In January Tim and I took a cruise with 5 other couples to the Western Caribbean! Our friends Joel and Robyn Jenks came up with the idea to cruise and friends and invited all of us along. Tim and I had never taken a cruise before and we were excited to try one out. Even though our 10th anniversary isn't until this coming August we decided to do this to celebrate! We were also excited to get away and be along for 7 days. That hasn't happened since mid-2004! First things first, we had to find someone to watch the kiddos and keep them going with school and activities for an entire week. Luckily Grammy and Grandad Burwell were on board! I would like to note however that my mom pointed out: "you mean you're asking me to miss a week of work and take care of your children so you can have fun in the Caribbean for a week?" "Yes mom, that's exactly what I'm asking." "Alright, we'll do it. I just had to make sure." Thanks mom and dad, (and Auntie Katie!) the kids had a great time and we always felt comfortable knowing they were being taken care of by you.
So, here goes:
Here is our entire group in Jamaica with our tour guide Dwain. This one my favorite day of the cruise and I love this pic of all of us. Pictured L to R are:
Mandy & Jordan Potter, Tim & Audrey, Becca & Jason, Dwain Bailey, Carrie & Josh Potter, Robyn Jenks (Joel was taking the picture), and Lori & Rulon Hardman
Day 1: Setting Out to Sea
Goodbye L, S, and G, we'll miss you!
We tried to routinely send the kids picture texts whenever we had cell service so they could see what we were up to. We couldn't contact them a ton as it was $8 a minute! to call off of the ship.
Day 2: At Sea
We spent this day relaxing and getting to know the ship. It was quite chilly and we weren't really prepped for that. In my mind Caribbean cruise equated to heat and I forgot that the first and last days of the cruise would be spent close to Texas, on the ocean, in January. Needless to say there was no relaxing by the pool in the sun on this day. The ship did have a lot to do. First we ate in the Main Dining Room for breakfast. We never went back for breakfast but I wish we had as the food was amazing! It's hard to set still for a luxurious 2 hour breakfast every morning though. Then we mini-golfed. There were 18 holes. We got through three of them, took some pics and called it a morning. I believe I spent a lot of the day reading in the library which was also awesome!
The evening of day 1 was our first formal night. It was a lot of fun to get dressed up with everyone!
Here are Tim and I at the ice skating show before dinner.
Our group
Silly Girls
When we got back to the room we had our first towel animal created by our stateroom attendant Donovan. After speaking with everyone else I think we ended up with one of the best attendants. He was amazing! He anticipated our every need and was very polite. I cannot say enough about Royal Caribbeans service! One of my favorite things about the cruise was never having to cook meals, and never having to clean up :)
Day 3: Cozumel Mexico
On this day our group took a jeep tour excursion. On paper it seemed awesome. While it was fun it turned out to be not quite as awesome and it was advertised. Here is Jason completely cool and confident and we out our lives in his hands on the streets of Mexico. Just kidding. It was pretty tame :)
1st Stop: The Mayan Ruin
This was disappointing. The way they advertised this made it seem like we would be hiking around and exploring a Mayan Ruin. This was more like a port-a-potty.
2nd Stop: Salt Water Crocodiles
After the crocs our 3rd stop was snorkeling along the beach. It started raining and came down pretty hard as we were driving there and while snorkeling. It was cold. We got soaked. Good times. On a positive note I did see the biggest starfish of my life. If I'm remembering correctly it was the size of a very large serving platter. Pretty cool! I wish that we had remembered to bring our camera.
4th stop: Lighthouse
This is the view from the top with all of our jeeps. I seems to have neglected getting a picture of the actual lighthouse.
Day 4: Georgetown, Grand Cayman Islands
At the Cayman Islands the water is too shallow to dock. So this was our "parking spot". From here we had to wait in line to get tendered in. It went surprisingly quickly!
Tim with Josh, Carrie, Jordan, and Mandy
On this day our group (sans Jason and Becca who went scuba diving and snorkeling on their own) took an excursion to Stingray city. It had come highly recommended and we were really looking forward to it. We were not disappointed!
Driving on the left side of the road
British Exxon
Grand Cayman prices per liter. Our dollar equals $1.25 of their dollars so this works out to $25.94 a gallon! It makes it a little hard to complain about gas prices now.
Heading out to Stingray City
The Hardman's and the Doolittles
They drove us out on a boat to the stingrays. I'd always pictured it on a beach but I was so, so wrong. We rode in the ocean for about half an hour in a boat. Stingray city is on a pretty shallow sandbar. It was pretty awesome to be standing in the ocean and looking all around but seeing zero land.
They let us all get out of the boat before they brought out the food (raw squid). Once the squid came out the stingrays swarmed. I could not believe how many there were or how huge they were. These were not the little stingrays they have at aquarium touch and feel stations! It was a little disconcerting at first but we quickly got used to it and it was a fabulous experience!
Kissing a stingray
Getting a "back rub"
Us with the Jenks, Potters, and Hardmans
We spent about 45 minutes with the stingrays and then got into the boat again and headed to a different location for some snorkeling. Here I began to feel sea sick. I don't think I've ever felt sea sick while I'm in the water but I did. I'm thinking my stomach was pretty empty, we had been in the sun a lot, I had gotten a lot of salt water shoved down my throat with the stingrays, and the water was really rather choppy. Needless to say, this is one of the only snorkeling pics that I took. Then I came up and mostly paddled around and followed Tim. He had an excellent time though!
On the way back I got some water and some gum, (thanks Rulon!) and began to feel much better.
Iguana
For the remaining hours we broke off from the group and did some shopping and sight seeing.
I loved all of the buildings here. They met my expectations exactly and most of it made me want to go home and watch Pirates of the Caribbean.
Sadly, never got to eat anything. We looked around a lot for a place but everything we found seemed commercial and touristy. We met some people on the tender back (strangely, they were from Idaho Falls and Mormon! - I figured our group had to be the only ones on the boat) who said they had found a great local fish restaurant down the road and it was delicious. That made me even more sad. Eating local food is one of my favorite things to do. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back!
Our second towel animal!
Day 5: Falmouth, Jamaica
This turned out to be my all time favorite day! I had felt a tad apprehensive going to Jamaica. All I ever really hear about Jamaica is how dangerous it is. Well, I have to tell you, I've never felt safer! Granted we were in touristy areas. Also, we've heard to stay away from Kingston (which we did). The port immediately where we exited the ship was hands down the nicest place that we went to by far.
Becca Sandwhich! Here we are getting ready to meet Dwain and go to Dunn's River Falls
At Dunn's River Falls
One thing I will say about Jamaica, "man their sales people are pushy!" We had heard this and thought we were prepared for it. However we thought they would be in all the normal street vendor type places only. Nope. We got totally blindsided at the falls. It was a gated theme park environment that you paid to get into yet there were vendors everywhere! We completely duped into buying these ugly totem pole type figurines that they carved our name into. We were just putting on sunscreen and these guys came up out of no-where asking our names and pushing stuff at us through the gate. I think we wandered away in a daze not really knowing what happened but $20 poorer than we were before. It was slightly irritating but we decided to brush it off and not let it mess up our day.
The falls were awesome! At first they made us go up in a line holding hands which was super irritating. We quickly broke that rule and had a much better time going up on our own!
Making out in Jamaica in a waterfall. Pretty cool anniversary if you ask me!
Local wildlife
Mick Jagger's Jamaican getaway
Day 6: At Sea
Becca and Audrey... just cruisin' - I believe that we were getting ready to take
belly dancing lessons by the pool.
Belly Flop contest - we did not participate, just watched :)
This was our 2nd formal night. Here I am asking if I have food in my teeth. Nice Audrey. Thanks Robyn for capturing this :)
This was a fun game show that we went to on one of the last nights there. The audience was divided into teams and we had to work together to gather certain items as quickly as we could and be first to the floor. It was super fun!
Here are Mandy and Robyn in the 2nd row up being part of a "row boat" to get across the floor first.
Day 7: At Sea
I think by day 7 we were tired of taking pictures. At least Tim was. So I mercifully put the camera away :) It was a lot of reading and relaxing by the pool. I can't complain! In my opinion it was the perfect amount of time for a vacation. We were able to completely settle in, relax, rejuvenate, and enjoy ourselves. By the last day we were ready to pack up, get back to a regular routine, and see our kiddos again. Timothy, I love you and I had a fabulous time on our vacation. To our group: I had a blast and I'm so glad that we got to do this!
On our way home
***There were a few things that I did not get pics of but that I want to remember: 1 - The Love and Marriage game show that Jason and Becca were a part of. Too funny! And now we all know so much about you two! 2 - Tim and I were up onstage for a magician show. The magician said something totally not cool about me so I kicked him in the butt. I got a huge laugh out of the audience so that made me feel good :) 3 - Our waiters Kiki and Hui , they were totally great, ding dong. 4 - Jason taking Tim's spot in a game show on the last night and telling everyone that his and Becca's names were Michael and Michelle. Our group kept laughing (a little loudly) every time the host referred to him as Michael and everyone else kept shooting dirty looks our direction. Good times. 5 - Jason being smarter than us in Jamaica - telling them that his name was Myk3l (Michael) and confusing the heck out of them. 6 - Night time hot tubbing and watching the game on the big pool screen. Granted, it was Tim enjoying the game, I enjoyed the visiting. 7 - late night dancing with Robyn and being told we were the best dancers there. And they couldn't believe how well we danced for white girls! One of my best all time compliments I think. 8 - Talking to the kids when we were on the islands and having Grant tell me "I miss you on your cruise" and 9 - Getting back to my parents and having the kids all run and jump all over us so glad that we were home!
Way to start 2013 off right!
