I am a little late getting this posted, but late is better than never, right?
We went on our second cruise with Chuck's dad's family this year. Our group was even bigger than last year since Paige and Brian could come with us. We went on Royal Caribbean this time and it was a wonderful time! Click on the titles of the days to see the pictures!
Day 1 * San Juan, Puerto Rico
We first arrived in San Juan. We took a direct flight there. That was the way to go. It was a very drastic weather change when we got there, that's for sure. We couldn't wait to get our luggage and shorts…..but first….find the buffet on the ship. We were starving!
We spent the day looking around the ship, unpacked and had dinner in the dining room later that night. We were tired from traveling and had an excursion the following day, so we went to bed.
DAY 2 * St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
I was very excited for our excursion….Helmet Dive. It was like our personal SUBs we went on last year. Unfortunately is was canceled, so Chuck and I walked around St. Thomas. As we were walking into town, I got really excited…”Look, Chuck! Coral!” His reply was (after laughing a bit) “That's an orange street cone!” I guess I was a little excited to be in the Caribbean and thought I was seeing coral….Oops! 🙂 I did find a watch I had been wanting for a long time there. I was very excited. We had a pretty relaxing day. A little shopping and a lot of eating!
DAY 3 * Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
Today we took a shuttle with Chuck and Jean to the other side of the Island for some power snorkeling. It was a lot of fun. You use a device with a propeller on it to move you along in the water. You don't even need flippers. They took us out to the snorkeling site on a huge banana ride pulled behind a boat. I saw a stingray and Jean saw a turtle, but not too many fish here.
After the snorkeling, Chuck and his dad wanted to go on the jet skis for a while. So we rented some of them and went cruising around. It was a lot of fun. And there were some huge waves and swells to play on.
Chuck and I went on a fishing excursion in Antigua. It was a lot of fun. We caught all sorts of weird little fish. We debated between shallow fishing and the deep sea fishing, and chose this because we wanted to be sure we would catch some fish. We weren't sure we would get anything deep sea fishing. I did catch one of the ugliest fish I have ever seen, though. he had a little body and HUGE eyes. The first thing they said when I pulled it out of the water was “DON'T TOUCH IT!” I thought it was because it was so ugly, but it was really because he had some spiky bones in his back that can really hurt. We had a great time.
We went with Chuck and Jean again to an interesting excursion. We went Aerial Trekking. Which really means, they stick you in a harness, tell you to lean back and pick up your feet and then push you on your way across a zip line in the canopy of the rain forest. Don't get me wrong, it was TONS of fun, but I was a little more than nervous when I saw this. I did find a couple videos of other people doing it online. HERE is a video of some people going on the zip line. It's not the best video, but you will get the idea. 🙂 It was definitely a new experience!
Later we went into town with Jean because we were told there was a fish market there. I was picturing what you see on tv, with people throwing fish around, so I wanted to take a look. Turns out it was really just a fish store…or more a fish freezer. It did feel nice in there from the hot, humid air, but it didn't smell very good. We walked around and I think Chuck was asked if he wanted to buy some drugs and when he said no, the guy thought it was just because I was with him and wouldn't approve. It was a bit strange.
Paige and Brian went on a Pirates of the Caribbean excursion and got to go on one of the ships they used in the movie. I guess it was just one of the smaller ones they used, though and not the main one. There are a lot of pictures of it in the gallery. It looked really cool even it wasn't the main ship!
We went on a group excursion in Barbados. It was lots of fun to do something with everyone….all 15 of us. We went on a tiami sailboat and went snorkeling with turtles. It was so cool. They were just swimming around for you to touch them! I didn't get many pictures, but I think some other people did. I will have all their pictures at the end as soon as they get them added.
The crew of the sailboat were very amusing. The Captain wanted people to try to guess who sang his favorite song and if we guess it, we got a free t-shirt. So he plays THIS SONG…. Of course, no one guesses the artist and gets a free t-shirt. So he plays it probably 5 more times during the course of the excursion. It starts to grow on you after you hear it 5 times or so. So much so, that we were sitting at dinner and someone would start singing….”blahblahblahblah” just like in the song. It's a horrible song, but I promise it will be stuck in your head. 🙂
After our excursion…and lunch…Chuck, Jean, Paige, Chuck and I went to wander around town. There wasn't a whole lot to see. So we found a cab driver to give us a tour. It was a good tour overall. There were a couple delays along the way. First to pick up his daughter from school and bring her somewhere. Then he stopped somewhere and was gone for 5-10 minutes with us just sitting in the car. But he came back and it was a good tour. He told us they had green monkeys there. Of course I wanted to see one. So he took me to a monkey. It happened to be someone's pet, but it was still a monkey. I was the only one that let it sit on my arm….I probably have some monkey parasite now, but it was fun. I took off my earrings and sunglasses because Tiko (the monkey) likes them. So he sits on my arm….good. Starts to reach for and play with my small earrings….not so good. Then starts pulling on my hair….Enough of that. 🙂 He was cute, though. Chuck's dad gave him a dollar and he yanked it out of his hand and the owner quickly came to retrieve it because Tiko apparently likes to rip them into little pieces instead of putting them in the “TIPS” box like he is supposed to. 🙂
At night, there was an extravagant display of food. It was so amazing, they give you an hour before the buffet opens just to take pictures. HERE is the gallery with the pictures of the display.
Chuck and Brian entered a Dodgeball Tournament while we were on our day at sea. Their team won and they got medals. It was fun. Paige and I took a towel folding class (I have been making them for meals, and showing them to everyone I know) and an art class which was really just a coloring class. I gave my picture to Emmanuel, the room attendant. Later we went to an ice sculpting demonstration and then relaxed the rest of the day.
HERE is the gallery of all the towel animals we got. I even learned how to make a sea turtle. (I have yet to be able to make it well at home.)
Before we went to the airport, we went on a tour of San Juan and saw the city. I took a ton of pictures. We got into San Juan too late the first day to do this, so we did it on the way out. It looked a lot like Florida to me. 🙂
We had a great time and I can't wait to see if we go on another one. Or something like it next year. My fingers are crossed and Chuck's dad was talking about it before we even got off the ship this year!