Jamaica

On the cruise one of our ports was Jamaica.  When we pulled up it was so pretty!  It was super green. We got up and ate breakfast and then we got ready and headed out.  We had an excursion early that morning to the Dunn Falls.  We took a bus ride, about an hour, to the Falls.  On the ride the gal told us all about the history of Jamaica and some words and fun facts.  When we got to the falls they put us in teams and gave us a guide.  We walked down to the bottom of the falls and then you have to hold hands and walk up the falls.  They were going very very slow.  I had a water proof case on my phone.  We were taking a picture of ourselves when this Jamaican guy came up and grabbed my phone from me and took one and then grabbed my hand and told me to follow him.  I looked at Jake like what the heck do we do, and Jake was so excited about it.  He brought us a different route then what everyone else was going.  When we would come to a line of people the man would make a siren noise that would scare the crap out of the people and then cut through them.  We would stop and take pictures, he probably took 40+ pictures of us and we got to wade through more of the water then walk on the rock.  It was so much fun!!!  Of course when we got to the top he wanted a tip, so we gave him $20 and he gave me my phone back.  He knew just what he was doing.  It was way fun!  After the Falls we stopped by a little restaurant where you could buy food and then we headed back.  It was a TON of fun!!

 The guy leading us told me to lean backwards and fall into a deep spot.  I was hesitant, but plugged my nose and went for it.

 Jake went all out and jumped backwards.

 My mascara was waterproof, but apparently it wasn't because every picture i have black eyes :)

 

 Jake was climbing up to take my picture and he fell into a hole and made a huge splash it was so hilarious.

part 2 of our trip.

Our 2nd day on the ship was an at Sea Day.  So the night before we had stayed up really late and then slept in to take advantage of it.  There is always something going on.  There are lounges everywhere with piano, or jazz or just singing.  So you can just chill or dance or whatever.  We ate Breakfast, then just hung around, I think this day we went to BINGO and then just relaxed ate lunch .

 When we came back to our room we had an ape hanging from our curtains, I love that they do animals.  I mentioned to our stateroom attendant how much I loved it and that I always look forward to see what it will be.  He advised that on this ship they only do it every other night to cut down on washing towels.  To save the waves!

 The next day we arrived to Labadee Haiti.  This is property that Royal Caribbean owns.  It was so much fun.  As we pulled in all the workers in Haiti were on wave runners going around the ship waving flags and welcoming us.  We went ate some breakfast and then headed onto the island.  We had booked a zip line excursion, so we found some beach chairs and claimed those and then we signed in for our excursion.  It was really fun.  They talk to you forever about it, but once you finally get up there, the zip line is 500 feet high and 2600 feet long.  You go over the ocean and land on the beach.  Once off the zipline we played in the ocean.  They also brought out a buffet lunch for us to eat on the island.  It was hotdogs, hamburgers, salad, fruit and stuff like that.  After plaint in the water we shopped around to get something for the kids and then went back on the ship and got ready for dinner.

We had 6pm dinner. We had table 340 each night and we were so happy that it was a table for two, because I and especially Jake, do not like small talk.  Our servers name was Mary, she was from over seas somewhere and had been doing cruise work for 9.5 years.  They work on the ships for 7 months and then get 2 months off.  She didn't have any kids because she said she didn't have time for that right now.  It is sad how poor 3rd world countries are.  These husbands and women work 7 months without seeing there families to earn good money to provide for them and then get to see them for 2 months before they are off again.

 This is our ship.  It is currently the biggest ship out on the sea.

 Here is the pizza shop on the ship, I think this is where I gained my 3 pounds.  And had we not taken the stairs instead of the elevator 95% of the time I would have probably gained 10 pounds.

Caribbean Cruise Day 1 and Day 2

Jake and I really wanted to go on a vacation just the two of us.  So last February we searched and searched and searched for the perfect cruise.  I found a ship that I fell in love with and we found ports that we had never been to on our previous cruises.  It was the following February, so we would have 1 year to pay for it.

That was a long year.  The anticipation killed me as it got closer and closer.

It was finally here!!  On Friday night Jake had a dinner for work.  So we packed up the kids and met my parents and sent them on there way and then we went to the dinner.  We got home and cleaned the house and got everything ready for our trip.

Neither of us could sleep we were so excited, but we finally fell asleep and woke and got ready.  My mom came and picked us up early Saturday and took us to the airport.  We wanted the cheapest airfare we could find, so we ended up having to fly from SLC to DEN and the DEN to TX and then TX to FLL, that was a long day in the airports.  We finally arrived in Florida, grabbed a taxi and made it to our hotel.  It was a nasty hotel, it was nothing like the pictures on the internet.  Thankfully we got there at 10pm and left at 11am.

Sunday morning we woke up, at some breakfast at the hotel and then waited for the shuttle to bring us to the ship.

The traffic getting to the ship was horrible, the freeways were all under construction so they were going random ways and then there was a huge line of cars waiting to get into the cruise port.

We finally got there.  We dropped off our luggage, went through security, got signed in and they said go ahead and board the ship!!  The ship was HUGE.  It had 17 floors (I guess technically 16, because there isn't a level 13).  We were on level 8 which was also Central Park. We had an ocean balcony towards the back of the ship.  So the highlights of the ship were:
LEVEL 3 was where our dining room was for dinner
LEVEL 4 was where the Amber Theatre was located for the nighttime shows.
LEVEL 5 was boardwalk.  They had a pizza shop, Cafe Promenade, Karaoke Bar, and the jogging track outside and the spa.
LEVEL 6 had a carousel, donut shop, hot dog shop, the aqua theatre, rock climbing wall and more
LEVEL 8 was central park , some eating places and our room
LEVEL 15 was the hot dog/hamburger/fries and ice cream cone eating area, it also had an arcade, basketball court, ping pong tables, flow rider and pools and hot tubs.
LEVEL 16 had the main eating area on it
LEVEL 17 was just a walk around with a few hot tubs.

So we checked out the ship and unpacked our stuff.  We already missed our kids so we face timed and showed them the ship and our room and the ocean and then we watched the ship pull away and then went to dinner.  That night was our first show.  It was the Broadway Chicago.  I had no idea what the play was about, it was really good.  The singers and actor/actress' were amazing.  We loved it and had an awesome time.  After the show we hung out listening to music and people watching (there are a lot of drunks) and then headed to bed at 2am.