At the beginning of February we took a cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Royal Carribean. We left from Miami, and then went to Belize City, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. It was tons of fun! I am the worst at taking pictures (both actually taking them - they are usually blurry, and remembering to even take pictures) so I took most of these from our friends that were with us.
When we booked our hotel for Miami, we made sure we got one that was able to pick us up from the Ft. Lauderdale aiport and drop us off at the port in Miami. We made our reservations for a specific hotel, just because they told us they offered these things. Of course, we land in Ft. Lauderdale and call them to come pick us up, and they say they DON'T OFFER IT. Sweet. We had to take a taxi to our hotel in Miami which was around 45 mins away. Talk about expensive. Then we get there, and we ask to see when the shuttle leaves to go to the port in the morning. THEY DON'T OFFER IT. Awesome. Basically they were idiots. It started our trip off to an awesome start. Of course I was ticked. The next day we took a taxi to the port and then waited in line to get on the ship. If you want to see angry people, just wait in line for over an hour to get on a cruise ship. There was one lady who was seriously upset. She was one of those that just yells out, rather than talking to someone individually. She felt like she could run the show better than the workers - the funny thing is that she was one of the last ones on the boat.
When we booked our hotel for Miami, we made sure we got one that was able to pick us up from the Ft. Lauderdale aiport and drop us off at the port in Miami. We made our reservations for a specific hotel, just because they told us they offered these things. Of course, we land in Ft. Lauderdale and call them to come pick us up, and they say they DON'T OFFER IT. Sweet. We had to take a taxi to our hotel in Miami which was around 45 mins away. Talk about expensive. Then we get there, and we ask to see when the shuttle leaves to go to the port in the morning. THEY DON'T OFFER IT. Awesome. Basically they were idiots. It started our trip off to an awesome start. Of course I was ticked. The next day we took a taxi to the port and then waited in line to get on the ship. If you want to see angry people, just wait in line for over an hour to get on a cruise ship. There was one lady who was seriously upset. She was one of those that just yells out, rather than talking to someone individually. She felt like she could run the show better than the workers - the funny thing is that she was one of the last ones on the boat.
Belize City, Belize
Our first stop was in Belize City. We decided to do a cave tubing and zip lining adventure. It was the coolest zip lining I have ever done. (not that we've done alot). We were so high up in the forest- it was awesome. It was super hot, and I was sweating like a monster because we had to walk up stairs to some of our zip line stations. Everything was fun until I got hit in the mouth with a caribeaner. I probably deserved it after not slowing down, so the poor man had to stop me by catching my flying body.
The cave tubing was lots of fun. We put on life jackets and hard hats with lights on them and hiked a little ways to the caves. My life jacket stunk like BO, so it made the hike seem longer than it was. The caves were awesome - we saw a lot of stalactites and they would give them names according to what they looked like. It was funny because one of the guides thought this older couple in our group were our parents. It was hilarious.
On our way to the zip line we drove through the city. This is a graveyard. I guess they are at sea level, and they aren't able to bury the dead very deep. They dig three feet down, and bury the person, and then build a three foot high grave site for them. This way they are technically "6 feet under". I hope they don't ever have a tsunami or some sort of disaster that makes all these people come out of their graves.
We drove by lots of tiny little shacks. It made me really sad. It makes me sad that people have to live in one room houses and in filth. It makes me appreciate what I have even more.
Costa Maya, Mexico
(this was on our walk back to the ship)Our second stop was Costa Maya. We heard that you could go snorkeling pretty much off the beach so we decided to just take our chances and go by ourselves, with out guides. It wasn't that awesome. We did go out and saw some rays and fish. The boys came back from snorkeling with a big conch shell, so Allie and I decided we wanted to beat their shell with our own. So we went out and found two big shells. When we picked one of them up, a squishy animal was trying to get out, so Allie shook it to try to get it out. These other people asked if they could try, and they made it go back inside. So we just took them back to our table to show the boys. A while later, the waiter told Jake and Tanner that it was illegal to take those things out of the ocean with animals still in them. They quickly returned them so we didn't go to jail :)
We sat on the beach all day and ate nachos and chips and salsa. We did a bit of snorkeling, swimming, and got massages. When I got mine, the lady asked if I wanted to be in the sun, so I said yes. I didn't realize she was going to use baby oil for my massage. I was completely burned. Everyone was burned pretty well after their massages. We decided to walk back to the ship and saw a few wild iguanas, and then we walked into a hotel's beach and they had dolphins in a little pool. We were able to see them for a little while. It was pretty fun!
Cozumel, Mexico
Our last stop was Cozumel. We decided to get guides to go snorkeling this time. It was lots of fun! We saw so many fish -even a barracuda. The guide would get a bunch of food in his hand so the fish would follow him. We saw lots of different kinds of fish. I expected it to be like Finding Nemo, with all the colorful coral and millions of fish, but we didn't really see any coral. There was a huge school of fish at the end of our trip and it was so cool to see how they moved together. It was like a huge wall of fish. I could have stayed there forever just sitting and looking at the fish - it was tons of fun!
Our last stop was Cozumel. We decided to get guides to go snorkeling this time. It was lots of fun! We saw so many fish -even a barracuda. The guide would get a bunch of food in his hand so the fish would follow him. We saw lots of different kinds of fish. I expected it to be like Finding Nemo, with all the colorful coral and millions of fish, but we didn't really see any coral. There was a huge school of fish at the end of our trip and it was so cool to see how they moved together. It was like a huge wall of fish. I could have stayed there forever just sitting and looking at the fish - it was tons of fun!
Our guide boat had a glass bottom - Jake went under it for a picture.
We had alot of fun on the boat. We ate a TON of food. They had a soft-serve ice cream cart by the pool, so you could eat as much ice cream as you wanted. The buffet was really good, and our dinner room was the best. We had the greatest waiters. The first night our waiter asked us what we wanted to drink, and then every night after that he had the exact same drink waiting for us - and he would refill them so fast! I loved it. Every meal was SO GOOD. They even had room service that you could order any time - we got the spinach artichoke dip a few times.
They had fun shows - our friends did the newly wed game show (they did a version with a couple that was only married for a year or less, one that was married for a few years, and then the longest marriage). Our friends were the middle couple, and they won! It was really exciting to watch them do the show. We went to an "air" show that sounded really cool - the dancers were supposed to be flying around and using ribbons hanging from the ceiling and stuff. It sounded like it was going to be awesome, but it was really weird. We didn't really enjoy it.
There was an ice skating rink on our ship. We went to an ice show, and it was AMAZING. The rink was a little square - it looked really small, but the people did flips and all these crazy moves. This one girl was attached to a guy's neck by a rope thing on her neck, and she was spinning around in the air while he was going in circles. Weird explanation, but it was amazing. We also went ice skating during one of the open sessions and played tag. Of course Allie and I were the only ones who fell, and it hurt for me to walk up or down stairs for like two days because I hit my knee so hard. It was lots of fun though!
These are some of the towel animals our cleaning lady made for us:
A Monkey?
A Swan, I think.Overall, it was tons of fun. We loved being on vacation! It was wonderful to get out of the cold weather and into the sun. I was sad that my tan only last about a week after we got back, but it was worth the burn :)
