Cruise in Review part 5

The next day we stopped at Labadee, Haiti. 

Labadee is a small part of the island of Haiti that Royal Carribean owns. There are a few activities there but really the beach is the main attraction. 

I really loved this day. 

We got off the ship and just walked to a little spot on the beach where we spread out all our stuff. We really didn't do anything all day besides play in the water but it was just so beautiful! 

This island was gorgeous. The beach and water were so nice and then there were cliffs on one side of us that were just covered in green. 

It was really paradise. 

We laid on the beach and played in the water and it was just wonderful. 

The water was so warm and it felt good to just float around. 

I sat in my chair and read my book which is my favorite thing to do. 

Then it was time for lunch. 

The ship brought out a lunch for us and set it all up. It was delicious.

After that we went ziplining. 

There is a huge zipline that goes from the mountain down to the beach. 

We had to do a practice run on a little zipline and then we got to go on the big one. 

We were up pretty high and it was kind of frightening, but it was so fun going down. You got to see the view from the top of the island and it was just so beautiful. 

After that we just went back to playing on the beach. 

At one point in the day someone found a crab. 

It was so cool to watch it scuttle around. I'd never seen a crab like that before. 

Later somebody found a sea cucumber and Brevan came to find Kolton so he could pick it up. (everyone else was a little creeped out by it) 

Pretty soon everyone started heading back to the ship to get ready for dinner but Bitters and us just stayed and stayed and stayed. I never wanted to leave! I had been trying so hard to soak up every last bit of the trip and then it was almost over! 

After talking so much about how I never wanted to leave I got nervous that the ship was actually going to leave us so then I was ready to kick it in high gear and get back. We ended up being some of the last ones on the beach though so it was nice to soak it up in the peace and quiet. 

I just really loved it. 

That night they had the super fancy dinner on the ship. On the menu was lobster tail and prime rib. I was so pumped for the lobster and wasn't let down. Basically anything with butter on it is a winner in my book. 

That night we also tried Baked Alaska. Oh my stars, it was good. It was ice cream topped with meringue and I was just dying over it. (passionate about good food, remember?) 

Creed played a little too hard that day!

After that delightful feast we stopped in at the Once Upon a Time show. Kolton had been being a bum in the room (kind of like me at the beginning of the week) and said he had no desire to watch another dancing show (he's not a fine arts kinda guy) he was just going to stay in his room and read. 

And he did, for about 10 minutes. 

Then he ended up racing down to get to the show and was there before anyone else. I hadn't run into him and didn't know that he was even there til the end. Turns out he was still alive even after the show was over. 

After that I think we played a couple rounds of pinochle and then called it a night! 

Cruise in Review Part 4

The next day we were off to Jamaica. 

I was a little nervous for this day because I haven't heard such great things about Jamaica, but we had a blast!
We didn't take many pictures because we were in the water most of the time. But we still had fun! 

We had a really neat tour guide named Quasi-Ann which many in our group called Crazy Ann and she was just really cool. She knew all of our names after hearing them one time and she was completely blown away by the fact that we weren't interested in rum. (or alcohol of any kind). 

The first stop was to Dunn's River Falls to hike up a waterfall. 

It sounds a lot more intense than it really was, but it was super fun! 

It was a gradual waterfall with a lot of rocks and we just had the coolest guides. They were so fun and did so many fun things with us including going down a little slide to get dunked, splashing each other, doing cheers (which sounds weird, but I don't know how else to say it) and I just don't remember what else. They really made the trip. 

We got a kick out of the whole thing because here in the States there would be guardrails and there is no way they would let you even think about getting in the water and there we were climbing up some slick rocks in the fast moving water. At one point we were pretty lucky Linda had a hold on Creed because he about got swept away. 

We really had a great time there. 

Next we headed to a river to float down in inner tubes. It really wasn't a whole lot different than what we would do in a canal, but there were a few places with rapids and the scenery was just beautiful. The water was so clear and there were trees and everything was just so green. 

We ended up at the beach where we were going to eat lunch and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. It was a white sand beach with waves rolling in and there were cliffs in the background and green everywhere and we really could have just sat there staring at it and had a good time. It was so gorgeous. 

After lunch we were headed back to the ship. Quasi Ann started asking us questions about what we believe because she still couldn't believe that we didn't drink (or smoke, or drink coffee, etc.) my dad and her had a little bit of a gospel discussion on the way back and it was neat. At one point during the day she said, "Well, I'm having fun and I haven't been drinking" (she didn't understand how we could have fun or party without rum) She was really a neat and interesting lady and we all thought she was great. 

We told Crazy Ann that we would tip her extra if we didn't have to go to the shops they were supposed to take us to. We went straight to the pier that did have a few little shops where we bought a little turtle trinket. Then it was back on the ship. It was so nice to just walk on instead of tendering. 

Once we got back we spent a little time relaxing in the sun and then went to get ready because we were going to an ice show. The ship had a cast of ice skaters that performed and they were amazing! I couldn't believe the things they could do on ice with teeny blades strapped to their feet. 

They were jumping and spinning and balancing people on their heads and holding them high in the air one-handed and doing backflips. I was just blown away by how awesome they were.

After that we ate a late dinner in the dining room and then went to a Love and Marriage gameshow. They pulled couples up on stage and then would make the husbands or wives leave and ask questions and get responses from both sides to see if they matched. Some parts were a little risque, but it really was hilarious. 

They had  one couple that had been married one year and they were just the sappiest. 

One of them was obviously Mormon. (From SLC and when they asked him what first attracted him to her he said it was her high standards. The host had to think that one through for a minute to figure out what he meant.) 

The funniest couple was the one that had been married 55 years. They were just the cutest and we got such a kick out of all the funny things they said. 

At the beginning of the show they were trying to find the couple that had been married the longest and they found one lady that said they'd been married for 60 years but her husband was nowhere to be found. They asked where her husband was so they could come on up and she told them that he was hiding. Sure enough, we soon spotted a little old man hiding behind one of the pillars.And he stayed there for forever. Oh, we were just dying.  

After the show was over we saw this couple and one of their friends was teasing them saying they could have won one of the prizes. The husband said, "We wouldn't have had the right answers" and the wife said, "You are such a baby!" But she had this voice that just cracked us up and the whole exchange was just hilarious. 

Anyway, the show was so dang funny. Kolton was laughing his head off. That is a big deal. Kolton's regular laugh, IF he does actually laugh rather than smile faintly, is more of a silent laugh that is very controlled. When you can get an audible laugh that is more than a slight chuckle out of Kolton, you really know that you are funny. And he was laughing his head off, so that gives you a bit of an idea as to how good the show was. We were dying laughing and so so glad we weren't the ones up there embarrassing ourselves.
Kolton made the comment that he really felt bad for the Mormon couple because they sat up there and embarrassed themselves and in return for playing the game got a complimentary bottle of wine that they will never drink. Ha! We were sure glad they were there instead of us.

When we got back to our room for the night we found some sweet towel animals and had to have the photo opp. It was a good day!

Cruise in Review part 3

The next day we had our first excursion. 

We had to get off the bed fairly early and tender to Georgetown, Grand Cayman. The tendering was not the best part. It equaled a lot of waiting by the time we were done. 

When we finally got to the pier, we were off to our excursion. we got on a bus that took us to a different boat that took us to a sandbar in the ocean called Stingray City. 

It was so funny because the cruise ship takes such good care of you. They have safety guidelines and are giving you hand sanitizer every time you turn around. Then they dump you off at these islands and it's every man for themselves. 

The toilet on the little ship we were on was so nasty. It didn't have running water and the toilet paper had to go in a garbage can. (TMI?) I of course had to visit it (two times)  because taking bathroom breaks was kind of my thing during the entire trip. (Now that was definitely TMI.) 

Anyway, when I came out of the bathroom the tour guide was in the middle of a lecture about the do's and don'ts of stingrays. Trust me when I say there were a lot of don'ts. 

Don't approach them from behind.

Don't lift your feet off the ground. 

Don't touch the middle of their back because there is a row of sharp spikes.

Don't lift them out of the water.

Don't try to lift them period. 

Don't get anywhere near their tail. 

etc. 

So we hear this list of don't and they explain to us that stingrays are dangerous and then we get to our destination, they throw us in the water and we get swarmed on all sides by stingrays. Not an exaggeration. 

Kolton and I were some of the first off the boat and we were seriously swarmed by 20 stingrays. They were between our legs, brushing against our sides, and just everywhere. 

It was at this point that I had a minor panic attack. 

After all the rules we were given I was a tad nervous! Or more than just a tad.

Note the looks on our faces and how we are all clinging to each other.

At one point I let out a yelp and wrapped my arms around Kolton's neck (fight or flight. I'm more of a flight person) and one of the guides got so mad at me.

"Lady, Calm. Down."

Then I got real embarrassed so I tried to be tough the rest of the time. Once I had calmed down it actually was pretty cool and I really enjoyed it. They had a bucket full of squid and if you didn't think about it too much you could reach in the bucket, grab a squid, hold it under the stingrays and they would suck it right up like a vacuum.

They really were pretty neat. They were just huge and so soft and velvety. Towards the end I was actually trying to chase one down so I could touch them some more. So I went a long ways from where I started.

They say if you kiss a stingray you get seven years of good luck so bygosh we did it!

 The boys crack me up in these two pictures.

After the stingrays we went to a reef to do a little snorkeling. Luckily I had taken some Dramamine because I learned from my experience in Mexico and so I didn't get super sea sick. We swam around for a little bit and did end up seeing some pretty neat fish. I am pretty sure I saw a puffer fish. It looked just like the one on Finding Nemo. I was trying to get close to it and disturb it so it would puff up, but that didn't happen. There was also some pretty neat coral. Not super colorful, but there were some neat patterns. One that I saw was shaped like a perfect ball and on the outside it was like a maze. It was really cool looking.

After snorkeling we went back to the boat which took us back to the shore in the longest amount of time possible. I am honestly pretty sure the boat could not have possibly moved any slower than it did on the way back. I don't know if our guides just had some time to kill or what, but it was extremely slow. The water and scenery were beautiful though! (Now that I'm home, I would give anything to be back on that slow moving boat that was driving me crazy at the time.)

When we finally got to the island we hopped on a bus which took us to a beach where we had lunch and relaxed for a bit. We had some pretty good food and it was super hot that day! We were sitting in the chairs and dying of heat. My Dramamine made me pretty sleepy once it wore off so I ended up falling asleep on my stomach and getting sunburned on my back. Unfortunately I didn't realize the ties to my swimsuit were in the way so I ended up with some pretty sweet tan lines in the exact shape of the ties on my swimsuit that I was never able to get rid of.

Then we got on the bus and the rest of the day was spent in lines. We actually started talking to a kid from China and it was really interesting hearing what he had to say and learning a little more about China. But we seriously stood in line for forever waiting to get on the tender boat. It was a good moving line but it wound all over the place.

We finally did make it back to the ship where we laid out for a minute and then went to get ready for dinner. That night we went to a little musical comedy show. It was really fun spending all day on the beach in the sun and then getting dressed up to go to shows every night. We thoroughly enjoyed that part. 

After the comedy show I was being super lame and just really wanted to go to bed. Kolton was wanting to go to a show called The Quest and I finally relented even though I was not happy about it. But I went anyway and actually started to enjoy myself after someone in the audience left and we had a front row seat instead of straddling on the stairs. It really was fun though and we had a nice time.