After almost 3 years and 4 canceled honeymoon itineraries, we finally got to go spend time together. No family. No obligations. Just Allen and me!
Why did you wait so long to have a honeymoon?
When our first honeymoon was canceled, I wasn’t surprised. It was 2020. Naturally, our trip to Portugal was canceled. We planned a smaller trip to a beach town in Florida buttttttt I ended up getting really sick. So that trip was a bust.
After that, Allen and I planned a two-month road trip across the country. We were going to go everywhere… Almost. Long story short, complications with his new job training got in the way and we had to cancel.
Then Allen started his business, and getting away was nearly impossible. We booked a trip to Thailand in 2023. We were supposed to board a cruise on my birthday (Feb.6) and get back on his birthday (Feb. 17) When I called to confirm my name change in some other details, I found out that all Asian cruises were canceled until 2024.
This was heartbreaking.
I love to travel, and the fact that I had yet to take a trip that lasted more than three days with my husband was really really difficult.
I was pissed.
We didn’t plan anything for a long time and continued saving money for the day that we would finally get to go somewhere together.
I really didn’t like to think about it too much. After the new year, we started to look into planning for the fifth time. By this point, there was a ton of anxiety and stress. I didn’t think it was gonna work out.
Here’s where it starts to get fun!
We started looking at cruises, flights, hotels, and all-inclusive resorts. We looked at everything. Somehow we stumbled upon a 50% off cruise with Norwegian. I don’t know about you, but I love a good discount. We found the destinations and available dates of sail. There was only one sail date that actually worked for our timeframe. When I say it worked for the time frame, I don’t mean it was a perfect fit. It just wasn’t the only thing that wouldn’t create mass chaos in our schedules…
So we booked the cruise on a Sunday and by Thursday we were flying to Miami Florida for an 11-day cruise to the Panama canal.
How cool is that?!
The spontaneity was amazing and terrifying because we’ve never left our businesses for that long . Not to mention everything we tried to plan together as a couple was been canceled.
But we did the damn thing!
Our 11-day cruise was amazing. Let me tell you a little bit about what we did.
We left for Miami on Friday, January 13 got home very very late January 24. We left for Miami and had a couple of days at sea, our first stop in Grand Cayman was canceled because of some bad weather, and Allen got very seasick.
After four days, we landed in Columbia.
In Columbia, we saw a lot of birds and ate good food. We also were able to attend a coffee tasting! After that, we went through the Panama Canal and saw The Locks if you haven’t seen that it’s super cool here’s a quick link to explain what the locks are. After we went through the locks, we docked in Colon Panama. Colon was an interesting city. Allen said it reminded him of the time he was in Cuba. We ate some incredible ceviche and fish, drank local beer, and tried a local rum called Abuelo.
Costa Rica was next!
There we went zip lining, which was a blast! I loved being able to just spend time adventuring with Allen doing things that we would do at home, but on a much higher level. Plus, the views were stunning! This was my second-time zip lining in Costa Rica and it was just like the first: incredible.
The day after Costa Rica, we were back at sea.
Sea days on a cruise are super fun because you are pretty much at a floating resort. We were on a smaller boat, but we had a balcony. We also had an unlimited beverage package – our little honeymoon splurge. The days went by so quickly! I read through 3 books, we spent a lot of time at the pool, and we participated in activities the cruise staff organized.
After that, we went to Belize.
Belize is sweet! Because our first stop was canceled, and we did not pay for any excursions in Panama, we went all out! In the morning, we took jet skis on the ocean. After that, we explored the island a little bit. I bought a coconut because there’s nothing like fresh coconut water from a fresh coconut.
We spent the afternoon snorkeling. I think that was one of the coolest experiences because Belize has a huge barrier reef. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much living coral in a single location. We saw fish that look like Dory and rainbow fish and we saw sea cucumbers and so many other things
Allen even came face-to-face with a giant fish.
When I got back on the boat, our guide gave us some rum punch for the ride back.
We got back on the boat and went to Cozumel the next day.
In Cozumel, we went on a super cool excursion, where we learned how to cook fish in the traditional Mayan way. The food and the vegetables with the fish were delicious. The guy who helped us make sure our fish was cooked properly, literally caught the fish moments before we arrived. We also had fresh ceviche and made our own corn tortillas.
After we were done with the cooking, we went back to the area near the boat and explored for the rest of the afternoon. It was really chill. We didn’t really do a whole lot. We just walked around and sat in a local park and talked and enjoyed each other’s company.
After Cozumel, we had one more day at sea before getting back to Miami. Our travel day home was an absolute disaster because the Houston airport shut down and delayed our flight by six hours. We got home at midnight instead of 6 PM like we were supposed to. Thankfully, that didn’t happen on the way to Miami.
Final Thoughts on My Honeymoon
All in all, I had the best time with my husband on our honeymoon. And, it is going to be one of those memories that we cherish for the rest of our lives. Our honeymoon would’ve been great if we had it as planned in 2020. And it would’ve been great the other three times we tried to plan it. But, it was so sweet to finally experience something that we’ve been waiting for. I can’t wait for all of the future adventures I have with Allen.
If you like my story, or want to know more, let’s chat!
