**THIS IS REALLY LONG**
Well we just got back from our wonderful cruise the other day! It was the BEST and most Relaxing vacation I have ever been on! I am ready to book another one for next year!
We headed down on Friday night after Colby got off of work and made it there around 9 in the morning. We couldnt start boarding the ship until 1230 so we decided to get some breakfast and headed back to the port so we could get in line to get on the boat.
It didnt take as long as we thought to get on board and we started to explore! The cruise ship was massive and I know we still didnt get to see everything there was to see on it!
We played a round of mini golf and went to a game show they held on board and I made a fool of myself by going to be a contestant! I did win a ship on a stick though so it was worth it. (a plastic gold ship trophy) We then ate dinner and then went to bed since Colby had been up since 9am the previous day!
The next day was a full day at sea, we had lots of fun just relaxing by the pool, walking around the boat, eating..., and going down the waterslide! This was the formal night so I had to go in and try to completely towel dry my hair since there wasnt a blowdryer in the room ( I later found out that all I had to do was call guest services and they would bring me one..oops!) We went to dinner and found out they had switched the group from the day before and brought over 2 new couples! We are so glad they did! We had the funnest table! We all became quick friends and hung out everyday after that.
ice sculpture in 15 minutes
Monday we arrived in Grand Cayman. The water on the side we docked on was beautiful and clear! Colby, Tyler, Claire, and I walked through the shops and walked a little ways to find a beach we could hang out at until our snorkeling session started! We eventually found one after being honked at 10,389,430 times by taxi drivers offering to drive us to a beach. We didnt want to get all the way wet so we just walked around in the shallow waters. Since we were in the bay there were no big waves.
We headed back to the docks to meet with our snorkeling group and got honked at another 23,058,235 times offering to drive us to the beach... We even stopped at a gas station to get some drinks and a taxi driver followed us inside to offer us a ride! They are pretty pushy over there!
We had to take a van ride to the boat that would take us to the reefs and to where the sting rays were. The driver of our van was singing gospel songs with a really thick cayman accent. We tipped him he was so good! Once we got to the boat it was a 40 minute boat ride to the reefs. We saw tons of Mangrove trees and Iguanas! The Mangrove trees were neat but make the water a greenish color and leave it semi murky. It wasnt as pretty as the other side of the island, and definitely not as pretty as Cozumel the next day! Snorkeling was awesome I got a little sea sick with all the action from the waves though but it was still neat to see all the little and big fish, a barracuda, and 2 stingrays! There was apparently a shark in the water that bit one of the stingrays earlier in the day so the rest of the stingrays were hiding and wouldnt come out to eat.
They boat captain told us how the Native Island People would go fishing and stop in the shallower water to clean and gut their fish. They have done it for hundreds of years and now the sting rays associate the sound of an anchor for meal time. So they all come up to eat! Pretty cool I thought!
How many can you see??
Anyways after waiting in a ridiculously long line to get back on the tenders to take us back to the boat we went in took a nap and got ready for another delicious dinner! I think we went to some show or something afterwards but I cant remember...
Cozumel was Tuesday. It was AMAZING! We rented a scooter from a sketchy mexican man and drove around the main freeway on the island. It goes in a big circle and follows the coastline for the most part. We stopped at a small beach and did our own snorkeling and collected shells and dead coral. I almost found a fully in tact Bonka?sp Shell but it had a whole in the very top so we didnt keep it! We kept driving and stopped to eat at a little Reggae Hut that sold mexican food...The tacos and chips and salsa were delicious! We watched to ocean waves for awhile and headed back on the scooter. We checked out some deserted turtle nests that had recently hatched, saw a cool black iguana, a bald eagle, countless lizards, and a dead crab. We tried to go see they Mayan ruins however we only had $6 cash on us at this point and it was going ot be $13 so we werent able to go in. We saw some smaller ones on our way to San Gervasio though which was cool. We headed back tried to bargain with a old man for a blanket, since we only had $6 and the blanket was $23 we didnt get very far. We kept on and ended up getting one for $5 from a lady down the road. It wasnt cool and hand woven but it is still nice! We got lost once we got back into the city which was a little crazy. So. Many. Scooters. There was even a family of 4 on 1 scooter! craziness! We eventually found our way to the main road and hung out at the shops before heading back towards the ship.
We decided we wanted to get back in the water before so we stopped on the side of the road and went down to the water. This was a rocky, squishy beach.. not a sandy one. So we got in with who knows what squishing between my toes and started to swim. It didnt last long. The water started to get really deep really fast and I got nervous a shark was going to get us and we were going to be lost forever!! ok not really but there were some really big bright blue fish and i was worried about a shark (Colby was too but he wont admit it ) so we headed back, turned in our scooter, and walked back on the ship. We were the only ones at dinner that night because the return time from the island wasnt until 730. After that we went to take a nap that turned into me sleeping the entire night and colby going to hang out with everyone by himself!
**My camera wasnt working this day unfortunately...)
The last day on the boat was fun. We got to sleep in, lounge around, Colby won the ping pong tournament, played a few games on board, and then played farkle and monopoly deal with Caleb and Lauren. I actually won a game for the first time ever! we relaxed some more, went to dinner, then decided we had to kareoke! Which was a blast! We went to the comedy show afterwards which was alright and then went to bed because we had a long drive the next morning!
Playing games
Colby being intense at the ping pong table
Katie, Trent, Lauren, Caleb, Jacob, Kathry, Me, Colby, Tyler, & Claire on the last night!
The dessert I had every night.. Im sure it was really good for me too.
Colby and Jacob singing My Sharona!
Disembarking was even easier than embarking! We were off in less than 15 minutes. We had a pretty good drive back minus no air conditioning and having a blowout on the freeway.. We survived though!
I cannot wait to go on another cruise! It was by far the best vacation I have ever been on and So relaxing!! Im not going to lie... I started to look up cruises for next year the day after we got home... haha!
I have some funny videos but blogger wasnt behaving. Plus this post was probably long enough!! haha!!
