Booked our next cruise 
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Booked our next cruise
On the Celebrity Constellation - 11 night ultimate Caribbean. But it's not until November 2006. 
It spends more than one day in Aruba, so we are going to rent a jeep or something and do the island, find good beaches and snorkeling.
The itinerary is:
Day 1 Fort Lauderdale, FL
Day 2 at sea
Day 3 Georgetown, Grand Cayman (BT - the snorkeling was great!)
Day 4 at sea
Day 5 Aruba
Day 6 Aruba
Day 7 Colon, Panama
Day 8 Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
Day 9 at sea
Day 10 Cozumel, Mexico (BT too, but I was very sick and we didn't do much)
Day 11 at sea
Day 12 Fort Lauderdale, FL
There are plenty of staterooms left. Hint Hint!
Karen, your itinerary is very similar to ours. we have to wait until DECEMBER 2006!
Our Royal Caribbean cruise....
Brilliance of the Seas Dec 1, 2006
Fri: Miami
Sat: At sea
Sun: At sea
Mon: Oranjestad, Aruba
Tue: Oranjestad, Aruba
Wed: Panama Canal cruising/ Cristobal Pier, Panama
Thur: Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
Fri: At sea
Sat: George town, Grand Caymon
Sun: At sea
Mon: Miami
We love Grand Caymon and always snorkel with Captain Marvin. He is awesome!
Cozumel I stepped on a sea urchin at the park and the whole day was shot---wouldn't mind going back with water shoes on of course I had over 100 splines in my foot. It took several months to get them all out.
Aruba we are doing the jeep excursion and going in the submarine.
Yvonne
I am so jealous of both of you! Both cruises sound heavenly!
Those cruises sound wonderful. We go on our cruise Aug 2006, so I Still have a year to wait as well.
Woo hoo! Sounds great! Please check out Chakanaab National Park in Cozumel. It was heaven and wonderful snorkeling and food! Now, the waiting begins! LOL!
I wish I could convince my DH to book another cruise now! I guess we'll at least wait for the baby to arrive. LOL! ;)
Eve--that was the park I was refering to (Chakanaab National Park in Cozumel)
It was beautiful just wear water shoes.
Hey I thought you were going to go on a cruise with me and Eve.....LOL
Oh well, I guess we will have to wait until 2009 when Eve's little man is old enought for her to leave the kids with Dad.
Congratulations Karen, sounds like you guys are really going to have a great time.
LOL, Andi. I don't have to wait that long!
Yvonne, can you send me info on Captain Marvin???
OH - this is the very first time we have ever had a verandah cabin! We booked one with a very large verandah, it's about the same size as the stateroom! This will be *another* anniversary cruise for use. I can't wait!
AND - Andi, we want to do the Mexican Riviera cruise, it sails out of CA. Interested?? Maybe one day??????
Last post - Eve or Yvonne, is this park you are talking about in Cozumel one of the *normal* shore excursions, or did you discover this on your own? Info please??? We are going to try to find our own excursions if possible, unless the ones offered through the cruise line are really good.
Last year, when we were in St. Maarten, the shore excursion was a total disaster - started with them cramming too many people into the small *buses* (which were actually vans), the *bus* we were in overheated, they towed it away while we were in this shopping area they brought us to, and it had my bag with our ship towels and other stuff in it still on the seat of the bus, they then decided they were going to put ALL 18 of us in one bus, but DH raised all kinds of he** about that, so they then decided to bring us in 2 trips to our destination. Which was a private beach with lunch included. Only it took an hour being taken through the absolute worst areas of the island to get there, then my swim suit top broke. If it had not been for the fact that the beach was so incredibly beautiful, that entire day would have been a wash. The people on the French side of the island were incredibly rude and nasty, and if we ever go to St. Maarten again, we will find our own activities.
Karen- We have sailed on the Constellation about 2 years ago. It was beautiful! The ship was awesome, especially the spa deck! Great spa treatments to savor, and light snacks and lunches. Not that we didn't eat everything else... I would love to go again, I told DH that we are going to go for our 5th year ann. (that's in 2 years come tuesday...)
This will be our first time on the Constellation, our 2nd with Celebrity. We were on the Horizon last year and LOVED it.
Karen-I found it on my own. I loved the Cruise addicts.com forums and someone mentioned it and I did my own research. We just took a cab and then it was like $10-12 to get in. Then, there are tons of different activities you can do. The snorkeling was by far the best! (And it was only $8 for the equipment!) The food and drinks were wonderful. You could swim with the dolphins or sea lions and do all kinds of things. They have lockers if you want to put some of your stuff away while you snorkel. I thought it was a little of everything. Plus, the scenery was great. I loved the rocky edge to the beach. Fabulous rock stairs when you walk into the water, lots of areas for shade. Plus, waiters coming around for drink orders....My idea of fun!
Chakanaab
Karen,
The Chakanaab National Park in Cozumel is easily reached by hailing a taxi. It is gorgeous and a great way to spend the day.
Captain Marvin is AWESOME and much cheaper than shore excursions through the cruiseline. We walked to his office and were promptly off on a fun day of snorkeling and stingray city.
The web site is:
http://www.captainmarvins.com/mainpage.htm
We booked a balcony two cruises ago and it is dangerous LOL
Once you go balcony you can never go back. My favorite part is waking up and drinking coffee (room service) on the balcony while watching the ocean. So relaxing! We booked our first suite this time. We are excited about it.
If you snorkel a lot like we do I highly recommend you bring your own gear. It is easier than renting and the thought of putting on equipment that may or may not be cleaned has always grossed me out.
We just booked a ten day cruise out of New York City on December tenth. We plan drive up a few days early and see the Radio City Christmas Show, and maybe a play before we board. We're taking the Norwegian Spirit to
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands;
Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda;
Bridgetown, Barbados;
St. Georges, Grenada;
Roseau, Dominica;
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
We've been in Cozumel twice. On our fist visit we went to Chankanaab National Park, and had the Dolphin Encounter. The park is only a short cab ride from the cruise pier. After booking our encounter, we were given instructions and a locker. Then we had time to wander around the park for a while. We walked through the botanical park and the archaeological trails and took several pictures of the iguana that were everywhere. We returned to the Dolphin Discovery area, bought an underwater camera and were issued May West vests before entering the dolphin enclosure. We stood on heavy rope net ledge, while the trainers brought Eva and Kinich to meet us. Eva was an older female and Kinich was only about 18 months old. He was in training. We got to pet and interact with them. They took pictures while we shook hands and kissed. It was a fulfillment of a dream of mine. They were so beautiful, with such gentle and intelligent eyes. Their skin felt like a cool, soft, rubberized, foam mat when we stroked their backs and tummies. I was in heaven. Our session ended much too quickly. I hated to leave these two beautiful creatures.
The next time we took a ship's excursion to Punta Sur Ecological Reserve, on the southernmost point of Cozumel. At the Columbia Lagoon we put on masks and snorkels and entered the water. The surf was rough, which made putting on the flippers a chore. The surf also stirred up the bottom, making the visibility limited. It wasn’t a great snorkeling experience. We reboarded the bus, and went to the Punta Sur Lighthouse. It was really pretty there. I followed a snowy egret and got some great pictures. Afterwards we crossed to the area where the cocodrilo lived. We viewed them from the safety of bridges. On our way there we passed tons of folks in taxis and on scooters heading the same place.
Great pictures Bea! Your cruise sounds wonderful!
EVeryones vacations sounds wonderful.
We did a repositioning cruise with Celebrity that was slightly similiar to your cruise.
Costa Rica was the most amazing place. So Lush. We did some bus tour but it was beautiful. The people are the nicest people in Costa Rica. They sort of call themselves the smiling people(?) They really are friendly. I would really like to go back there.
Bea, I *really* want to know your opinion of NCL - they are placing a ship in New Orleans soon and we don't know anyone who has sailed with them. Their reviews for the Hawaiian Island jumper cruise were less than desirable, but our TA said they have retrained that crew, who was American and had attitude. I haven't read anything about any of their other cruises yet, guess I'll check them out on cuisecritic.
Eve, have you checked out cruisecritic? We are members there, and DH just sent me a link to cruiseaddict, haven't joined yet though.
Eve/Yvonne, we own our own snorkel gear/fins, etc. We are probably going to get short suits also, since we cruise mainly in the winter months, and sometimes the water is COLD. Also, we've been trying to go to Bermuda, that is where we originally had planned to go late next spring, but my boss's vacation interfered with that. It's going to be hard for us to plan a cruise to Bermuda due to hurricane season/time of year DH CAN'T take off, etc. We were hoping to go when the water is relatively warm, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen next year, so we booked this cruise instead.
Thanks for all the info!!!!!!
http://www.visitcostarica.com/ict/paginas/galeriafotos/galeriadefotos.asp
I found some pictures of Costa Rica.
Now I remember what we did... We took a bus tour to a cloud volcano and had lunch with the group in an open air restaurant in what appear to be a jungle (complete with parrots to look at)
The cloud volcano was too cloudy so we couldn't see the volcano but still it was a nice day. Even seeing the families walk in the street you could tell it was a special place. (Families sometimes live all together with multiple generations.) They say alot of army people retire there because it is very cheap to live. Of course all the roofs are metal because of the volcanos. People seemed very well educated too.
..
We took an ecotour boat trip on the Tortuguero Canals in Costa Rica. It was fascinating. We saw so many beautiful birds, crocodiles, three toed and two toed sloths, and several breeds of monkeys. We had a buffet before we left of the most delicious fresh fruits and coconut meat.
Bea, we did the dolphin encounter there too...awesome!!
Karen, go to Cozumelinsider.com and then talk/email Sherry. She can get you set up with all sorts of fun excursions!
Thanks!!
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