Norwegian Sea Caribbean Cruise 2001.  

Oh boy what a trip!  The cruise left Miami on December 24th, made a stop in Key West, a stop in Cozumel, then sailed a full day before returning us to Miami on the 28th.   

The family started arriving in Miami two days early to avoid any travel snafus.  Happily we all made it to Miami safely by the 24th and were (almost) ready to cruise.  We had a last minute travel document problem which was cleared up when Leslie rang up a gang of people in Colorado and had them scurrying around for Ian and Adam's birth certificates.  Apparently the Police can also be very helpful in these matters!

We piled onto the shuttle from our hotel just in time to meet Shane, Tracey, Shannon and Casey at the dock.  We chatted with the Walton's of Salt Lake on our shuttle - a family of eight kids! 

Once on the ship we made for the pool deck and got ourselves acquainted with a round of pina coladas before the safety exercises out by the lifeboats. 

From there it was pretty smooth sailing, lots of fun, eating, drinking, Frances and Kevin getting engaged! Then there was a short trip into Key West where the more adventurous of us went snorkeling (Ian and Adam's first time!)  Then just when everything seemed too good to be true we hit a storm.  This made for an interesting night at sea, Jackie, Kurt, Chris and I tried to brave the storm and check it out on deck.  But the next day we were not so pleased when we found that the ship would not be able to dock in Cozumel as expected due to the high winds, and all of the day excursions were cancelled!

We thought quickly on our feet and had a good sized contingent of our group on the first Tender which shuttled a few hundred brave souls over the rough seas to shore.  Once on Cozumel we found a cab driver who gave us a great deal on a day package - first a stop at the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio, then a stop at a quiet local beach.  Frances and Kevin were a bit more adventurous and rented scooters for the day and later met up with the O'Hara contingent at another beach.

By nightfall in Cozumel the wind was really kicking up, but we braved the sea spray and had dinner by the dock.  Chris and I spent our last few moments on land sampling some of the local tequila offerings.

We had three family dinners on board the ship - each one an interesting challenge for the staff - but the last night was definitely the best.  Every attention mongering group member got in at least one toast, Ian and Adam tried some escargot, Adam tasted some fois gras, the staff brought Tracey a birthday cake, and on top of that we had a baked alaska on the house.  Needless to say we all rolled away from the table that night.  Definitely a good time.  That night almost everyone stayed up to go to one of the cabaret shows (a wee bit on the hokey side, but Shannon and Casey were mesmerized).

Oh, and we took lots of photos.  Did you come here to see photos?  There are so many great photos I had to put them on four separate pages.  We took a couple of video clips too.

Christmas Cruise Photos:

Life on a Boat - Some pictures capturing the essence of cruise living. 

Family Group Shots - The ever hard to capture family photo. 

Cozumel - The day trip that almost didn't happen.   

Kids - And finally, some pictures of the little ones.

Christmas Cruise Video:

Cruise Videos