I know that Andy has a huge great big blogfest on our Cruise -- he just has to type it all out! I took a fab picture of him writing furiously in his little comp book (manual "blog") -- so I'll leave my filling-in comments after he's posted that... it may take him several days -- he wrote a ton!!
Brief Summary --
The Itinerary:
Sat. 30th Sept -- we flew from Columbus to Cincinnati to Miami. Boarded boat, had horrendous evacuation exercise in very uncomfortable life jackets.
Sun. 1st Oct -- day at sea -- Kristen wins trivia contest and then gets gagged (see Andy's blog for more details -- he enjoyed that part wayyy too much) during the gameshow game -- formal night for dinner, got dressed up and had many many pictures taken
Mon. 2nd Oct -- in port at Cozumel -- rough 45 minute ferry trip over to mainland Mexico for our excursion at Xcatel (WONDERFUL PLACE) -- loved it -- another rough trip back to the ship, quick race across the ship to get to the boats that took us to the island of Cozumel -- did some shopping
Tues. 3rd Oct. -- day at sea -- Kristen gets a manicure first thing in the morning -- nice and relaxing -- Fish & Chips for lunch with some Minnesotans and North Dakotans -- played Name that Tune (Kristen comes in 2nd place!) -- play Battle of the Sexes (hilarious!) and then watch Newlyweds Not So Newlyweds (nearly wet our selves laughing!!!) -- dinner and then went to Illusionists show which was enjoyable but we've seen too many "Magicians Secrets Exposed" kinds of shows to truly believe in the magic -- late late late in the night the tummyaches begin (got some kind of viral bug)
Weds. 4th Oct. -- in port at Grand Cayman Islands -- Kristen is too sick to go anywhere -- Andy goes to Stingray City and snorkeling on his own and has a blast -- Kristen orders iced tea and pretzels for room service
Thurs. 5th Oct. -- in port at Ocho Rios, Jamaica mon -- Andy goes on the booked excursion to climb Dunns Falls and on a bus tour of Ferngully and then goes tubing... floating down the White River -- Kristen is well enough to go into town to do some shopping, gets accosted by every single resident of Jamaica asking if she wants a taxi, her hair braided, or a tour of the shops; decides that Jamaica's catchphrase shouldn't be "No Problem, mon" it should be "No THANK you, mon!" -- has a virgin strawberry daquiri at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville -- back to the ship -- formal night again for dinner -- waiters sing and dance!!
Fri. 6th Oct. -- at sea -- just relaxing around the ship -- play Name that Tune again -- Kristen wins this time! (gets a goody bag with fun items in!) -- pick out the photos we want to get copies of ($$$) -- relax at the piano bar with James the piano player, doing Sing A Longs -- watch the "Legends" show (karaoke) put on by guests and the Carnival dancers (actually really enjoyable -- funny skits in between some of the acts involving crew members) -- at 11:30pm realize we have to get our luggage packed and outside our door by midnight... frantically pack and put them out at 12:30am, fortunately they have not gone around for the final time yet and they take our luggage
Sat. 7th Oct. -- arrive back to Miami about 7am -- beautiful sunrise -- eat breakfast and pick up photos that we ordered, only to realize they have gotten the order wrong -- get our bill for the room and realize there is a charge on there that we didn't do -- Kristen goes to sort out the photos issue and Andy goes to sort out the bill -- Kristen gets back 1/2 hour later, Andy gets back 2 2/1 hours later!!! -- wait in the room until our color tags are called -- then the cattle moving process begins -- lots of waiting in queues and sweating (HOT in Miami!), then sitting on a bus waiting, then sitting at the airport waiting, then sitting in a different bus waiting (crammed in like sardines!!), then fly back to Columbus directly -- Dad meets us at the airport and we got back to Mom & Dad's house for subs dinner
Overall it was a fantastic trip that I would do again in a heartbeat -- our room was very private and was huge (it was different than a regular room because it was handicap accessible). I loved that we had a balcony! It was great watching the ocean and being able to go stand out on the balcony and take in the fresh air. The downsides were the fact that we caught that viral bug (which we still are not quite over -- went to the doc yesterday & she said just wait it out), so I missed out on Grand Cayman Islands entirely (I was sooo sick) and didn't get to see Dunns Falls or go to the Botanical Gardens and see the butterflies and orchids... I want to go back to Xcatel someday -- and spend at least a day there -- there were so many parts of the park that we didn't get to see!!
Back to work yesterday -- the ground still feels like it is moving!! I'm sure I must look like a drunken sailor wobbling around the store...