We flew out from the Cleveland airport, instead of Detroit because there was a great deal on tickets. It was so cold. It was exciting to think about going somewhere warm for a week. We were nervous about the huge storm hitting the East coast. Many flights were already cancelled. We flew through NYC. (I saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time!) We made it to Ft. Lauderdale, but probably only beat the storm by a few hours. It is a small miracle, really. When Andy bought the tickets we almost flew through N. Carolina figuring they have better weather than NYC. The tickets through NY were a little cheaper, so we chose that route. The day we flew all the N. Carolina airports were closed due to the storm.
The first day on the ship (we were on the Emerald Princess) we spent a lot of time wandering around to get used to where everything was. Poor Andy wasn't feeling 100%, so he spent most of the day in bed. We had a mandatory emergency drill where we had to grab our life jackets from our room and go to a "muster station". Andy was feeling so sick that he nearly passed out before the drill was over. Luckily he made it back to the room and was able to get some rest. I don't know if it was just because it was our first night on board, or if it really was the windiest night, but I woke up a handful of times during the first night night feeling the boat rocking so much. The rest of the week really wasn't so bad. The next day Andy was feeling well enough to leave the room again. Hooray!
Formal Night #1:
It was fun to have a reason to get all dressed up. The dinners were incredible! By the end of the week I was ordering two appetizers, two entrees and two desserts (plus a soup!), just so I could taste the variety that they offered. I ate so much seafood. I was in heaven! My favorite thing was a goat cheese souffle. It wasn't from the dining room but they had a pub that had fish and chips for lunch one day that were phenomenal. Plus the dessert at the pub was the best bread pudding I have ever had. Lucky for us the bread pudding was at the buffet all week long. It was definitely a highlight of the trip to have such an abundance of delicious things to eat. (There was also a burger bar, pizza/ice cream bar and 24 hour cafe with desserts, pastries and sandwiches. So. Much. Food.) Oh, we also got a drink package for the week. We drank our weight in pop and mocktails.
Our first port was Grand Cayman.
It was such a blessing for us to travel with Fritz and Becky. Since they had been to the island before we rented a car together to drive to a great snorkeling spot, Rum Point.
The weather was in the upper 70s and cloudy. It was beautiful, but a bit cooler than we would have liked. Even so, we got out in the water and had a great time. We even saw a sting ray! It was massive.
We also took a stroll along this Seven Mile Beach. Grand Cayman was awesome. I would love to go back someday.
Our second stop was Roatan, Honduras. This was my favorite day of our trip. The weather was perfect. Also, Andy was finally feeling completely healthy, so that helped make it a fun day.
Not just that, but Andy was just so happy to be in Honduras. We did some shopping at a craft market. Andy was talking to the vendors in Spanish. I think it was very nostalgic for him, even though he had never been in that part of Honduras. We had a little time before our tour started, so we looked at shops and then walked down toward the beach. We found a cozy hammock on the way and relaxed until we had to go.
Becky set up a snorkeling trip for us on a small boat. We met Alexandro, who I think owns the boat we were on. He drove us to the boat. It was interesting to get a glimpse of real Honduras, not just the shops set up right next to where the cruise ship was docked. A few people from another cruise ship were on the tour with us. Alexandro took us out to two stops for snorkeling. He had an assistant Javi, who snorkeled with us too. They were both excellent swimmers. Javi would dive down deep to show us how some of the fish would bury themselves in the sand to avoid him. Javi swam upside down and blew bubble rings. It was fun having him swimming around with us. While we rode in the boat between stops Andy and Javi talked about the places in Southern Honduras they had both been to.
It was so cool! There was an enormous puffer fish, and hundreds of fish swimming all over. And just walls and walls of coral to look at. There was a sort of channel between some of the coral and there were skin divers going between it.
Look at this guy. He was so glad to be in Honduras!
The last stop was just to hang out on a beach for a little while. Andy found a place to buy a coconut with the top chopped off, so we could drink the coconut water.
We rode back to the ship in a van with wireless internet, so it was nice to send a quick email to check in with the boys and look at the news. We didn't get cell reception on the ship, so it was an unexpected treat. It was a little stressful though, because we barely made it to the ship on time. The shops by the dock had been filled with people and street musicians when we left for our tour. When we got back it was like a ghost town. Everything was closed and there were no people around at all. There were two girls in the van with us also on the Princess Cruise, but we were wondering if they would hold the ship for just 6 people being late getting back on board... We never had to find out because we made it back, but it was closer than I would have liked.
There was a cool sunset that night.
Our next stop was Cozumel, Mexico. It was an early morning for us. We got off the ship and went directly to a ferry to the peninsula.
It took about an hour on the ferry. From there we loaded up on a bus for a 2 hour ride to Chichen Itza.
We had less than an hour at the ruins. I wish we could have stayed longer. It was pretty cool to see a modern wonder of the world. Andy really wanted to see it, so I am glad we got him there. We weren't allowed to touch or climb any of the ruins due to the vandalism that had happened. Too bad. It was still a unique experience to see in person.
This was maybe a marketplace.
Skulls engraved in a wall... They did human sacrifices here centuries ago. Kind of scary to think about.
This is an arena where they played some sort of game with a ball to put through the stone "hoop". (The hoop is above the group of people standing under umbrellas. And above that is where they suspect the ref would sit.) There are engraved pictures in the stone of the team players. One is shown to be decapitated. They aren't sure if it was the team of the winning or losing team that was killed. Yikes.
Mexico was fun. We picked up some "luchador" wrestling masks for the boys. I should get a picture of that. It's pretty awesome.
Then we had a relaxing day at sea. We slept in, ate too much, read by the pool and ate some more. What a great day. It was the second formal night in the dining room.
The last day were supposed to go to Princess Cays, Bahamas. It was really windy, so we couldn't get on the tenders to get to the island. We were sad to miss out on the island, but we had been planning on just hanging out on the beach, so we hung out by the pool all day as the ship headed back to Florida.
I wish I had taken more pictures. I always say that. Part of the trouble is a quarter of the pictures I take are blurry.
Some things I didn't get pictures of: We saw two comedians as well as a "musical comedian". The musical comedian played some songs on his guitar spanning a few decades. He was my favorite. We went to (and walked out of) a musical show called something like "Magic to Do." It was comically bad. We decided we preferred a stop at the buffet instead of enduring the awkward songs. A lot of the entertainment on board didn't appeal to us. We played games like 7 Wonders, Quirkle, Sequence, Wits and Wagers, and Bohnanza with Fritz and Becky most evenings. One night we watched people doing karaoke while we played. Some people are pretty talented. Others not so much. The ship had "movies under the stars" when the weather was nice. They have a huge screen by one of the pool decks. We watched Man From U.N.C.L.E., the Martian and Hitch out there. That was fun. It was sad to get off the ship. And it took several days to get used to being on land. Seriously, I felt dizzy from Saturday when we got off the ship until Tuesday. I was excited to see the boys after being away so long. The boys stayed up to greet us when we got home. It was amazing to me how loud Simon is. I had forgotten that about him while we were away.
I am grateful to Andy's mom for watching the boys for over a week and to Stephanie for getting my boys to and from school. And for anyone else who helped out. (Like my dad getting a new battery for our van when it died one day! Or my mom getting Legos to bribe the boys to stay in bed.)
I really hope we can do another cruise before too long.
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