April – May 2017 New Orleans

Here we are on that dreaded of all cruise days – The Last Day.  It is only too well-known what happens tomorrow yet begins today. Today is sale day on the ship.  If you haven’t quite spent enough both on-shore and on-board, you have one last chance to part with any leftover money.  Ship items … Read more

To be fair to Costa Maya, we didn’t venture beyond the immediate tourist mall and central plaza.  Our cruise ship was the only one in port today so the area was not overly crowded.  That was fortunate for the lack of people was made up for by the abundance of sunshine (read: heat). Amongst the … Read more

Cozumel was a port we visited on our very first cruise way back in 2005.  It was a back – to – back 2 week cruise that had this as one of its ports of call.  It has grown quite a bit in the last 12 years.  Today there are 3 ships anchored here (Celebrity, … Read more

Sea days are lazy and this is no exception.  A late start is followed, slowly, by an even later breakfast.  One could even argue if this were a Sunday it should be more like…Brunch.  But that’s a hard argument to make.  Every day could be Sunday insomuch as any given day onboard a cruise ship … Read more

Today is a tour of the Oak Alley Plantation.  The better part of the day will be taken by this tour which starts by just getting there. The plantation is almost an hour outside of New Orleans proper which provides enough time for our tour guide to provide a little insight to this challenged city. … Read more

There is a broad mix of people in Louisiana but the names perhaps most referred to are Cajun and Creole.  And even then, the reference is often about the food. The fundamental difference is Creole will have tomatoes, Cajun won’t.  That is over-simplifying, certainly, but an easy to remember rule of thumb.  Today’s tour is … Read more

We have arrived.  It’s now 9 A.M. and we are in the process of docking at the Julia Street Cruise Terminal.  Interesting location as it is part of a massive Outlet mall.  A rather different approach to getting tourists to spend money. A rather lazy morning today (which won’t be the same either tomorrow or … Read more

A sea day is just a day to get caught up on a variety of things.  Sleep, for instance.  That’s a good thing to get caught up on.  Being on one’s feet for much longer than normal and adding miles to the treads on the soles of the shoes reinforces how tiring that can be. … Read more

So…here we are in Florida (again) but this time at the absolute end of the USA.  Key West is at the far end of a LOT of highway and even more bridges between it and the mainland.  There are 40+ bridges that are crossed in order to arrive at Key West.  The most notable of these … Read more

As mentioned before, this is a new cruise line for us which also means a new ship layout as well.  Some differences have been revealed before but others have yet to be fully appreciated.  For instance…the Martini Bar. There are quite a few seats in the immediate area, the big comfy kind you find often in a traditional lounge.  … Read more