The long awaited cruise photos

Here we go! Day 1 included waking up at 3:30 a.m. to head to the airport. We feared security on a Friday morning as well as we wanted to make sure our luggage made it to Miami. This is the Port of Miami, where we went through three security checks as we headed on the ship. Two of the check points were with in one hundred feet of each other.

This was the first full day at sea. We didn't do much of anything that day. My parents on the other hand, had a routine and were already set in their cruising mode. This picture was taken in on of the highest points on the ship.

Our first port of call was Aruba. Amy and I explored some when we first got there, but we went back on the ship waiting for our morning activity. This proved wise as the crew on the catamaran was serving Caribbean rum punch. They added a extra shot of rum to each cup they poured. The coastal waters are amazing aren't they? Did you know Aruba was/is part of the Netherlands? This is a windmill that serves a reminder to the history of the island. It is always good to remember your history, it's import to know where you have come from, to know where you are going.

You'll see as the week went on, we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. I know you may think it is weird that we took our delayed honeymoon with my parents, but really, if you think about it, the ship is large enough to not run to anyone you know, but small enough to find them as well.

We didn't leave Aruba until 1:00 a.m., so we had a Caribbean Party complete with a midnight gala buffet. It was really cool there were food carvings done by the culinary specialist. The dragon you see is made of chocolate. You can see we all took part in the buffet. That's mom and dad enjoying themselves.

The next day we spent at sea again. We were headed to Panama. Mom and dad took Amy and I out on an excursion. We toured Panama. This is the view of the locks as we we went through Gatun Locks, which are the first three locks of the Panama Canal from the Atlantic Ocean side of the country. After going across, we then tendered to shore to get on our tour bus.

The tour guide had the perfect past to be a tour guide. He was a contractor on a U.S. Army base in Panama. He had been with them for years. After the U.S. invasion, our government offered him a job in Washington D.C. When he and his wife visited, it was November and they decided it was too cold to live there. He had some great tid bits of information you would not have received had he not been around long before Panama became a nation of it's own.

We took the tour bus across the country, to visit Panama City. We spent most of the time there, but we did get to see the Pacific Ocean, some incredible historic areas, as well as the hustle and bustle of the big city. Personally, it reminded me Los Angeles near the shore, in the Santa Monica area, but that's me. After the tour, we returned to the ship and boarded the ship from the pier. during the day, the ship navigated through the locks to get to the pier.

We traveled over night to Costa Rica. There we went on a tour of the Dole banana plantation later in the afternoon. On the bus ride, we saw monkeys in the trees, we passed by some other types of plantations, as well as many ship yards ready to ship freight to and from Costa Rica.

This the first part of some pictures I said I would post from our trip. Sorry about the delay, but I have been struggling with formating and finding a server to host these pictures in high quality.