Our Holiday Cruise

Over the holidays Susie and I, with our relatives Shari and Stuart, had the great fortune to be able to take a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles, via the Panama Canal. Over the next several posts, I'll share some of our experiences on the cruise, which took us to Aruba and Cartagena, through the canal, and then to Costa Rica, Acupulco and Cabo San Lucas.

We left Fort Lauderdale on a Wednesday afternoon. We had stayed at a Hilton hotel virtually across the street from the cruise terminal, so the four of walked, with our luggage from the hotel to the ship. In this picture taken from the balcony of our stateroom, you can see the terminal, a gangway that's already been disconnected from the ship, and the hotel.

By the time the boat actually left the dock, the sun had just set. The area around the hotel was awfully swanky, with lots of yachts, some of which were enormous. The crew of one such boat told us that they were going to sailing to Europe shortly.

With the pilot boat along side, our ship, the Coral Princess, reached the last of Fort Lauderdale's condos as it headed into the Carribean on our way to Aruba.

The next couple of days were, as they cruise line said, at sea. For almost of all our first day, we sailed along Cuba's northern coast in iffy weather. This was our view toward the end of the day.