Caribbean Cruise

Matt and I celebrated our 7th anniversary in March.  We've been lucky enough to have some seriously awesome anniversary trips so far, because he knows that I would always rather travel than exchange gifts. But this is the first one we spent with friends. Lemme tell you...I would do this every flipping year. 

We decided to take a cruise with our best friends from business school. It left from Ft. Lauderdale, and stopped in Belize City and Cozumel, Mexico. 

Matt's mom came into town on Thursday to watch our boys for the week. We flew into Florida the day before the cruise left because we were a little scared of flight complications ruining our cruise. It was an absolutely lovely way to start our vacation, with a full day of relaxing time alone. Because that's just what you need before a cruise -- a day to unwind before you get on a luxurious ship to relax some more. 

We checked into the hotel, gloried in the warm sunshine from our little balcony, went out for some amazing Venezuelan arepas in this hole-in-the-wall warehouse-ish restaurant, laid by the pool, read books, took naps, exercised together, drove along the coast to see the beach...it was heavenly. 

Later that night, we picked up the Palmers from the airport, hit up a cute little diner until midnight, and went back to the airport to pickup the Bischoffs. We talked in the hotel lobby until some of us started to fall asleep standing up.

The next morning, we headed to breakfast and the EVERGLADES! I've always wanted to go here. The park close to us was in the northern part of the Everglades, which doesn't have huge snakes or jungle-y trees, but it was still beautiful and crazy awesome to see real alligators in the wild. Carina got some amazing photos, as usual. (Most of the photos posted here are from Carina and Vanessa. Thank you, sisters!)

Waiting for our air boat tour, led by Captain Disco. I swear that was his name.

Get to know these lovely people. 

Above -- Carina, Vanessa, me

Below -- Sam, Matt, Lincoln

It was a great day to visit because the sunshine brought all the gators out. They just sit still all day in the sun, soaking up energy through their scoots until they hunt at night. We saw a few of them move and it was unreal! Matt bought a baby gator head to take home for the boys. The teeth are surprisingly sharp.

After the tour, we walked through the animal exhibit and they let us hold a cute little baby gator! It was so cool to feel the skin and the soft underbelly.

Sam got a little hungry at that point. Couldn't handle the fact that we were running late with no time to stop at the food truck and try some gator meat. (They seriously offered this right there in the parking lot.) He did what he had to do...

 After the Everglades, we had two hours to get to the cruise ship on time. It shouldn't have been a problem, according to our map. Buuuuutttt....we weren't counting on Ft. Lauderdale traffic. Or construction. Or draw bridges opening to let boats through, causing major back-ups. Or taking wrong turns and backtracking. Or stopping for last minute supplies at Walgreens. Or the shuttle being really late to pick us up from the rental car drop-off. SOOOOO...after having two hours of mini heart attacks, we finally made it to the pier, just after the cut off time.

We wandered in to check in, expecting to have to fight or sneak our way onto the ship, 007 style. But of course, OF COURSE, they were lying on the tickets and the web site. They don't close the doors at 3:00, they close the doors at 4:00....didn't we know that? If I wasn't so relieved, I would've drop kicked somebody into the Gulf. This is what I get for trying to follow the rules!

Once we set sail, the wind drastically increased. On the upper deck it was like being in a rock video, or running in slow motion.

That first night, we started off the cruise properly by eating two dinners -- one in the Windjammer Cafe, and one in the dining room. I'm ashamed to admit it was like a banquet of gluttony every night. When the food is good and basically "free", we can't help ourselves.

After dinner we went to hang out in a lounge and realized that although we were the youngest people there by at least a couple decades, we were definitely the most sleepy. When did we turn into old farts? 

The next day was our first full day at sea, so we were free to relax or participate in the zillions of activities they had on board. I was excited that they had open volleyball for a couple hours. It was pretty interesting playing with gusts of wind and slightly buzzed teammates, and trying to keep the ball from bouncing into the ocean. But it was really fun to play with friends.

The proudest photographed moment of Matt's life, right there ^.

Our unstoppable front row.

We got lunch and then spent forever trying to find six open lawn chairs so we could relax in the sun. We read for a while and then followed the boys over to cheer them on in the surf simulator.
They all did so well! There was a really long line in between turns. By the time I got up the guts to try it, I only got two turns before it closed. It was squirrely and hard, but fun!

When we returned to our room to freshen up for formal night, we found this little guy waiting for us. Loved those nice men who made up our room every day! They even folded the pile of dirty (yes, dirty) laundry we had in the corner of the room. More than once.

All gussied up for formal night! 

Really all we did was take pictures and eat dinner in these fancy duds, then immediately changed into comfies so we could enjoy the show that night. It was a cirque-de-sole sort of thing, only dialed down about a thousand notches. That's what you get on a cruise ship...still entertaining if you can lower your expectations and be cool with psycho rocker pirates and giant crystal headdresses. How I wish I had a picture for you!

We cruised through the casino later to watch a little Black-Jack and get headaches from the cigarette smoke.

Then we found these special red couches that evoked all sorts of emotions...

 

The next day we stopped in Belize City. Well...we actually stopped way far away from Belize City because we couldn't sail past the huge barrier reefs. So our boat stopped somewhere in the ocean where we could see little bits of land in the distance, and smaller boats taxied people over all day. 

We signed up for an excursion that took us snorkeling and then to a private beach. We didn't really get to see any of Belize, but it was still pretty cool. We spent the morning on a mostly empty cruise ship waiting for our excursion to start. Some of us got a little too comfortable in the mini golf area.

A smaller boat that took us to our snorkeling spot. While we were heading out, we saw the cutest little mama and baby dolphins swimming and jumping in the wake of the boat.

The shore in Belize was covered in pretty white pieces of coral and tiny shells, and was lined with  little log fences that housed tons of teeny tiny hermit crabs. This little guy and his shell were smaller than my fingernail. So cute!

We didn't have much time on the island at all, but Matt and I took a kayak out to the trees for a few minutes. They grow straight up out of the water in this awesome tangle of branches. I loved it! I think Belize would be a beautiful place to vacation someday. It was just too quick of a stop to get more than a taste.

There was free rum punch on the ride back, so you know we had plenty of entertainment. Loud music, drunk dancing, crazy sunburns to check out, and bizarre public displays of affection. It was superb.

Vanessa and Sam making love to the camera. 

^This wasn't the bizarre PDA I was talking about, but maybe they were inspired by it.

We got a cool view of the massive ship on our way back out. It is absolutely insane that something that size can float!

Just to give you an idea of the size of this thing.... Those people are standing on our snorkel boat. Each one of those windows is a stateroom. The yellow things are life boats. It was just enormous.

That day was our seventh wedding anniversary. We added a little extra celebration by ordering virgin strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas. We immediately realized that they were worth every penny and we should have been doing this every night. Yum!

We went to another show that night where Tony Hillman performed. He's a singer/dancer/comedian who was actually quite entertaining. The girls all happened to wear purple on the same night, so we had to get a picture. 

The next day was our stop in Cozumel, Mexico. We had big plans for the day, but they were a little delayed because we had to take a cab, a ferry (on an hourly schedule), and a van to get where we were going. It was totally worth all the traveling! Playa del Carmen and Tulum were absolutely gorgeous!

While waiting for the ferry, we walked around this colorful little square of shops.

Here's an enormous flag to prove that we were actually in Mexico (in case the yellow and pink pastel buildings weren't convincing enough).

The menfolk, always perky.

When we finally got to Playa del Carmen, we met our tour guide David. He and his family run a business for LDS tours. They drove us 45 minutes to the ancient Mayan city of Tulum and gave us a private tour, with some Book of Mormon references thrown in for fun. It was really interesting to learn about the Mayans, their customs and spiritual beliefs, and imagine what kind of civilization the Lamanites might have lived in. 

Above, we're standing right outside the wall to the city.

These handsome little guys were hanging out all over the place.

Our next stop was the beach! We took a tiny boat out to the reef and followed a snorkeling guide, who showed us all kinds of treasures. He even picked up a live starfish from the bottom and let us feel it.

I somehow never made it into the group snorkeling pictures. I may have been choking on the waves to the left there. (But see my thumbs up?) I can get a little panicky in the ocean, but it was still a great day.

This was our view of Tulum from the boat. The water was amazing!

Just in case you didn't get the idea of how beautiful it was there, here are some more photos taken by Carina.

I think my new favorite color is called Playa del Carmen.

Amazing! Some of us learned how to take panoramic pictures on the iPhone that day. Hence the above and below photos with their odd proportions. 

Dinner that night was back on the ship. They only gave us until 4:30 to play in Mexico, which made the day pretty rushed, but luckily we made it back on-board with a few seconds to spare and some authentic Mexican tacos recently crammed into our mouths. I wish Matt had taken a picture of the taco truck he bought from. It was literally a makeshift tarp-covered kitchen in the bed of a little bright blue pick up truck. Tasty.

Anyway, back to dinner...

It was semi-formal night, which explains the tie. No idea why they make these dress codes and themes when there were consistently people next to us wearing shorts and sandals.

The food was good, and there was no shortage of it. There were an average of 10 entrees ordered per night at our 6-person table, and at least that many appetizers and desserts. No shame.

The last full day was another day at sea. We played volleyball again, climbed the rock wall, exercised, ate at Johnny Rockets for lunch, tried the FlowRider again, watched whales and fish off the side of the boat, and ate our fair share of soft serve ice cream cones, all while doing one of my favorite things:  people-watching!  If you like to people-watch, please go on a cruise. It is hilarious. Especially when you get to see the same people four days in a row and watch their relationships/sunburns/inhibitions change. I loved it!

Here we are hanging out in the Snow stateroom before our late dinner reservation. Who knew such a tiny little space could hold so much love! I mean look at all those boys sitting on the bed together. It was a regular snuggle fest!

We hung out on the quiet upper deck that night while waiting for our late dinner reservation, talking about politics and how much it would cost X to be able to throw Y into the pool right at that moment. The usual enlightening conversation, you know. 

Then we headed to dinner at the ship's fancy Italian restaurant. It did not disappoint! Just look at this pretty tiramisu and you'll see what I mean.

The company didn't disappoint either. But it never does when you're sitting next to a chocolate mustache.

Lastly, I have to include this picture because it sums up the overall blissful feeling of our vacation. This is what Matt and I look like when we can't stop laughing long enough to smile normally for a picture. I wish I could remember every detail of that night so I could laugh until it hurts anytime I want.

Thank you Palmers and Bischoffs for an amazing week. Love you more than I can say!