A Day in Curacao

Our last stop was the island of Curacao.  We didn't realize this was the biggest, busiest island we'd visit.  Major bridges, colorful buildings, McDonalds, great shopping and travel time to get to our resort.  We got in a taxi to head to our resort.  Everyone drives FAST here.  We held on and listened in on the Dutch our drivers were speaking.  They dropped us off at our resort for the day - Sunscape.

It was a gorgeous resort!  We had a day pass and had to check in with our IDs and a credit card. We rented snorkle gear and got to enjoy all of the drinks, food and amenities through the resort.  We encountered people from all over here.  So many different languages were being spoken around us and we saw some people from our cruise ship at the same resort.

There was so much color!  It was fun to keep track of our cruise ship as we moved about the island.

Giant iguanas greeted us.  The boys were thrilled.

We had really beautiful views everywhere we looked.  Can you spot our tiny cruise ship in the distance?

I can't tell you how happy it made us to make a cat friend in Curacao.  We were missing our cats at this point in the trip so Curacao Kitty did our hearts good!

The water was stunning!!

We wished we would have known the shore line was so rocky.  We did not come prepared with water shoes so we walked carefully over the rocks and swam out to enjoy the water.  If you go to Curacao, bring water shoes to protect your feet.

There were hot tubs, volley ball nets, water aerobics classes, multiple restaurants, DJs, Jerk Chicken BBQ at the pool, giant chess game, snorkle gear and a swim up bar.  We popped around to enjoy all of it.  There was something for everyone.

We encountered people from all over, but it wasn't hard to communicate with anyone.

Even if you weren't snorkeling, you could see tons of fish and crabs in this clear water.  The big kids and Kevin swam out in the bay closer to that line of rocks.  They were able to see tons of cool fish and creatures.

We even found some shells.

The resort flowers were amazing.

Curacao looked like a post card at every angle.

We parked our stuff in the shade around these pretty trees.

There was great shopping, big military boats coming and going and lots of traffic on that big blue bridge in the background and so much color.  They had dancers to welcome us at the port.  None of the shop owners were agressive.  Just smiling, friendly faces everywhere we went.

Let me know if you have any questions about Carnival, the ABC islands or cruising with your family!  Kevin is the trip planner.  He found all the locations, arranged all of our travel and found all of our deals.  He'd be happy to answer any questions, too.

A Day in Bonaire

Our second stop was the island of Bonaire.  It's a small, quiet island.  We met up with our excursion group at the port and hoppped on a bus to our excursion location.  The buildings in Bonaire are very colorful and we enjoyed seeing the donkeys munching on grass on the sides of the roads. We admired familar car brands and models of their cars that we had never seen before.  We got dropped off at a beautiful resort to meet our sail boat captains for the day.

We were in a group of 14 or so people all from our cruise ship.  The captains escorted us to our sailboat where we took off our shoes and boarded the boat.  One of our darling children accidentally flipped his Croc straight into the ocean instead of straight into the shoe box.  Luckily, our captain saved the Croc and we went on our way.

The water was calmer than Aruba and everywhere we looked was lovely.  None of us had ever been on a sail boat before.  We sailed for an hour, waving hello to our Cruise ship, put our anchor down and snorkled for about 30 minutes and sailed back for another hour.  Yummy drinks and snacks were flowing.  The crew than ran the sailboat were so nice to the kids.  They answered all of their questions and explained everything that was happening on the boat.  We sat inside the boat with the kids and had a great time.  It would have been really hard for everyone to hang on and be safe if the kids would have had to sit on the outside edges of the boat.

The rum punch was unlimited.  I'm thrilled to say that a lot of punch was consumed and we didn't spill a drop of it.

Leo asked a million questions about fish, sail boats, steering wheels, the wind, the boats we passed and more.  Our captain spoke Dutch to his crew mates and English to answer all of the kid's questions.  They were fascinated by all of it.

This excursion had no age requirements to participate, but Kevin would be the first to tell you that this was an advanced excursion.  It was a challenge for our great swimmers and they all came back to the boat exhausted.  It was more challenging than we expected.  They had fun, but the highlight of our excursion was the sailing.

Gorgeous homes.  Gorgeous views.

We loved sailing here!  If you wanted to snorkle at your own pace, relax and walk on a beach, we'd recommend finding a local beach and directing your own adventure. The kids didn't get to snorkle as much or on their own timeline like they would have wanted to.  However, the gorgeous, very nice sail boat was such a fun experience.  Bonaire was definitely the smallest, quietest island we visited.

A Day in Aruba

Aruba was our first and very favorite island!  

We got off the ship bright and early.  We should have brought cash for taxis, but we assumed cards would work.  They did take cards.  However, cash is king in Aruba so bring cash for your visit.  We had a nice taxi driver that told us all about the island.  He spoke 4 different languages and said I'd be hired in a heart beat to teach English in Aruba.  I told him I only spoke English.  He assured me that everyone wanted to learn English there.  He warned us about staying safe on the other islands - Bonaire and Curacao.  We had zero safety concerns on any island and then the other islands warned us about Aruba.  haha.

Kevin planned all of our excursions and thought we'd love going to a resort for the day.  I loved having a destination to go to and not have to wander around to find fun things.  Some people opted for the bus rides from the port to the resort drop off through Carnival.  That would have been more expensive and long lines.  The taxis are the way to go.  We got dropped off at the De Palm Island resort pick up spot.  We got our wristbands and hopped on a ferry boat to the island.  The water was so clear.  The wind was strong and everything was gorgeous.

Kevin surprised us with a private cabana rental for the day!  It was amazing.  It was right on the water.  Shade and sun.  And you'll never believe who our neighbors were.

Welcome to Aruba!

Giant iguanas!!  They were so friendly and so curious.  We had the best time watching them.

And flamingos!  They were friendly and fun.  We joked that the flamingos were Leo sized.

They walked around right next to our cabana all day.

We all took turns in the hammock.

It's hard to explain how large these iguanas were.  Probably 3 ft long.  Maybe longer.  They never came too close to us.  They just wanted to sun themselves on the rocks.

Snorkle gear came with the cabana.  The kids got right into the waves to hunt for fish.  There were SO many cool fish, crabs along the rocks and birds flying overhead.  There was something cool to see at every angle.  I didn't snorkle and still saw tons of fish and creatures.

We walked over to the snack shack for fries and the restaurant for tacos at lunch time.  All food was included.  Look at Fletcher on our cabana deck.  It was such a cool location for the day.

Aruba is windy this time of year so the water was a little wavy.  No one minded one bit.

I could have watched these flamingos all day long.

Leo loved the kid zone water park.  The had a nice first aid station when we needed bandaids as well as a gift shop.

Team snorkle.  Except they said SCUBA all day long.

De Palm Island was so cool!  Flamingos on all sides of the islands.  Cool attractions for the whole family!  Our advice is to get on one of the first ferries to the island and return on one of the first ferries back to the big island of Aruba.  Bring cash for taxis.  Put on lots of sunscreen!  It's so windy that you don't realize you are getting roasted.  Whoops!

We headed back to the port and did some shopping.  Aruba has a really nice indoor shopping area.  The vendors are not agressive like they are in Nassau.  Everyone was nice and friendly.  We all found fun souvenirs.

Thanks for an amazing day, Aruba!  Back to the Carnival Horizon.  Our room was on the side facing the ports.  The kids and I loved hanging out on our balcony watching the cruise ship passengers come and go at the port.  Especially the ones running to make the final boarding time at the end of the day.