So, what do you do when you are in Florida and have a couple of weeks to kill? Why, cruise the Caribbean, of course! We debarked the Norwegian Epic on Nov. 9 and took a shuttle the 30 miles to Ft. Lauderdale. Then, we boarded the Holland America line's Niew Amsterdam for a two week Caribbean cruise. Unlike the transatlantic cruise we just finished, the Caribbean cruise had more days in ports than at sea. Here is our itinerary:
  9 Nov 2014 Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US 04:00 PM
 10 Nov 2014 At Sea
 11 Nov 2014 Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos 08:00 AM to 03:00 PM
 12 Nov 2014 San Juan, Puerto Rico 01:00 PM to 11:00 PM
 13 Nov 2014 St . Thomas, U.S.V.I. 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM
 14 Nov 2014 At Sea
 15 Nov 2014 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas  08:00 AM to 03:00 PM
 16 Nov 2014 Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US 7:00 AM to 04:00 PM
 17 Nov 2014 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas 08:00 AM to 04:00 PM
 18 Nov 2014 At Sea
 19 Nov 2014 Georgetown, Cayman Islands 08:00 AM to 04:00 PM
 20 Nov 2014 Cozumel, Mexico 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM1
 21 Nov 2014 At Sea
 22 Nov 2014 Key West, Florida, US 8:00 AM to 05:00 PM
 23 Nov 2014 Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US 7:00 AM

The HAL Niew Amsterdam is a smaller ship than the Epic, about half its size, and is very nicely appointed. The cabins were beautiful and the atrium and public rooms were sophisticated and plush. However, this type of cruise line attracts a much older, well-heeled crowd.  All the walkers used by passengers formed a log-jam at the dining room entrance each evening. The dining room hours of 5:30 - 9 pm caught us off guard one evening when we went to dine at 9:10 pm and they were closed! We had to go to the only other dining venue on the ship, the buffet on the Lido deck . Not my favorite way to eat dinner. The entertainment was also geared to the older crowd, with the most popular lounge being the one where the lady played classical music on a violin with a piano accompaniment. We spent most evenings after dinner watching movies in our cabin. The cabin, on the other hand, was very well equipped, and we enjoyed sitting on the overly large balcony watching the blue Caribbean sea flow past us. The ship casino provided some entertainment with slot and black jack tournaments, and we enjoyed dressing up for dinner and the fantastic meals in the dining room.

We spend many wonderful and active days in each port. When we reached Grand Turk, Cory wasn't feeling well, so I took a Segway tour on my own with a half dozen other ship's passengers. That was fun learning to balance and control the Segway while seeing the historic buildings and beaches of Grand Turk. The next day, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, I went on a historic and culinary tour of old San Juan . It culminated in a cooking demo of mofongo which we then enjoyed along with mojitos. That evening Cory felt better, so I took him on a personal walking tour of old San Juan and showed him what I had seen that day. San Juan is beautiful, and we'd like to revisit it someday for a longer stay. Our next stop, St. Thomas, was one of our favorite ports on the cruise. We went snorkeling on the Champagne Catamaran off the beach of St. John's island, just a short cruise from St. Thomas. The water was clear 15 to 20 feet to the ocean floor, and we saw so many tropical fish, it was like swimming in an aquarium. This was an exhilarating day spent swimming and soaking up the Caribbean sun. The last stop of our first week at sea was Half Moon Cay, a private island owned by the HAL cruise line. All their Caribbean cruises stop here for passengers to spend a day on a gorgeous white sand beach and enjoy the water and a beach barbecue. We soaked in the clear blue water, ate barbecue and spent the afternoon drowsing in a beach hammock . It's a Caribbean lifestyle!

The second week of our cruise visited the western Caribbean. In Ft. Lauderdale, we took a bus to visit the Everglades National Park, see some alligators and ride an air boat through the Everglades. This is an area of the country we had never seen, so we enjoyed learning about this endangered and fragile environment. Next day, we stopped again in Half Moon Cay, but the day was overcast and rainy, so Cory and I chose to stay on the ship and enjoy the facilities. We had been to Half Moon Cay two days before on a beautiful sunny day, so we were happy to skip this stop. In the Cayman Islands the next day we spent the day at 7 Mile Beach and tried their local beer in the bar. At our stop in Cozumel we went snorkeling on the Fury Catamaran and went to a beach party at a beautiful beach. Another wonderful day in and on the water. Key West, Florida was our last stop before arriving at Ft. Lauderdale, the end of our cruise. We had never been to Key West and enjoyed touring the Truman White House and Hemingway's house with their 6-toed cats, descendants of Hemingway's original 6-toed cat, Snowball . Nearly 65 of the cats now live and are cared for on the property today. We spent the rest of our day doing the Duvall Crawl, visiting many of the bars on Duvall Street, including the famous Sloppy Joe's Bar.

We enjoy the Caribbean with its sunny days and clear blue waters so this cruise was a great trip for us. Enjoy the pictures!