The Odyssey-it began with packing the car in the rain-for the evening trip to London. We were staying overnight in Heathrow Travelodge [a bit of a dump as it turned out!] -and we had to drive through constant rain to get there.
Just about 200yds from the hotel our car packed up on us -we pushed it to undercover parking and had a breakdown vehicle come to look at it. He said it could not be fixed-so there we were -off to Miami in the morning -and at 1.30 am standing in a dismal parking area working out what to do.
It was arranged that our car returned home on the flatbed lorry -leaving us to get to the airport -and at the end of the holiday to make our own way home. At 2am we crawled into bed…
…and? …
OMG not a good start to what is a long journey. Hope you got through “Homelands Immigration” faster than we did,2hrs then we picked up a car to drive down to Miami, we will never drive down “95” again!!!
Looking forward to hearing all about your hols:-) send me a pm let me know where you are in E Anglia you never know, you may not be far away:-)
Jeanette
After breakfasting we took the Hopper bus to Terminal 3 and then a leisurely 3 hours later we boarded the Airbus for Miami. We went through the usual lengthy procedures on entering the states and were ‘bussed’ to our hotel -the Hilton Marina [overlooking the marina at post Everglades]. What a difference to the one at Heathrow! Two queen size beds in our room and tea/coffee-making facilities-luxury!
Then a short while after breakfast we took a short coach ride to the berth at Port Everglades where the Maasdam was waiting. Two more queues and we were boarding the ship -being shown to our cabin -on level 6 -Stateroom 320
Hope the cruise was better than the drive up 
(And don’t forget pics :p)
Yeah, . . . we want pics, we want pics, . . c’mon Chris get em up mate.
THe Maasdam is a mid-range ship -taking 1250 passengers with 560 crew. There was plenty of brass-wood and a feel of old-style cruising which we both like. We set sail and headed for the isle owned by the group -part of the Bahamas and called Half Moon Cay. It was the idyllic caribbean isle. Staffed by 30 who were ‘bussed in’ for the arrival of our ship. We spent a day on the wonderful beach in 85 deg sunshine- [pics will follow…]-then we made our way back to the ship by tender and headed for St Croix in the US Virgin Isles…cruising overnight. We took in a show in the theatre then had a wonderful 4-course meal -finally off to our queen size bed …
Sounds lovely C - now get us some pics
Ye-es well I might need a little help/advice there Azz [thicko smiley]
You’ll need a Photobucket (or similar) account - i.e. you can’t upload direct from My Pictures on your PC - and once you’ve got that it’s plain sailing
Here’s Azz’z illustrated instructions
So … off you go!
If you get stuck - just give us a shout. Or you can always upload to your profile album, go to your profile and look towards the top right to get started
-after an overnight cruise we visited Antigua where we saw Nelson’s English Harbour -this was excellent and really deserved more time. Next day in Dominica- we walked around the main town Rouseau and stayed 'local. The next day was at sea -so that we could explore the ship -it has a fitness centre and a very well-stocked library. Our next isle was Aruba. Here we visited an old dutch windmill -a butterfly centre -then spent the day on a powdery-white beach -gazing out on an azure-blue sea. This was idyllic…and came a close second to Half Moon Cay.
-after Aruba it was a part-transit of the Panama canal -it is a great engineering feat but its not one long narrow canal! You have a series of locks at either end of a system of lakes. It links the caribbean to the pacific but we turned in Gatun lake and came back out to port Christobal. Following that we sailed overnight to dock at Puerto Limon in Costa Rica. We went on an old restored banana train -saw some great wildlife in the rainforest [notably families of howler monkeys] -then on to a barge-style river boat -the guide pointing out much indigenous wildlife. After a visit to a banana packing plant we were bussed back to the ship -after two days at sea [passing Cuba] we docked at Key West …
we spent a full and a happy day wandering round Key West [we paid $29 for a GPS each to help as we looked around–[DON’T!] -just amble -its relatively walkable and the quaint old lap-board houses were a treat to see. Mags toured Hemingways house -then we met up and spent a couple of hours in the aquarium [recommend].
After another night sailing we docked back in Miami. We left the Maasdam after breakfast and were taken on a tour -partly coach and partly by riverboat. The weather was ATROCIOUS! We were supposed to have a halfhour walking tour -abandoned! It was a real eye-opener on the boat to see the 70 million-dollar properties -one having ‘twin’ 70ft luxury cruisers moored at the end of the garden.
Later after tea in the airport we boarded the plane and a tired but happy twosome made our way back to dear old Blighty. The End
Thankyou for sharing your holiday with us:-) We left the Eurodam and went straight up to Miami airport…a rather long stay as I guess you got the early evening flight back and theres not a lot happens in Miami airport, well heres looking forward to more travels as I will do the same as Christian when I return from an Alaskan cruise on the Zaandam
Jeanette
Looks like you timed you holiday well Chris, . . that earthquake in the Caribbean last night must’ve been awful.
Where’s the pics C
I suspect he’s lost his camera Azz. 
OK the pics are uploaded in the laptop under My Pictures-so what now!
Naughty Chr1st1an! See post #50 (previous page)