We flew into Tampa Airport via Southwest Airlines arriving prior to noon.  We had just spent a week in Las Vegas, visiting our money!!!.  Getting back on Wednesday, December 8, 2004, this only gave us the time to wash our clothes and repack the suitcases for an ten-night Caribbean Cruise.  If you have not yet been on a cruise, book yourself on a Celebrity Lines cruise ship now!  Celebrity Lines will treat you like a King and a Queen.  The service, news papers, every little thing you can think of were better than what we had experienced on Carnival, NCL or Royal Caribbean cruises lines.  The Horizon was one of the two oldest ships in Celebrity Lines' fleet.  Both, I believe are going to be traded away in 2005.  I would not of sail on the Horizon again, because of its age and near for rework, however, we had a fantastic time. 

Now, if you do not like to wear a tie or put on an evening gown, you might not like the Celebrity Lines.  With just a touch more of class than the other lines, one has to dress more, always bring a suit, sport jacket, couple of evening gowns or you will feel a little out of group.  They treat you a little more reserve and therefore, one should be a little more reserve.  We left Tampa on the 10th and our first formal dinner was on the 11th.

Our first port of call was Georgetown, Grand Cayman.  Here we had to take tenders to get ashore and back onboard the ship.  This in its self is an adventure, let alone that the average age of the tender we took was 70 plus.  Georgetown is a beautiful city.  However, looking across Georgetown from the Horizon, it is easy to see a wave10 foot high would wash straight across the town and it would be under water.  I do not believe, I would like to be at Georgetown during any bad weather.

Next we went to Costa Rica, one of the places I really want to visit.  We took a full day tour of Costa Rica including the capital, San Jose.  Our tour guide was outstanding, extremely knowledgeable and very helpful.  After a complete tour of the rain forest and the capital, our guide took us to the restaurant "Le Chandelier".  This was one of the best restaurant we have every eating in - a reflection of the quality of service we received while cruising with Celebrity Lines. 

From Costa Rica we went to Panama.  We docked at Colon a little before 7 AM.  We had purchased a full day bus tour of Panama including the canal and Panama City.  The canal is very impressive, man can do wonders.  We enjoyed the tour except the lunch included.  That was one of the worst lunches I believe I have ever had.  20 20 hindsight, we, the US Americas, should of did a better job blend into the community.  It was very easy to tell where the US had lived and where the Panamanians had lived.  But one should go and see the canal and notice the difference in the tides between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.  Panama city was very nice but it's beach were not, or at least the ones we got to see.  We have lived in several countries, Costa Rica would have been the better of the two for living in and probably Costa Rica and Panama are the only two countries in Latin America to live in.  However, there is still a major different between the have's and the have not's, which leads to difficulties within the communities.

We arrival in Roatan Honduras around 9:00 AM.  Carmen and I just walked off the ship and took a walk into town.  There is not very much here and after a couple of hours we were more than ready to get back on board the Horizon.  The people were extremely friendly and we did buy a couple of things.  It was an experience, one can remember and smile.

From Roatan we went to Cozumel for a little shopping.  We picked up a couple of bottles of sprits and a little pint of vanilla extract.  Also, some things for the children and grandchildren.  Another formal dinner night and then back to Tampa.  The last day before Tampa, we just set around and enjoy good company.  Again, if you haven't book a cruise yet, do it today!

The authors of this site are members of

  and

© Copyright by Don Carlos V and Scott Beckett , 1997-2006. All rights reserved.

_{Revised: 11 Dec 2006 07:29:55 -0500.}