Day 1
- Drove to SLC then flew to Atlanta, Georgia then flew to Miami, Florida. Sam took a quick nap in the Atlanta airport.
- Slept in a questionable hotel. "Mmm . . . I'd say one in six" "What?" "Oh I thought you asked me what our chances were of being murdered here tonight." Is what I thought and said outloud to Sam. Haha. Thank you Jim Halpert.
Day 2
- Went to port and boarded the ship. Our ship was the Carnival Valor. We couldn't get over how truly huge the ship was. sam said it was like being on a floating casino. Here's a pic of Miami from our ship while we were waiting to depart.
- It was Mother's Day that day so we called both our mom's and told them Happy Mother's Day.
- We just wandered the ship taking everything in until our room was open.
- We watched out the window as the ship turned around headed out to sea. Pretty crazy that something so big floats and moves.
Day 3
- Day at Sea. We spent the whole day on the ship going to shows, eating and just getting used to the layout of the ship.
- It was formal dinner night so we got dressed up all snazzy. Please note that in the picture I am wearing 6-inch pink heels. The dining room was on the opposite end of the ship from our room so my feet were already killing me by the time we got to dinner.
- Speaking of dinner, we ate in the dining room every night and the food was amazing! We tried escargot, caviar, duck and a bunch more things that we'd never tried before. :)Day 4
- Our first stop! We got to the Grand Caymans in the morning and got on a ferry to go to the pier. So excited!
- We wandered around a bit then joined our group on a bus ride to Dolphin Cove. We got to swim with dolpins!! We were supposed to swim with sting rays too but that part got cancelled because the wind was too bad at the sting ray bar so we just upgraded to swim with the dolphins. They wouldn't let us take any pictures when we were in the water because they wanted us to buy the pictures that their photographers took. So we only have a few pictures of the dolphins playing on the rubber pad on one of the docks before we swam with them. I seriously giggled like a little girl the whole time! I LOVED IT! We got to pet her and hold her and she pulled us through the water and gave us kisses. I was in heaven!
Day 5
- We arrived at our next stop in the morning which was Roatan, Honduras. It was beautiful! We rented a "clam shell" shade spot with two beach chairs and then went and snorkeled for a good hour or more. It was basically a day of relaxing on the beach.
- We got SO sunburned!!! We'd put sunscreen on and everything but I guess the sun is way stronger close to the equator so needless to say our little lobster bodies were fried. Still had fun though. We bought a fresh coconut and got to drink the milk then the guy cracked it open for us and we got to eat the meat. So good!
Day 6
- Arrived in Belize! This was our favorite stop becasue we got to actually drive through the country on a little tour and see what the country is really like as opposed to the tourist trap areas we usually saw.
- We went cave tubing here which was perfect because we'd gotten so sunburned the day before that we needed the shade. We walked through the jungle on our way to the caves which was beautiful! We wore helmets with head lamps and life vests as we sat in our tubes and floated through these huge caves that have been naturally carved by the river we were in.
- We got to see a cashew fruit and tree. Totally not what you expect. The nut grows out of the bottom of the fruit which is really soft like a tomato. They make cashew wine out of the fruit and it takes an entire cashew tree to fill one can of cashews.
- When we got back to the pier we decided to walk around the streets behind the pier and go through the street vendor shops. That was a little crazy but I'm glad we did it. Sam got offered drugs twice. Haha. One guy out right showed him a bag of weed and asked if he wanted it. Another guy said, "We also have a 'pharmacy'." Haha. Oh and this is Sam's sunburn. Some lady attacked him and started rubbing the inside of a cactus palm on his skin claiming it helps sunburn. She than asked for $5. He got felt up for $5. Haha
Day 7
- We got to Cozumel, Mexico this day. We had to cancel our SCUBA excursion because we were too sunburned and didn't want all that gear strapped onto our tender flesh. Haha. So we did a cooking class instead. It was actually really fun. The chef was funny and taught us how to decorate our plates and make an appetizer, main course and dessert.
- We were sad we couldn't swim because the water was absolutely beautiful but we got to people watch and take pictures instead. Sam also bought the Nacho Libre mask. Haha
Day 8
- Last day at Sea. It was another fun filled day of lounging around the ship on our way back to the USA. We played Roulette in the casino a few times during the week and Sam won $75. I lost all my money both times I played so I let Sam play. He lost $40 the next night and was not pleased about it. Haha
Day 9
- We made it back to Miami in one piece having had a wonderful time. The shuttle picked us up and took us to the Fort Lauderdale airport . . . . . our flight was out of the Miami airport. We had to get a cab to take us to the Miami airport and $75 later we were pissed. Luckily we just thought back on all the fun we had on the cruise and didn't let the cab ride ruin everything.
- We had a layover in Minnesota, another in Denver then it was into SLC. We slept for most of the plane rides. We also were wondering where the city of Denver actually was. There was nothing around the airport. Haha
So it was a wonderful trip! We celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary while we were on the ship as well as my graduating from college. The steward crew would turn down our bed every night and make us a towel animal. I was always excited to get back from dinner to see what they had made. We bought a few souveniers and bought my brother a birthday gift. Cruises are the way to go! We highly recommend them!
