With recent changes to travel arrangements in the US & a great post from @zer0hedge regarding the world's most powerful passports to hold - I asked myself - has much changed in USA travel for me?
As an Australian, probably not much difference now traveling to the US as opposed to say ten years ago, as all post-9/11 era travel has become more hectic globally... Besides spending a massive $14 when registering for ESTA & standing in ever growing security lines at airports, my US trips are much the same... Ahhh, good times! 😉
This led me to thinking about one of my favourite trips back in 2010:
Orlando, Florida – Caribbean Cruise – Los Angeles/Anaheim, California
Flight & security delays meant almost missing two flights, leaving my brother & I to 💩 ourselves, especially as it was his first overseas holiday!
Thankfully it all worked out in the end & I will post a reminiscing summary here, then do a more detailed post for each day & location of the trip.
A group of seven people – myself & my brother Ray (above) on his first overseas holiday, my travel-bug friend Sue & her family (hubby & 3 teen-kids) – all headed for a Western Caribbean cruise! Ray & I left from Brisbane (Australia) to fly direct, 25hrs all the way through, meeting up with Sue’s family in Orlando (Florida) after they finished their 4 week Canadian tour.
We stayed in Orlando for a few days, to spend time at Kennedy Space Centre, Seaworld & Universal Studios, (during the coldest Florida temperatures on record & constant rain!..) before boarding the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, “Freedom Of The Seas” at Port Canaveral. The ports visited on the cruise included Labadee – Haiti, Ocho Rios – Jamaica, Georgetown – Grand Cayman (below) & Cozumel – Mexico.
Sadly the day we docked at Labadee, Haiti (below) on Jan 12th, was the day the 7.0 earthquake struck…
By whatever game fate plays, we were not allowed to disembark that morning & had the Labadee day cancelled, due to terrible weather & a pending tsunami warning. The large quake struck south in Port Au Prince about 8 hours later… 😞
The rest of the cruise ran smoothly, as we enjoyed tours from Bobsledding in Jamaica, to an Undersea & Island tour at Grand Cayman & lastly the Mayan Tulum Ruins (below) & Beach tour in Mexico.
All very interesting & beautiful, yet heart-breaking for Haiti…Many of the cruise staff were Haitian & had trouble contacting their loved ones, donations were taken on board from guests, as well as a fund set up by Royal Caribbean for their staff.
The cruise ended a week later back at Port Canaveral, where we flew cross-country to Los Angeles (California) & transferred to our Anaheim hotels, across the road from Disneyland. Of course over the next few days we visited the Disneyland & California Adventure fun parks, along with Knott’s Berry Farm (which flooded us out as it rained & closed the park early, before providing a nice sunset pic below!) We enjoyed the Pirates Dinner & Show at Buena Park, plus Ray & I also visited Los Angeles, Universal Citywalk & into West Hollywood to get a tattoo at the LA Ink studio, “High Voltage Tattoo”! 🙂
Eighteen days, new experiences, a lot of fun, a LOT of rain & we certainly “chilled out” on our USA holiday, in the minus-two-degrees celsius temperatures of FL & CA!
Long days & full details in my later posts…