Blog

Windin Falls is a beautiful waterfall with an incredible infinity pool to relax in at the top of the waterfall. It will make for a perfect way to spend a warm sunny day. Even with clouds, you will enjoy yourself. Just try to avoid the falls after heavy rain as you may not be able to go into the infinity pool for safety reasons.

Walshs Pyramid is a challenging hike just 20 kilometers to the south of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Seeing the pyramid is easy as you travel south along Bruce Highway. Finding the trail at the base of the mountain is a little harder, but the biggest challenge is easily the climb. This hike is not for the faint of heart as you will be climbing up about 800 meters over three kilometers of trail. If this still interests you, keep reading below.

Day 15 was disembarkation day, or as some people like to call it, eviction day. This day is the day we are back to port and have to leave the ship. No one likes this day, but usually, everyone is happy to have had such a great time during the cruise. We typically start this day getting some breakfast. We then find a place to relax while we wait for the crew to call our zone to leave the ship. Before leaving the room for good, I turned to the channel with the map so that I could take a photo showing our total distance traveled during the trip. We traveled a total of 4,733 Nautical Miles (5,446 miles/8,765 kilometers)!

Day 14 was the last full day of the cruise and a sea day. We spent most of the day a lot like the other sea days, poolside for the activities and to relax. During the afternoon before dinner, they had a party for platinum and diamond loyalty members onboard. To reach platinum, guests need to accrue 75 cruise days with Carnival Cruise Lines, whereas diamond requires 200 cruise days. See some of the benefits here.

Day 13 was George Town, Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman is a lovely port in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. We have stopped here numerous times on previous cruises and have done many activities. These activities include scuba diving, stingray city, and the turtle farm. See more activities here. All of these activities are a lot of fun to do, but on this trip, we decided to take it easy. So we went around a few of the shops to look at shirts. Dad was able to find one he liked, but I did not find one for myself. After the shops, we sat at Margaritaville for a couple of drinks.

Day 12 was another fun sea day. This sea day was a little bit different from some of the other sea days, though, because it was the 80’s throwback day. So throughout the day, they would do activities that were often done on cruises back in the ’80s. Some activities include frog races in the pool, knobby knees challenge, a family relay race, a throwback menu for the formal dinner, and of course, a midnight gala buffet. A lot of these activities are fun to participate in and/or watch from the side. On the previous Carnival Journey cruise we did, we participated in more of the activities. To see more activities unique to a Carnival Journey cruise, click here.

Day 11 was another beautiful port of call at Cartagena, Colombia. I honestly set my expectations really low about this port. I mean Colombia is known as a drug place, right? Well, thank goodness my expectations were completely wrong! As the skyline revealed itself to us on the way into the port, I started to realize this would be a much better place than expected. The huge skyline was a bit of a shock to me, but it was a beautiful sight. See for yourself in this photo.

Day 10 was by far the highlight of the entire cruise, the Panama Canal Transit! This day was what made this cruise so special! There are too many great photos to share on this one page, so instead, I will share them all later. Now going through the canal on a cruise ship is much faster than going through on a cargo ship because passenger ships get priority through the locks. With that said, it still takes a solid 8 hours to transverse the entire canal.

Day 9 was another sea day. This day was our last sea day in the Pacific Ocean since the next day was to be the transit through the canal. We ended up having another gorgeous day at sea. I mean, check out the photo below of the beautifully calm seas! So naturally, we spent most of the day relaxing again. The pool water was incredibly warm, and the perfect place to hang out during the day time.

Day 8 was another port of call at the beautiful Puntarenas, Costa Rica. About six months before this cruise, I had previously taken a ten-day trip to Costa Rica. One of the places we went on that trip was near Puntarenas, so it was awesome to go back so soon. I was hoping to meet up with the guide I had from my previous trip to Costa Rica. Sadly, the schedule didn’t work out. Instead, we still got off and walked around for a while. This worked out well since it was such a beautiful day.