I will guess that you will be sailing from Ft. Lauderdale on a weekend. I don't know where you will be coming from; if the west coast, don't do the red eye. It will cost a bit more, but arrive one day early and spent the night getting excited in a local hotel. Lots of good ones and some that are expensive. Arrival shouldn't be too much of a problem. You have two choices to leave the airport. We prefer a taxi as there are just the two of us. You can get between the airport and pier for about $20 (including tip). That is the best way to get back to the airport when the cruise is completed. Alternately, the cruise line will offer to sell you a transfer on one of their big charter buses. You gotta wait until all seats are filled and they charge way too much (compared to the convenience and cost of a taxi). The mess at the airport after the cruise can be awful. Generally there will be several ships all changing passengers and most will want to get to the airport early. The lines at Ft. Lauderdale and Miami can be horrible. If you have an option fly out after 1:00. If you work it right, you will see the kids early in the day and then dinner or later. There will be many organized activities created by the staff - all wonderful. Your mission - should you decide to accept it - is to relax. That can be accomplished easily. If you are a knitter, take your stuff with you. You'll find a spot and get a lot done. If you are a reader, there generally a decent assortment of books on board. Or, take your own and leave them when you disembark. If you want to soak up some rays, there are situations that you need to consider. Most ships of this size will have lots and lots of people who want to just park themselves outside and that is that. However, there are 'chair hogs', the folks who put a towel on a chair at 7 a.m. and then come back after 10. Then they eat lunch about noon and then return about 2! They expect that 'their' chair will be waiting for them! And yet they will be using it for only a few hours. A similar situation will develop in the show lounge in the evening. Someone from a family will 'reserve' the chairs and no one will be able to sit there. Many times the chairs that have been 'saved' are not used because the folks are having too much fun somewhere else on the ship. Both of these situations are rotten and they happen more on the larger ships. (Since we retired last year, we have been on the smaller ships - about 1200 passengers and that saving situation is not an issue.) Food! It is there, but no one will force you to eat it. Take your time, think about what you are doing and you will come out OK. When my father began cruising in the 70s, he looked forward to adding a pound a day. Later, he backed off to a pound every third day; he figured he paid for it why not eat it! Excitement? Anticipation? Both are part of the cruise experience. At the other end, is the feeling one often gets when the cruise is over. A big-time back to the routine mind set. Going on a cruise with extended family often seems restricting. You feel that you have to spend all your time with the family. DON'T DO IT! Grab some 'me' time and enjoy the experience. You will see the family enough, you don't need to be with them 18 hours a day! Plan some excursions, what you want to do, not what others want to do. The cruise lines are in the business of making money and they offer some nice excursions on shore; however they mark them up and do quite well that way. Do some detective work on your own and search out the what-to-do things at each port. Cruise Critic is a good resource for that as there are categories for ports of call and lots and lots of folks post questions and get good answers from others who have been there and done that. Cruise Critic is a good site, check it out. You will find a lot of good information about each port. I learned a long time ago to take ratty clothes with me. I'll wear them and leave them. The space that they took up in the luggage is now available for souvenirs! Be sure to get something for the person who will be watching your house while you are gone. Nothing fancy, but it shows that you were thinking of them while your are out on a cruise! If you really have a large group, have one person make the reservations. Many cruise lines will allow a significant price break when you book X number of cabins. You gotta ask for it, they won't offer it out of the kindness of their hearts. Ask me more questions! I love to do this stuff. Jim

Leaf cutter ants. I saw some in Trinidad that were much larger and they carried larger leaves. Those in Trinidad had escorts or body guards to keep away other ants from taking their leaf piece. In this particular area, I saw 8 columns of ants going into one nest. There were older ants (so said the guide) that did nothing but remove the waste products and pile them into a nice mound. I would guess that it would be a great compost making pile. I cannot recall if these are bananas or plantains. Iguanas a plentiful in Central America, but the guides in Costa Rica seem to be particularly proud of them. I felt obligated to take a picture. Back in Puntarenas, I saw this. What a wonderful building! I did not see any sign that indicated it might be a public building (hotel, inn or restaurant).Puntarenas Costa Rica's cathedral. I was very surprised that it was locked. Unusual. Time to leave Costa Rica and move on to the Panama Canal after a restful day at sea.

Boop, you & your DH should do it. We aren't big cruise fans but this was fun. Neetsiepie, we did very little onboard. I did take a 'martini-making course' one afternoon while we were sailing. It was about an hour and quite fun actually. There were only about 4 of us at the bar and the bartender knew what she was doing. Some we know did go to the onboard live entertainment, dance classes or other activities in the evening. We were usually too tired! The casino holds no interest for us, and onboard our ship it was very small and we never went in. I can't imagine taking a cruise and just spending all your time in a casino! We took every opportunity for the land excursions offered when we docked. If you timed it right you could do one in the morning and one in afternoon and come back to the ship for lunch. All the pickup points for the land excursions were at the dock with our ship's excursions. Easy-peasy. We took a guided hike in a rain forest, a train ride into the mountains, went sea kayaking, took a jet boat to a glacier, sea plane to the Misty Fjords, a tour to another glacier where we hiked out to a closer view, a whale watching boat ride (saw orcas and humpbacks). Seems like I'm leaving out something but can't remember. A couple of times it was very windy on deck but we did enjoy walking around the deck or sitting on our balcony and watching the view from there of the scenery as we passed by. We also enjoyed the onboard gym and worked out several times. Or we would go up to one of the bars (one at the bow and one at the stern) and watch from inside.

Hhireno, I have done two 7-day cruises on Royal Caribbean Oasis and Allure and that might be a possibility for you all. They do Eastern or Western Caribbean - we only did Western. The ships are ginormous and have lots of nooks for those tired of crowds as well as some nice specialty restaurants. Lots of places to explore on ship. I really enjoyed the central “park” garden and took a garden tour, spent lots of time there in the evenings listening to (okay) classical music ensembles. On the mega ships the ship is as much or more an attraction than the itinerary. The three stops in Western are labadee (strictly a beach day), Falmouth (lots of choice from historical tours to waterfall jumping), and Cozumel (we went to Chichen Itza once and did a fun Jeep/snorkel tour once). My inlaws have largely switched to celebrity from RC now I believe. i really enjoy cruises much more than I thought I would. I absolutely love the water and find it very soothing to look out on the ocean. My inlaws are going back to the Mediterranean this fall with their teen grandkids and I so wish we could go! FIL knew MIL would just want to baby wrangle the whole time instead of sightseeing. We got to go on an Asia cruise with them a few years ago so it’s more than fair they are doing the med with the other half of the family.