Skagway is an interesting port because there is room for several ships. I think there were four or five when we were there, but two of the ships dock on a spot that had a rockfall and they won’t allow passengers to get off and walk on that dock. We had to tender into the port. This was a bit of a nightmare because everyone wants to … Continue reading Princess Cruise Alaska: Skagway
We booked a whale watch for Juneau. I have not been hugely successful seeing whales on tours, but we took a chance. The tour we booked also included a stop at the Mendenhall Glacier as well. You could just book the whale watch alone. Our tour was at 10am. We signed in with the group not far from where the cruise ship docked. We took a bus to the Mendenhall … Continue reading Princess Cruise Alaska: Juneau
This is our second cruise in Alaska. We went four years ago in September on NCL. This time it’s August on Princess. We are stopping at many of the same places. On our previous cruise two out of three excursions were canceled. We are hoping for better luck this time. Our first excursion is the most important one for my husband. He is dying to see bears catch salmon in the … Continue reading Princess Cruise Alaska: Ketchikan
Our port today started at noon. We got off the ship as soon as we could and headed to the bus stop so we could get to Torshavn (the main city). Ahead of us it looked like half the boat had the same plan that we did. When we saw the group of people waiting for the bus, we changed plans. First we had to go back to … Continue reading Runavik, Faroe Islands
The first port stop on our Holland America cruise was Heimaey. It is a tiny place so we had to take a tender to shore. Apparently, it is generally a rough trip. They started the tenders at 9am, but there were issues to due rough seas near the boat. The tour we booked did not leave until 12:45, but we decided to go get tender tickets a little after … Continue reading Heimaey, Westman Islands, Iceland
We were supposed to stop in Trinidad and Tobago, but the captain came on the intercom in our rooms around 3pm and told us that we couldn’t stop there due to the weather. We were very disappointed because we had a tour that included bird watching in the rain forest. Instead, we spent the day keeping busy and packing. It was relaxing. We arrived in Barbados … Continue reading Barbados
We bought a tour from shore excursions. We met the guide inside the mall. There were nine people on our island spice tour. The tiny bus that we boarded was parked in the super busy lot near the terminal. It took us about ten minutes to get out of our parking space. It was crazy. I was so happy that I didn’t have to drive there. We drove through the … Continue reading Grenada
We have been wanting to visit the Dry Tortugas National Park for some time. We just have not made an effort to get to Key West, even though there are very cheap flight from Tampa every day. We finally got a hotel deal and flew down for a few days. There are only two ways to get to Dry Tortugas National Park. One is the ferry and the … Continue reading Dry Tortugas National Park
This is the first time that I have visited Oahu. I have been to Hawaii twice before and visited Maui, the Big Island, and Kauai. I was told that Oahu was basically like a city, which made me nervous to visit because I prefer the nature aspects of the other islands I have visited. We landed at 4:15pm, which felt like 10pm to us. We stopped at a … Continue reading Oahu, Hawaii
We arrived in San Juan a little before 10am. We took the shuttle to the car rental agency and began our adventure to El Yunque. It takes about 30 minutes to drive there from the airport without traffic. I was excited to finally see a place that I used to teach in my Spanish classes. You would never know that you are headed to a National Forest … Continue reading Puerto Rico: El Yunque National Forest
