Our first cruise

I'd never considered going on a cruise. I always felt I wanted more from travelling, to get more embedded in the culture I was visiting. I wanted to spend a while in one place not just hop in and buy stuff from a tourist shop.

But my parents invited me on a two week cruise through the Panama Canal, how could I refuse. And .. I really enjoyed it.

So here's the story.

My partner and I live in Scarborough (UK), so we set off at about 11:30 and drove to my parents in Long Eaton (near Nottingham). From there, we'd previously booked an airport taxi to Birmingham for flight Thomson 243 to Acapulco. We arrived on ship at about 9:30 their time (we are 6 hours ahead, so that's about 15:30 ours). Door to door, it was a 28 hour journey, but it wasn't painful. It was disappointing not to be able to wander off the plane while refuelling at Miami, but we'd only have been in the airport while everything was closed.

This pic is us arriving in the cabin, A546, midships.