• Travel

    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Day in Bonaire

    May 5, 2022 - By 

    I really hope you’re enjoying all these cruise posts. Travel posts do take quite a long time to put together, but I love having them to look back on and remember our time. Today I’m sharing about our day in Bonaire. Views from our ship as we wait to get the all clear 12°8’53.34″ N 68°16’39.76″ W Bonaire is an island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is Kralendijk, near the ocean on the lee side of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC islands, 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Venezuela.…

  • Travel

    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Afternoon in Aruba

    April 19, 2022 - By 

    Today I’m sharing my final post about Aruba for this cruise and there is still a lot to cover so its gonna be long. 🙂 After leaving Arikok National Park, it was time to plug my phone into the radio so we could follow along with the app I had purchased and listen to descriptions of places to drive by or stop at. We have used the GyPSy Guide app before while traveling and loved it. However they don’t have one for Aruba, so after some research we decided on the Action Tour Guide Aruba (The Full tour). For this…

  • Travel

    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Arikok National Park

    April 16, 2022 - By 

    Who knew I’d be writing so many posts about Aruba, but I really just think breaking our day down into smaller chunks make for better posts. I hope you agree! So today I’m sharing about the time we spent in Arikok National Park, Aruba. We came through the SouthEast entrance Vader Piet. 12°27’58.122″ N 69°53’33.612″ W (Just a reminder some of the pictures will have GPS coordinates that link to that location on Google Maps in case you want to go to that spot on future travels. If one of the pictures doesn’t have coordinates after it, it means its…

  • Travel

    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Pet Cemetery on Aruba Beach

    April 14, 2022 - By 

    I’m continuing on with details of our day in Aruba. After leaving our lunch spot, we passed Baby Beach. 12°24’55.848″ N 69°52’57.264″ W Not too far from there as we continued along the coast we happened across a huge Pet Cemetery. Around 1924, Lago Oil & Transport Co. was building Lago Colony now known as Seroe Colorado for their employees of the oil refinery in San Nicholas, the people started burying their pets here in this secluded place. Through the years the burying of pets has continued and it now stretches almost a mile long. (source) 12°25’15.642″ N 69°52’19.662″ W…

  • Travel

    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Lunch in Aruba

    April 13, 2022 - By 

    We ended up stopping for lunch at the Rum Reef Bar & Grill. (On Google Maps) This is a modern, clean building located on Baby Beach with beautiful views as well as an infinity pool. View from our table. Rob’s step dad, David, ordered the Monkey Juice (Dark Rum, White Rum, Crème de Banana, ½ Banana, Baileys, Coco Lopez) and then Rob and I decided to share one. It was so yummy! The special of the day was the Mahi Mahi. I got the platter. Rob got the Mahi Mahi sandwich. Really fresh and delish! Click to menu and prices…

  • Travel

    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Morning in Aruba

    April 12, 2022 - By 

    I am so excited to be talking about our first port of call on our cruise. Aruba!! As I wrote this post, I realized there was just too many details and pictures to share so I’m breaking it down into multiple posts. Let’s jump on in. We were scheduled to arrive at the port in Aruba at 9am. However we arrive and were cleared a little early. The four of us soon had eaten breakfast and were ready about the time they announced we could disembark. We had rented a jeep for the day. Rob had done lots of research…

  • Travel

    Carnival Horizon – Time on the Ship

    April 8, 2022 - By 

    Happy Thursday, everyone! Today I’m continuing my posts about our cruise that we took last month. If you missed our misadventures getting to Miami you can read about that here>>>>Getting to Miami. Today I’m sharing about the time while on the ship, including embarkation day, evenings after being at port, and of course, the fun days at sea. Here’s a few details on the cruise: Carnival Horizon 8 Day Itinerary Miami > 2 Days at Sea > Aruba > Bonaire > La Romana > Amber Cove > Day at Sea > Miami Cabin 2220 (Port hole) My in laws (Alice…

  • Travel

    Carnival Horizon 2022 – Getting to Miami

    April 1, 2022 - By 

    Today I’m starting my series on our Cruise that we recently just got back from. It’s been several years since we’ve cruise and we were so excited to go cruising this last Christmas, but then we cancelled. When we got the email about the deals happening, we just couldn’t pass them up. Let’s jump into this adventure…that almost didn’t happen. Friday, we worked and I ended up going home before lunch because I had a few things left to pack and wanted to get some things done around the house before leaving for 10 days. I had become concerned that…

  • Life - Travel

    The Cruise that Never Happened

    December 30, 2021 - By 

    Back in November, Rob and I were bouncing ideas around about what to do with our 2 weeks off at Christmas. A trip to Texas or Baton Rouge to see family? A trip to the beach or the mountains? A cruise? Me: “a cruise? yes please!” After some research we found the one we wanted to book. We bounced the idea around with our family and we read about the fact we’d have to sometimes wear masks inside. Ok, yeah. We can handle that. Our rule of thumb is if we can get a cruise for less than $100/day per…

  • Carnival Paradise {5 Day Western} Christmas Cruise
    Travel

    Carnival Paradise {5 Day Western} Christmas Cruise

    January 14, 2017 - By 

    Embarkation Day We spent the weekend before Christmas in Spring Hill, FL visiting with Rob’s Gramma, Grampa, Mom, and others. We celebrated Gramma McMahon’s birthday that Sunday. Then, on Monday we loaded up and headed down to the Tampa Cruise port. We always arrive at the port around 11am. Even though the cruise documents say you start checking in at 1pm that’s not true. Here’s everyone walking from the long-term garage to the cruise port and then Drew and Caitlyn after we checked in and were waiting for our group to be called so we could board the Carnival Paradise.…

  • Travel

    Disembarking in Baltimore

    July 12, 2016 - By 

    Our cruise earlier this year was a journey cruise, which is a new type of cruise that Carnival started last year. I highly recommend them if you’re looking to do a longer cruise. You start the cruise in one place and end in another. So after 3 days at sea, we disembarked in Baltimore. Yeah, it was kind of crazy going from nice tropical temps to Baltimore, Maryland in February with temps in the 40°s. The day was cold and dreary, but that didn’t stop us. After finally being able to leave the ship around 11 or 12, we took…

  • Travel

    Driving around St. Kitts

    June 10, 2016 - By 

    Here’s another epic post from our Cruise. Be ready for picture overload! Today we got up before the alarm went off. We were coming in simultaneously with a P&O cruise ship. We got dressed and went down to Mermaid Grill for breakfast buffet, then went down to our cabin and packed for the day. We were ready to go before they made the all clear announcement. We went down to get off the ship but since the Jewel of the Seas cruise ship was just then docking we had to wait for it to dock. Once we were cleared we…

  • Travel

    St. Lucia

    April 29, 2016 - By 

    We woke up before the alarm again. We didn’t have to be on the pier as early for our excursion as the last couple of days. We watched from our cabin as another cruise ship came in which ended up being Celebrity Eclipse. There was another Thompson ship at port already. We got breakfast in the Mermaid Grill, gathered our stuff, and headed off the ship to the post office. We had to wait in a long line to get stamps. Then, we walked around the capital city of Castries. We stopped at a grocery store and looked around. That…

  • Travel

    Dominica Highlights

    March 29, 2016 - By 

    Dominica (doh-muh-NEE-ka) is known as the Nature Island. We eagerly woke up before the alarm…again. Did our normal routine of going to the dining room for breakfast. I had the same thing I had the day before, but Rob switched it up a bit and ordered French toast. We got off the ship and loaded the bus for our tour called Dominica’s Favorites. Our guide was amazing. Throughout the day he impressed upon us that Dominica is the nature island where they eat healthy and use all natural remedies for medicines when necessary. We saw this rainbow as we made…

  • Travel

    The Best of Antigua Highlight Tour and Dickenson Bay Beach

    March 20, 2016 - By 

    We woke up before the alarm went off and watched us dock at Antigua. We got dressed and went up for breakfast. We met some folks that cruise a lot. One of the guys has been on 75 cruises in 2 years. Oh the life of the retired…. It was interesting to listen to the 3 different couples talk about their cruising experiences and to hear what it’s like to be a Platinum or Diamond cruiser. Rob had Eggs Benedict wit OJ and I had pancakes, banana, bacon, and OJ. Rob isn’t used to eating breakfast, so he never eats…

  • Travel

    Day in St. Thomas

    March 19, 2016 - By 

    After leaving San Juan about 10 pm the night before and getting to bed after that I still managed to wake up before the alarm went off. I looked out the window and saw that we weren’t docked quite yet. Rob and I got up and got dressed and headed to main dining hall for breakfast. Rob enjoyed Eggs Benedict, OJ, and hash browns. While I scarfed down scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, peach yogurt, and OJ. We went back to our cabin to go to the bathroom and pack our backpack for our day in St. Thomas. We had…

  • Travel

    Paradise Point – St. Thomas

    March 5, 2016 - By 

    One of the things on our St. Thomas bucket list was to take the Skyride up to Paradise Point. It takes you up 700 ft. for amazing views of Charlotte Amalie, the boat harbor, as well as islands in the distance. Our plan was to ride up, have a drink or 2, and enjoy the views before heading back to the ship. The Bushwacker is the drink that St. Thomas is known for. so it was a must try. Rob wasn’t super thrilled about it because it had Kahlua in it. He’s not a fan of coffee flavored items. For…

  • Travel

    Atlanta to San Juan

    February 16, 2016 - By 

    The day we left for San Juan, we got up with the kids and saw them off to school before finishing up with our packing and running a few errands. We left around 11 and headed up to Rob’s Mom’s house where we would pick up Rob’s brother, Nick, who was driving us to the airport. Before going to the airport, we stopped at one of our favorite places to have Chinese, Fire Dragon. From there it was off the airport, where we were dropped off at Delta curbside check with no line! We got through a long line of…

  • Travel

    Pirilo Pizza Rustica – San Juan, Puerto Rico

    February 12, 2016 - By 

    The night we got into San Juan, it was just passed 11 pm after we got checked in to our hotel and everything. Pretty much all the restaurants near us in Old San Juan were closed. We were pretty hungry, so we were happy that Pirilo Pizza Rustica was still open. We weren’t super excited about having pizza in San Juan, but at that point we weren’t going to turn it down. Pirilo is a quaint little spot with a bar and a few tables. I think there was an upstairs to the restaurant, but we didn’t go up there.…