The final stop on the cruise was Aruba. Aruba is another Dutch island. Where Curacao was well developed for tourists, Aruba was more rugged, but had some spectacular resort beaches. We tok a tour of the island that took us from Oranjestad in the South to the Northern coast. There, we went to a “Natural Rock Bridge” that was a rugged, rocky coast.
This was not at all what I expected, as I have more or less thought, because of all the resorts that it would be mostly hotels and beaches
The third stop was Curacao. We docked in Willemstad. Curacao is a dutch island off the coast of Venezuela. The buildings were all inspired by Dutch tradition. Walking from the ship to town you are forced to walk through an old fort, and this was looking through an opening they used to fire canons from.
In that picture, you can see a bridge going over the inlet. This is a “Swinging” bridge, in that it actually pivots to allow boat traffic to pass by.
After Cozumel, we spent a day at sea before getting back to Galveston. Over the course of the cruise, I was able to get some sunrise/sunset pictures. So, I am going to put them all in this post.
This was from Falmouth Jamaica.
This was at sunrise in George Town Grand Cayman Islands.
as was this
And, as we were preparing to leave George Town, I got this shot.
Our third port of call was Cozumel. I am not sure how many times we have been to Cozumel, but it has been enough that we no longer consider doing any organized excursions. We took a cab into town, walked around, and had lunch at Las Palmeres. I have taken so many pictures in Cozumel over the years, that it is hard to take anything new. But, I tried. As we were about to leave port, I got a couple of shots of Cozumel at night.
and
Our second port of call was George Town Cayman Islands. We did a scenic trolley tour, and it was really not worth what we paid. When we went to catch it, we noticed there was a “hop on – hop off” bus tour that would probably have been far better. Even at that, I got a couple good images. The trolley we took went out the main street for a couple miles, and at the end, we stopped at a beach called “Smith’s Barricade.”
When we got back, we walked around George Town for a while, and got this shot.
We could not dock in George Town. So, we had to use tenders. Returning to the ship, I took this picture of our cruise ship.
Our first port was Falmouth Jamaica. From the ship, it looked fantastic, but what we saw was all built specifically for the cruise ships.
We took an excursion to “Good Hope Estate.” This was a 18th century sugar cane plantation. Seldom are cruise excursions worth their cost, but this was one that really was. This plantation was built up on the top of a mountain, and the views were stunning.
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There was a small pond on the plantation, and when we walked around it, I saw this water lily.
We took a cruise on The Navigator of the Seas the week after New Years. The first two days were at sea, and these are a couple of the images of the ship that I captured.
This first one is The Elissa in Galveston Harbor from the deck of the cruise ship.
The next one is a huge sculpture in the center of the hip that is several stories tall.
This is the 11the deck of the ship facing forward.
