Cruisin'

What a FUN vacation we had last week! It was relaxing AND exciting -- absolutely perfect. We went on a 7 night cruise.  Yes, seven nights.  My parents had the kids and they didn't seem to miss us too much.

Our ship was the Crown Princess and it was gorgeous. Huge and gorgeous. We left out of Fort Lauderdale and in the picture we're about to follow those other two cruise ships out of the channel. We occasionally saw other cruise ships off in the distance. 

 The sunset that night was breathtaking.  And how about that photography? Not bad if I say so myself. This begins our cruise, so here we go:

 

DAY 1 : AT SEA

There was so much to do on the ship!  Swimming, movies, live entertainment, demonstrations, and parties everywhere you go. We did a treasure hunt the first day, and of course Ben won. I'm sure the other 3,000 people were happy for him. The miniature golf course was a lot of fun - imagine trying to putt on a ship that is swaying.  I BEAT Ben! The second time. I just thought you should know that.

Here's our first formal dinner. The food was always amazing. Our waiter for the week has been awarded all kinds of recognitions and has even served the Queen of England several times. I'm just sayin'. 

After our formal dinner, we went to the NewlyWed Game. Ben and I were chosen as one of the four couples to participate. Ha! That was a lot of fun. We got 2nd place and won a bottle of champaigne. We gave it to our table mates the next evening and they toasted us: "To our Mormon friends!" The funniest part of the NewlyWed game is that the rest of the week people recognized us everywhere we went. We were celebrities for a week.

DAY 2: GRAND CAYMAN

This was the day we swam with dolphins (gasp) and with wild stingrays (double gasp)!  We couldn't take pictures at the dolphin encounter but we bought the video of it. Maybe I can figure out how to put clips of that on a later post. It was incredible. We each got to kiss the dolphins, rub them, dance with them... And then we each got to ride on one! It was even cooler than I had imagined.  The dolphin held its fins out to me and I grabbed on. Then it swam on its back with me holding onto its fins. SO COOL. I had a goofy grin on my face all through the video. The kids love watching it.

From the same pier where the dolphins were, we loaded onto a boat and headed for the Stingray Sandbar. It was way out in the Caribbean. The sandbar was just a few feet below the water so we just stepped out of the boat into the water and walked around barefoot on the sand. In the middle of the sea. It seemed like a dream. Then add to that HUGE stingrays swimming around everywhere. I think this was Ben's favorite part of our trip.

The guide taught us how to safely hold the stingrays.  Keep in mind that these were wild stingrays that just decided to come visit us. This giant stingray swam right up to Ben and onto his arms. Wow.  Then Ben told me to catch one and I tried but I couldn't. Nobody else could either. Only the two guides.

Yes, I kissed a stingray.  Why not? We also got to feed them!  The guides gave us a handful of little squids and taught us to hold them safely so that the stingrays could come up to us and SUCK them out of our hands.  Slurp. One time I was startled, so I relaxed my hand and my finger got sucked in too. The stingray's tooth poked my finger!  There was a little red mark where it "bit" me but I couldn't remember where it was by the end of the day. That's the story of how I almost died swimming with stingrays. Grand Cayman was amazing.

DAY 3: ROATAN ISLAND, HONDURAS

Roatan Island is a new destination for cruise ships. The port and everything was opened just this spring. It's beautiful and they even had a chair lift to take people directly to the beach. I'm sure it will be a popular cruise stop from now on. The water was so warm!

 We decided to go Snuba diving in Roatan.  Snuba is a combination of snorkel and scuba. Instead of wearing oxygen tanks on our backs, we breathed through hoses that led up to our airtanks that were floating on the raft above us. It was a small raft that moved around with us. In the picture I am properly demonstrating the hand signal for "I'm okay."  Ben is demonstrating the hand signal for "go up, I need help." Hmm. He seemed fine at the time so I hope he's okay.

 The coral and fish were pretty amazing out there! I loved snuba diving because we were able to go down to 15 or 20 feet deep. There was a lot to see and it was a cool feeling to be so deep and not have to go up for air. We wore weight belts to help us go down and the guide taught us to pressurize our ears every few feet on our way down.  We had started on shore and swam WAY out and it was a full hour by the time we finished back on shore again. What a swim! I slept very well that night. 

 

DAY 4: COZUMEL ISLAND, MEXICO

At Cozumel, we took a huge ferry to Playa del Carmen and then a bus to see the ancient ruins of Tulum.  It was a Mayan city forever ago. It's similar to Chichen Itza that we saw before, but this one is a little smaller and spread out and it was built right on the coast. Breathtaking.

I discovered that my camera has a panoramic feature so I gave it a try. This is three pictures that are merged together. It's a pretty amazing place, don't you think?  Notice the water on the far left. I took over a hundred pictures just at Tulum. (Click on the above picture to see it in detail.)

This is the edge of the grounds, right behind the temple that you saw in the first picture. What a lookout. There were stairs leading down to the beach and people were swimming in one of the other areas.

DAY 5: AT SEA

After our three days of crazy adventures, it was nice to have a day at sea to relax. Among other activities, we took a tour of the kitchens. The were preparing beef wellington. Hmm. Very cool! There was an outdoor theater for "Movies Under the Stars," complete with lounge chairs, popcorn, and a warm blanket.  We watched several movies during the week - this looks like it was Sherlock Holmes.

DAY 6: PRINCESS CAYS, BAHAMAS

Princess Cays is a private island owned by our cruiseline. To get to the island, we rode "tender boats" from the ship to the dock. We were halfway to the island when I took this picture. You can see two other boats loading there.  This is the best shot I got of OUR ship. It's hard to take a picture of your own ship while you're on it.

Ah, the beach. The precious beach.  The ship. The crystal clear water (that murky looking stuff is coral).  The sand. The peacefulness. And my toes covered in bandaids. (Next time I'll wear bigger fins.)(And I think I now know how sandpaper was invented.)  Not that I was complaining.  This was paradise. I laid there for way longer than I can normally sit still.

We had packed our own snorkel gear and it was fun to explore around the corally rocks. The fish were colorful and I loved how we were on the beach and around coral at the same time. We finished up our third underwater camera here.  The pictures turned out great and the kids are super jealous. Oops. We had a beach barbecue on the island. Ben and I didn't want to leave the beach and we were some of the last ones back on the ship.

 

DAY 7: HOME AGAIN

I had a wonderful time with my travel buddy!  We had so many laughs and now the memories are priceless. We celebrated our anniversary on the ship. We had balloons outside our door and I never got tired of seeing them. The best part was at dinner when the waiter delivered the cake to the wrong couple at our table - it was hilarious because the other couple were just "friends."  It was a little awkward because they didn't have any date to claim as an anniversary and they were looking at each other bewildered. We laughed for a good twenty minutes. I'm glad we claimed our cake because it was indescribably chocolatey delicious.

So there it is - our amazingly wonderful cruise around the Caribbean. I'm sure I'll do some follow-up posts so stay tuned!