The only way to spend New Year's Eve is on a cruise ship! The food was great, service was excellent, and the ship was clean. Just realize that sometimes the weather is not exactly the way you expect it to be so be ready to enjoy the ups and downs of cruising.

Leaving Tampa on Sunday was a breeze and the first fun day at sea was fun and memorable. We went out of our way because the captain spotted a boat floating in the water. It turned out to be 22 Cuban refugees and a boat that was stranded in the water for days. The people yelled to us in Spanish and some of them jumped off their boat and started swimming around. Our boat stopped and we waited for about 4 hours for the Coast Guard but they had mechanical problems so we picked up the refugees and they came on board. The refugees were fed and kept in a holding area. It was sad to see these people suffering and unusual for us to stop but hopefully the people were well taken care of and got some rest on our ship.

The new year came in and Grand Cayman was fun but that night, the wind blew up to 65 miles per hour and it rained. The ship rocked for hours in 40+ miles per hour winds. Cozumel was windy the next day and a lot of the shore excursions were cancelled. Read more