Cruising the Caribbean

Well, we made it home from Miami with tons of adventures behind us. As we are a family with only one computer these days, and the husband needs it constantly for projects, studying, and research, it's been tough to get a blog together about are week cruising the Caribbean, but we are home safe and sound and happy to have had a week to relax and love on one another as we celebrated our first anniversary!

We started off friday by heading back to Gainesville where my amazing momma agreed to watch Sterling and Boo Boo, which as Sterling broke into her pantry over Christmas break was a loving and generous gift to us. We left her with a brand new 80lb steel cage for the monster and best wishes on Saturday as we headed to Daytona.

Due to road work all the way down I-75 it took us 10+ hours to reach Daytona, but we finally arrived at my aunt and uncle's house. Tired and sweaty I honestly wanted a shower and sleep. My nerves were shot from non-stop worrying about the cruise. But my aunt and uncle were amazing and despite our late arrival picked up some tasty Philly cheesesteaks and we had a quiet evening watching the final four (Sam was very happy as he missed last year's due to our wedding, which he may never forgive me for). We woke up at the crack of dawn, I stuck my nausea patch behind my ear, said a prayer, wished my husband Happy Anniversary, and we headed out the door and on to Miami to board the Carnival Valor.

Port was much larger than I imagined, much more like a terminal in an airport, but we quickly made our way through check-in and boarded the ship. After some lunch we headed to the rooms to change into our swimsuits and luckily found my haven for the cruise. I knew I wanted to be at the front of the boat as seasicknesses 101 says to look out at the horizon. Luckily the front of the boat is an adults only lounge area with several of these amazing chairs.

Perfection. I could lay in a chair and look out at the horizon... incredible! The only problem is that as you can see the area is named Serenity, but it is located just in front of the worlds loudest horn, which they feel the need to sound at least five time upon leaving each day. But with a few long, ear-deafening blasts, we were on our way! We spent the day laying out on the deck and then headed in to get ready for dinner.

Monday was a very long day for me... first day at sea with no land in sight. I was definitely not made for sea and by the time we made it to dinner, I was ready to kill the Captain. Our boat, for some unknown reason rocked, and as we mockingly called it, shimmied. Two very different feelings that were only exacerbated at the back of the boat in the dining room. Lesson number one: request a dining room in the front!

Tuesday meant one thing for me... LAND!!!! I was sooooo excited to wake up and not feel my bed lurch or watch my juice cup sway! We headed off the boat only to discover we weren't getting off too soon... Grand Cayman requires a tender. So how do you get 3000 people off a boat and to shore? One 300 person boat at a time.

Honestly it wasn't that bad once we were going, the waters were calm and the ride was only a few short minutes till Land!!! Everyone told me that I'd get so used to the boat that land would then feel odd. Nope! I could have kissed the ground!

We didn't have an excursion planned in Grand Cayman but I was thrilled to walk around sipping on a ginger ale and explore. Sam was feeling good after a day of winning in the Casino, so he bought me a beautiful ring!

After a great day we capped off the evening with a great dinner and a hilarious married couples show.

Wednesday, we had to wait till noon to get off the boat in Roatan, Honduras, and despite the lure of land I was fine with this as I repeatedly saw my life end on this day as I plunged to my death from a snapped cable. However, I love my husband very much, and he said he thought that zip lining would be fun, so I entrusted my life to the locals at Clip-N-Zip!

We loaded ourselves into the back of a truck and rode through the forest, unloaded and continued our hike until we reached the first platform. After a quick explanation on how-to and safety instructions we were climbing the platform and a young man was clipping us to the cables. The nice thing is that with the super thick gloves, you can actually control your speed, so I traveled just fast enough to get me to the other side. Sam on the other hand enjoyed the no break necessary method and zoomed along the lines. Now let me tell you, hanging from a series of cables with only a harness is not that comfortable, but we had a great time and arrived safely back at the starting area. We then headed back to the ship (the luxury of tender-free ports), enjoyed a quick lunch and then headed back our for an afternoon at the local beach, Mahogany Bay.

Thursday we arrived in Belize City only to hear that it was a 5 MILE tender to the port. There were tons of cruise ships in the area and the boats were racing back and forth trying to get people off the ships as quickly as possible. The water was awful and I honestly debated the wisdom of boarding the tiny boat when they said it would be a 10-15 minute ride to land. Blah! My nausea patch was definitely put to the test that day! But we made it and we found our bus to take us through the countryside and to the jungle. We had about an hour long bus ride until we reached the river. Belize City is definitely ridden with poverty, and it was a humbling passage through the city as our guide told us about her life. When we arrived we loaded up the sunscreen, grabbed a tube, and a head lamp (sadly no pictures) and headed out for our hike through the local forest. Sam was a sweetheart and carried both of our floats the whole way. Sam and I didn't take our camera, fearing it would get wet, but these photos will give you an idea of what we experienced.

Thankfully the good people of cave-tubing.com had upgraded the tubes since these pictures were taken, think more like a water park tube, and I was able to keep all body parts out of the water, which suited me just fine after entering the cave, only to hear one of the guides talk about anacondas. The caves were beautiful and the tour was very relaxing. After the cave tubing we loaded up on the bus and the guides took us to their own tiki hut where they served us lunch. The people at cave-tubing.com were incredible and we would highly recommend the tour. These locals certainly work for every penny they earn, and judging by the countryside we witnessed in Belize City, it is money well spent.

Thursday night was our second formal night of the cruise and we also headed to the lounge for a night of laughs from the comedians. One was a riot, and the other not so much, but we laughed for the rest of the cruise about the poor guy.

Friday was another wonderful day! Cozumel is a very nice port with good shopping, but best of all, NO TENDER! My kind of city! Sam and I had decided to end our vacation with a nice relaxing beach day, so we booked a private beach, Nachi Cocum.

This beach charges you a flat rate and allows only 100 people on the beach each day. Every person gets a lounge chair and a natural umbrella to share. All of our food, and drinks (including alcohol) was included. They also had a nice pool and a jacuzzi for adults. The food was delicious and the service was great.

After a wonderfully relaxing day at the beach we headed back to port to a bit of browsing the shops before heading back on the boat to prepare for 36 straight hours at sea.

Saturday was another long one, with 70 knot winds (80+ miles per hour) you could pretty much lift off the deck. We attempted to soak up as much sun as possible and Sam hit the casinos one last time. I spent the morning sunning myself with our new friend Sara and Sam and her husband, Chris, conquered the on-ship slide.

After a toasty morning resulting in a bit too much sun all around we headed in for a chocolate buffet and a glorious nap! Our final evening was bittersweet as we said goodbye to all of our table mates and packed our bags for an early morning departure.

After the bags were packed we headed to the last comedy show of the cruise and off to bed for our long travel day the next morning. I certainly was not made for the sea, but I learned a lot and would certainly cruise again with my lessons learned as a guide to a better time. But ultimately the best part of it all was a week with my husband all to myself, no work, no school, just Sam and I celebrating our first year and all the blessings we have received.