Monday, May 18, 2009

Eastern Caribbean Cruise!


One for the books! Our cruise to the Caribbean was really so much fun! It was overcast on some days and rained in the morning for 3/4 ports but it was amazing none the less! I would definately recommend it! Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure. Yes, we took a lot, but these were probably only half of them!!

Enjoy!
So, Rory and his sister Kelly went down a day earlier (I had a final...sad). They ended up driving down to Key West and spending some hours. Here they are at the Southern most point!


In Key West, they went to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum that showcases treasure recovered for shipwrecks in the new world! Rory said this gold was so surprisingly heavy!




Fried Key Lime Pie in Key West, FL.



The next day...

On the ship! Miami in the background!

Setting sail! The wind is crazy when you start going!



I thought that many of you out there would enjoy a pic of our room. We had an Interior stateroom which was great! I thought I would have been closterphobic without a window but it was fine! We really were not in our room that often anyways! Just at night and sometimes during the day to take a rest...



Day two:


Half Moon Cay is a private island owned by Carnival. This was probably my favorite part of the trip! The ocean water was a bit colder here because we were up north in the Bahamas. Rory still thought it was fine...I am just a baby I guess.


It was so relaxing all day... You could rent various things like kayaks and buy shore excursions as well, but we really just enjoyed relaxing on the beach, playing in the sand and taking up some rays!


Our ship in the distance!


The beach was really crowded down towards the enterance but with just a short walk, you got completely out of the crowd! I couldn't understand why more people didn't just walk a little further...Just lazy I guess! We did miss the Hairy Chest contest however...Oh darn!


So beautiful!!


The sand was just amazing! I did not find one rock on the beach or in the water! It was so soft!!





What was nice is that the food was provided on Half Moon Cay! Here I am scarfing down some chow midday. Gotta love the free buffets!



This was the only line I remember having to stand in. Because the ship had to tender, which means drop anchor outside the bay, we had to take boat shuttles to and from the island. We could have easily avoided the lines if we had woken up early to go to the island in the morning and left the island before the mad rush at 5:30.


Here we are trying to shield ourselves from the sun standing in line... If you look closer, you can see how fried I got from the day on the beach. Someone forgot the sunscreen!! Oops!


Heading back towards the ship. It really was a gigantic boat!!


Here are our funny waiters Bagus and Sudiana! They were really awesome! They kept the plates of food coming even when we didn't ask!! For those who don't know crusing, every night you have the option of eating in the sit down dining room as opposed to the buffet upstairs. I don't know why you would choose otherwise because the food was really good!

Happy Mothers Day!



The view at night on Lido Deck.


The housekeeping was awesome too! They cleaned our room twice everyday! Everynight for the turn down service, we found a little towel-folded friend in our room!

Day Three:
At Sea


Yes, there is a gym on board! This is proof that we actually went! Well, only once but we took the stairs most of the time! With 9 decks between our room and Lido Deck, we really got a workout!


Formal night. Rory looked so classy! Dinner was great too! We had endless plates of yummy lobster and shrimp! So good.





Day Four:
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands


This was the place for shopping! We took a short taxi shuttle ride downtown. This picture is not downtown but gives you an idea of the landscape behind. So green down there!



Later on that afternoon, we took the Captain Nautica Snorkeling Expedition. This was way fun!! You can see out speed boat in the background! So fast!


They took us to two snorkeling spots: a Buck island and Shipwreck Cove. The buck island was really cool! We saw turtles and tons of fish! One turtle came so close to me! Too bad the coral was a little dead because of global warming! The water was much warmer down here though!



On the pier.



Here we are walking back to the ship. No lines because the ship was docked!



Getting ready.


Setting sail...Bye St. Thomas!



Pretty sunset!


Another friend!


Day Four:
San Juan, Puerto Rico


It was really nice here in San Juan! The streets were really clean! For some reason Rory and I were expecting worse...


This is the Capital Building. You can see some demonstrators in the background. Their government was very familiar to the U.S. They say they will eventually become a state.



This was one stop on our city tour. Old San Juan Fort. It was built as far back as the early 1500s and used all the way up until WWII. They originaly had a huge moat set up around it! The passage ways for the water are now parking lots and streets.






In the back you can see 3 flags. The Puerto Rican CommonWealth Flag, The US flag, and some other spanish flag having something to do with the Spanish queen I think?


These bunkers on the left was added during WWII to act as a lookout for navy ships and submarines. They overlooked the entire ocean and beach front for miles!




We found a really great authentic Puerto Rican restaurant down by the pier! Really yummy! They had the best homemade fruit punch too! I think the place was called Ol' San Juan or something.


That night we went to the ship's special steakhouse. It was so fancy and elegant and Yummy! It was only a 30$ flat rate per person. Still expensive but well worth it! Only we wish we would have gotten the lobster because it looked so good! Instead we I got the New York Steak and Rory got the prime rib. Still really good!


Here is my dessert! Just amazing!


The place was filled with showcase windows of Harry Winston's Diamonds and Jewels! Thus the steakhouse was called Harry's!


This was my favorite towel friend!


Here we are rocken out to some music!

Day Five:
Grand Turk

It was a bit overcast and rainy in the morning but luckily the sun came out later on that day!


Our shore excursion.


Loading the bus to go Kayaking. On the way over the driver explained to us that the island was hit by two hurricanes last year: Hurricane Ike and Rita, which explained why the town looked so devastated! It was really sad to see their living conditions! It reminded me of footage from New Orleans following Katrina.





We found some great shells and conch shells on the beach we Kayaked to. Other than that, we did not see much of anything else. No fish, turtles...etc. Pretty disappointing...


After, Rory and I hung out at Margaritaville! Way fun! It was really a party! We got there just in time for the booty shaken contest! We got a virgin pina colada that cost us 8 bucks! It was good though. I would have been satisfied just hanging out here or on the nearby beach all day rather than wasting our money kayaking. There were also great shops just off the dock!

(Big Sexy in the booty shaking contest)






Day Six:
At sea headed home...

The ship had a section for kids. They had all these arcades! We were just goofen around in there that night with the camera!




This was the second formal night. No lobster though!


Up on Lido deck they had the buffet, suntanning, swimming pool, and the water slide! They also had a big screen that showed movies through parts of the day! We decided to hang out that night before dinner and watch Back to the Future. "Great Scott!"






The Last Supper. Here we are with our great waiters! They were so funny! But there was definately a language barrier. Did I say they were from Indonesia.

On our last cruise Rory told every one how good the food was so below is a short video of some of the great food we had. (Rory had to take a picture of everthing we ate!)



The End