Caribbean Cruise Vacation

Drew and I just celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary, which is crazy to believe! It went by so fast! To help us celebrate, we went on an 8 day/7 night Caribbean Cruise (sans bowling balls) with our two close friends Scott Norton and his fiancé Craig Woodward.

We cruised out of Fort Lauderdale, FL on the Carnival Freedom cruise ship with three ports of call on our itinerary - Cozumel, Mexico; Costa Rica and Panama. The cruise was so relaxing because we didn’t have too many ports, so we were able to actually relax on our days at sea.

In Cozumel, Mexico we took an excursion to the Mayan ruins of Tulum. In order to get there, we took a 45-minute ferry ride and then a little over an hour bus ride. All of the traveling was well worth the wait! The ruins were absolutely breathtaking, as the entire city was well preserved and situated on a hill overlooking the aqua blue coastline. Much of the ruins were intact, with “the castle” sitting atop the hill as the main attraction.

There were also several iguanas everywhere! It was crazy how many of them were all over the ruins. Drew had a close encounter with one rather large and hungry iguana. Drew decided to sit on a rock and get a sandwich out of his backpack and shortly after, a rustle in the bushes sounded and an iguana was less than a foot away from his lunch. I’ve never seen Drew jump up so quickly. See the picture above!

I loved the ruins, but the weather was a little unbearable. The temperature was probably about 90 degrees with 93% humidity and little shade to offer any cooling. I’ve never been so hot in my life! However, a shady, fan-filled taco lunch and air-conditioned bus ride back helped calm the heat a bit.

Our second port was to the beautiful country of Costa Rica. I absolutely loved this country and hope to one day go back there solely for vacation. The lush rainforest and mountain range offer spectacular views, not to mention the gorgeous aqua blue waters.

I was heavily talked into an adventure excursion on this outing, as we went ziplining atop the trees of the Costa Rican rainforest. It was quite an adrenaline rush to say the least! As nervous as I was to zipline, I became even more frightened by the gigantic spiders that popped up all over the rainforest. Check out the photo above!

We went down 12 ziplines in all, with the longest being roughly a ½ mile long. After two or so ziplines, I started enjoying the experience and was a lot less scared. I would definitely try it again. Check out the video!

Our last stop was Panama where we were able to see the magnificent Panama Canal. Our tour actually took us onboard a ferry that went through two of the three main lock systems of the Panama Canal. The journey took 4 hours in total, as our ferryboat was raised, in all, 85 feet above sea level to the Gatun Lake. The entire journey across the Panama Canal (which we didn’t do) usually takes 12 hours to complete.

Knowing that this industrial monster was built back in the early 1900’s is such a feat when you actually experience the lock system. The steel doors of each lock are 7 feet thick. Once the water starts rushing in, rising up each vessel, it takes about 8 minutes to complete the entire water raising process. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that all of us enjoyed tremendously.

During our sea days, besides relaxing and sitting out by the pools, we enjoyed the water slide, as well as the mini golf course, shuffleboard area and late night piano bar that the cruise ship had to offer.

It was definitely a much needed, relaxing vacation with the luxury of not having to travel with bowling balls!