As many of you know, this past week Dave and I took our family (Michael and his girlfriend Cat, and Nicole and her boyfriend Max) on a cruise to Key West and Cuba! We had a fabulous time and I had promised many of you that I would post about the trip.
The time on the cruise ship was a lot of fun, relaxing, eating, drinking and some friendly competitions. Throughout the cruise, there were games to play like “Sorry” where the participants were the game pieces. Max and I were on the winning team for that and we got medals! Next up, we played “Scategories” and our team, which consisted of Nicole, Max, Dave and myself, won the game which meant more medals! Later we played “Trivial Pursuit” and Micheal and I were on the winning team! Yup, more medals!
Because it was close to Halloween, they had a pumpkin carving contest. In order to be chosen to participate, we had to guess how many pieces of candy were in the bag. I guessed 248…there were 247 in the bag, so I was one of 3 pumpkin carvers. Guess what? I won! Later we played some Bingo…no I didn’t win Bingo, but I did win $5 on pull tabs!
We had a great time in Key West. In honor of Halloween the annual Freak Fest festivities were going on, so we saw some “uniquely” dressed or not dressed people. This is the view from Ernest Hemingway’s veranda.
Havana Cuba was stunning. The architecture in Old Havana was breathtaking as there was a lot of french influence everywhere.
The sad thing though was that right next to a beautifully restored building was one that had seen its better days and was just waiting to be brought back to it’s former glory.
Everywhere we looked, we saw vintage cards from the 30’s 40’s and 50’s. Most of them were in pristine condition too.
The Cuban people were very warm and welcoming and we enjoyed listening to the music and learned a few of the dance steps.
We learned about and got to enjoy three of their most important commodities; Cuban Coffee, Cuban Rum and Cuban Cigars. I’m not a fan of coffee to begin with, so I didn’t care for it, but I was told it was delicious. The Club Havana Rum was very smooth and delicious and while I don’t generally smoke cigars, when in Cuba, you’ve got to give it a try. I didn’t mind it. It didn’t burn or make me cough like I thought it would.
Most of the buildings were made from either bricks or coral block. For the coral blocks, they would mine big blocks of coral from the sea and polish them down smooth.
Here you can see a close up from a block of coral that has been somewhat destroyed with the lack of upkeep during the revolution. The smoothed polished surfaces are no longer there, but now we can see the fossilized sea creatures in the coral.
We dined at the highest point in Havana, which was on the 25th floor of what used to be a Hilton hotel before the embargo. We learned how to make Mojios and a spicy shredded beef dinner.
Of course, we got all dressed up for the formal night on the cruise and had this family photo taken. We all agreed that we’d love to go back to Cuba again as words just can’t do it justice.
Cruising is our favorite way to travel as we can go to so many places and only have to unpack once. If you’ve ever thought about cruising, I’d love to have you join us on our next cruising adventure which is my Stamp Crop & Cruise Retreat in January. You can read more about it HERE
The cost for the cruise is approximately $500 per person for interior rooms plus the cruise port charges, taxes, surcharges, customs fees, transfers, and all gratuities to cruise staff which brings the cost to $974 per person for an interior room or $1124 per person for an outside room. You can also opt to participate in the crafting portion of the cruise which is $250 per person. The very last day to register for my Stamp Crop & Cruise is November 8th as the cruise line will release any non booked rooms at that time. I hope you’ll consider joining our group!
