John & Karen's Honeymoon Photos
June 2006
Our fabulous honeymoon began when
we flew down to Miami on June 16th for a two night stay at the
Fountainebleau Resort.
The Fountainebleau is one of Miami's
oldest and most famous resort hotels - some of my favorite films such as the
James Bond move GOLDFINGER and the Al Pachino classic SCARFACE
were filmed on location at The Fountainebleau. Here's a shot of the sign that
greeted us Friday night when we arrived, and a photo of the old Fountainebleau main building:
Just last year, a brand new facility was opened called the
Fountainbleau Tower, which is where Karen and I stayed on the 18th floor in an
ocean view suite. Here's a few shots of our room:
We had a sliding glass door which lead out to a nice balcony where Karen and I enjoyed breakfast both mornings we stayed:
From the balcony, if you looked straight down you had a birds eye view of the incredible pool:
Looking to the left you could see the old Fountainebleau main building which is currenly being renovated:
Looking to the right, you have an excellent view of Miami Beach:
Both Karen and I love to spend time by the pool, and the pool at the
Fountainebleau is the best I've ever experienced - the waterfalls were great!
On Saturday night, I took Karen to dinner and dancing at
South Beach. Here's a shot of Karen and I in the lobby of the
Fountainebleau before leaving for dinner:
For dinner, I made reservations at
Don Shula's Steakhouse (reputed to be one
of the top 5 steakhouses in America). The Shula's we went to was located
inside the Alexander Hotel, which is only about a mile or so from the
Fountainbleau. Here's a couple of shots of Karen and I in front of the
Alexander:
Shula's certainly delivered on the promise as Karen and I both agreed that our steak ranked among the best we'd ever experienced.
Here's a shot of us at Shula's with a football signed by Don Shula himself (Shula
is a former coach of the Miami Dolphins).
After dinner, we caught a cab and went down to South Beach for a little sight
seeing and night life. In my book, the hottest dance club in South Beach
is Mangos - the Latino and Salsa music is always fantastic, and every member of
the wait staff there is a phenomenal dancer.
The Art Deco buildings in South Beach are beautiful at night:
Sunday morning we spent a little more time at the pool, and then bid farwell to the Fountainebleau as we headed to the Port of Miami to begin
our cruise. As we got into our cab, we saw the below pictured Enzo Ferrari
parked in front of the Fountainebleau. While there certainly no shortage
of super cars floating around Miami (we saw at least four Bentleys on Saturday night alone), I never dreamed I'd see an Enzo Ferrari in
person - Ferrari only produced 400 examples of this commemorative model valued
at well over one million dollars.
After arriving at the port, we finaly boarded Freedom. For those who don't know,
Freedom of the Seas is the newest vessel in Royal Caribbean's
fleet of ships. With a passenger capacity of over 3600, Freedom eclipsed
the Queen Elizabeth II as the largest cruise ship in the world.
Karen and I were among the 3 group of paying passengers to sail on this
incredible ship. Our first stop was to deck 7 to check out our stateroom,
7344 - an outside stateroom with a balcony. Here's a few shots of our
stateroom:
Here's a shot of Karen on the balcony with one of the many beautiful sunsets we enjoyed on our cruise:
After seeing our stateroom, we wandered around Freedom to check out what the ship had to offer:
I've been on four other cruise ships, but never one so opulent and well appointed as Freedom. After a day at sea, we arrived at our first port
of call - Cozumel Mexico. The first thing we did in the morning of our
arrival was to try our hands at scuba diving. Neither Karen or I had been
scuba diving before, so after 30 minutes of basic instruction, we headed out on
a beginner dive. The experience was fantastic! Cozumel is among the
best locations in the world for scuba, and I now understand why. We only
went as deep as 30 feet, but we saw some incredible fish and coral reef
formations. Here's a shot our instructor took of me:
After drying off it was time to do some shopping in Cozumel, followed by lunch at my favorite Mexican cafe - Casablanca. Their outdoor,
2nd floor seating area affords a wonderful view of Cozumel's downtown square:
Once back on board Freedom, it was time for our first formal night. Here's a shot of me in one of Freedom's lounges:
Here's a shot of Karen at our table in the main dining room where we ate dinner almost every night (we went to the ship's
specialty restaurant Portofino's two nights).
Here's some shot's taken on the top deck at sunset:
The next several days were a blur of activity....In Grand Cayman, there was snorkeling...
Followed by a boat ride to Singray City to hold some enormous Stingrays....
Followed by a stroll on Seven Mile Beach...one of the top rated beaches in the world....
The next day we went to Montego Bay, Jamaica. Once on shore we went horseback riding...first on land...
Then we took the horses in the water...as you can see below, Karen struggled to stay on her horse in the water... :)
The view of Montego Bay on horseback was amazing....
We were pretty exhausted from all the activity, so fortunately for us, day 6 was a restful stop at Labadee - A private island that's part of Hati,
but owned and controlled by Royal Caribbean.
Labadee has the perfect beach to hop on a raft or grab a chair on the beach and do NOTHING.
Our final day on Freedom was spent at sea, as we made our way back to the Port of Miami. One of the only things I hadn't yet managed to
try was the Flowrider. The Flowrider was tremendous fun!
The ride's over!
I hope you enjoyed this online photo album of our amazing honeymoon! Thanks for reading!
Planning a honeymoon is a lot of work, but luckily it's easy to find amazing Miami hotels right on the beach for a good price. Just look online to find some good hotel deals, whether you're looking for hotels in Paris, Miami or wherever your honeymoon may take you.
*All text and images contained in this web site are the original work of the author,
John B. Holbrook, II and are copyright protected. Use of any of the information
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