These pages are a diary of the various cruise vacations that we've recently taken. The cruises include many destinations that I thought we'd never see including Alaska, Europe, Hawaii, Tahiti, and the Caribbean. Click on any of the links / pictures, in the scrolling summaries below, to learn more about the destinations we visited.
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In May, 2000, I had a six week sabbatical from work, as a benefit of my five years of service to the software company I work for. We began our vacation with a pre-cruise Canadian Rockies tour. Then we sailed from Vancouver to Seward, Alaska on a Northern Glacier Cruise aboard the Celebrity Mercury, our first Celebrity cruise. Following the cruise, we remained in Alaska, traveling from Seward to Anchorage, including a train ride to Denali. Alaska is a wonderful destination and May is a great time to visit.
After flying home from Alaska, we unpacked, washed clothes, and headed back out to sea. This time on a Western Caribbean vacation. Following our cruise, we flew to California for a luxurious stay at Lacost Resort and Spa. Our final stop was Los Angeles, CA where we visited Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and Universal Studios. This will be one of our most memorable vacations.
Our first Norwegian Cruise Line sailing was the maiden voyage of the Norwegian Sun - Path of the Vikings. The reason we chose this particular cruise was that it sailed the day before our 25th Anniversary, a day we will never forget.
Thousands of miles from home, we learned about the crash into the WTC in New York. Our final desintation on this Trans-Atlantic voyage was to have been New York. We were looking forward to sailing into it's harbor. That was not meant to be; our final port was Boston instead.
We planned a cruise to the Western Caribbean for April, 2002. As usual, we booked well in advance. With just weeks to go before the cruise, we received a dreaded phone call that the Celebrity Summit would be going in for emergency dry dock and our cruise was cancelled. We could book a shortened cruise or get a refund and book another cruise at a discounted price.
The shortened cruise would not have included Aruba, which was the port we were most interested in seeing, so we opted to cancel and reschedule for another sailing. The Millennium, a sister ship, would be sailing the same itinerary in May, so we booked the May 20th sailing. This was our second voyage on this ship. Read my complete review for all the details of this great trip.
Our first Royal Caribbean Cruise Line experience was also our first trip to Hawaii. We booked this cruise as a celebration for my wife's 50th birthday. The cruise started from Ensenada, Mexico, where we spent the first 4 days at sea. Ports visited in Hawaii were Hilo, Kona, Maui, Kauai, and Oahu.
Following the cruise we spent an additional two days at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel in Honolulu. The most moving experience of the cruise was our visit to the Arizona Memorial.
August, 2003 marked my 50th birthday and we once again planned a cruise as a celebration. We had always wanted to go to the Baltic in Northern Europe and Celebrity had a 14 night cruise that fit the bill. In addition to the cruise, we booked a two-night pre-cruise stay in London. We just love that city and surrounding area.
My wife's mother was in the hospital before we left for our cruise, but everything seemed like it would be fine, and she had insisted that we go on our cruise. One hour after we sailed from Dover, we got a phone call that she had passed away. Sunday was a day at sea, so we were unable to leave the ship until it docked in Oslo Monday morning. The conceirge was wonderful, helping us schedule return flights from Oslo. This was the first time we had to interrupt a cruise, something we hope will never happen again. For those that don't take trip insurance, this is exactly why you need to do so.
Our first Princess Cruise Line sailing was on Tahitian Princess to French Polynesia and the Cook Islands. We had a mini-suite, which is a wonderful cabin with a huge veranda.
The weather was beautiful for most of the cruise. We especially enjoyed Bora Bora where we were docked overnight. The highlight of the cruise was the sunset cruise and helmet dive tours in Bora Bora.
Jewel Of the Seas is the latest ship in RCCL's Radiance class. We booked the first British Isles/Norwegian Fjords cruise of this ship. We watched the ship being built with weekly updates from the shipyard. We had about 98 people chatting online on Cruise Critic. There was lots of excitement built up even before we set foot aboard this marvelous new ship.
We spent two days in London prior to the cruise. We just love London. Our Cruise Critic group met for dinner in London the night before we sailed. Check out my photo albums (under Gallery).
Our new friends from our Jewel OTS cruise booked the Panama Canal cruise on RCCL's Radiance OTS and asked us to join them. Since we had such a wonderful time on the Jewel, and with our new friends, we decided to book the cruise.
Once again we had a very active Cruise Critic group. We decided to have a pre-cruise dinner party at Bubba Gumps in Miami, Florida.
This was our first trip traversing the Panama Canal. We had been to the Canal on a Caribbean cruise before, but not gone through the locks. We were very much looking forward to this cruise.
Carnival Cruise Line's Conquest was chosen for Cruises Inc.'s 2005 National Conference at Sea. My wife, who is a Cruise Specialist, took me as her guest for this conference.
When we booked this cruise, the embarkation port was to have been New Orleans, LA. Unfortunately, hurricane Katrina had something to say about that. Carnival Cruise Line rescheduled all cruises, that were to have embarked in New Orleans, to Galveston, Texas.
This cruise was a last minute decision for us. My wife had hotel and airline tickets to Fort Lauderdale for a ship inspection. When the inspection was cancelled, she decided to look for a cruise instead.
There still was availability on Celebrity Zenith to Western Caribbean. We'd be at sea on Valentine's Day.
We booked a Zenith Suite and headed for Miami, Grand Cayman, and Key West.
In August 2003, we spent two days in London and then boarded the Celebrity Constellation for a 14 night cruise to Baltics (Scandinavia / Russia). Shortly after we sailed from Dover, England,
we got a phone call that my Mother-in-law had passed away.
The next day we were at sea, so the earliest we could fly home was when we docked in the first port, Oslo, Norway.
We vowed that we would return to the Constellation to complete this cruise at a later date. This cruise is almost identical to the original sailing, with the exception of an added stop in Helsingborg, Sweden on the return to Dover.
This cruise was one of those Magical Opportunities that don't come along often in a life-time.
My wife is a Cruise Specialist and is obviously on many email mailings from the various Cruise
Lines. Disney Cruise Line was offering a travel agent rate on the Disney Wonder for one of
their special sailings to the Southern Caribbean. Ports included St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Antigua,
Barbados, Castaway Cay, and Port Canaveral.
Every October, Cruise One and Cruises Inc. hosts their National Conference at Sea on one of the major cruise lines. Holland America Cruise Line is the host for the Dare to Achive More 2006 National Confernce aboard the ms Oosterdam for a 7 Night Mexican Riviera cruise. Ports included San Diego, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.
We were fortunate to be invited to a pre-inaugural event held onboard the Liberty Of the Seas.
We sailed from Cape Liberty Cruise Port, Bayonne, NJ. While it was a cruise to nowhere, we initially sailed past
the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty. It was an awesome sight as helicopters flew overhead to get the
first glimpse of this beautiful new 160,000 ton ship.
This was our second cruise to the Norwegian Fjords. This 12 night cruise starts and ends in Amsterdam, where we spent 2 nights before the cruise.
The highlight of this cruise is the stop at Honningsvag, Norway (North Cape) which is the northern most point in Europe. We also cruised the
Arctic Circle (North and Southbound). Make sure to check out my photo albums.
We have been to the Caribbean several times, but this was an opportunity to sail on one of Princess Cruises' newer ships - Caribbean Princess.
This trip to the Eastern Caribbean included ports of call of St. Thomas, USVI, St. Maarten, and Princess Cays (thier private island in the Bahamas).
This was a very relaxing cruise since we didn't have a pre-set agenda when we departed. We spent the night before in Ft. Lauderdale where we met with
friends of ours from our North Cape cruise.
Norwegian Cruise Line's Pearl was chosen for Cruises Inc.'s 2006 National Conference at Sea, "A League of our Own".
The conference actually started on Oct. 13th at the Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel.
We booked a Balcony Mini Suite for this 5 night cruise which departed from Miami
and had ports of call in Cozumel, and Grand Cayman.
We've been to these ports before, so the ship was the destination, along with the conference.
For our first cruise in 2008, we decided to go to Bermuda in June. Norwegian Cruise Line's Dawn sails a 7 night itinerary from New York.
We arrived in New York the day before our cruise so that we didn't have to rush to the ship from the airport.
We booked a Balcony Mini Suite for this 7 night cruise which departed from Manhattan Cruise Terminal in New York
and had ports of call in King's Wharf and Hamilton, Bermuda. The ship served as our floating hotel for three full days in Bermuda before
returning to New York.
The background for this page was taken from one of my pictures and converted into a tiled background using PhotoShop.
