carribean cruising...

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary on a 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise!!! AmAzInG!!! We had the time of our life...We left out of Ft.Lauderdale, Florida and from the first step onto the ship until 7 days later, it was like living a dream...leaving us planning for the next time we can go cruising again........

This ship was amazing! 10 swimming pools, 6 restaurants with endless food, non stop entertainmant and so many people who are just there to have fun. This is one of the pools that at night they put covers on the lounge chairs and there is a huge screen that we watched movies under the stars. So amazing!!
Don't forget Safety Training Drill. Imagine thousands of people walking around in these orange life jackets with whistles attached to them.
Our First Stop was to Princess Cays in the Bahamas. It is Princess Cruise Line's own private Island. When we got off the ship they were carving pictures in watermelons. This was a pretty laid back island where you could do all sorts of water activities, shop in the little stands that the locals had set up and just have a relaxing day.
Fun Beach with a beautiful view of the ship
Ben and Kristy
Everyday on the ship they had a BINGO tournament and the Jackpot got bigger each day that it was not won. We thought we would give it our best shot!
Our next stop was to Ocho Rios, Jamaica... This was a beautiful island that we spent a few hours on. Due to some island unrest on the other side of the island we were advised on the ship to be very careful and not go anywhere alone while we were there. We had first planned on just exploring here but after some thought we decided that we would do a excursion with a group of people. We took a tour bus to Dunn River Falls. They are cascading waterfalls made out of rocks so steep in some places that you had to make a human chain to climb up them. We were told not to take our camera or it would be ruined by the water so we didn't end up with any pictures of the Falls.

Troy and Melanie. Our new friends from Texas! We met them the first day at Sea on the ship. He is a paramedic in Louisiana and needless to say I think Ben and him are two peas in a pod. They were hillarious together. Melanie is going to nursing school in Texas.We spent the majority of our time with them because we had so much fun together. We hope someday very soon to make that drive to Texas to spend a few days with them~! One of our FaVoRiTe stops was Grand Cayman. Famous for their Pirates! We found a tour that would take us on a tour of the island and decided that we would go for it. It ended up being a way fun way to go. We stopped At 7 mile beach and watched a man crack coconuts, The Tortuga Rum Cake factory and had a taste of the famous Rum Cake, The Dolphin and Turtle Encounter, and of course made a stop to Hell... there is a city by that name and we mailed a postcard back to our house from there! Ben and Troy talked the bus driver to stop at the Cayman Island Fire Department to see their truck.

Out of the four islands that we stopped at, three of them had a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. We made sure to visit all three. They were all different. This one in Grand Cayman had a waterslide at the restaurant. Sooo much fun!
Grand Cayman Fire Department
Our last stop was to Cozumel,Mexico...this was a super fun place with great souvenier shopping and we did one of our favorite shore excursions. We went to Dolphin Discovery and swam with the Dolphins! My entire life I have wanted to do this and it was all I ever dreamed of. They would not let anyone bring cameras in because that way they can get $20 a picture of you kissing, riding, dancing with a Dolphin! We fell for it and managed to pick up the DVD of the experience as well. It was worth every penny!
Cozumel,Mexico

Our Ship the Emerald Princess... till next time!