As a graduating gift to myself, I decided to take Elisha and myself on a Caribbean cruise. To a lot of our friends, this kind of travel for us seemed surprising. But everyone always says cruises are tons of fun, and I'm all about fun. Plus being in Florida, cruises are cheaper b/c you don't have to fly across the country to get tehre, so it was something I had wanted to do while in Florida. We got a really good deal and a great itinerary, so we decided to go for it. Also, the Caribbean is super expensive since they don't really have hostels and airfare isn't the cheapest, so cruising is a good way to see the Caribbean. For example, when my parents were living in St. Lucia, I wanted to visit but tickets were $400 rt from Orlando, and since they didn't really have room in their place, the cheapest place I could find was $65 a night for just lodging.
August 6th: we left Gainesville at 4 a.m. after finishing our moving out of the apt packing at 3 a.m. We flew from Orlando to San Juan, puerto rico and then boarded the Carnival Fascination. It was huge and fancy (for us, though more experienced cruisers said it wasn't that big and older so not that fancy). After checking in, we left the boat and explored San Juan's old city including the 2 big forts and the ancient protecting wall. We had some empanadas, and saw the sites. We re-boarded the ship, had some pizza on the top deck and then explored the ship. For dinner we went to the restaurant and had the local puerto rican fish and appetizers of puerto rican pork and some other fish. We were tired from the preceding days, so we didn't do any of the activities except for the opening night poolside dance party
Aug 7:
We went to the omelet bar for breakfast and then debarked onto St. Thomas where we had arrived that night. We immediately took a taxi across the island to red hook port and then a ferry to St. John. We then to a taxi to the super gorgeous trunk beach where we did the underwater snorkel trail. The water of trunk beach was such a surreal blue and the beach so pure white. After spending time there, we hitchhiked to cinnamon beach to hang out for a bit and then hitchhiked to trunk beach overlook. We then hiked to a viewpoint and continued on the hawksbill beach in a tropical rainstorm. After a brief swim we taxied, ferried, and then taxied back to the boat. Back on board we had some buffet snacks and watched as the ship pulled away from the beautiful island. That night was a really wild storm with lots of wind, rain, and lightning. We had a nice dinner of coconut shrimp curry, lamb shank and appetizers of rabbit and seared ahi tuna. All the dinners came with yummy desserts. That night we went to 2 comedy shows, a dance show, and dance party.
August 8: Today was our day at sea where we sailed the whole day and night without making landfall. We went to a special brunch and then enjoyed many of the ship's amenities. We spent a lot of time on the waterslides and partook in the chocolate extravaganza that included chocolate fondue. There was a mixology competition that elisha took part in, but didn't make the finals. There was also pool-side ice carving. In the evening I ran on the ship's outdoor track during the sunset. Before dinner we attended the Divas show. Tonight was one of the 2 elegant dinners they had. Everyone was dressed up crazy fancy. Like prom style. Elisha and I were definitely the most under-dressed. They served lobster, and we each had 3 tails to go along with shrimp cocktail, oysters, pork cream tarts, and shrimp scampi. In the evening we attended to hilarious comedy shows
August 9: Today we arrived to Barbados, the birthplace of my Grandma Guy. We rented a scooter and circumnavigated the island, visiting many beaches. We snorkeled a couple of times and swam with turtles in a couple of places. Barbados is famous for its rum, so we got a rum punch drink on the beach. When we went over the hills to the otherside, we found the atlantic coast and ocean to be much rougher. We continued around the island. We made the decision that we had just enough time to snorkel with turtles at one last beach. We had to scooter fast at the end, but we made it just in time for the boat (though ahead of lots of others who were late). In the evening we did some more water sliding and sat in the hot tub during the sunset while drinking some berry breeze drinks. For dinner we had sword fish and beef tenderloin at the restaurant with ox tongue appetizers. After dinner we attended a really sweet magic show.
August 10th: Today was our 1 month marriage anniversary, so what better way to celebrate 1 month since being married on a mountain top, with a mountain top climb? So we climbed the Petit Piton, one of the two famous Piton peaks. We went with a company called Simon Says as that is who my parents used. Simon was quite the character. The petit piton was a tough climb b/c it was straight up and of course there was the heat and humidity to deal with. During the climb we ascended 2,440 feet in 0.9 miles if that says something about the steepness. We often had to use roots and ropes to pull ourselves up. When we got to the top it was fogged in, but we waited a bit. It eventually cleared, and we were treated to absolutely amazing views!
After the tough hike we went to a volcano crater where we did the mud paths. The mud and water was really hot, but Simon Says made sure to help us (and others in the area) get covered. After covering ourselves in mud, we went to this jungle waterfall, which Simon Says called the power shower. We went swimming in it and cleaned the mud off. Amazingly, we did find the mud to really soften our skin. Then Simon Says got us some celebratory ice cold beers. On the way back from Soufries (where the pitons are) to Castries (where our boat was), we stopped at some piton viewpoints as well as a viewpoint of Marigold cove.
St. Lucia was a very beautiful island b/c it was so lush and very mountainous. A very jungly island, like you would imagine from Jurassic park or something.
Before dinner we went to a motor city singing and dance show. For dinner we ordered filet mignon, short ribs, and jumbo shrimp with mushrooms for appetizers. And we even had a late night snack of ribs and pizza.
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August 11:
Today we arrived to St. Kitts. We joined a taxi tour that went around the island. It wasn't that special b/c the driver didn't seem to give much information and he was in a rush b/c one of the groups in the tour was trying to get back early for another sail boat tour. Also I think part of it was that the island wasn't super special. It was pretty having a mountain in the center, but around most of the island was old sugarcane plantations and not really sandy coast. We got back to the boat around noon and had lunch on the boat, which was nice to enjoy the food of the cruise for lunch. Then we shared a cab with another newlywed couple to one of the famous beaches on the island, which was nice.
For dinner on board we had escargot, jerk chicken wings, and fried shrimp for appetizers. Then had seafood pasta, spare ribs, and caribbean steak for mains. We had a big night of entertainment. We went to 3 comedy shows, a game show thing (like you would watch on tv with cruise folks as participants), a 60 seconds show, and then a Love and Marriage show.
For the love and marriage show they had 3 couple go up on stage with the cruise director, Marcelo (known affectionately as marcelo marshmellow). He was a hilarious guy. They took the most recently married (Elisha and I), the longest married (an Indian couple that had been married for 39 years) and then someone inbetween: a vey funny couple that had been married 17 years.
They then put us back to back and they asked us 8 questions that all 6 of us would have to answer and to see how things would match up. I thought it was going to be questions like, what is her shoe size? what brand of deodorant does she use? Where is the favorite place she's been? What was her favorite TV show or band growing up? Stuff like that. I figured we'd do really well on that b/c we really know each other well. But they were different questions. But in the end I think we still won and had the most matching answers. We ended up getting a bottle of champagne and trophy for it. Of course Marcelo had the most fun poking fun of the newlyweds, starting out with the joke of why are they even here, don't they have better things to be doing in their cabin?
Let's see if I can remember the 8 questions:
1. Where and when did you meet (we nailed this one, the middle couple was off each other by 2 years!)
2. Ugliest thing about the wife (I said her mood when she's hungry and Elisha said her new visor)
3. Most disgusting thing about the husband (I said my morning breath, Elisha said that I don't trim my toenails enough)
4. What was the name of the husbands last girlfriend and describe her (Elisha got it, Sara. Elisha wrote that I knew Sara from work at RMNP. I described her as smart, nice, and southern hospitality, which drew boos from the audience. The middle couple guy described his previous gf as a lying hoe or something like that. Which marcelo said I should learn from him on that. Though in my defense, I only dated nice and sweet girls. Why would I waste my time with any other kind?
5. What was the most unique place you'd had sex? We didn't match on that one. In hindsight, I wish I had said one of the carnival fascination's hot tubs or pools b/c that would have gotten a rise out of the crowd
6. Last night bedroom activities as described as a holiday would be a. like 4th of July fireworks b. like after thanksgiving (snoring and sleeping) or c. like memorial day (dead). Elisha and I had prepared for this one b/c we didn't want to embarrass ourselves as newly weds, as the truth was that the last few nights had had been b. but we both answered a. haha
7. If you were stranded on a desert island, the husband would prefer to have with him. a. missionary b. hooker. I answered a., which was honest between those 2, but marcelo and the crowd didn't believe me. The middle couple answered the same thing. but the Indian guy who had been married for 39 years confidently answered hooker. Actually I would have hoped for a c. answer like bear grylls or a d. answer like Lucas or Sherman
8. I can't seem to remember the 8th question.
The funniest and most awkward part was at the end, we all had to stand up on the stage and make out together for as long as the audience continued to clap and cheer, which was a long time!
August 12:
Today we arrived to St Martin, which is split into two countries: Saint Martin (originally a french territory) and Sint Maarten (originally in the kingdom of the netherlands. We rented a scooter and scooted around the entire island. Elisha would say this was her favorite island. It was very beautiful with a lot of gorgeous beaches and some very nice viewpoints. We stopped in cute and quaint Grand Case town and did some swimming and had beers over the gorgeous water.. On the parents' suggestion we went to Orient beach, which was the famous nude beach, though I imagine when the europeans are there, most are nude since that's how they role. We swam in the ocean (and pool) of the fancy westin hotel in the dutch side. It was funny at this beach there were tons of these big ole iguanas. Lastly we went swimming at Maho beach which is famous b/c it's right next to the airport, so these huge jetliners fly super close right over head before landing. And then when they take off, the spray the beach with jetwash, which is super powerful and knocks people into the water. We had a really fast and exciting scoot back to make it to the boat on time, but turns out we made it a few minutes early and there were lots of late people that day.
Back on the boat we had cocktails and snacks on the back of the boat. For dinner we had a seafood dish for appetizers and something called cold mango soup, which was really like a smoothie. Then we had Creole shrimp and prime rip for dinner. In the evening Elisha did a spa/manicure thing and then we went to a juggling show and 3 comedy shows.
August 13:
Arrived in to San Juan. We chilled on boat for awhile then went to the airport to fly back to Orlando. We spent the night with Todd and Christina at the PRT (people's republic of toad).
The cruise was totally sweet! We were really impressed, and supposedly we were on a lower class, older, and smaller boat. But we couldn't believe all of the events and activities they had. No way to do it all. We had wanted to go to some karaoke things and even more dance events, but just didn't have time. They had so many places to eat (2 buffet areas, 2 restaurants, 24 hr pizza and deli, 24 hr icecream, and other things like an asian wok and tapas area). And we couldn't believe that there was so much food and it was all already paid for. It was great to go to a restaurant and look at the menu and not have to worry about the cost of each item. Often we ordered multiple appetizers and a couple meals, haha. They had several hot tubs and saunas and a really nice exercise room. They had a spa, casino, several night clubs, piano bar, 2 show theater rooms, and a comedy club. Plus a large atrium that they did shows too. They had live music nearly all the time in the atrium and in a lounge near the casino. They also often had a dj at the pool.To me our room was quite big for a ship, and we had a window, which was nice. They were also big on taking your photo all the time and had a photo studio place where people would get their photos taken to certain backgrounds and then you could buy professional prints. They of course had several bars and large duty free shopping centers. They had an 1/8 mile track on the top deck and a mini golf course. And of course the little waterpark with some cool slides. I think we did a good job of really getting our moneys worth on the cruise and doing lots of the activities there and also really exploring the different islands on our own
Aug. 14 In the early morning I did some last minute things on campus, and then we started driving. We drove through famous Vicksburg, MS and over the mighty mississip before spending the night in Monroe, LA.
Aug 15. Drove through the nightmare of driving that is Dallas and then wide open texas, through amarillo and spent the night in Raton, NM, where I have stayed before on account of Raton pass into CO being closed.
Aug 16. Over raton pass, through CO spgs and back home!
1 comment:
Fun times in the Caribbean with you!
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