Shore Excursions in Grand Cayman & Roatan

It's less than a month before my hubby and I take off for our first cruise aboard the Crown Princess! I have been really researching the ports we will be visiting and have finally chosen a couple shore excursions that sound like so much fun! In Grand Cayman, we will be taking one of the Princess excursions and will be swimming with dolphins (something I've always wanted to do) and swimming with sting rays (this was highly recommended from a friend who used to live there). I've also planned an excursion for Roatan. I didn't find any excursions through Princess that really appealed to me in Roatan, so after a lot of research, I booked the 'zip and dip' excursion through Victor Bodden Tours. His tours are highly recommended on both Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor. We will be ziplining and then going to a really nice beach area and we will likely bring along our own snorkeling equipment to do a bit or snorkeling on this island. I can't wait!

Great Deal on our Flights!

I have booked our flights for our cruise and am happy to say that I found an awesome deal through Spirit Air! The flights from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale are only $65 per person each way! Even with taxes and baggage fees, it's still cheaper than any other airlines leaving from my area. I'm basically between Detroit and Toronto, so I always compare flying out of both of these airports. We will be getting in to Fort Lauderdale pretty early in the morning, so we'll have plenty of time to wait before our cruise departs, but I'm good with that! I was a little worried about flying in the same day as the cruise, but our flight is schedule to arrive around 9:30 in the morning, so even if there is a delay, we should still have plenty of time to get to the cruise dock. On the return, our flight isn't until the evening, so we are planning on doing an excursion in Fort Lauderdale. I would really like to take an Everglades boat ride and hopefully see some alligators!

Shore Excursions

Tonight I have been going over the many shore excursions that Princess has to offer on this itinerary. I cannot believe all the choices! I printed off all of the possible shore excursions, and it is 30 pages long! I think we will probably end up going to see some Mayan ruins in Cozumel, and maybe snorkel with the sting rays in Grand Cayman, but we are still unsure. Everything sounds so great, but I also want this to be a relaxing vacation, so we don't want to be on the go constantly! I'm just hoping the weather is really nice and we can spend some time just relaxing on the beach too.

Awaiting Our First Cruise!

In just over a month, my husband Jeff and I will be departing on our first cruise aboard the Crown Princess! I am getting so excited! We will be heading on a Western Caribbean Cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. The ports of call are Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan (Honduras), and Princess Cays (private island in the Bahamas).

Varadero, Cuba

Here are a couple photos from our recent trip to Varadero, Cuba (January 2010). We stayed at the Sirenas La Salina resort in Varadero. The resort was beautiful but unfortunately, we did not have the warmest weather during our stay. There were still a couple days we were able to enjoy the gorgeous beach though.