Ten days of relaxation on our cruise home

We left Southampton on October 29th in the rain to board the NCL Norwegian Escape, the newest cruise ship in the world.

We arrived at the the passenger terminal around 11:45 AM and were onboard within an hour.  The boarding process was very smooth and well organized.

This is our inside room -- no view, but very quiet.

On our second day at sea the ship was diverted toward Spain for a medical emergency evacuation.  A Spanish Air Force helicopter flew out and landed on the deck of the cruise ship to evacuate the passenger.

This was one of our favorite places to eat during the cruise.  This is located on the pool deck near the water slides, ropes course and minature golf course.

 Here are two of the four water slides on deck.  These two were not open for our cruise.

The above two photos show me on the ropes course.  This is on the very top of the ship and at several places it extends over the side of the ship.  Cindy could not go on the course because she did not have the correct type of shoes with closed toes and heels.  She missed out on a good time.

 She did master the nine hole mini golf course.  She had the correct shoes for that. :-)

 This is the children's water play area.  Reminded us a lot of the Disney ship.

 This was outside our room.  You could light up the Do Not Disturb light or Make Up Room light, and when you put your room key in the slot to turn on the lights for the room, the At Home light lit up.

 This was part of the main lobby of the ship.  The screen was used for game shows and upcoming events on the ship.

 All the carpets in the hallways had these fish swimming on them.  If you wanted to go towards the front of the ship you just made sure that you followed the way the fish were swimming.

They have these touch screens on every deck. You can do everything from find out what is scheduled  on the ship, book a shore excursion or make dinner reservations.  The ship has 26 restaurants; 5 were included with the price of the cruise and 21 charged extra for food.

 We arrived in Miami on Sunday November 8th.  Spent the day sightseeing in the Florida Keys.  This was the go-to restaurant in Key West.  So we went, couldn't get a seat, had our picture taken and walked down the street to a local mom & pop deli for lunch.

US 1 runs from Key West Florida to the Canadian boarder.  So this is either the beginning or end, just depends on which way you are going. 

Now, here are some numbers that summarize our trip.

42: days from beginning to end

7: modes of transportation used (airplane, bus, car, foot, ship, taxi, train)

27: different beds slept in

118: miles we walked on the Cotswold Way (according to our GPS)

1,491: miles driven (on the opposite side of the road) in Ireland 

10: time zones traveled through

2: number of times we changed from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time (Oct 25 in Ireland & Nov 1 on the ship)