We decided that since we would be in Florida this year, we would go on a Caribbean Cruise. I took tons of pictures and ended up with almost 80 on this posting. So, just to warn you--if you don't have time to go through all of them, just know that I put them in as memories for our journal, which is this blog, when I re-format it and print it.
We have cruised on the Carnival line before, and found this ship very nice. It held about 3,000 passengers and around 2,000 crew members. Our friends from Boring OR, Larry and Elaine, went with us.
These are the high-rise buildings in Miami as we are leaving the port.
We looked down and saw this ferry boat carrying vehicles--some with people in them and some with the people standing on deck. We thought it a little strange until . . .
. . . we saw Fisher Island with its beautiful buildings and grounds. The only way to get to it is by boat.
The harbor we were going out of went by the famous Miami Beach. You can tell the weather was beautiful by the number of people on the beach.
It didn't take Terry and Larry long to find one of their favorite spots on the ship!
Another favorite spot--our little stateroom. It was on Deck 1--the bottom of the ship. We climbed a lot of stairs during those 7 days!
This is the middle of the ship, looking down on several decks at a time.
The Lido deck had three swimming pools, plus a kiddie pool, a big water slide (I wanted to slide down it, but there was always too long of a line of kids waiting to go down and I didn't think they would let me cut in front of them), and a really fun outdoor movie screen. Several nights we went up there after the entertainment and had ice cream, hot chocolate, and popcorn while we watched the movie.
If you have ever gone on a cruise, you know that eating is one of the main activities. This was dress-up night for dinner.
Elaine and Larry looked very nice!
Food was great, as always. And, on this special night we had lobster tail!
One night we had an especially crazy waiter. The cook walked by and the waiter grabbed his hat and put it on Terry.
Then, he took napkins and made a funny hat for Terry. He also made something strange that he told Terry to use his imagination to figure out.
So, Terry decided it would work good as a bib for Larry, along with the crazy hat the waiter made for him. I think Terry and Larry encouraged this waiter by messing up their silverware so that every time he came by our table, he had to straighten it for them!
Most nights, the waiters entertained us by singing and sometimes even dancing on the tables!
Each night as we went back to our rooms, we had a new little friend waiting for us.
I really liked the little frog. Our steward was very talented. He also had a very good memory. Whenever he saw us in the hall (almost daily) he would shake our hands and call us "Mr. Terry and Miss Suzanne."
One night we walked in and didn't see an animal sitting on our bed, but soon noticed hm just "hanging around."
Elaine and I went to a class on making towel animals. It was lots of fun. I thought my little dog looked kind of good with my glasses on him.
This is the very large theater where they had great shows every night.
Elaine and I even got to perform on it--we attended a line dancing class. The audience really cheered for us (even though most of the audience was made up of our husbands.)
We would get lost coming and going from our room, at least once a day. One time we got lost and ended up in the part of the ship where the captain and crew lived. We almost knocked on the captain's door, but decided we better not!
One day they had an ice carving demonstration. He started with this big block of ice . . .
. . . and ended up with a head of an Indian Chief.
We are so glad that Larry and Elaine came with us. It was kind of a birthday celebration for Larry, although his birthday was a few days before the cruise. We had to surprise him with a birthday cake one day we were at sea all day.
We enjoyed relaxing one afternoon in these nice, padded lounges. It is a good thing that we were off in a corner because there was some really loud, gross sounds coming out of Terry while he "just rested his eyes."
Elaine and Larry had one next to us.
As we walked down the hall and saw all of these official looking men, we wondered who was driving the boat!
We found some fun things to bring home to the grandkids. Our granddaughters' hands will look much nicer than Grandma's old hands, with their new "peek-a-boo" polish that goes on clear and then turns bright pink in the sunshine.
Hopefully, we got the right sizes of "Jamaica" and "Grand Cayman" t-shirts for the boys.
Cozumel was the first port we stopped at. It is an Island that belongs to Mexico. It is really pretty, and very flat. After the ship docked we had quite a little ways to walk to shore, although it looks a long way in this picture.
Here is Larry, Terry, and me leaving the boat for Cozumel, leaving behind our ship and another Carnival ship that docked with us.
Larry, Elaine, and Terry are waiting for our tour to start.
On our excursion in Cozumel, we went on a jeep caravan. After we took the top down, Terry and Larry got in the front, with Terry driving . . .
. . . and Elaine and I got in back. Here we go on a tour around Cozumel Island in our Jeep Wrangler!
Our tour guide was great. He got a kick out of telling us that our first stop would be at the Pee Pee Station.
There was a model of a traditional kitchen area where a lady made us corn tortillas that were cooked on hot rocks and covered with a homemade salsa sauce. She was wearing a traditional hand-made dress.
We learned all about tequila and had a chance to taste several flavors of it. Terry and I didn't taste any, but smelled all of the different flavors. Elaine is here making a toast before she takes a sample. We learned a lot about tequila. True tequila is made from the blue agave plant and has no added sugar, alcohol, or anything else. Because of that, we were told that you will not have a hangover after drinking it. We were shown how to tell the true tequila by shaking the bottle. If there are no bubbles, it is true Mexican tequila. (When we got back to the ship, we went into the shops and shook all of the tequila bottles--they all had bubbles!)
We went to a local Tequila Hacienda where they had all flavors of tequila in really pretty hand-blown bottles. I really liked the small bottles, so I bought one. I will use the bottle to put some agave nectar in. It is a sugar substitute also made from the agave plant is very good for you.
Larry and Elaine had a drink in some hand-made mugs. I dumped my bottle of tequila in Larry's (it is a good thing Terry was driving the Jeep) and he was feeling pretty good!
There were a couple of iguanas running around the field where the agave were growing.
There were also coconut trees with coconuts almost ready to harvest.
Our next stop was at a beautiful beach. We waded in the water for a while.
At an outside bar they had these cool hammock swings. I have always kind of wanted one and now that I sat in one, I definitely need one for our patio in Emmett!
I talked Terry into posing for a picture with this big iguana and the parrot. The man who had them would charge us $10 for taking and printing the picture, or $5 if we took pictures with our own camera. So, I took the $5 pictures--just for the grandkids. I couldn't hold the iguana--I was afraid if he moved I would squeal and drop him!
Grand Cayman
There are three islands that make up the Cayman Islands. We went to the largest one--Grand Cayman. It was also a very flat island, but very pretty. The water was beautiful, just like the water at Cozumel.
The ship anchored out in the Gulf of Mexico and we tendered into Grand Cayman.
I don't know if you noticed, but there are more pictures of me in this posting than usual. Well, I lost the first several days of pictures from my camera (I later took them to a photo shop in Florida and retrieved them) so Elaine let me copy all of her pictures. I have used some of hers in this posting. Thanks so much, Elaine!
I seemed to have found a new friend!
The local people had set up a "flea market" where the tender boats let off the tourists. Elaine and I both got a cute swimming suit cover-up dress.
We again had a great tour guide for this excursion. Our tour began in the Capital of Grand Cayman, George Town, with lots of historic buildings. Then we went out into the countryside to Pedro St. James Castle. It is where their first government met and where their constitution was made.
It was filled with the original mahogany furniture. Even the floor was made of mahogany. It was beautiful.
The government officials met around this table.
This is the way beds were made--metal frames with ropes to lay the mattresses on.
Their kitchen was in this little hut and was where they cooked the food in an effort to keep the house cooler.
Our next stop was the Tortuga Rum store where we got to sample rum cake and also severl kinds of rum. Larry and Elaine said the rum didn't taste that good!
Behind the rum store, there were some animals in some cages. This large iguana was there. He would be pretty scary to meet up with in the wild!
Our next stop was the town of Hell. It is a very popular tourist place.
And, yes, we did send some postcards to family that were postmarked from "Hell." That seems to be the thing to do!
The town is named what it is because of these coral-like rocks that were deposited on the land by the water. They are very sharp, although our tour guide said that as a child he would run around on them barefooted!
I thought this was kind of a cute sign.
When we got there, our tour guide assured us that he would be able to get us out of Hell--to not worry. It was so funny when we went back out to get in the little bus, it had a flat tire! He went next door and bought some "canned" air and we made it to the service station to finish putting air in. But at our next stop, Seven Mile Beach, it went flat and he had to go get a new bus! He said that in seven years that this had never happened to him before.
Seven Mile Beach was very pretty, but it is a public beach and was very crowded. We got some drinks and ice cream and waded in the water..
Elaine decided to get the top of her hair braided. It was fun watching her, but I think it would have given me a headache. It was quite tight, but it looked really cute on her. She kept the braids in the rest of the cruise. There was a man on our ship that got his beard braided!
I, Terry, and Larry are taking a little rest before the bus comes to take us back to the ship.
Ocho Rios, Jamaica
There are a lot of mountains and rain forests in Jamaica. All of the people who worked for the tourist companies had very neat, colorful uniforms on. Most of the women's uniforms were skirts and blouses. They all looked very professional.
Our first stop was to an 18th century estate called Prospect Plantation. We drove to a little refreshment area where we got a complimentary fruit drink (and other drinks if we purchased them.)
Then we got on an open air carriage, pulled by a tractor. Even the driver of the old Ford tractor had on a nice uniform and dress shoes!
The plants and trees were beautiful.
Sugar cane is a big product in Jamaica. This is a machine they used years ago to process the cane.
We stopped at a fruit stand and a man climbed a coconut tree--in his bare feet! He climbed it after a gal in our group tried to climb it (when she was "volunteered" by the tour guide.)
They told us about all of the different kinds of fruit grown on the plantation. These are "baby" bananas.
The plantation home was beautiful inside and the gardens around it were amazing. A Jamaican woman in local costume gave us the tour of it.
Also on the plantation grounds they had some ostriches (we had our picture taken with the ostrich egg) . . .
. . . and some camels Terry and I didn't even get off the wagon to see the camels. No one in our group were interested in riding one, but Elaine did get a picture with one. It seemed a little strange to have camels in Jamaica. Even the tour guide thought so. But, anything for the tourists, I guess!
Our last stop was Dolphin Cove. It is where they take tours to in order to swim with the dolphins and the stingrays. We were there to each lunch and play on the beach. They fed us a really good lunch of hamburgers and hotdogs (all Jamaican, of course), salads and yummy fruit.
Their sinks at the restrooms were outside and very pretty.
There was also a nature trail. One display was this replica of the homemade bobsleds they used in the movie "Cool Runnings" and there was a write-up about the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team.
There was also a bird aviary. They put food on our hands and these pretty little birds would land on on us to eat. I asked if these were native birds and they said, "No. They are brought in from another country." Another touristy thing!
They even liked Terry!
I had a couple on my head but they are hard to see in this picture.
We had fun at the beach. It was pretty rocky, but there was an area that had sand and we enjoyed swimming in the warm water. Terry said to not take a picture of him in his swimming suit, but I did anyway!
This is as close as you will get to seeing me in my swimming suit--as long as I have the camera in my hand, or have the ability to edit this blog!
We had a great cruise. Thanks to Larry and Elaine for coming with us and for putting up with the excursions we choose. The tours were nice, but sometimes not too exciting. If you have gotten to the end of this posting, thanks for hanging in there with the length of it. "Ya, Mon!"
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