We love everything about cruising--long days at sea lounging by the pool, joining friends at lavish dinners, exotic port stops, and don't forget the towel animals on the bed every evening! A cruise ship is infinitely preferable to a plane trip when crossing the Atlantic Ocean. On October 30, we traveled from Bruges, Belgium, on the Eurostar train to London and then to Southampton to board NCL's newest ship, the Escape, for a 10 day cruise to Miami--no port stops!

We had ten wonderful days at sea with ten of our fantastic cruising friends . Last year on our transatlantic cruise we met the greatest group of people and have stayed in touch with them (thanks, Facebook). They all traveled from far-flung places like Idaho, Rhode Island, Florida, and northern England to meet in Southampton and enjoy ten days of cruising fun on the Escape. We spent the days playing Left-Right-Center, gambling in the casino, dining in all the different restaurants, and hanging out in the Brew Pub. We are really looking forward to meeting our friends again next October on the NCL Epic for the 2016 transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Florida.

The weather on our transatlantic cruise was a bit cool and rainy for the first part of the crossing. A passenger on the ship became ill and had to be airlifted by helicopter while we were off the coast of Spain. We stood on our balcony and watched the process, giving thanks that it wasn't us dangling from a rope off a hovering helicopter in the drizzly, cold wind. We did hear that the passenger was going to be fine after treatment at a hospital, so that was a relief. We did have three sunny days once we approached Miami and everyone enjoyed the outdoor activities on the ship.

After we docked in Miami on November 8, we said goodbye to our dear friends and flew to San Juan, PR, to begin our two week cruises of the Caribbean. We first boarded the Carnival Liberty in San Juan and sailed to St . Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St Kitts, and St. Maarten before returning to San Juan. We chose to sail on Carnival because of the itinerary. While we are not big fans of the Carnival ships, they do have some features we like such as Guy's burgers -- best burgers ever. We love the southern Caribbean itinerary. While on St. Thomas we took the Champagne Catamaran cruise to St. John's for some of the best snorkeling ever. On St. Lucia we took the Segway tour of the island and totally love it. Now Cory wants to buy a Segway! They are so easy to ride and we loved the off-road jungle locations where we stopped at a secluded beach bar and enjoyed the views of St. Lucia. On St. Maarten we took another catamaran snorkeling trip to the incredible turquoise waters and beaches of the island. We passed Maho Beach where the big jets land nearly on the beach and swam in the turquoise waters off the beach.

Returning to San Juan, we taxied to the berth of RCCL's Jewel of the Seas and boarded the ship for another week cruising in the Caribbean, this time to the islands of Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St . Maarten and St. Croix. Again, we chose this ship because we wanted to visit Antigua and St. Croix, new places for us. This was our first cruise with Royal Caribbean and we liked it so well that we booked another cruise while on the ship. The ship was beautiful and elegant, the meals in the dining room excellent, and our fellow cruisers were fun and friendly. We highly recommend this cruise line. We did several catamaran snorkel trips, and the highlight was snorkeling off Buck Island while we stopped in St. Croix. Buck Island Reef National Monument, a part of the US Virgin Islands, is an incredible natural reef where we saw beautiful coral formations and many different beautiful fish. After snorkeling, our crew cooked a BBQ lunch on the beach and we fed our leftovers to the mongoose(s?) that inhabit the island. We enjoyed so many beautiful white beaches and warm turquoise waters that it would be difficult to express how gorgeous we found the Caribbean. We'll be sure to return to these islands on a yearly basis (or more often, if possible).

It's now the holiday season and we are in Phoenix with family. Cory is spending a week in Connecticut with his buddy, Dave, at a woodworking conference. We're both enjoying time with my Dad and family in Prescott, AZ, and his parents and our children in Phoenix. I hope everyone has a happy and joyful Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have made some plans to travel again after the first of January. We may see more of the US in Cory's Corvette and then we're going to Europe again in April. Stay tuned for more travel stories.

Enjoy the pics!