2017 Nov. 28 - Dec. 12 --- 11 Night HAL sunfarer cruise; 3 nt S. Florida vacation:

2017  Nov. 28 - Dec. 12:  11 night HAL Koningsdam sunfarer cruise (St. Kitt's, St. Lucia, Barbados, Martinique, Antigua, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay) and 3 night S. Florida stay:

When Southwest offered some insane airfares to FLL from ATL for $37@ way, I decided it was time for another trip!  So I chose Nov. 28 - Dec. 10----the week after Thanksgiving until a couple weeks before Christmas.  Now all I had to do was find accommodations and wait for Nov. 28th.  We were able to find a good deal for an 11 night Caribbean cruise of Holland America's newest ship, the Koningsdam, for $899@.  We were on her last year and really liked it.  But we still needed a night before the cruise and 2 nights after the cruise.  Having a bunch of Wyndham points, I was able to book the Wyndham Palm Aire.  I was even able to get the 4 bedroom penthouse for half the points of a 2 bedroom unit with our VIP status for the night before our cruise.

But before Nov. 28th came around, a little storm called Irma decided to pay a visit to the whole state of Florida and even up to us in Atlanta!   2 weeks before the trip, we got an email from Wyndham saying they were cancelling our pre cruise reservation---and might still cancel our post cruise 2 night reservation.  Dang!!!!  I did call them closer to our trip and confirmed that they were not going to cancel our 2 bedroom unit for the 2 nights after the cruise.  Yea!!!

I had thought about cancelling our trip, but since it was past the cancellation period for the cruise, we decided to go anyway.  We'd stay in a Ramada Inn and pay $85 for the pre cruise night.

11-28 :  Travel day

The Koningsdam:  VA 8065 and around the ship

11-29 :  Koningsdam 11 night Embarkation day

11-30 :  Sea day

12-1   :  Sea day

12-2   :  St. Kitt's

12-3   :  St. Lucia

12-4   :  Barbados

12-5   :  Martinique

12-6   :  Antigua

12-7   :  St. Thomas

12-8   :  Sea day

12-9   :  Half Moon Cay

12-10 :  Debarkation Day-Green Cay

12-11  :  Wakodahatchee Wetlands

12-12 we headed back to the airport and flew back to ATL.  Another long travel day, but our daughter did pick us up at ATL so we didn't have to go to the car rental building off site.
It was another great trip that went way too quickly!  The snorkeling wasn't the greatest this time, but the weather was pretty darn nice.  Even were welcomed several mornings by a rainbow!  The Koningsdam was as nice as we remembered, maybe even nicer.  It was another great trip! 

12-11-17 post-cruise trip to Wakodahatchee:

We couldn't come to South Florida without going to see our friends at Wakodahatchee!   So that was our big plans for today.   It was a beautiful day---mid 60s and sunny. 

Love the boardwalk over the wetlands. 

12-10-17 debarkation day--and off to Pompano Beach, Palm Aire, and Green Cay:

We didn't do the self debarkation today.  So we waited around quite awhile for our number to be called.  While waiting, I thought I was pretty clever registering us on the "mobile passport" app for getting through customs quicker.  I had actually downloaded the app last year, but at that time they only had it set up for Iphones to use at Port Everglades.  This time my Samsung was letting me put in the info.  Unfortunately, when we got down to customs, we were told they no longer use mobile passport.  Curses, foiled again!  Fortunately, the line did move rather quickly, so we didn't have to wait long.  

Soon we were in a taxi and heading to the airport to pick up our rental car.  Usually we rent one from the Budget rental office at Quay Center where we returned the car to pre-cruise.  They offer a free shuttle to/from Port Everglades.  But I noticed it was about $100 this time to rent the car from the airport.  So we took the taxi to the car rental garage at FLL for $20 and picked up our car there this time.  And we were off to check out a couple of favorite places in South Florida for the next 2 days.

First stop---the beach.  

I loved coming here when we lived in South Florida for a year a couple years ago.

12-9-17 Half Moon Cay:

One  more night and one  more port.  This time to HAL's private island.  I always love going here.  IT's a nice low stress day with a beautiful beach and some pretty decent snorkeling.  This time we were sharing the island with another HAL ship.

We headed off the ship shortly after breakfast.

I always forget they have lockers here---even though we don't use them it is a nice feature.

It was a crowded beach today

But there's plenty of water out there to handle the crowds

looking out towards the ships

pompano fish right by shore

sergeant major

a little cleaner wrasse

the little reef out by the rope in the kids area

a surprising amount of fish there

 a larger wrasse greeting us

a couple grunts

the wall on the bay side of the channel that the tenders go through is a great place to snorkel on calm days.  Today was a nice calm day.  There's lots of interesting stuff these weird things

one of the tiny fish

some interesting above water critters, too

a few yellow fin surgeonfish and a spot light parrotfish

some pretty nice coral here and there, too

more coral

lots of colorful fish

lots of grunt

last time we were here this support post was in 2 pieces.

parrotfish

more of the terrain

feather  worm

We've always seen barracudas here, too.

the kids play area

the expensive group pavillion.  It appeared to actually be rented today

another feather worm

blue head wrasse

blue damselfish

 even schools of fish

chubs

blue stripe snapper

the tiny Rock Beauty fish and more common snapper

Ken was the first one to notice this guy

some of the artificial reef

a less common caribbean grouper

brain coral

with Christmas tree worms on it.   

the rock wall of the children area that has some pretty good snorkeling

some kind of zebra fish

more feather duster worms

the wall from under the water line

juvenile wrasses     

an adult French Angelfish

after a couple hours, we made our way to the picnic area

the cute little church along the way

the bar b q pavillion

fruit---man, I forgot how much I like those plums!

the buffet line

love the way they made the palm tree decoration!  Also loved the plums.

my lunch---salad, mahi fish, fruit and banana bread for dessert

after lunch I took a walk.  When I was walking by this area, a guy came up and wanted to show off his garden.  So another couple who was walking in front of me and I took him up on his offer.

i listened to his presentation for awhile, then continued on my way

walked up to the sting ray pen to see how they fared through the storm.

they seemed to have done fine.

plumeria?

walking back to the beach along the lagoon

the rental area for jet skis and kayaks for the lagoon

back at the beach and heading back to the snorkel area.

back to snorkel some more

a jack and a juvenile French angelfish

interesting shell

yellow tail goatfish

love these fish.  Haven't seen them in Hawaii---French Angelfish

trying to do an underwater and above water photo.  Probably the best one I've gotten so far.

I was heading back to the loungers when I came across this huge school of big eye fish really close to shore

also saw an alligator needle fish

the Jacks and juvenile French angelfish again

the very territorial sergeant major.  He even tried to chase me away

part of a school of barracudas---we quite often see a school of them here.  We've always seen at least one barracuda here.

lots of fish under the ladder to the group pavilion

part of the school of fish by shore again

HAL as we were tendering back to it.

back to our ship.

dinner back in the Lido restaurant, then off to the ON Stage show---Variety Show with Brett Cave (an Elton John and Billy Joel type piano player), Craig Ricard (a saxophonist) and Joseph Reohm (the magician and illusionist).  They were very good, again.

We always walked by the Lincoln Center Stage on our way to the Main stage.  The string group playing there sounded really good, too.

On Stage Tonight----no warning not to take pictures again, so I did.

We skipped the Poolside Movie tonight and packed instead. 

This guy helped us pack.

Along with our nightly Oprah inspirational post card, we were also given O's Little Book of Happiness.

We also got our voyage log with some interesting statistics.

The only "O's" activities today:  Just breathe (a special morning meditation on Half Moon Cay led by Sar Ivanhoe, ecertified yoga and meditation instructor).  If it hadn't taken place so early, I might have done it.

Her saying of the day, "It makes no difference how many peaks you reach if there was no pleasure in the climb."