Honeymoon Recap - Part 1

So I'm a little delayed in my honeymoon recap but life has been quite busy! Better late than never I suppose! I'm going to break up the honeymoon recap into a few different posts since we did so much and went to so many places.

Branden and I took a 12 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale down to the Panama Canal. We had never been on a vacation together so I was looking forward to just being able to experience something new with him!

The vacation started off with a bit of a rough patch. We arrived to the Oakland airport only to find out our flight was delayed.

We had a connection to make in Austin so the first thing we did was make sure with the airline that we would be fine to make this connection. They assured us that everything would be fine and the plane would wait for our plane to land before it took off. When we got to Austin we were informed (along with 6 other people) that our plane had left. Southwest did an amazing job keeping our anger levels low and immediately compensated us $400 each for the inconvenience and re-routed our trips. However, because we had to catch the cruise the next day we didn't like the options they gave us.

The option Southwest gave us was to fly from Austin to Dallas to New Orleans, stay the night in New Orleans, then in the morning fly from New Orleans to Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale. This would have gotten us into the airport around 12:30 and we had to catch our ship by 3:30. If we had any delays in those flights we potentially would have had a huge problem. We asked about flying to Orlando and they were able to get us on a plane leaving in 5 minutes. However, they were able to find my luggage but not Branden's. We decided to bite the bullet and hope his luggage showed up before we left.

We flew into Orlando, rented a car, and drove down to Ft. Lauderdale.

We got into Ft. Lauderdale at 2am local time and found out we got upgraded to a suite! That was nice but we weren't really able to enjoy it since we got in so late and Branden's luggage was still lost.

After a short night's sleep we got up and went to the Ft. Lauderdale airport in hopes Branden's bags got there. Unfortunately they weren't there yet so we had to make a quick decision. We decided to go to Ross and buy him all new stuff. After our trip to Ross we went back to the airport to check one last time that his bag arrived...AND IT DID! It ended up being on the flight from Tampa so thankfully we had everything he needed. We went directly to the ship and got there just before 3. Once we got on the ship it was stress free from then on!

 First photo on the ship!

 Safety Drill

 We got ourselves settled, took the obligatory cruise life jacket photo, and then we were set to sail!

Leaving the port in Florida

Looking back at the coast

We sailed on the Coral Princess

After setting sail we explored the ship a little and then got ready for dinner. We were so happy we got a room with a balcony so we could enjoy some pre-dinner drinks and listen to the ocean.

 Enjoying a drink before dinner

  First night of dinner! We opted to go to the traditional dining and eat with the same people each evening.

 Our itinerary had us with 2 sea days right at the beginning so we were able to have some fun on the ship. We slept in, ate a bunch, and enjoyed many of the activities the ship had to offer. Some of our favorite activities were the trivia sessions, game sessions, and poolside activities. When we weren't participating in the Princess planned activities, you could usually find us by the pool or reading on the decks. Our first formal night was the second evening and we really enjoyed dressing up. Branden got a new suit just before the cruise (thanks Men's Warehouse for the great post-wedding deal) and I thought he looked dashing! We had some fun taking pictures in our room before we headed down to dinner.

Our first stop was in Aruba. We decided to take a tour of the entire island and we both really enjoyed it. We saw the main highlights and were able to walk around and do some shopping. We even found a local Starbucks that had free wi-fi so we could communicate with our family back home! Here are some of the highlights we saw:

 Inside the chapel

 Outside the chapel

 California Lighthouse

 California Lighthouse

 Natural Bridge

Natural Bridge

 The older natural bridge that collapsed

 The sea near the natural bridge

 Rock Formations

 Top of the rock formations

 Rock Formations

 We stopped at a supermarket for some local beer. The name was amusing

After doing our tour we headed back to the ship and hung out by the pool to watch some football! I snapped some pictures of Aruba from the ship and then settled in for a relaxing afternoon.

Continuing on to Colombia

The next stop on our itinerary was Colombia. This was our first time in South America. We didn't love Colombia but definitely enjoyed being able to experience a new country. Once again we decided to do a tour of the highlights of our port city, Cartagena.

This was our view of Colombia from our room as we were docked

An old fortress in Colombia

A museum dedicated to all the witchcraft from the old times.

One of our stops allowed us to take a photo of a sloth! It was adorable.

After our tour we headed back to the ship and we were on our way to our next destination. On the way out of port I decided to go to the front of the ship and take a few pictures.

Panama, here we come! Part 2 to follow in a few days :-).