Just Another Day in Paradise: Birthday Cruise 2013

We had a GREAT time on our birthday cruise! As most of you know Ray was born on Jan.6th and I the 7th. Makes it real easy to remember! We went on the Caribbean Princess out of Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale) Our 1st stop was Princesses private island which is really Eluthera a Bahama island. Tender port so I couldn't go. Princess was our first cruise in 1999 and I was allowed to go on the tenders then. Oh well, since my Mom nearly got her head chopped off in a ship to tender transfer I guess we understand. : ) Second stop was Curacau, which is in the southern Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. Third stop was Aruba. Both islands are under the Nederlands rule and Delft made goods were all over. When Tricia,Tess and I went to Europe we toured the Delft factory.

First we had to get Gator out of the suitcase! lol

Curacau was absolutely beautiful! We didn't get to stay long as we hit some rough weather that set us back a little but we enjoyed the colored architecture and the local crafters and music.We even saw an all brass band from Indiana!! They were great! One of Curacaus' best sites is Fort Rif which has been converted into a shopping mall with aq bandshell in the middle! This brass band was 10 strong and they would sneak off and position themselves along the parapets so the sound seemed like it was coming from everywhere!

Our boarding picture!

It was night so hard to get their picture, but they were great!

It was Soooo windy on deck I had to put my scarf (Suzi's Christmas present) over my head to keep the hair out of my mouth. Did get to see some little flying fish while we were out there. : )

Rough seas promote great waves in the inaccessible pool. The kids had a great time swishing back and forth! And we enjoyed watching them! Last stop was Aruba! We actually got 3 whole days at sea because the ports were so far away! We like days at sea.