Caribbean Cruise 2012

For about a year we've been talking with some friends of ours about taking a cruise together. We finally stopped just talking about it and made some decisions last fall. Then we had to line up babysitters, and invite some other friends and pack! This is us as we are leaving the port of Miami. Getting to Miami was an adventure in itself! We took a red eye flight, leaving Salt Lake at 1:00 am arriving just in time to catch a taxi to the port and get on our ship.

Our first full day onboard was an "at sea" day, meaning we were just sailing through the Caribbean. We found a spot that was relatively unknown to the whole ship and parked for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday was our first formal night. It's a lot of fun to get all dressed up to go to dinner! We had 10 people in our group so the dinners were always full of fun conversation as we talked about what we had done during the day. It was also fun to try new foods from the interesting menu. I confess, I didn't try anything new and exciting, but Adam tried shark, escargot, and frog legs! For the most part I was very happy with my choices except for one disaster of a cheesecake for dessert. It was the worst cheesecake I've ever had.

On Monday we stopped in Cozumel, Mexico. From the ship we took a ferry into mainland Mexico, and then a long busride into the interior to visit a Mayan ruin at Coba. Our guide was an expert, who told us so many interesting things about Mexico, the Mayan culture and specifically the ruins we were visiting. As we got there he said, "Many people will ask if they can climb up to the top of the temple. You can, but I would say don't climb it."

So of course we climbed right to the top. The view was fantastic!

But then we had to climb down, which was scarier than climbing up.

On Tuesday we stopped in Belize City, Belize. We had planned on walking around the city and just looking at stuff, but then the cruise staff told us that wasn't a good idea. Belize City is, apparently, a very scary place. So we booked a snorkeling trip onto the reef. It is the second largest reef in the world and the scuba and snorkeling is amazing there. We enjoyed the trip because on the way back to the ship there was an open bar and it was fun to watch people try to drink as much as the free rum punch as they could.

On Wednesday we stopped in Roatan, Honduras. We could have skipped Belize and stayed two days here, we loved it so much. We got off the ship and hired a van and tour guide to take us around the island for the day. They dropped some of our party off to do some zip lines, and took the rest of us to a private beach. In reality, all the beaches there were private. It was funny because we drove down some guy's driveway, and then walked through his backyard to his front yard, which was the ocean.

While we were there everyone went snorkeling (except me.) They said it was better snorkeling than what we saw in Belize. I sat on a chair and read my book, and watched the kids selling necklaces and bracelets, and the woment offering massages and to braid hair.

It was such a beautiful beach.

On Thursday we were in Grand Cayman. There we signed up for a snuba class. Snuba is a cross between snorkeling and scuba. You have an air tank, but it's floating on a little raft and you wear a breathing mask connected by a 20 foot long tube to the air tank. It was pretty fun, and I really enjoyed it.

Friday was our last day! So sad! We had just set up camp in our favorite spot at the very top of the ship when some crew members came by asking us to leave. There had been a medical emergency and a helicopter was having to land on the ship so our deck was being closed. We thought it would be a quick rescue, but two hours later we were glad we hadn't just stood around waiting for the helicopter to arrive. Finally a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter showed up, and lifted some people off the ship.

The whole entire ship was crammed onto the deck watching what was happening.

But that excitement died down and we finally got a spot to sit and relax for a while.

Our last night of dinner we had to get a picture with our fabulous waitor Ivan. His recommendations were spot on every night. We almost couldn't order without hearing what he had to say about the menu!

It was a great week! We were sad to get off the ship, and then spend many many hours waiting on planes (the door to the cockpit wouldn't close on our first flight and we spent two hours at the gate while they took apart the door), and then many hours waiting at airports (our flight from Atlanta was delayed while they switched planes, then had to find a pilot and finally had to figure out who was lucky enough to get on the plane since there were fewer seats available on the new plane). But we made it home, and were so glad to see our cute kids!