CRUISING or That Time I Bought a Bottle of Lotion for $40

ALL the way back in March my mom, my two sisters and I went on a cruise together to the Caribbean. It was so fabulously relaxing and exactly what we all needed! My mom had never been on a cruise before and I think this was a great introduction to cruising. It is definitely a vacation style that is like nothing else and you can always tell the career cruisers on the boat. I can't say I'd want to do a cruise for every vacation but for the price you really can't go wrong!

 

We all flew into Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and spent the night there so we could board the ship the next day. We were sailing on the Norwegian Pearl! Our room was larger than the last one I had stayed in and had a balcony. That balcony was HEAVEN! It seriously made SUCH a huge difference in the comfort of the room.

 

FIRST STOP
Our first island was Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. This was one of the islands Tyler and I had been to on our cruise, too. It's the cruise line's private island. It was nice and warm but the waves were a LOT bigger than when Tyler and I had gone. They were so rough that they weren't even letting people snorkel, mostly because you couldn't see much anyway. We just relaxed on the beach and enjoyed the warm water.

 

 

 

SECOND STOP
Our second stop was Jamaica. None of us had ever been here before and Danielle was SUPER excited about going!! She was and is a huge Bob Marley fan and I was slightly worried we would have to force her back on the boat! Sailing into the port of Jamaica was gorgeous. The lush hills are so different from the flat rocky terrain of the Bahamas. We did horseback riding on the beach this day. On our drive to the horse place we passed through a part of Ocho Rios. The poverty hit me hard. We were stopped on a narrow dirt road, cars all around, people all around, and although we were in a completely enclosed van, I was getting uncomfortable. Once we got to the horse riding place we waited for FOREVER to actually go for a ride. SERIOUSLY -- Island Time is for really, yo. Jamaicans completely commit themselves to Island Time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ride was beautiful and when we went into the water we switched horses and went in bareback except for a pad between us and the horse. The horses went so far in that they were swimming at some parts. It was slightly scary but exhilarating at the same time! Mattie had a BLAST and decided she wants horseback riding lessons when she got home.

THIRD STOP

 

I think we had a day at sea and arrived at our third island -- Grand Cayman. This was one of the most beautiful islands I have ever seen. The water was like nothing else. It always amazes me how different the water around each island looks. This water was so deep blue -- cerulean or something like that. We had a quick tour of Georgetown and a visit to Hell where we met the devil. Um... Hell was lame. Like, REALLY lame. It was a teeny tiny little tourist trap with a bunch of dried out coral in the back. The coolest thing would have been to bring our passports so we could have had them stamped from Hell but none of us wanted to bring them out of the safe on the boat! We also stopped at a rum cake store. Not a fan of rum cake. But I did try a meat hand pie thing that was awesome! AND it didn't make me sick!!

 

 

 

We FINALLY got to our excursion for the day which was taking a boat out to Stingray City to pet and feed and swim with stingrays. My mom was REALLY excited about this one! My excitement slowly drained as we got closer to the spot where we'd have to get in the water. After a bumpy, slightly rainy ride out to the sandbar they docked the boat next to about 10 other boats and told us all to jump in. Usually the water on the sandbar is only about waist to chest level but the day we were there it was really choppy and above our heads in most places. That's when I started to panic! I tried to stay in the center of any group of people I could find because the stingrays were fast and quiet and they would swim up and touch your leg without you even seeing them even though they were HUGE. I did NOT want to get touched. AT ALL. Eventually I was just done with the whole thing when one actually got a fin on me and I hightailed it back into the boat. My mom and Mattie and Danielle got to feed and hold one, though! They seemed to think it was cool. I was happy to stand on the edge of the boat and take pictures!

 

FOURTH STOP

 

Our fourth island was Cozumel, Mexico. Another place where the water was just amazingly blue! My most favorite part of the trip happened here -- we got to swim with dolphins! Well, we actually didn't do much swimming but we did get to pet and hold and kiss them. It was REALLY cool. The place we went to, Dolphinaris, was gorgeous and clean and did not feel at all like we were in Mexico -- if you know what I mean. We all stood on a wide ledge in a pool that was about waist to chest deep while the dolphins swam by us and let us pet and touch and hold them. It was really really cool!!

 

We also had some time to do some shopping after our excursion. There were lots of shops right on the dock so we stuck to those. We stopped to get Mattie's hair braided by a lady who was only charging $2/braid. I gave her $4 and she just about cried with joy. We got lots of souvenirs for everyone here since everything is so cheap! We even had some Starbucks!

 

Unfortunately on one of the daysI ended up with a crazy sunburn, probably sun poisoning. It wasn't even a burn, it was just intense itching! I went to the spa on board and asked if they had anything that could help with a sunburn because aloe was NOT cutting it. The sure did and the lady slathered it on and it was instant relief! She told me the bottle was $20 and it was a good sized one so I told her I'd take it so that I could actually get some sleep! When she rang it up it was actually closer to $40 and I just about had a heart attack! Needless to say I will use every single last drop of that lotion!!

 

My mom and I also decided to take advantage of the spa on board, too. We got to use the therapeutic pools and hot tubs in the Spa. It was AWESOME. I'm still missing it. I'm also missing Juan, our room steward. It was hard to come home and not have someone pick my towels up off the floor for me.

 

 

 

I'm SO glad we took this trip together! We had never done something like this, just the girls, and I'm hoping it becomes a tradition! Where should our next trip be??

My Instagram Shots from the Cruise! These have a few more details photographed. I didn't take my fancy camera -- too much to worry about. I mostly had are less than stellar point and shoot and my iPhone.