The last leg of our 2018 vacation we set sail from Ft Lauderdale on a 6 night cruise through the Caribbean. This is our second Caribbean cruise and as usual we are on Royal Caribbean. This cruise we earned our Platinum status having spent 39 nights at sea with Royal. Im really not sure what this means other than a speedier check-in and a welcome back party… oh and our shinny lapel pin… but we feel special just the same.
Our ship for this trip is the beautiful Freedom of the Sea’s which is part of the Freedom Class. When have previously been on Marina and Adventure, both part of the Freedom class. Freedom is definitely our favourite class as the newer ships just don’t have the same traditions as the older fleet.
We arrived in Ft Lauderdale from Calgary after spending a week in Banff in the freezing minus 30 degree Celsius winter. Ft Lauderdale was definitely warmer but not what we expected from Miami even in winter. North America was hit with pretty unusual cold weather and even down in Miami the weather is unusually cold. The night before our cruise we stayed at the Hilton Ft Lauderdale and while it wasn’t what you would expect from a Hilton it was close to the cruise terminal so a good choice if your crusing out of Ft Lauderdale.
We went to Boatyard for dinner on our only night in Ft Lauderdale and it was amazing. It was pretty pricey but definitely worth it.
This cruise set off on New Years Eve…. a first for us as we are usually home in Australia over Christmas. The atmosphere was amazing and we splurged and booked a private table on the main promenade deck overlooking the count down clock. The table came with a bottle of Dom (the first time we have had Dom Perignon) which we opened at 11:30 and sipped slowly…. cause it was back to house sparkling afterwards.
The weather on this cruise was a little cold. We are used to crusing in Asia where its hot and sunny every day, but this cruise we only got 2 days of sunshine. The first sunny day we were in Mexico at Costa Maya. We booked an organised tour that took us on a 40 minute bus ride to a resort with all you can eat buffet, cocktails and beach. Steve had a cold from our time in Banff so we didn’t swim but laid on the beach and just relaxed. The trip back was interesting, we were in an open air bus with free flowing tequila and beer……. not great on a bus with no toilet. Needless to say it was a mad dash to the loo when we arrived back at the port.
The rest of the cruise was pretty quiet. I think New Years eve took its toll on most of the passengers including us.
While relaxing this was definitely not our favourite cruise. The weather (Caribbean in winter) was just not the same as the hot sunny days we had last time we cruised the gorgeous Caribbean Islands.