Thursday, February 7, 2013

Third Time Out

Our third cruise begins this weekend.  Crazy, I KNOW!  We took the Carnival Valor out of Miami in December, the Disney Dream out of Port Canaveral in January, and now the Carnival Freedom out of Fort Lauderdale in February.  The funny thing is that this is the first one we booked, nearly two years ago!  Still, we are just as excited to be heading out for this one.

The itinerary for this cruise is Cozumel, Mexico, Limon, Costa Rica, and Colon, Panama plus four wonderful days at sea.  It is touted as being "to" the Panama Canal because the ship is too big to go "in" the Panama Canal. LOL!  We have already sailed all the way through the canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic back in March of 2010, so we don't care about that.  This time we are taking a bus from Colon to Panama City and exploring the sights and history of that big city.  We are pretty excited about that.  In Costa Rica we are visiting a banana plantation and a pineapple plantation plus the factories to learn how these fruits are cultivated and packaged for shipping.  I think either Dole or Del Monte owns these factories, but I'll let you know after we get there! This is our third trip to Cozumel, ho hum.  This time we are taking a catamaran from that island to a smaller island to hang out at a beach all day.  At least it's something different.

The Carnival Freedom is the younger sister ship to the Carnival Valor.  The deck plans are identical except for different names of the rooms and the decor.  We feel like we will have an advantage over the others getting on board because we already know where everything is!

Today we are going to visit the Everglades Holiday Park, home of the Gator Boys. You can watch their show on Animal Planet.  We have gotten hooked on it!  We will be taking an hour long air boat ride, seeing an alligator show, and probably holding yet another young gator. Then we are visiting Mark's Aunt Esther and Uncle Pinky, who live in Fort Lauderdale but whom we have never visited.  Finally, we are going to see their condo and go out to dinner with them.

I am taking my laptop, so I will be checking email periodically and might even write a blog or two on the ship.

I am down another pound this morning to 266, so I'm pretty happy about that.  I did my weights, walked 35 minutes, and ate right.  Still, I am starting out this cruise at a weight higher than any cruise before.  Mark said he will help me hit the gym and jogging track every day on the ship. I also need to stay away from the free soft serve ice cream machine and late night snacking!  I also hope we both stay healthy.

If you are reading this blog and live in the north, watch out for the big blizzard about to hit.  It looks like the northeast is going to get hammered.  Stay safe and warm.

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