Here's part three of this
dream vacation! Yes, as we boarded the ship, there was no more question mark at the end of this dream vacation, only an exclamation point! The trip only got better from here! We boarded the Caribbean Princess, our ship, in record time and were able to unpack and just relax!
Well, what can I say about the cruise, originally ten days, now eight? Only that it was incredible! Amazing! Spectacular! So,
so fun! When we left New York City, it was cold and damp and dark with so much power still out, but only by a day or two after, we were basking in the warmth of Caribbean sunshine. We were originally going to five ports, including Puerto Rico (my mom's dream port) and St. Thomas on a Sunday (where Dad had set up with a pastor of a Baptist church there to go to their service), but instead we went to two ports - Oranjestad, Aruba, a port we were planning on going to, and Grand Turks, a port we were not planning on going to. All in all, though, it worked out superbly! We loved both Aruba and Grand Turks! Lots of shopping and lots of swimming on the beach - a perfect combination!
And when we first got on the ship, we had another surprise! Not only was Princess Cruise Line giving us two-day ship-board credit for the days we had missed, they were
also giving us
50% of the cost of this cruise back to be put toward another Princess cruise, thus enabling us to take another vacation later! Oh yeah, and we also found out we were getting
a full refund on our plane tickets. Could this vacation get any better?
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| Grand Turk was the first port we pulled into, and this was the beautiful view we had from our balcony! It was a small port, but good shopping and incredible beach! |
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| This was the lovely Oranjestad, Aruba, a port quite a bit larger than Grand Turk, and very warm, but lots of fun! Plus, all the shops were air-conditioned. That's my kind of shopping! |
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| When I found out the cruise ship had a ping-pong tournament, I was pretty excited! I love ping-ponging! |
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| Four words for you: I love line dancing. And yes, that's me on stage, doing the Cupid Shuffle! |
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| I was journalling and Travis was drinking a vanilla milkshake on deck one afternoon when Mom pulled out her camera and snapped this pic. |
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| This was the family on formal night. Don't we clean up well? |
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| Yes, that is a sculpture of dolphins made out of butter. That was situated in the buffet the first day we came in. The food on board was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It was all free, and it was all fabulous. I love cruising! |
Free food, line-dancing, ping-pong, swimming, shopping, sun-bathing, reading, relaxing, movies, shows, pizza on-demand - really, what more could you ask for?
"I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever." ~ Psalm 86:12
