donna was particularly interested. Over a year or so, we decided that Donna and her husband, Teddy, and their two kids, Nick and Christina, and David and his family would all meet in Florida and take the Carnival Valor cruise.

This is some footage from the first couple of days on the cruise out of Miami on the Carnival Valor. David had insisted that he didn’t need to take any dramamine or wear a scopolamine patch but that first night was a bit bumpy as we passed Cuba. By morning, David was asking for a patch.

On day three, we are in Grand Cayman. We tender in from the ship. Milton and I go on the Atlantis submarine excursion. Apparently the water is rough on the usual side of the island where people usually do the submarine and so we are doing it at an alternative site. Many excursions were cancelled because of the rough waters on the other side of the island. After we do the submarine, we took a “taxi” which is actually a minivan, over to 7 Mile beach and then another one to downtown Georgetown before returning to the ship.

This is footage of our beach day at Tabayana Beach on Isle Roatan in Honduras.  The water was warm and beautiful and the snorkeling was great. We paid for the Carnival exursion which took us there in a crammed minivan and brought us back in a more comfortable school bus. The beach chairs were included in the price. No problem with “no see-ums” as others had reported.

In Belize, Milton and I had signed up for the Belize City- Altun Ha Mayan excursion. We had a great tour guide for the day, Simone.

On day six we docked in Cozumel. Donna, Teddy, Christina, Nick, and Milton and I all took a very bumpy ride on a ferry over to Playa del Carmen and then a bus ride to Tulum. It was a fun day. It was a great cruise. It was a great vacation.