Buy 4, Get 1 Day Free

   I think we have been getting misled all these years believing a year had 365 days in it. Come to find out it really has 365.25 days in it. Every year we skip a 1/4 day and every four years we get it back. I suppose if we just skipped today, February 29th, and started the March of month like the last three years eventually we would be shoveling snow off our driveways in July.
   Today is a like a free day. An extra day you don't have to pay your car insurance or rent. It's like pay for

Wisdom by Faith

     Some wisdom, gleaned from another's personal experience, can only be received by faith. Soon, for example, it will be time to teach my child to drive a car. When I learned to drive we were told to look out over the hood, line the hood ornament up with the white line on the opposite side of the lane. If you did that, you would be driving down the center of your lane. After years of driving you just get

Day Seven: Our Final Journey (In Pictures)

That Includes You!

   Our last day in Florida was totally unplanned with the exception of our 6:30pm flight to Kansas City. Check out time was 11am. It was raining in the morning so, no crabbing are us, we slept in (well, the teenager slept in and I read my book). We decided to take a few detours on our way to the airport. Another, off the tourist track, wonderful discovery. The Fort Lauderdale River Walk just across the street from the Science and Discovery Center. We bought our tickets for the IMAX 3D Movie; Journey 2 The Mysterious Island and since the sun came out we decided to use our two hour wait to head down the River Walk and find some lunch. After lunch and our amazing walk, we relaxed at the movie and then made a few science discoveries. This is a great place to spend a whole day if you have time.

    The River Walk is best explained in pictures:

The River Walk

Along the River

   

   

Many Military Tributes Along Our Walk

   

Peaceful Walkways Under the Trees. . . 

Beautiful Nature Parks Tucked In

Walks along the Docks

Fort Lauderdale History Museum Exhibits

Historic Houses and Modern Structures

The Memorial Brick Walk

Everyone is famous to someone, "Who's Rich?"

Friendly Advice from the Locals

Connor Found a Shark

It tried to eat me!

We found a goofy place...

with goofy gear....

and crab cakes... 

...and shrimp...

and lots of good food for Lunch. 

and even a friend for Connor. 

Then off to the IMAX for our Movie...

and Science Discovery

even some Aviation History!

Oh My! I used to work on these in the Air Force.

     

     After the movie, we headed to airport. We had a quick turn-around in Atlanta and then on to Kansas City. The temperatures dropped about 70 degrees on our flight from Fort Lauderdale to Kansas City and when we arrived it was 11 degrees with wind chills in the single digits. Next Year I am taking vacation the whole month of February!

   Thank you all for taking this journey with us. I hope you enjoyed the chronicle of our week in Florida and got a lot of ideas and Tips for your next vacation. 

TRAVEL TIPS: WHAT ELSE WE LEARNED ON OUR VACATION

1. Take a Detour and discover something off the direct path. 

2. Allow some time in your schedule to embrace the local culture. 

3. Arrive at the airport early enough to allow time for unexpected delays such as having a back pack searched by TSA. 

4. Become a member of a Science Center near you and you can visit over 300 Science Centers and Museums for free or at a discount when you are traveling. 

5. Just because you see stuff in a museum that you used to use or fix, doesn't make you old, it just means you used or worked on really old stuff. 

6. When you travel south in the winter, make sure who ever is picking you up when you get back North brings your coat to the airport with them or leave one in your car in long term parking (it's gonna be a cold shuttle ride back to your car but you don't want to lug around a big coat down south)! 

7. Keep a journal of your trip. I like to pick up a local journal or scrapbook when I am there to log my trip. Of course, you can always blog it!

8. Sleeping in or relaxing in your room is not "wasting time"... you're on vacation RELAX!

9. Get recommendations from locals and try some of their ideas. Just cause it's not listed in the tourist guide doesn't mean it's not great. 

10. FINAL TIP: I know you plan to stick together but always identify a place to meet in case you get separated and some one's cell phone dies. For Example, at the airport tell your kids the gate number you are going to on the way, "We are going to gate D8, can you help me find it?" At the museum: "If you lose me, just come back to the Shark and I will find you. Do you remember where the Shark is from here?" 

Day Six: "And Their Off!"

A Day At the Horses!

    This was probably one of the most laid back days of our entire trip. We were both a little sun burnt and all we wanted to do was find a nice soft place to curl up and sleep. We woke up to the sun shining through our cabin port hole, docked at Port of Palm Beach as if we'd never left. We had stayed up late last night taking in the last shows so we had not packed up our gear and were in no hurry to hop out of bed to do it. We had a late disembark card with a time stamp of 8:30am, although, we were invited to stay on board for the breakfast buffet as long as we kindly checked off the ship by 10:30 am.
   About 8am I heard them announce that passengers with an 8:30am disembark card could proceed to the gangway with their luggage. There was no luggage service to disembark as each person had to be in possession of their luggage when they went through customs and immigration. We reluctantly got up and packed up our gear and headed to the gangway.
   When we got to customs, with our completed customs declarations forms and passports in hand, they directed us to the US and Canadian passports line. The "other country's" passports line had about six people in it and ours looked to have about six hundred people weaving back and forth across the room between roped guide ways that I guess they thought would make us think the line was shorter than it was. I told the guy behind me, "I wish I had a different country's passport."
He said, "I do and I still had to get in this line."
"Where you from?", I asked.

Day Five: How to Feel Rich & Famous for A Day!

Bon Appetit!

     I have yet to stay in a hotel where you go to your room, nod off for the night, and wake up in a new destination. This cruising life is awesome. We went to bed in our cabin and when we woke up we were parked on the dock of an island paradise. Beam me up, Scottie, I must be dreamin'.
    This was the big day, Our Shore Excursion. Did we get on the boat to come here or did we come here to get on the boat? I don't know but either way, here we are! Now if you've been reading the blog you know that before we boarded the ship we were given a list of shore excursions to choose from. On that list was one of the biggest dreams of my life, to ride a horse bareback on a white sandy beach in a bikini. Okay, don't freak out, I've toned that down a little, I'll use a saddle and will wear my swimsuit under my clothes. I was so excited to see that excursion on the list. Although, it felt weird that my sister wasn't here to take that ride with me. Since they wouldn't let us sign up for that excursion online, I assumed we would have to sign up on the ship. I coached Connor all week that riding horses through an island paradise was the shore excursion of choice. But when we got to the Shore Excursion desk they said all of those excursions had been sold out prior to our sail date. Several of the other limited space excursions were also sold out. We'd have to make a second choice.
    Some of my shipmates were going to go out on their own and find some local tours, including horse back rides on the white sandy beaches. They advised it was cheaper than what was being offered on the ship. I had talked to an experienced cruiser, aka my Dad, the night before and he recommended that we did sign up for an excursion since we were new to the port. Once you learn your way around a port you can make a better decision if you want to have a guided excursion or play it ear like my shipmates. I decided not to chance it and opted for the guided tour since we had no idea what we were in for. I signed us up for something I thought would have some interest for both us, the Combo Snorkeling and Our Lucaya Resort Day, which came with lunch at the resort after our snorkeling adventure. And this excursion was teenager friendly as we didn't have to meet our tour until 9:30am. That gave us time to sleep in a little and still enjoy the ship's breakfast buffet before heading down to Deck 4 to meet our group.
    We had signed up for the excursion the night before and our tickets along with instructions, times, and receipts were slid under our  door sometime before we got back to our cabin last night. When we met with our group our tickets were checked and we were all given a wrist band that corresponded to our specific excursion choice. Some were just Resort, some were just snorkeling, and some were both. So we got banded red and handed a towel and led off the ship.

Shore Excursion?

    After immigration to the Bahamas, we were led to our charter bus and rode 12 miles over to Freeport where another guide met us and walked us over to the docks. We boarded our chartered catamaran, met our Captain, and were issued our snorkeling gear: a life jacket, goggles, snorkel, and fins. On our leisurely biat ride out of the bay we were instructed on how to wear and use our gear. After warming our bright white, now kind a pink, skin up in the sunshine for thirty minutes, we arrived at the reef and were assisted in disembarking the boat. Oh man was that cold!

Snorkeling Over the Corral Reef

    That first plunge was so cold I could hardly breath. Once I caught my breath I started testing out my equipment. You have to suck the air out of your mask with your nose to keep your mask from leaking (something I was very concerned with as I didn't want to loose my contacts). Then you have to breath through this tube with your mouth while your nose is suffocating. I kept thinking of my Dad when he woke up from surgery still hooked up to the ventilator. They kept telling him to just relax and let the machine breath for him but let's just say he was not a happy camper about that. It's hard to relax when you can't breath!
   I fought it for awhile and then once I got over the idea that I was going to get cold, salty water in my ears no matter what, I relaxed. Now it was time to swim around and look at some really cool fish along the reef.  I do want to point out that as cool as this was, this snorkeling thing looks a lot easier on the postcards than it is in person. I was getting pretty worn out just floating along the top of the water. Of course, the ocean waves I was drinking didn't help either. Just as I was getting used to it, I noticed our Captain was throwing bait over the side of the boat to attract the fish. That was all well and good until our first mate yells from the reef, "Now if you see the sharks don't worry-- they are just nurse sharks." Bait. Sharks. I think I'm done.
   On the way back we soaked up some more rays. The bar opened and many of our shipmates started telling some interesting stories of their adventures on the sea. It was a rather fun ride back to the dock where we again met up with our tour guide who check our bands and took the red  banded tourists back to the resort for lunch and more sun and surf. I must say, lunch was not impressive but tasted good as we had worked up  an appetite.

   The rest of the afternoon was quite relaxing. We had seven pools and the Atlantic ocean to choose from to swim in. Connor and I spent the afternoon going from one pool to another and walking up and down the beach. I took a little nap in a recliner on the beach while Connor made sand castles. And not just any kind of sand castles, he got sand castle making instructions from a fellow shipmate and I must say, construction quality went way up.

Look who was waiting for us
in our Cabin- Thanks Jay Ar!

    Then it was back to the bus. Glad we chose the 4:15pm bus as we were walking back up the gangway at 5:15pm.  We were all to be back onboard no later than 5:30pm and I think they meant it because we were pulling away from the port at 6 O'Clock sharp. The last bus left the resort at 5pm... I am not so sure those folks could have made it onboard by 5:30pm.

So many SWEEET CHOICES!

 
 I was so glad Connor had requested a late dinner reservation. We both took a shower and a well deserved nap before dinner and then dressed up in our finest cruise attire for our five course, formal meal at the Crystal Dining room. So much fun with my young gentleman. And then a couple more shows at that View and that was about all I could squeeze into one day. I was pretty wiped when I hit the bunk. Connor snuck in sometime around 1am when the Open Water Club closed.
    I wasn't quite ready to call our cruise complete but then again, not sure I had it in me for another full day on shore. If our cruise was any longer I would have to really pace myself with the shore excursions. There is always the option of staying on board a half day or all day if you choose. I noticed the onboard services don't stop just because the ship is docked. They continued to serve meals and offer activities on board all day long.
   Didn't take long for the ship to rock me to sleep tonight.
 
TRAVEL TIPS: WHAT ELSE WE LEARNED ON OUR VACATION
1. Sign up for any "Dream Excursions" as soon as you book your cruise.
2. Use the convenience of ship arranged Shore Excursions until you to know a port well enough to know how to get around and what is offered locally.
3. You don't have to book a shore excursion every day of your cruise: there is plenty to do on ship if you decided to stay on board part or all of the day.
4. Sunscreen, Sunscreen, Sunscreen!!
5. Take a camera and don't be afraid to ask your fellow cruisers to snap a shot of you and your whole party.
6. Offer to take pictures of others for them especially if they are buying an underwater camera on the snorkeling excursion. How cool to be able to send a shot of yourself in that snorkeling postcard!
7. Allow enough time to relax in between your scheduled events cause guess what? You're on vacation!
8. Bring a backpack along to take on your excursion with you and don't forget to pack a book for the beach.
9. The ship automatically charges for gratuities (interesting concept). We paid $12/day/person that is divided up among the staff. But you can tip extra for those staff members that go the extra mile for you-- it's the only thing  you can spend cash for on the boat.
10. Keep a bottle of water with you to stay hydrated and don't drink the salt water in a foreign country!

Day Four: "All Aboard!"

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, 
A tale of an amazing trip 
That started from this Palm Beach port
Aboard this tiny ship."

      We learned a lot in the hot tub the night before. One, while everyone else was sitting through another "optional" sales presentation to earn a VIP pass to board, we could actually be on our way to the port checking in an hour earlier than our Noon-4:30pm boarding times. Several of our ship-mates were planning to hit some Palm Beach tourist traps before going to the ship but we had learned that free meals and plenty of ship activities would be available as soon as we boarded at Noon. 

Bahamas Celebration

     We took our time sight-seeing on our drive up to the port, arrived at 11am, walked through all the check points: valet parking, luggage drop off, security, forms, checked in and got our boarding passes which would also be our on board credit cards, pre-boarding photo booth, the excursions sign up table, and made our dinner reservations while waiting in zero lines. We sat in the pre-boarding waiting area talking to ship-mates and reviewing our excursion options for about thirty minutes until the gangway doors opened at noon. There was a little bit of a line there as excited cruisers crowded around to hear our boarding instructions. I looked behind me and tried really hard not to laugh out loud at

Day Three: Swimming Around The Rain

A Friend We Met on the Beach

    Today was the day my traveling companion, Connor, was in charge of all the planning. I helped him gather brochures on exciting South Florida attractions such as Air Boat rides in the Everglades, the Miami Sea Aquarium, and the Native American Museum. One place on Connor's wishlist was the West Palm Beach zoo (click the link here to check out the tiger cub cam).
     It was raining when we woke up so Connor opted to sleep in a little late-- but not too late, it was his day and he had planned on us having McGriddles at McDonald's. Our itinerary for the day: sleep in, eat at McDonald's, go to the Zoo, and then come back to our resort and swim in the pool. As we got ready to go out, the sun came shining through our window. Connor asked if I would mind if we skipped the zoo and went back to the beach we found yesterday. "It's your day," I said, "have it your way!"

Surfer Dude

   
     What a great plan! When we first arrived,

Day Two: The Bait and Switch

Some of the best places... really are free!

   All good deals come with a catch unless for some reason you actually deserve a good deal. Don't kid yourself, all good deals come with a catch. To the unsuspecting traveler wannabe, our vacation plans looked like travel of the Rich and Famous. We planned a week at a Florida Resort complete with hot tub and Tiki Bar and a 2 day cruise to the Grand Bahama Island in an Ocean View Suite. Sweet!
   Ever get that call, "Honk! Honk! This is your Captain speaking."? Usually that is a good indication to hang up the phone but as we were two days away from confirming our reservations on a 4 day cruise and wondering if we'd have any money left over in our vacation budget to spend a few days in Ft. Lauderdale, I took the bait. It was the Caribbean Cruise Line offering me some great travel deals

Day One: MCI-FLL

     I have driven from Kansas City (MCI) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) before. I thought flying would be faster. Then again. Maybe when  you go through Texas that is the long way. Despite our delays in Texas, we did make it to Fort Lauderdale in well under the 30 hour driving time. We were so excited when we left. A week of fun in the sun awaited us in Florida and we had booked a 2 night cruise in between. I am glad we had rearranged our travel director's plan. They had us coming in on Saturday morning and cruising that afternoon. I am pretty sure we would have missed our ship. I requested we fly in and spend a couple days in Florida and then cruise. You will soon discover why this plan worked out so well.

No More Stay-cations!

     Last year, we took a stay-cation. It is always good to take a week off work and rejuvenate yourself. I thought I would take advantage of the time off and get a lot done around the ranch. It was relaxing not to have to follow a schedule, to wake up every morning and have the whole day open to do whatever we wanted. Vacation ended there. We did have a vacation from a work schedule. Our to-do list, however, did not get much attention. After using up a week of vacation, not only did I not feel refreshed and ready to go back to work, I didn't feel like I got anything accomplished. I promised myself no more stay-cations.
    We have to put in for our leave preferences for the year in October. So this year, I knew I needed to take off enough time to actually go somewhere. Instead of taking all my vacation time at once, I thought I would split it up and put in for one week in the winter and one week in the summer. I still have a child in school