Miami Beach and Carribean Cruise - December 2025

On December 7 we flew to Miami and checked into the Miami Beach Edition hotel - a grand but modern hotel right on the beach. We stayed there 3 nights, enjoying the resort and swimming in the ocean. This little beach stay was a precursor to boarding the Seven Seas Mariner on Dec 10 for a 10 day cruise in the Caribbean.

Here is the route for the cruise:

Our first stop was George Town, Grand Cayman, where we had booked an excursion to swim with stingrays. This turned out to be a great time. A boat takes you out to a sand bar, where the water is about three feet deep and the guys from the boat persuade stingrays to some play with the tourists in exchange for handfuls of squid. Much more fun than it sounds. The comedy started with the 10 attempts to moor the boat on the sand bar before we could get in with the rays! Once back on shore we found a marvelous Italian restaurant right on the beach for a late lunch.

We did not get off in Falmouth, Jamaica, as the excursions did not appeal to us and the local area was still recovering from hurricane damage. So our next stop was Belize City where we did an excursion to Altan - a wonderful site of an excavated Mayan city. There were only about 30 of us across the whole site split between 3 knowledgeable guides. This was one of the best stops of the cruise. Also we ate well that evening in Prime 7 on the ship!

For the rest of the cruise, I do not have many good photos. At Roatan, Honduras, the excursion we wanted turned out not to be available and we stayed on the ship. At Cozumel, Mexico, we had a great time on a swimming with dolphins excursion, but cameras/phones were not allowed. We did purchase photos from the dolphin excursion company, but the link expired before we downloaded them. Anyhow, here is a nice sunset photo from our balcony as we steamed away from Honduras.

On December 20 our ship arrived back in Miami and we flew home with 4 days left to prepare for Christmas. 2025 is a wrap! We have more adventures planned for 2026.