So now that we're on the ship, the fun begins!
Our first day (Monday, January 22) was a sea day, as we were sailing to Cozumel. I guess it's technically the second day because they consider the 1st day-the day you board (Sunday). Anyways our first sea day was spent exploring the ship, doing fun stuff aboard, and just hanging out together. That night was the captains dinner, so we dressed up and went to that.
We ate in the dining room a lot this trip! The most we ever have! We ate there the "first" night as well! (Sunday night-so confusing!)
The third day (Tuesday, January 23) was our first port, Cozumel! We had booked snorkeling for this port, and the weather was beautiful! At first the forecast predicted crappy weather for pretty much the whole trip, but lucky for us, the sun was out in Cozumel! Which I was extra excited for because the first two days were crappy, weather wise.
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| About half of our group |
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| Our snorkeling crew! |
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| My beautiful seesters! <3 |
I had never been snorkeling before, and if you know me, you know I hate water! Not only do I hate it, but I'm like deathly scared of it! It's my worst fear and the only way in this world that I do NOT want to die! So I was a little nervous about this but as long as I had a life jacket on and didn't have to go under, I felt like I would be ok. And I was! It was actually really fun!! And was actually probably my favorite excursion that we did! So super salty!! I had never really been in the ocean I guess, cuz that salt was a little surprising!
After snorkeling they fed us chicken fajitas and taught us how to make guacamole. When we got back to the port we had a lot of time left before we set sail, so we did some shopping, and some sleeping haha (see second picture down)
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| So if you read my previous post, you'll know that I hadn't had a ton of sleep the last few nights, so I was pretty tired and actually fell asleep right there! Kyla and I both did! So it's a good thing Tommy didn't because he woke us up to get back on the ship! |
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| Someone said to me "Oh honey your hair!" haha... Yes, I know. You can't really tell in this picture but my hair is crazy curly/poofy! And I had it in a braid for snorkeling and then I took it out and it dried and I was a poof ball! And the humidity didn't help haha |
While Kyla and I were taking a siesta, Tommy was doing some shopping and I don't think it was until the last day of the cruise that I found out what he was up to!
Once we were back on the ship they were doing a Mardi Gras party and flinging necklaces off one of the indoor balconies to us below. And I'm just going to add in this story, because it was crazy to me! And so I can remember it. As they were flinging necklaces, Tams girls were standing in the middle front trying to catch some as we were standing off to the side, and it wasn't until probably half way through that I noticed that they didn't have any and then noticed an "older" lady probably like 50-60's (I don't know, I'm really bad at guessing age) standing behind them reaching over their heads and grabbing the necklaces before they could reach them! Aww Nah! And this lady had a TON of necklaces and the girls had 0! What the heck?! So I went over there and stood behind the girls so I could catch the necklaces for them. I was trying to kind of push the lady out from behind us so she would go steal them from someone else, but she didn't budge. I caught a few for the girls and then there was a bunch of probably 4-5 knotted together coming down and landed right in my up-reached hand (I didn't even have to really reach for them), and this lady-now standing behind me-rips them from my hand! Oh, that was IT! Haha just kidding I didn't do anything except look at her with my best "really"?! look!
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| We went to the dining room that night too |
After the Mardi Gras party they were going to have a deck party which I was soooo excited for! It's basically just a huge dance party! But it didn't start until 10:30 and we had to be off the ship the next morning at 7:30 to go to our excursion. :( I would have sacrificed the sleep for it! But no one else was staying up, and I don't like to dance by myself! so that was a bummer. Everyone was bummed though, we all wanted to go to it, but the kids would have had a rough time the next morning!
Day 4: Belize
Early Wednesday morning we woke up and got off the ship onto another little ship that took us to Belize. It took us about 15 minutes for us to get there. The cruise ship has to park that far away from Belize because of their reef.
So our Belize excursion, we had booked cave tubing! After getting from the ship to Belize City we had to get on a bus for a 1 1/2 hour drive to the cave. It was pretty cool to drive through Belize and see what the land looks like. That's one of my favorite things to do, get past the tourist part of the country and see what it's really like. We also learned a lot about Belize from the tour guide. And the hospital!! Oh my gosh, the hospital! Yikes! I wish I could have gotten a picture.
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| We tried to get away from these picture people and tried to dodge them but they always caught us and then had to take a bazillion pictures! haha And always told us to "wave!" |
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| I didn't get any good pictures of what it looked like. This one kind of shows in the background of these boys playing soccer |
It started raining when we were almost to the cave, and we got in these old school buses and started hauling A up a pretty steep, rough, muddy hill! But we made it! Thankfully! And then we had a 20 minute hike through the rain forest, in the rain, in our swim suits, to the actual cave. When we complained about the rain, our tour guide said "well, it is a rain forest". True!
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| Don't mind how we look, this was post rain, two way hike, and cave tubing |
I really wanted to see a lot of jungle animals, but we only got to see 2 iguanas. One was a tiny little guy and the other was a massive guy up in a tree. The jungle was beautiful though!
After our 1 1/2 hour drive back to Belize City, it was time to get back to the ship. So we didn't get to do any shopping in Belize and I was SO sad!! I saw a really cool backpack I wanted but we couldn't stop. Of all the ports, I really wanted to shop in Belize :(
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| This was the cemetery in Belize City. I thought it was so interesting! But they have to bury above ground because of the water table, and I can't remember how many feet our tour guide said-but Belize is below sea level. |
Day #5: Honduras!
So our 5th day was our third and last stop. We stopped in Roatan Honduras! This was probably my favorite stop!
We didn't plan any excursions for this day because Carnival has a private beach! So we just had a beach day, which was so much fun!
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| Tommy spent a lot of time diving for these conch shells but come to find out we couldn't keep them so he just took them back after taking pictures |
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| Briston dove for this one |
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| More of my beautiful sisters! I love them!! |
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| Made us wave... again haha |
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| <3 Cruisin' 4 Cash 2018 <3 |
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| :') |
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| A cool spotted sting ray we saw |
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| These guys were walking all over and singing/chanting. It was really cool! They were super good! |
The weather wasn't too bad, it was cloudy, but it was still warm :) We had a really fun day just chillaxin' on the beach and then shopping until it was time to board the ship! (We ate in the dining room again that night! See we really did eat in the dining room a lot this go round). OH! And speaking of! That was the night that I found out what Tommy had been up to shopping all by himself in Cozumel!
We had eaten dinner and ordered dessert (I ordered two!), and when the waiter brought them to me he set them down in front of me with a space in between them so I pushed them together, and then he separated them again... and set down an extra plate...
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| How freaking cute you guys!! |
And inside....
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Was a beautiful necklace and earrings!
(horrible picture of me... just ignore that part ;) ) |
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| <3 |
He also got me another set of diamond earrings (not pictured), my favorite! Everyone be jealous, it's ok! I know I have the best! ;) He's pretty hard to beat!!
Friday and Saturday were our last two sea days before docking back in Galveston Sunday and getting off the ship :( We spent the days going to shows, playing games, hanging out together, hot tubing, playing at the water park and laying in the sun (luckily we got the pleasure of seeing the sun for about 4 hours!), and eating.... lots of eating!!
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| We also went to the top deck and did the optical course! I love stuff like that (optical courses), but Oh My Gosh! I don't know if I've gotten weak in my old age or if it was because the wind was blowing and we were on the top deck-pretty close to the edges, or what but it was Scary! |
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| Our whole group! |
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| The last night :( So SAD! |
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| Our last ice cream cones! |
Or so we thought!^ Haha So the next day, Sunday-debarkation day, the ship usually docks and people start getting off the ship at like 8! But it was so foggy in Galveston that we couldn't even get into port until like 11! So we had lots more time for ice cream!!
Lucky for Ted, Janice, Tommy and me, we booked our flight home for the next day, so we were in no hurry. But the rest of my family had a flight to catch early Sunday afternoon! :/ Needless to say, they missed it :( and were lucky enough to get on a flight headed to Cali that so graciously stopped in SLC for them!
Tommy and I, Ted and Janice didn't get off the ship until like 3:30! Where as we're usually off by like 11! Anyways, so we couldn't get our rental car because the dealership was closed by the time we got off the ship! So we ubered back to Houston, checked into our hotel, went to dinner and then went to bed for the day of travel the next morning! Luckily we only flew from Houston to SLC then to Boise!
And we were home!
And it was a great trip!
And we can't wait to go again!
And we're getting passports!!
Cheers!
