Tales From The Road

Nikki and I had booked weekend trip to Cleveland to see Jimmy Carr at Connor Palace located within the Playhouse Square district. We had originally planned on going up Saturday morning and riding the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad and see the start of the fall colors in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We were also going to meet a coworker of min, Patrick Jones, for lunch before heading from the Akron area to Cleveland to check in for our hotel and get ready for the show. Unfortunately our golden retriever had gotten sick and we planned on leaving her with Nikki’s brother and his family for the weekend. We ended up cancelling th efirst part of our trip which was disappointing, but Saturday morning, Zoey was back to normal and no longer having digestive issues. We confirmed she was doing much better and instead of loosing money on the hotel and show tickets we rushed around, dropped her off at Guy and Patties, and headed up to Cleveland.

We checked into our hotel and had to find a place close by that we could have dinner. We chose the Hofbraaus in Cleveland whcih was walking distance from the hotel and show venue. We were not thinking about it, but they were celebrating Oktoberfest and were packed. They got us in fairly quickly though and the service was so fast that we actually had time to spare to make it to the show.

Jimmy Carr was great and we enjoyed his comedy show and his quick intelligent banter with crowd work. There was someone who sat in front of us that kept trying to get him to answer a question and then would not let him answer the question, he kept roasting her for about 20 minutes. His show was a over two hours and he didn’t even have a warm up comic. After the show we walked less than a block to our hotel and called it a night. The location of everything was very convenient.

The next morning we took Patrick’s suggestion and visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and spent just over 3 hours there. We recommend the museum and if you visit be sure to walk outside along the elevated boardwalk to see the animals they have outside. They had a pair of wolves that every time an emergency vehicle went by they would sing along with the sirens. And it happened about every 10 minutes we were outside with them. Thank’s Patrick for the wonderful suggestion! We are planning on visiting Cleveland again and seeing more of the sights up there.

Day 0, August 10, 2025
We got to the airport in Cleveland early and it was a good thing. Jerry did not check Jonny’s dates close enough and just checked the flight number. Jonny had booked to return a day early. So we spent a good part of our early time rebooking him back on the 19th. The flight itself was fine. Being on the plane for 7 hours was rough and we didn’t get much sleep about and hour or hour and a half total, and we planned on hitting the ground running.

Day 1, August 11, 2025
We arrived and retrieved our luggage with no issues and made our way to the car rental. We found that when Jerry cancelled the original booking and rebooked for July instead of August. They didn’t have any more cars available so we had to go to another counter and get another car. They only had a station wagon Toyota so we booked it for 3 times the amount of the original booking. We were shuttled to the place to pick up the car and they had a small compact waiting for us instead. They didn’t have the car we booked at all. They moved us to an SUV they had available and we loaded all of our luggage to make sure it would fit with 4 people. Jerry went back in to finish the paperwork only to find out the vehicle needed to go to the shop for repairs. So we unloaded all our luggage and had to wait for an hour to find a car that would fit us. We needed up with a Skoda sedan than had a really big trunk and was going to work. By then we had to directly rush to our Guinness tour. We were scheduled for 3 hours after our plane landed. We barely made it in time. The Guinness tour was interesting the smells and tasting were good.

We then toured the Dublin Castle and did a little walking around to sweater shops, but did not buy anything. We checked into where we were staying. The garage was made for mini cooper parking or smaller. We heard a couple of people hitting concrete poles trying to park their VW gulf hatchback. I was able to squeeze my car into a parallel parking spot. Then we had to climb 4 floor of stairs with 90 kilos of luggage since the elevator was out. We did meet up with Guy, Pattie and Hayden for dinner. We both got the fish and chips and it was really good or we were really hungry!

Day 2, August 12, 2025
We woke up around 7:15 and got ready and repacked our bags and walked around a couple of miles and had breakfast at a place called Rosie’s Cafe. We drove to the city center to pick up Jonny and Alexys.
Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) Visitor Centre
Newgrange – World Heritage Site.
Newgrange is a Stone Age (Neolithic) monument in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, it is the jewel in the crown of Ireland’s Ancient East. Newgrange was constructed about 5,200 years ago (3,200 B.C.) which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. The mound is ringed by 97 large kerbstones, some of which are engraved with symbols called megalithic art; the most striking is the entrance stone.
Jonny asked Alexys to marry him at Newgrange. We’ve gained a wonderful daughter-in-law to be!
Hill of Tara, inauguration place and seat of the High Kings of Ireland; it also appears in Irish mythology. Tara consists of numerous monuments and earthworks—dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age—including a passage tomb (the “Mound of the Hostages”), burial mounds, round enclosures, a standing stone (believed to be the Lia Fáil or “Stone of Destiny”)
After we toured the Hill of Tara we ran we talked with a bicycle rider named Gerry who was a tour guide and gave us some suggestions on places to see while we were in Gallway.
Dinner at Tyrrellspass Castle on our way to Galway where we rented a house with Guy and Pattie to stay for the next 3 nights.
We could only shower one at a time due to power constraints on the in line water heaters and it was after 11:00 before everyone ate and got showers and into bed.

Day 3, August 13,2025
We got up before 7:00 and slowly got around and ready for the day in Connemara National Park, north of Gallway. We drove the 90 minutes to the park including the last 10-15 miles on tiny roads with sheep all over the place including the road. We parked and had a quick bite before hiking some trails and seeing some beautiful scenery in the mountainous area. We had a light lunch there after spending about 4 hours in the park. Jonny and Alexys hiked all the way to the top of diamond hill. We only hiked about a third of way up, but the views were spectacular. We then headed back to Galway where we did some grocery shopping and then ate at the house we rented before relaxing a little by telling stories of Jerry and Guys driving trials in Ireland and going to bed.

Day 4, August 14,2025
We were up at 6:00 which gave us plenty of time to get ready for our trip to the Aran Islands today. We booked a ferry for 11:45 but had to drive 25 miles, about an hour, to catch the ferry. We arrived for the ferry about 11:00 and parked the car and walked to the ferry and were there by 11:15. Enough time to use the restrooms and at about 11:30 the ferry arrived and started to board. We left promptly at 11:45 and the ferry took about 45 minutes to get to Innishmore which is the largest island and furthest into the Atlantic Ocean. We disembarked and at the end of the pier was the place we rented electric bikes. We were glad we got electric bikes as it was very hilly and allowed us to see more than we could have ever done without the electric power assist. Riding electrics bike was very enjoyable and we got to enjoy the scenery and wonderful weather. Part of the island is a small town and as we rode out we passed tiny fields of about 1/4-1/2 acre and they were fenced in with stone walls and the visual effect was amazing. Although they are known for their wool sweaters we didn’t see any sheep, mostly cows, horses and a few alpacas. We went beyond the farms until the end of the road and parked the bikes and took the 1/2 mile uphill climb on a mostly gravel path. Once we got close to the 3000 year old fort, the gravel gave way to a rocky uneven path up the last 100-200 meters. We entered the fort with its stone walls and one side was open due to the cliffs. The view was absolutely amazing down the coastline of the island and views back towards town were just as incredible. We climbed down the hill and did a little Aran sweater shopping at a place at the bottom of the path. The family run business was helpful in helping Nikki find what she wanted and it was a pleasure listening to the young man who helped us out. As the Irish would say, “It was rather lovely!” We rode back past the only sand beach on the island and took the green trail, lower road, back to see the seal colony before heading up a steep path back to the red trail to go see the old lighthouse that was built within an old castle ruin. The path from the red trail to the castle ruins was so steep our electric bikes couldn’t handle the grade and we had to leave them scattered along the stone walled path wherever could go not further on bike and decided to walk. The castle was a ruin and the lighthouse was out of order for renovations and we were the only ones up there. Again the views were spectacular and worth the climb. At that point our time was running out and we headed back to town where we visited another sweater shop before turning the bikes back in and heading back tot the ferry with only a few minutes to spare. It was probably the most pleasurable 4 hours of the trip so far.

Day 5, August 15, 2025
We had to be out of the house by 10:00. Alexys made cinnamon French toast, eggy toast in Europe, and Jonny made eggs and toast for everyone in the house. We got packed up and headed to the ruins of Merlin Castle in Galway. We spent some time there and befriended a border collie type dog, Peggy, who wanted us to continue throwing her stick and didn’t want to continue on with her owner. We then left Galway and headed towards Mooghaun Hill Fort where we hiked for about an hour exploring the big wall that encamped many smaller walls and was dated to about 3000 years ago. We found tons of blackberries along the trail and ate as many as we could find. From there we stopped in Newcastle and had a nice lunch at The Brown Morel. We then toured the partially restored Newcastle Castle built back in the 13th century and then rebuilt upon again in the 16th century. From there we finished our trip to Glenbeigh where our next house rental was. The kids were dropped off back in town as they wanted to eat and drink at a local pub. They texted us at 1:30am asking for a ride back as the taxis were no longer running and it was really dangerous to walk on the winding narrow rods with no sidewalks.

Day 6, August 16, 2025
After breakfast. We went out exploring and found Rossbeigh beach and walked the beach. We tried several times trying to get up to the top of mountain overlooking the beach and bay. The road up was a small single lane narrow road and we attempted to get up it a few times and were met with vehicles and we had to back out with a steep hill on the left and a steep cliff on the right. We abandoned that idea and headed back to the house. We went out later and had lunch in town at the Tower Hotel Pub. Lunch was very good and we enjoyed the heavy accent Irish conversations going on around us. We then did a short hike along the fairy trail that had lots of flowers and painted fairy houses along the way out to the bay that was at low tide and allowed us to go out on the rocks and explore a little further.

Day 7, August 17, 2025
We made breakfast and got around for our planned trip to Killarney National Park which was about a 50 minute drive from the house. We visited Ross Castle and took the tour for 5 Euros each. It was technically a tower house and was restored in the 1970’s. It was very informative and the history was actually pretty depressing. From there we drove through the park and visited Torc Falls and took the yellow trail which was almost 1.75 miles. We descended on the switchbacks and rose on mostly steps that were explained in someone else’s blog as:
“There is a continuation up to the top of the waterfall and beyond which almost killed us both (fit young and able bodied) would not recommend the secondary part to anyone unwilling or unable to climb 100 million steps and paths that never seem to end. However if you are a mountain goat the experience might be overall very pleasant for you.”

Day 8, August 18, 2025
We packed up and Jonny and Alexys made “American Style” pancakes, eggs, and sautéed onions and peppers. Today was the first day the high wasn’t going to reach 70 or 80 and be the normal mid 60’s. We all went to Blarney Castle and Gardens. The gardens were amazing. So varied, so many plants I’d never seen before. I loved walking around and exploring with Jerry. We walked to the top of the castle tower so that Jerry could ‘kiss’ the Blarney Stone.
Then we drove to Cork. Dropped Jonny and Alexys off at the very lovely Vienna Woods Hotel and headed to our our hotel, the Maldron Hotel South Mall Cork City. For dinner, we went to the Italian restaurant Scoozi! Where we shared a Nutella brownie with ice cream. Yummy!!

Day 9, August 19, 2025
We packed our bags and headed over to pick up Jonny and ALexys at the Vienna Woods Hotel. From there we drove to Dublin Airport, returned the rental car and took the shuttle back to the terminals were we went through security and Nikki was flagged and had her bag searched for her illegal hair conditioner that their scanners and sniffers could not identity. Other than that everything went according to plan and we boarded our plane around 3:15 to head back to Cleveland.

Post trip notes
Our rental car is a Skoda, tons of room.
Jaunting Carts everywhere
Be careful on narrow roads to historic monolithic sites. Tour buses take the entire road.
What may appear to be county hedges may be stone walls covered in ivy.

June 5, 2025
We flew from Columbus to Fort Lauderdale on Southwest in the afternoon and took a Lyft from the airport to the Hyatt Place Hotel in Dania Beach. We got checked in to the hotel and then around the corner to Buger Fi as we were both hungry. After about a 40 minute wait and constantly checking and figuring out they lost our order we got our burgers and onions rings and ate. We then walked over a mile to the nearest Walgreens in the Florida heat and humidity to get some items we couldn’t pack but wanted to take on the ship, like drinks and larger sunscreen and such. We both decided to not walk back to the hotel and ordered a Lyft to take us back to the hotel where we showered after the walk and settled in for the night.

June 6, 2025
We woke up and had breakfast at the complimentary breakfast at the Hyatt. We repacked our bags for the ship, checked out of the hotel and took a Lyft to the Port Everglades Cruise Terminal, which was only a couple of miles away. It was cheaper and quicker than the shuttle offered by Hyatt. We made it right through security and were on the ship in about 10 minutes. We dropped our bags off in our room that wasn’t ready for us yet, and left to get lunch at the buffet. We loved watching the boats go in and out fo the harbor and looking at all the homes. We watched us take off out of port from our balcony. As soon as we gout out to sea the temps dropped and were very comfortable. We enjoyed the balcony for over an hour and then wandered around the ship a little bit before going to dinner at the buffet. We then headed over to the Reflection Theater and watched the show “Feel the Funk”.

June 7, 2025
Key West is wonderful to visit, even for the 2nd time in 9 months. Even with all the touristsis maintainw qn ole Florida feel with lost of flowering trees and shrubs and small businesses. We walked to our bike rental shop were we reserved bikes for the day. We loved tooling around on the electric bikes we rented for a few hours in the morning before it got too hot. We stopped at a 7-11 for some more drinks to take back to the ship. We then found a little coffee and ice cream shop with Archie, the adorable litsl West Highland white terrier, who couldn’t hold his licker! We were only out for a couple of hours to limite the sun exposure. We turned the bikes back in took a Lyft back to the ship. Once on board we showered and cleaned up and went to the buffet for lunch. We then visited the future cruises space and put money down for a future cruise on Celebrity as right now that is our favorite cruise line. They found out were were celebrating our anniversary and gifted us a complimentary bottle of wine. We then went back to our room and the veranda and backed the boats pass our balcony. Lots of sport fishing, pleasure and ride on watercraft. We sipped out bottle of wine and enjoyed the scenery and stayed there as we left port and watched as we sailed away for over an hour on the veranda. We brough binoculars with us and were still close enough to the keys to see different islands and shores. We had dinner and watched Sam Fedele, a comedian, as our nightly entertainment in the Reflection Theater before calling it a day and heading to bed.

June 8, 2025
We were up and had breakfast as we approached Bimini. We watched them back the ship up to the pier from our balcony and had a first hand view of how they moor the ship.It was gorgeous on our Veranda and we watched the fish under the pier. Nikki went out and got another cup of coffee as she enjoyed it sitting out with me on the Veranda and enjoying the view of Bimini’s beaches. It all felt so cozy and nice at that point and we were really looking forward to exploring the small island on rented bicyles together. Little did we know . . . We took the free tram from the ship to the Bimini Resort beach and then Bimini Resort Casino. We did not get off the tram at either stop. The last stop of the tram was the end of the very long pier which did have shade as we were trying to limit our sun exposure again. We walked a short way and were picked up by a couple from our ship who rented a golf cart and dropped us off right at the bike rental place. We got our rental bikes, which were old cruisers, but they did have comfortable seats. The place was owned by a local lady and she was very nice as was every local we came across on the island. We rode the almost 4 km before the heat and the amount of trash along Kings Highway made us decide to turn around and head back. We were almost to the end of the road anyway and the shade was getting scarce as well. On the return ride we saw several iguanas that were bright green and several feet long, although mostly tails. One of them was very large and looked like he may have weighed slightly more than 15 pounds. We dropped the bikes abck off at the rental after only being out a little over an hour. The bike rental owner was worried we did not like the bikes and we explained that we are not used to the sun and heat and only planned a morning ride anyway. We thanked her for the bike rental and then walked back to the start of the pier where we caught the tram to take us back out the 1/3 of a mile to the ship on the unshaded pier. We showered and cleaned up and got an early lunch at the buffet and took a short nap. As we enjoyed the sights of bimini beaches from our balcony we saw the weather was in the upper 90’s and the feel like temps were in the low 100’s. We left port to make room for another arriving ship and they let the ship drift about a mile off shore from bimini. We had dinner and watched a comedy and magic show, Brent and Sarah, that was very entertaining. (brentandsarah.com) We then to to an audience participation show called the naughty list that was in a hidden theater we didn’t know existed. That show was raunchy but very fun and funny. After that we watched the late adult oriented show of comedian Same Fedele.

June 9, 2025
We arrived back at the port and had scheduled an post cruise excursion for an airboat tour of the Everglades at 8:30am. We took the hour plus tour bus ride to Holiday Park in the Everglades and saw lots of wildlife and plenty of alligators in their natural habitat. We also watched an alligator wresting show after the airboat ride before we were dropped back off at the Fort Lauderdale airport where we had lunch/dinner at the airport before catching our flight in the evening back to Columbus on Southwest again.

Friday May 9, 2025
Nikki and I left for Florida around 12:30 in the afternoon. We drove roughly until about 8:45 and made it to Richburg, SC, where we stayed the night at the Quality Inn And Suits just off I-77. The traffic from the road was very loud and we got some sleep, but were awoken several times with loud vehicles driving past the hotel.

Saturday May 10, 2025
We were on the road around 7:00 am and drove the rest of the way to Titusville, Florida where we were going to be spending the night. on our way to Titusville, we got off I-95 around St. Augustine and drove down A-1A which has the ocean on the east side of the road for a portion of the drive. We stopped at a beach and enjoyed the warm weather and even dipped our toes in the Atlantic.

We continued down A-1A untile Flagler beach and then caught the Old Dixie Highway between Flagler and Daytona. Drving through the old cypress trees with Spanish moss hanging off them was scenic and I enjoyed sharing that experience with Nikki. I wanted to do that for years, but never had the time or could find the road I had taken about 15 years prior on a Motorcycle trip. It was nice to see again and we were even greeted in a small stretch with hundreds of butterflies. We got into Daytona and were hungry and ate at Stonewood Grill and Tavern. The food was great, the service was slower that we had hoped and we were there for nearly two hours. After getting into Titusville, we continued on to Merritt Island and went through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve. We saw countless birds and saw many alligators.

After the reserve, we checked into The Extended Stay America Premier Suites back in Titusville.

Sunday May 11, 2025
We got ready and packed for the Embarkation of our cruise and went across the street to Cracker Barrel for breakfast on Mother’s Day. We perused the shop since we had time and then went back and gathered out luggage and headed towards the Port Canaveral Cruise Port. We ran into some traffic closer to the Cruise Port as the ships were loading up with people boarding. We got parked in a pretty good spot on the main floor of the garage and made our wat to the terminal. Marcus’ Aunt Sue works security for MSC and we met her outside the terminal and she walked us right through security and to the front of the line to get our baggage scanned and checked. We we made it from the parking lot to on the ship in about 20 minutes and that includes the 5 minutes we waited on the laoding ramp before they allowed passengers to start boarding. Thanks Sue for helping us get through that so painless! After boarding we stood in line to wait for elevators. The elevators were interesting and frustrating. You would enter the floor you wanted to go to on a kiosk and it would tell you which elevator was going to be yours. It didn’t matter that other elevators were going in the same diretion and opened before your elevator was ready. You would be waiting for 3-4 minutes and someone else would enter a floor within a level or two of yours and doors would open immediately for them and they would get on an empty elevator and go to floor two levels above yours, meanwhile you were still waiting. Then your elevator door would finally open and the elevator was packed with people and no room for you, so the door would close and you would have to start again. It made no sense. The waits were better durring non peak times, but it was still frustrating. There are no buttons on the inside of the elevator. Once you boarded the elevator, you were bound to whereever it was going to go. We got to our room and were able to get in the room and put our luggage in the closet. The room was not ready yet, but we were there early and didn’t mind. We waited in line and got a wrist band to allow us to pay and open our door without having to carry a key card in our pocket. We waited in line to have them setup our phones with wifi service we paid for. We could not do it on our own as they manually typed the password on our phones and played with our settings, which made me nervous giving our phones over to a stranger who didn’t want us to see what they were doing. We then went back to the room only to find that our key cards didn’t work and our new write bands did not work. We went back down to customer service to wait in line and find they turned off access because the room was not ready yet and it might be a couple of hours. We waited in line at the bar to get a drink and relax for a bit while waiting for our room to get ready. We noticed they put us at dinner at 7:15 after we signed up for all the 7:30 shows in the theater. We went back to customer service and waited in line to see if we could get it changed to 5:15. We were told to go to the main dining room and request the change there. We waited in line there to see if they could get us moved to an earlier seated dinner. Needless to say we were waiting in lines for hours the first day. We ended up eating in the buffet, which was really good and then went and watched the “Live from MSC Seashore” show in the Madison Theater which was very good after that show we went and watched “Show Time at the Rouge” in the La Caberet Rouge bar and that was awesome.

Monday May 12, 2025
The seas were rough all night and the winds were high. In the morning we were supposed to spend the next day and a half at Ocean Cay, the ship missed the first approach due to high winds which were 36-43 knots. We said in a 10 mile circle and attempted the approach again, but were blown off couse again as it started raining, thundering and lightning. The captain announced that we were going to cancel our day and half at Ocean Cay, as we started to sail away in rough seas. About two hours later there was another anouncement that we were rescheduling our day to Costa Maya a day early from the 15th to the 14th, but adding another port stop at Roatan Honduras on the 15th. I had just read that Honduras was bumped to a level 3 by the State Department and Nikki and I were talking about just staying on the ship that day instead of risking going ashore. It also messed up our plans with Costa Maya as we booked our excursion through a third party and not through MSC and now we needed to try to reschedule ourselves. I was able to cancel the excursion that originally scheduled for the 15th, but I was unable to reschedule it thorugh the third party on the 14th instead. So we had to pay over twice as much to reschedule our Mayan Ruins excursion through MSC. We had lunch at the buffet and explored the ship some more and had some drinks. We had dinner at the main dining room with David and Isobella from Orlando who moved from Puerto Rico about 18 years earlier. They were very nice and although we never at the main dining room again, we stopped and talked to them several more times on the trip. The food was god in the main dining room, but we found the food in the buffet just as good as well and we were on our schedule then. That night we watched comedian Giovanni King in the Madison Theater before going to bed.

Tuesday May 13, 2025
Today was a day at sea and we finally were out of the roughest of seas, but the winds were still high and it was a bit of rough seas. Luckily Nikki and I are not prone to sea sickness and didn’t have any issues. We saw the sun rise and found out we were close enough to Cuba, about 15-20 miles offshore that we could see the lights from Havana and the Mountains to the west of Havana. We spent several hours on the Veranda and were entertained by the flying fish. They are amazing little creatures and would typically jump out of the water aand fly 10-20 feet before diving back in. Some of them were going over 100 feet and out of sight. We had lunch at the buffet and then went to the game show called Love and Marriage. It was fun and entertaining and then we spent more time just sitting on the veranda and watching Cuba disappear. We ate dinner at the buffet and cought The Journey in the Madison Theater and then went back to the Rouge for more live entertainment before heading for bed.

Wednesday May 14, 2025
We woke up early and around 4:10 am our cabin lost water, we called down and reported it and later found out they shut down almost all the ships fresh water to fix a water main pipe. We were able to find working public bathrooms near the buffet and were at least able to go potty and wash our hands before eating breakfast at the buffet. Water came back on shortly after 7:00 am. We went to shore to explore mostly a bazaar with shoped and ungodly hot and humid temps. Nikki and I ordered a couple of yard long frozen alcoholic drinks to cool down with. We went back to the ship to shower and dress for our excursion to Chocchoben. We had a quick light lunch before disembarking the ship. The buses that were going to take us to the ship were made for Mayan sized people and very uncomfortable for both of us. We enjoyed the excursion and the tour and history of the ruins dispite the weather being very hot and humid. We also did get to see a wild monkey on the tour, but we were never fast enough with our carmeras to catch a picture. After our tour we headed back on the cramped bus and took much needed showers again and went to eat . We were so exhausted from the heat from the excursion that after we ate we went back to the room and fell asleep until the following morning and missed the show we booked for that evening.

Thursday May 15, 2025
We ate breakfast as the ship approached the island to dock. We decided last minute to book a glass bottom boat tour. Roatan appeared much nicer than Costa Maya as we saw all the nice homes dotting the mountainside overlooking the strait. Our tour van picked us up near the pier and we stopped at a place called Stone Castle Cameo Factory and saw some amazing conch shell carved artwork and jewelry. We purchased some pieces and boarded the bus to finish our ride to the boat launch located at West End. Our guide Rosa was informative about the native culture and history. The glass bottom boat reminded me of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at Disney, but everything was alive and real. The coral reef and fish were interesting as well as listening to the informative recording in English talking about the different species of fish and coral found in the area. It was amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone planning on traveling there. We were then transported by van again to the town of West End, which is a colorful little tropical town that you envision in the movies. All the shops were painted bright colorful colors as well as the boats at the docks. We visited a chocolate factory that harvests the fruit, extracts the beans, roasts the beans and makes the chocolate. It was a small operation and everything was delicious. You can order coffee and chocolate online at https://www.TheRoatanChocolateFactory.com/shop. We got back tot he ship and had dinner at the buffet, then headed to The Rouge theater to watch kareoke and then to the Madison Theater to watch the show Encore before heading to bed.

Friday May 16, 2025
We were having breakfast around 6:30am when we came into port at Cozumel.

Our excursion for the day was the Mayan Ruins at Chichen Itza. We disembarked the ship on to the pier and walked along the pier to the water taxi where we boarded. The water taxi seated about 200 people in leather lounge chairs and we sat neear the window. The wind was still blowing hard and the seas were still choppy. Nikki decided to use the restroom on the catamaran. No one spoke english and after she was guided to the restrooms she was led outside and on a narrow walkway with just a single rope to hold on to get to the back of the boat. It was choppy and windy as she headed to the man sitting on a chair at the back of the boat with a round life preserver resting against him. He made some crude communication pointing to his groin and then pointing to the bathroom around the corner. Nikki did her business as well as expected on rough seas in a small boat. As she stood up her head banged loudly on the door in the tight quarters of the bathroom. As she existed the man pointed to his head and bumped it and they both laughed. She made her way back down the dangerously narrow catwalk with single rope railing and finally made it safely next to me sitting comfortably in the leather lounge chair. I had no idea about the adventure she just had but it sounded exhilarating when she came back and told me. The ferry dropped us off at Playa del Carmen where we boarded tour busses. Our guide was Irving Uc and was of actual Mayan decent. He was not full Mayan though as he was able to grow a beard, but was bald which is opposite of 100% Mayan. The tour and ruins were amazing. The size of the city is astounding as it covers about 4 square miles. Only a small portion has been uncovered to the point where visitors can see. We toured around the main temple and some fo the smaller buildings around it. They were only smaller by comparison of the main temple. The stone carvings were detailed and decorated large portions of each building. The scale of the whole thing was impressive. There were hundreds of vendors around the ruins plaza that turned the area into a flea market. The vendors would step in front of Nikki all the time to the point where she held my hand and followed me as they didn’t do that to me. We gathered as a group in front of the main temple and our guide, Irving, demostrated the acoustics of the temple by having us all clap. The echo sounded like a heavy reverb. He explained that whomever was on top of the temple, which was usually the ruler, could hear individual conversations from the people way below. We were allowed to explore the area on our own for about 45 minutes after the tour before we had to head back to the tour bus for the 3 hour bus ride and water taxi ride back to the pier. On the return our tour bus lost air conditioning in the 90 degree heat with humidity in the 90’s as well. We transfered to another bus so we wouldn’t melt for the rest of our journey back. We got back to the pier with about 5 minutes to spare before the cruise ship was going to pull the ramp and stop boarding to leave port. We never got to visit Cozumel at all or step foot on the island. We will have to return to do that! We took much needed showers and headed to the buffet to get some food as we were very hungry after our nine hour excursion. That evening our entertainment was a magic show that was cute, funny and entertaining in the Madison Theater.

Saturday May 17, 2025
Nikki got coffee and we both had breakfast at the buffet. We went to get pictures of our eye’s iris to possibly get an aluminum printed color print. We also visited future cruises but decided to waint unto our next cruise in less than 3 weeks on Celebrity. We went back to see our iris pictures and ended up not getting them as neither of us could recognize each others eye’s and thought they were high resolution pictures of someone else’s eyes! Distinctive features of our eyes were missing and there were other distinctive features that neither of us could see in each others eyes. Even the color was wrong on Nikki’s shade of blue. We spent some down time on the balcony as we got further from land the heat and humidity were not so oppressive. We then decided to be like hobbits and have a 2nd late breakfast. We wandered around the ship and explored some more. We had a mid afternoon lunch and then spent more time on the balcony. We ate dinner at the buffet and went and watched the show Rock Royalty in the Madison Theater. It was high energy and I think both of our favorite show of the cruise. We went back to the room and packed for disembarkation the following morning. We both took showers and went to bed.

Sunday May 18, 2025
We arrived back in Port Canaveral around 6:00am. We were already up and wandering around a bit before breakfast and watched them dock the ship. We then went back to our room and packed the rest of our toiletries and such. We decided to carry all of our luggage ourselves as we could then get out as soon as possible and not our assigned time of 9:30. We went down around 6:50 and got in line to disembark. Once the line started moving it went pretty quick. We made it through customs quickly and and headed to the parking garage. We parked on the main floor and were one of the first people off the ship so we were headed towards I-95 north pretty quick. There was an accident in South Carolina on I-95 where were in stopped traffic for about an hour. We stopped a few times for gas and a few more times for potty breaks and stretching legs. We pulled into the driveway about 11:20PM.

Post MSC cruise analysis.
Compared to Celebrity there were not a lot of quiet spaces like alcoves or just quiet rooms to sit and have quiet conversation and relax. They also needed more public indoor spaces with windows as well as public outdoor spaces. Unless you are in the Yatch club, there are no public spaces at the front of the ship. It’s nice to be able to see where you are going sometimes. Purchased wifi was a waste of money. Were were unable to hardly use it, it was slow and failed all the time. The only place for free coffee was the buffet. The elevator system sucked.

Today was once again one of the worst days for any pet owner. We took Penny to the vet for the last time. We got her in February of 2014 after Zoey was diagnosed with a heart issue. She was from the same litter as Zoey and they seemed to recognize each other right away and the two grew into inseparable friends. We took them both with us everywhere. She loved belly rubs and being held like a baby in your arms. She was a wonderful dog and a great family member. She could find every lost ball from all the lacross practices, her max found in the grass was 12! She was a great catch with the frisbee and excited to meet new people. She loved the water and playing the raft with all the kids and would climb the ladder to get on top of the raft. and when all the kids jumped off she would too. She loved carrying her toys around and was caught many times on the ring camera with a toy in her mouth as she would prance around the yard to show everyone that she had something she was proud of. Once of the most adorable things was every time we came home with bags in our hands Penny would have to stick her nose int he bags to see if we brought anything home for her. If we did she would pull it out and be so proud of herself. She will be forever be missed.

August 29, 2024

Nikki and I started our trip to Florida to visit her Aunt and Uncle and then catch a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale by planning on driving down to Gatlinburg, TN and spending the night there. Everything was perfect until about 5 hours in when we made our first stop for gas. When I got ready and loaded the car I had my keys to unlock my car and got everythign in the car and then we just left. The problem was I left my wallet which I didn’t put in my pockets when I initially grabbed the keys to unlock the car. Luckily we were able to get in touch with Jonny and he met us half way just north of Cincinnati to hand me my wallet, so we didn’t have to spend an extra 10 hours driving the 5 hours back to home and another 5 hours to get back to where we found out I was missing my wallet. So we were only 5 hour behind. The rest of the drive was uneventful other than missing daylight we were supposed to have in Gatlinburg. We arrived about 11:00 at night and rented a VRBO condo on a mountain overlooking Gatlinburg. The drive up the steep winding mountain road in the dark was harrowing at best. The road was single wide in most spots and blind curves in the dark as my headlights were pointing into the trees because of the steepness of the road was concerning. My car dragged the plate protecting my oil pan at least twice on the tight corners as well. We ended up on top and it took about 10 minutes to find our building in the dark. The condo was small but nice for the two of us. I would go back there, but in the daytime only!

August 30, 2024

We started our morning early just as the sun was rising over the mountains. Our plan was to drive through the Smokey Mountain National Forest and then down to Punta Gorda, FL to spend a couple of days with Wendy and Randy. We spent about 10 minutes on the deck looking at the beautiful sunrise before packing our stuff to head down the mountain. The trip down wasn’t bad with the daylight. We did see a black bear just as we started down. He ran across the road and into the gully. His coat was magnificent black and the tips of his hair sparkled in the early morning sun. He was very majestic looking even though he didn’t appear to be full grown and was trying to figure out how to get into the bear proof trash cans! We stopped in Galinburg for breakfast at Crockett’s Breakfast Camp and had a nice quick breakfast before heading into the National Forest. We saw several more bears, but by the time we were able to stop the car and Nikki got out she was unable to take many pictures of them before they disappeared back into the thickets surrounding the river. We spend about 90 minutes in the National forest and then headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and took an hour detour driving on the Parkway and then back to Cherokee, NC. We drove down to Florida and ran into a heavy storm that luckily only lasted about 10-15 minutes as we had to really slow down because the visibility was so limited. We arrived at Randy and Wendy’s about 11:00 at night. We stayed up until almost 2:00 am talking with them and catching up and meeting their cat, Zane.

August 31, 2024

We started the morning with wonderful waffles for breakfast that Randy made for everyone. Then Randy and Wendy took us out to show us Punta Gorda. We visited the Peace River Wildlife Center, where both Randy and Wendy volunteer their time, and got a behind the scenes tour and told about every animal there and each animal’s story. The center has a variety of mosty birds, but we did see tortoises and turtles, a rabbit, and an opossum as well. We had lunch at Celtic Ray which was an awesome little Irish pub with great fish and chips. We explored Punta Gorda more and Randy and Wendy showed us around their home town. I had a scrape on my leg from before we left that was starting to look infected so, Nikki and I went to the Urgent Care to get it checked out and I was put on some antibiotics and told to keep it dry and clean. The Pharmacy closed before we got there and would have to return the following morning to get the medications. Later that evening around 8:30, Randy and Wendy took us out to dinner and we had a good meal before heading back to their place for the night.

September 1, 2024

We went to the Pharmacy and picked up my meds first thing in the morning. We then packed up the car and followed Randy and Wendy to the Yacht Club for lunch before heading east to Fort Lauderdale. Lunch was wonderful and enjoyed our stay with Randy and Wendy and they were very gracious hosts and we look forward to going back and visiting them soon. They kept warning us that the time Apple Maps was telling us it would take to get to Fort Lauderdale was about an hour off. We headed out on I-75 towards Fort Lauderdale and just like they warned us, they closed the highway down in the middle of the everglades. Luckily we were prepared and filled up based on the advise from Randy and Wendy. We patiently waited about 45 minutes stopped on the Freeway and when we finally started moving again we drove past a burnt out vehicle on the side of the interstate with multiple fire trucks packing up. We made it to Fort Lauderdale the rest of the way fine, other than Nikki and I both needed to use a restroom after sitting on the highway for a long time not moving at all! We checked in to Dolce by Wyndham in Hollywood, Florida across the street from the Hollywood Hard Rock and Casino. We took a shuttle over to the Casino and explred the resort for several hours ate dinner there in the cafe. We ended up walking back to the hotel and got a good nights rest.

September 2, 2024

We got up and packed and headed out to the port in Fort Lauderdale to check in for the cruise. We parked the car and had to walk with our expertly packed bags, which was suprisingly very manageable. We passed through security and were scheduled for an early boarding since we did pay for the VIP package, which included lunch for that day on board and wifi for both of us. We boarded the ship and found our room and got our cabin card keys. We then headed down to the dining room and had a wonderful lunch. We met several other couples sitting at our table. After lunch we met up with Guy and Pattie near the pool before we left Fort Lauderdale. We got some frozen drinks and enjoyed the party as we left the port. We explored the ship some and had a wonderful dinner. We had some post dinner drinks with Guy and Pattie, we also changed our dinning table to be able to sit with Guy and pattie as they had us at separate tables to begin with. We enjoyed the silent disco in the ships atrium before going to bed.

September 3, 2024

Today was a full day at sea. We got up early and watched the sun rise over the ocean and had breakfast at the buffet. We explored the ship some more and attended some events around the ship like learning the beginning steps of salsa dancing and watching the pool party events like pool volleyball with the crew members. We met Guya nd Pattie for drinks in the late afternoon and had dinner with them which again was excellent. After dinner we attended a show called Rebel in the main theater that was a lot of fun. It was three men singing rock songs, one of them in a kilt, they were all great and it was very entertaining and fun. After the show we went into the atrium and watch karaoke

September 4, 2024

We got up early again, before the sun rose and watched as we approached Key West and they ported the harbor master over by small boat and watched that process which was very interesting. We disembarked early and the shore excursion we had scheduled that day was located right there at our dock. We had a little time and spent some time going through the shops at the dock and then met up with Guy and Pattie for our shore excursion. We took a catamaran 7 miles south of Key West to the Florida reef to go snorkeling. We had gotten some shower protectors for wounds for my leg and applied them just before snorkeling. We got int he water which was choppy with 4 foot swells. We swam the short distance to the reef which was maybe 100-150 feet from the boat. There were lots of smaller fish and the coral was very muted in coloring. Evidently one of the hurricanes came through a week or two earlier and covered the coral in silt and sand and it takes several weeks for them to get clean again. We were in the water about 10 minutes before my snorkel got swamped and I came up coughing. I was up for about a minute and Nikki popped her head and swam over and told me how there was a shark below us and she watched it glide through and around the coral and how cool it was. I popped my head back underwater, but it was already gone. I finally stopped coughing and started snorkeling again and seeing all the little fish, some brightly colored. The biggest was about 1 foot long. I got swamped again and came up coughing and by then my bandage was starteing to leak and come off and it was stinging, so I headed back to the boat to see what could be done. I was in the water about 25 minutes. I cleaned off my wound with fresh water they had on the boat which took about 10 more minutes. About that time other people were boarding the boat as the jellyfish, which I only saw a couple and stayed away from , were being blown off the reef towards the boat and people were starting to get stung. Nikki, Guy and Pattie came aboard during that time and Nikki was telling me that right after I got swamped she saw a barracuda hunting the reef. Then it noticed her and swam right up to her face to face, which made her nervous and she was swimming backwards and rand into a jellyfish on her elbow that stung her. Guy got stung as well, but neither of therm were as bad as some people coming on board with welts all over their back from the jellyfish. Needless to say everyone was on board before the hour was up for our snorkeling time. We went back to the dock and Nikki and I shopped bought a hat for myself and were looking for a long sleeve sunshirt for her, but didn’t find anything she liked. We then went back to ship and ate lunch at the buffet and then went and took an afternoon nap. Later that evening we attended a comedy show in the theater and we had a blast.

September 5, 2024

Once again we were up early and had breakfast at the buffet and then went on deck to watch us dock at CocoCay, which is Royal Caribbean’s private island, we were docked next to Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas which had just gone into server a few weeks prior. The ship was huge compared to our ship. Once we got on the island we realized how few kids are on the Celebrity cruise. The Utopia of the Seas guests had kids running around all over the place, screaming and yelling and having fun. We found some lounges under umbrellas on the south beach. I was unable to go in the water with my leg wound, but Nikki went in briefly to swim with Guy and Pattie. She was caught in the middle of kids throwing sand on each other and said although it was nice seeing the kids playing, screaming and having fun, she was kind of glad our ship was more adult oriented. We spent about 3-4 hours on the island and got lunch there before heading back to the ship. It was really hot and we both were exhausted. We showered and took an afternoon nap. There was a broadway type musical we attended in the theater and after, Nikki and I went up to one of the bars and watch karaoke again, before heading abck to the room and started to pack a little in preparation for debarking the following day.

September 6, 2024

We were up before the sun rose and got breakfast at the buffet again. We then went out on deck as we arrived at Port Everglades. We watched them manuver the ship from the topside and then went to our cabin to finish packing up. We were able to disembark with the early group and ended up driving non-stop from Fort Lauderdale to home in Granville. We had to make it back because the following day, we had tickets to see Weezer at Nationwide Arena. That was a lot of fun as well and they sounded just like they do on the recordings. We had a wonderful time and look forward to doing it again. We had lots of fun with Guy and Pattie and hope to be able to do some more adult vacations with them in the future.

Nikki and I took a trip to Destin Florida to stay with my parents at their condo while they spend the winter in a warmer place. We left for Destin Saturday, February 24th, 2024 and returned Saturday March 2, 2024. We played cards and went to dinner with my parents. Nikki and walked on the beach several mornings and we even spent a day touring the National Museum of Naval Aviation as well as toured the Lighthouse and Maritime Museum located just outside of the Naval Aviation Museum. We had a late lunch in Pensacola which was lovely.

Today is our last day at the resort. We got up and made our way down to the Presidential Club on the 17th floor to grad coffee for Nikki and Hot Chocolate for me. We then made breakfast and slowly got around to getting ready for our day resort hopping. We drove to Disney Spring Orange Garage and then walked around the corner to the Bus Station took the bus to the Polynesian Resort. We wandered around there for about 30 minutes exploring the amenities and then hopped on the monorail to see the Grand Floridian Resort. We explored that for almost an hour and watch an artist hand painting large eggs for easter.

We then hopped the monorail again and got off at the transportation hub and changed monorails to ride over to Epcot and rode the monorail through the park to see their shrub sculptures of disney characters and their flower beds. We stayed on the monorail and took it back to the transportation hub and hopped back on the resort monorail line and rode the monorail back to the Polynesian. We then took the bus back to Disney Springs and decided to go to Sickies Garage for some burgers. I would highly recommend them for a delicious burger. They are located on 192 west of I-4.

We then made it back to the resort and started to pack up bags and helped Mom and Dad load their car with heavy stuff to take home before we were leaving in the early morning.

Today is Stephanie’s final day and she will be heading back to Columbus to pick up Marcus’ Camry to drive home. Just before she came down on the 7th she bought a 2012 Toyota Highlander on the 6th, but since that only gets 18 Miles Per Gallon she drove Marcus’ car and he has been driving hers up there for the week.

We had breakfast and Mom left for another Chiropractor appointment to readjust her adjustment from yesterday. She got back and we facetimed with Marcus who had the insurance adjuster and the contractor, VanDam & Krusinga Insurance Restoration, over to discuss the plan for restoring their house after a tree went through their roof in the ice storm.

After the facetime call, it was time to take Stephanie to the airport to fly back to Columbus. Nikki and I took her to the airport and then did some exploring. We went to Disney Springs and took a. bus to see the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We then came back to meet my parents and went to dinner here at the resort. Dinner was good until a blackbird swooped down next to mom and started stealing french fries from her plate.

After dinner Niiki, myself, Mom and Dad played some cards before calling it a night early around 9:00.

Nikki and I started the day returning a pair of reading glasses we bought yesterday at CVS. It wasn’t until we got back that I realised one of the nose pads on the glasses were missing. We returned the glasses with no issues and made it back to Condo around 7:30. The forecast looks like rain, so we were not sure what to plan for the day.

There were several people parked in the handicap spaces yesterday that were not handicapped and Mom and Dad ended up parking their SUV with handicap plates a 1/4 mile away or more at the main building the night before. Nikki and I came back from CVS and took pictures of the car plates illegally parked and reported them to Mom who reported them to the front desk.

We played some cards in the afternoon before Mom had to be to her chiropractor appointment. We took her to her appointment and picked up a few more groceries before she was ready to be picked up again. She called me and ended up waiting a few minutes before we picked her up and headed out for an early dinner. We were all hungry as we only really at some snacks for lunch while playing cards. We drove out to Rock and Brew where we had a nice dinner and then headed back to the condo.

We stopped by the main building as we drove around for a couple of days and the debris from Monday was mostly off their SUV, like the big pieces some other smaller pieces were stuck to the hood and roof and were difficult to pick off even with a fingernail. They wrote up a security report to have it on record and offered to try to wash her car to see if that would help. I ended up taking the car to Tower 1 and they hooked up a hose and the maintenance manager rinsed her car off. Some of it came off, but about half of it was stubborn and refused to come off. Francisco, the maintenance manager requested a power washer and then he power washed their car. Most of it came off then and once the stucco was wet I could flick it with a thumbnail and easily get it off. We spent close to an hour washing her car and were offered free ice creams for our trouble!

We ended up leaving their car there as we figured it was going to full for parking since it was after 7:00 at that point. We got a lift back to the condo only to realize we left our groceries, including eggs, in the back of the SUV. Nikki and I walked back to the main building and drove her car to Tower 6 and luckily were able to find a handicap spot in the tower 6 parking garage. It’s a little further away, but it close enough for one of us to retrieve it fairly quickly. We ended up playing cards with a break to watch the fireworks the rest of the night and for the 2nd night in a row we didn’t get to bed until after midnight.