Panama Cruise 2023: Days 1 – 3 Townsville to Florida

In April/May of 2023 I was fortunate enough to be invited to teach by RGE Travels and Karen Brown (of Just Get It Done Quilts) on a cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Los Angeles, California via the Panama Canal. I confess when I first said yes I thought we were doing the Suez Canal because I’m geographical challenged and I’d completely forgotten that there were 2 canal’s of note in the world. 🤦‍♀️

Once I’d gotten my bearings I was super excited to realise we’d be going to 5 countries in Central America. Again, I confess I’ve never had a yearning to go to Central America, but that was majorly fuelled by ignorance and nothing concrete. I’m so glad I didn’t let it stop me from going because it was AMAZING! But we’ll get to that in due time, for now we’re going to cover Day 1 to Day 3: Townsville to Fort Lauderdale.

day one: townsville to fort lauderdale

Originally we’d planned to all go, but due to school and work commitments my Dad, Husband and Son all stayed back in Australia and my Mum (Judi) and I headed off on adventure. My Mum had never been on a long-haul flight or to the US and neither of us had been on a cruise or to Central America. We were in for a treat!

If you’ve not had the pleasure of meeting my Mum you’d not be aware of how wonderful she is. (And that’s not bias, everyone says it!) We have the best time together, even when we’re doing the most mundane things. (Some would even say we’d have a good time in a morgue!) When people would ask me what I was most excited about with doing the Cruise I’d always answer, “Doing it with my Mum!”.

We spent the months and weeks leading up to the Cruise talking and researching all the things we were going to do and see. We spent hours talking about what we thought it would be like, working out what we’d wear and whether we thought it was better to do this shore excursion over that shore excursion. We were walking together 6 days out of 7 in preparation for all the activities we were going to do. It was brilliant.

On Tuesday 18 May we departed from Townsville to Brisbane (1h 50m flight time). Our flight was delayed which meant that we’d have a very tight connection for our flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles (13h 40m flight time). I’m not gonna lie, I was worried we’d not make our flight as we had under 2 hours to make it, but QANTAS were brilliant. They moved us mid-flight to Brisbane to sit at the front of the plane so we could disembark first. They gave us cab vouchers to get to the Brisbane International Airport and they had a crew member help us clear the airport super fast. We made our connecting flight with heaps of time (and a nice layer of sweat from the hustle).

Our international flight was smooth and the crew kept us well fed, entertained and alive (always a big one on my list). It was pretty cool because our flight was full and a large portion of the customers in our section of the plane were representing Australia in a Hip-Hop Competition in Orlando. The QANTAS Pilot even wished them all well when we landed in LA which was a really lovely touch. (I wish I’d paid more attention to the details on their jerseys so I could have worked out how they did!)

We got to LA with 4 hours to kill before our flight to Charlotte. Remember I said my Mum had never been to the US before. Well when we got to Immigration the lovely man at the desk said there was a problem with her passport and that he’d have to take her out back and get it sorted. He assured us it wouldn’t take long and because she was traveling with 2 passports (due to close expiry dates) and she’d had issues in Brisbane we didn’t think anything of it. We just dutifully followed him to the frosted glass doors like innocent little bunnies.

When we got to the door he turned to me, pointed to the downward escalators, and said “You can wait down there, she won’t be long.” And, here’s the stupid part, I just did what he said. Off I went thinking “Mum will be out soon and we can head to our flight.”

She wasn’t out soon…. As soon as I got to the bottom and retrieved our luggage I heard a gentleman ask one of the airport workers if he knew how long his friend might be detained as he’d been waiting for 3.5 hours. Internally I freaked out. 3.5 hours?!?! We don’t have 3.5 hours, our flight leaves and we can’t miss it. It was at this point that I realised I hadn’t set Mum’s phone up for the US and so I had no way to contact her. More importantly, I’d had a very stern talking too from my Father who’d made it very clear that I was responsible for my Mother’s wellbeing and returning her to him in 3 weeks time with not a lick of damage.

It was also at this point that I realised my Father would be at home clock watching and waiting to hear if we’d arrived safely and we were already 30 minutes past that time with no communication sent his way. I got out my phone…. I sent him the following message; “We’ve arrived in LA. There’s been an issue (not sure what) with Mum’s passport and Immigration has taken her off to some office in the airport and left me to wait. This is all the information I have… Will update you when she gets out.”

Time passed. Slowly. People came and went from around me, all with similar stories of being detained. There seemed no rhyme or reason. The man who was there when I first arrived was still waiting for his friend to be released. At the 1 hour mark the guy’s friend was released and came out. There was much rejoicing, but they’d both missed their flights and were now stuck for the night in LA. Not gonna lie, I did not want to have to spend a night in LA wondering what had happened to my Mother.

At the 1hr 15min mark I saw this…

I sent word to my Father. She was alive, out and not being detained like an episode of Border Security. To this day we’re not sure why she got detained. We suspect it’s a numbers thing. Regardless, we were both very happy to be clear of Immigration and proceeding with our journey.

Now we had 2 hours to make our next flight…. Los Angeles to Charlotte (4h 50m flight time). Just enough time to use the facilities, fill our water bottles and buy our first food in the US. Cinnabon!

Neither of us had had it before, but we’ve heard lots about it in American pop culture so we had to give it a go. Plus it was late at night, not much was near our gate and the queue for what was there was long. In hindsight, the lack of queue at Cinnabon should have been a warning. But we can tick it off the list as something we tried.

day two: fort lauderdale

We flew from Los Angeles to Charlotte with an hour stop-over before boarding our next flight from Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale (2h flight time). We left Townsville on Tuesday 18 May and arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday 19 May at 9:30am after 36+hours of travel. We were spent!

Our original plan had been to hit the hotel, drop our bags and then go out exploring but that plan crumbled. By the time we got our bags, caught an Uber to the Hotel, checked in and got to our room it was lunchtime. So we ordered room service, showered and had a nap. (I know, I know, napping isn’t good for resetting your body clock but after all that travelling you would have needed to prop me up like a scarecrow in a field if you’d wanted me to sightsee.)

We ate our room service, the first decent meal we’d had in 36 hours, and then slept the sleep of the truly exhausted. I don’t think I’ve ever slept that deep a sleep. We woke around 4pm and decided it was time to go out and see the sights.

When we knew we were leaving from Florida we immediately added heading to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville on our must-do list. Since I was a small child the music of Jimmy Buffet has been a family tradition. I even earned the nickname (one of many) “Little Miss Magic” after one of his songs. I have so many memories attached to Jimmy’s songs so while I’m not a Margarita drinker I was excited to go an experience this thing I’d only ever heard about.

We showered, booked an Uber and headed off to our Mecca. It did not disappoint. It’s one of the things that I love about my time in the US. America knows how to do a themed attraction. Margaritaville is like Disneyland for Jimmy Buffet fans. We must have been walking around that place with our mouth open catching flies (as they say in Australia). I love a coastal decor theme at the best of times but this place took it to a whole new level.

We had dinner at the main restaurant in the complex and it was good. There was music playing, people singing karaoke with a live band and of course Margarita’s. Mum and I had our first ever taste of Key Lime Pie and we’re both addicted! It was amazing. (So amazing that we had to track down Graham Crackers in Australia so we can try and replicate it at home!)

After dinner we took a stroll along the promenade. It was so lovely. Being a Wednesday night it was pretty quiet, but we enjoyed our first look at the North Atlantic Ocean (another first for both of us). We both wish we’d had a chance to come back and explore during the day time. Something to look forward to for another cruise!

One of the things that was on my Mum’s wish list for our visit was a ride in one of those “big black cars you see in all the movies and tv”, so being the good daughter I am when I organised our next Uber I requested a big black car. Uber didn’t disappoint.

I think if we had the means she’d have one of them on order right now! 😂 With our night of ticking-off-bucket-list-items over we returned to the hotel for some more sleep. Now normally I wouldn’t talk much about hotel rooms, but this one had an interesting addition… the beds were super high. Like I couldn’t touch the ground when I sat on them, super high. My Mother, bless her, is a little shorter then me so if I couldn’t touch the ground she really couldn’t.

She amused me no end by trying multiple methods of getting into bed. From running and jumping to having to use the couch beside her bed as a stepping stool to get into bed. I thought I was going to lose it in a laughing/coughing fit that night watching her try to get into bed. To this day, it’s still one of the best things I saw on the trip.

day 3: fort lauderdale and miami

The next day we woke early, headed to breakfast and then got ready for a day of sightseeing. Both of us, despite the advice from our US friends, wanted to see Little Havana and Miami. My Mum and I both have a fascination with Cuba and it’s on our must-see list of destinations, so it made sense to us that if we were in the area we should see all that we could. We made our plan: Uber into Little Havana and then go on an adventure from there.

Side note: You may notice the amazing backpacks that Mum and I are sporting in our photos. The lovely Ruth, who I met at the Retreat that Raylee and I hosted, is a phenomenal bag maker. (Like, super amazing!) Normally when I travel I like to make handmade things to travel with, like a backpack, but this time I was so swamped with everything that I didn’t have capacity, so I reached out to Ruth (who has her own bag making business) and asked her if I could commission some bags. I’d send her the fabric I’d been hoarding and she’d work her magic with it. She did not disappoint! The bags are stunning and I wish I had better photos of them in action. Mum’s especially was really beautiful. Ruth went above and beyond – she even pattern matched and fussy cut the fabric on my bags so that I could get the tiger motif I loved in the fabric front and centre. They’re just so well made and they stood up to the punishment of international travel so well. I know Mum and I will cherish our bags for years to come, I use mine every time I leave the house and every time without fail I admire Ruth’s handiwork and attention to detail.

[CLICK HERE] to see some of Ruth’s amazing creations. Keep an eye out in our photos for more sightings of our bags! And because I know someone is going to ask, the bag pattern is Range Backpack by Noodlehead. Fabric details are shown above. Both prints are no longer printed and are from a number of years ago so may be hard to find.

Now, bit of a warning, this is where things are going to get really image heavy as I hit tourist mode full speed. I’ve tried to group all the photos together from the 2 big things we did on this day: 1. Walk Little Havana, and B. Ride the Hop-On Hop-Off bus around Miami.

In preparation for our trip I’d been watching a lot (a lot!) of YouTube videos about the places we were visiting and I had watched one (ok, a few) on Little Havana and so I was prepared with a list of things I wanted to do. Now, keep in mind, I don’t drink coffee (never had it, smell of it gives me a headache) so it wasn’t on my list of things to do. But, I’m told, if you are a coffee fan you need to have a traditional Cuban coffee when you visit Little Havana.

My list was simple: try a traditional Cuban pastry called Pastelitos de Guayaba from Party Cake Bakery and have a Cubano sandwich from El Pub Restaurant.

I’m not an adventurous eater (as I’ll cover when we talk about food on the cruise ship) so one thing I really wanted to make the most of on the trip was eating out of my comfort zone. (I wasn’t going to go crazy and eat from street vendors, but I thought I could safely expand my experience by eating off the menu things I normally wouldn’t try.) This motto formed the basis of my lists. I’ve never really had guava, mainly in drinks, so that was a new thing and I’d definitely spent my life avoiding pickles and mustard (both individually and combined). However, I’m so glad I took the leap and tried both the foods on my list.

The pastry was amazing! It was buttery and flakey and the guava was so moreish. I could have easily eaten a dozen right there and then. They’re also crazy cheap. If I lived in Miami I’d be eating there all.the.time. I’d love to say we went crazy and ordered more stuff, but we were coming off the back of a big hotel breakfast and so this was all we had. In hindsight, we should have gotten some for the road!

[It’s at this point that we jumped on the Hop-on Hop-off bus, but because I’m keeping things grouped by topic not timeline I’ll finish our time in Little Havana.]

We circled back to Little Havana at the end of the bus trip and so we had lunch at El Pub. I would never normally order this type of sandwich – the pickles and mustard would have put me off – but boy, oh boy, was I glad I did. The bread was amazing. I don’t know if it’s a special bread or what, but it was so good. I have come to the conclusion that no one does meat to sandwich ratio like America. Scroll back up and have a look at how much meat is on that sandwich! And there’s two types of meat; roasted pork and ham! That’s twice the pig!

In true to me fashion, I ordered fries with the order. I didn’t realise that the Cubano came with these crispy thin french fries. Needless to say, I didn’t finish either all my sandwich or the extra fries. If I’d known what I was in for I would have skipped breakfast.

As mentioned, I don’t drink coffee but the wonderful Chen put me on to this thing that Starbucks does way back when I went to my first Quilt Market; Been There coffee mugs. They’re coffee mugs that are decorated with imagery of the place that you’ve in, either the town/city or country. I had previously gotten a Houston one for Hubby one a Quilt Market visit and then I managed to get 2 of them at Disneyland in California (highly prized!). My plan for this trip was to get one from every country we visited. I figured it would be a cheap and useable gift to bring home for the coffee drinkers in my life. So before we left Little Havana I grabbed the Miami and Florida cups:

The clerk at Starbucks informed me that I was “super lucky” to get the Miami one. Apparently they were delivered that morning and they were nearly sold out and it was only 2pm. Out of all the mugs I got on the trip I think the Florida one is my favourite (note the key lime pie on there) and so I have it on my sewing station and I’m using it as my thread catcher. Just because I don’t drink coffee doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate good ceramics!

We did a little bit of window shopping in Little Havana. So many lovely things to look at and hold… and then forget you were holding and walk out of the shop with it and up the street only to realise and bolt back to the store apologising in really fast Australian accent laden words how you were really sorry you’d walked off with these amazing leather purse and to please forgive you. Yep, I did that. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I had completely forgotten I’d picked up a purse to move so I could look at another purse in the bowl of purses, put it under my arm to hold it with my phone while I looked at the purse I was interested in only to put one purse down and walk out with the other. I swear, it was like I was trying to make sure we had another run in with authorities, like LA airport wasn’t enough! 🤦‍♀️

We come from a giant island, so we’re not strangers to beautiful beaches and waterways, but even so Miami was stunning. The colour of the water is like nothing I’ve seen in all my travels around Australia. I’m told it’s Caribbean blue. Whatever it is, it’s a colour I could look at for days on end. (It’s also meant I’ve added the Caribbean to my must see list!)

As well as water we also have wildlife, so I was super surprised and excited to see this little guy clinging to the tree next to the bus stop. I’ve convinced myself it’s an Iguana but really I have no clue. Looks kinda like a goanna (which is a lizard we have here in Australia.) Whatever it is the claws on it are super impressive.

The amount of wealth on show in Miami is also staggering. We saw houses and boats that would be sold for millions and millions of dollars. It reminded me a little of being on the Gold Coast here in Australia – only with fewer casinos.

My head was on a swivel the entire time we were on that bus. I couldn’t see it all quick enough. I think I could have easily done a chartered car trip and just ask them to take me to specific spots where I could get out and just walk around looking at everything. There was so much colour and pattern; it was glorious. I wished that we could have brought the colour back with us. I don’t know why, but here in Australia we don’t paint our houses with colour like they seem to in Miami. (Or Central America – wait for those photos!)

Our bus passed through the fashion district of Miami and I got such a pleasant surprise to see Mood Fabrics. I’ve been a big fan of Project Runway for years so to see a Mood in the flesh was a sweet little thrill. I wish we could have gone in. (Totally would have just brought a Mood tote so I could carry my fabrics around the studio in it and pretend like I’m on Project Runway!)

The Dior mural on the way into the fashion district is STUNNING! I actually thought it was a billboard plastered to the side of the building, but as we went past I’m pretty sure it was painted on there. The scale of the flowers was amazing and the level of detail just mind blowing. Again another place where I would have just loved to walk around and take it all in.

Wynwood Walls [CLICK HERE] was high on my list of places I wanted to go to in Miami, but our day was truncated by a hard out for dinner and so we weren’t able to head in there. It’s definitely something I’m coming back for. While I was disappointed we didn’t have time to wander through there, I made the most of trying to capture all the amazing colour, pattern and art as our bus went through the suburb. Again, if I lived near Miami I would totally be in Wynwood Walls for all my quilt photography! I know street art divides people, but I’m sure you’ll agree that it doesn’t change the fact that people have mad skills and colour always makes a place better.

We had planned to see more of Miami (and get off the bus) but our Uber driver in the morning told us that if we wanted to be back at our hotel in time for dinner we had to be out of Miami by 2pm as the traffic would be insane. He wasn’t wrong. We ended up taking an Uber from Little Havana (the last stop on the bus loop) to what we thought was a close train station. It took us 45 minutes to get to the train station. I’d hate to think how long it would have taken us to get to Fort Lauderdale!

When we got to the train station the ticket machine wasn’t working, the attendant was swamped and the train was arriving any minute, so when the train did arrive the attendant took 4 of us that had ticketing issues to the front of the train and conferred with a lady working on the train and then let us all get on for free. Now, remember our penchant for running into the law? Well, wouldn’t you know it just before our stop a ticket collector came along and asked us for our ticket. We explained what had happened and for one brief shining moment I thought we were going to get a fine before he shrugged his shoulders and walked off.

By the time we got back to the hotel our unofficial first night dinner was well underway so we showered and headed down to catch up with everyone. It was so good to finally get to see Karen in person after talking to her over the internet for 2+ years. It was great to meet Ray and John from RGE Travels, again people we’d only talked to on the internet. Then there was Chris and Janene our Pfaff Technicians as well as some of the group that would be joining us on the cruise.

In the weeks leading up to the cruise I naively thought that our first night together with everyone would be a quiet small affair where the teachers would get to catch up, talk, plan, laugh and get ready for our big adventure. But in what would be a hallmark of the entire trip – it was a loud, mixed group of amazing women and men chatting and sharing animatedly that went nothing like planned and was everything I never knew I wanted in a trip away.

more to come…

Over the coming weeks I’ll share each section of our cruising adventure, breaking it down into port stops and manageable chunks. It’s going to be text and photo heavy and I make no apologies for either. 😂 This is going to be our record of our trip and you’re invited to read it and hopefully enjoy it vicariously.

Next entry will be on our first days at sea and our first port of call: Cartagena, Columbia.

want to have your own adventure?

Nic (of Craftapalooza) and I (plus a special, exclusive, yet-to-be-announced US teacher) will be cruising from Singapore to Bali from December 23, 2023 to January 4, 2023. We’ll have Christmas and Boxing Day in Phuket, Thailand and bring in the New Year at sea. We’ve got exclusive shore excursion that will unlock the secrets of the fabric trade in 3 different countries. There’s also going to be exclusive access to 3 projects all centred on 3 ways to make a Mariner’s Compass. It’s going to be amazing! If you’d like to find out more about it [CLICK HERE].