We took a cruise this Summer with some of our great friends, the Sondrups and Lewis'. We had this trip in the planning stages for eight months or more, so it was crazy when the day finally came. We flew out of Salt Lake so we could leave our kids with family, and took a very long flight to Florida. It didn't help that our plane was delayed a few hours on our lay over in Detroit. We had full days of traveling both to and from Florida. When we all arrived we stayed in a hotel close by the port, then went to dinner to a really yummy italian restaurant which we could just walk to. We passed this go cart place on our way to dinner and figured why not try it out.
Micah and I were not in the fastest go cart because we were going as fast as we could and everyone did laps around us, but it was so much fun. I absolutely love some of the first few pictures we took on our trip because we all look so excited and happy.
The next morning we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then took a shuttle ride over to the port to board the ship. When on the ship, the first place we checked out was the dinning room. You can see it in the background of the picture below. It was so beautiful. It was open in the middle so they could play live music, and then had three floors on all sides. Actually, it reminded me of the Titanic movie (which wasn't good when your spending a week at sea on this boat) because it had a huge, beautiful staircase connecting the floors. I think one of our favorite parts of the cruise was eating in the dining room each evening. Getting dressed up and ordering anything you wanted from the menu with wonderful service was so much fun.
This was our ship "Freedom of the Seas."
We toured most of the boat while we waited to get our rooms. This was the shopping area of the boat. It contained other restaurants to eat at whenever you wanted, an ice cream shop, and different shops to browse through.
I just love these ladies!
Our first port was CoCoCay in the Bahamas. We didn't plan any excursions that day which was great because I literally sat in one of these blue chairs most of the day. Luckily, we brought our snorkel gear because we were able to practice a little bit here at the beach. It definitely takes me some getting used to to breath right and be able to enjoy snorkeling. That way it prepared me for our other excursions. Other than the garbage can in the picture, isn't it BEAUTIFUL?
We had a wonderful room attendant. It was always fun to see what towel creature was waiting for us each night.
Most of the animals were cute, but this monkey was just creepy looking. Scary!
One of our days at sea our men signed up for a dodge ball tournament. Their team won bronze metals which was very impressive. It was fun to watch all the teams play.
Way to go guys!
Our second stop was St. Thomas in the virgin islands. When we got off the boat we then took a crazy and winding shuttle ride to this beautiful secluded beach. We there took our first excursion on wave runners for some amazing snorkeling and beautiful scenery.
Before we went out we decided to stop for a bite to eat. There wasn't much to choose from so we ended up eating here. I don't even remember the name of this place, but it was scary. I thought for sure we were going to all end up with the stomach flu for the rest of the trip. The owner gave us a menu, but as he was taking our orders it seemed that they were out of everything. The special for the day was Jerk Chicken, and that's about all they had. So we all had chicken. He did let one of us order a hamburger but he went down the beach to another shack to get it for him. Interesting. The chicken was actually delicious and no one got sick.
This is another picuture of this beautiful beach. Oh, how I wish I could go back there right now. I didn't snorkel on this beach, but Micah did and he said it was amazing.
We
then went out on a crazy wave runner ride on the ocean. Of course the wind was blowing so the water was choppy. The men thought it was the best and us ladies hung on for dear life. It was so much fun. We stopped and snorkeled a few spots and they gave us dog treats to feed the fish. The fish were literally coming right up to you to eat. AMAZING!
Our last port was St. Martin or St. Maarten depending on which side of the island you lived on. Half was French and half Dutch. I do recall people saying that French women do not wear bikini tops. I didn't ever image seeing that first hand but we unfortunately did. I did learn that you do want to stay away from beaches with yellow umbrellas. Just take my advice on that one.
I think we all agreed that our excursion in St. Martin was our favorite. We went with this excursion because it was highly rated on line, and they did not disappoint. We hopped on a smaller boat and did a few more areas of snorkeling, then went to this beach for a mud bath. The picture isn't great because it was taken with our water camera, but we are all lathered up with mud. You cake the mud on, bake in the sun for ten minutes and then wash it off. It was suppose to make you look ten years younger, but unfortunately I looked the same when I washed it off. Darn. One of the stops on this excursion we were able to swim with sea turtles. It was my favorite part. I only saw one, but as he swam by me it was like I was swimming with Crush from "Finding Nemo." So amazing!
On the boat Micah did rock climbing, and they also had a flow rider which was a big surfing machine. The lines were always long for that or I think he would have done it more, but it looked fun.
We had many late nights on the boat playing all sorts of card games, karaoke, amazing shows (the magic show was my favorite), watched movies, and did miniature golf right on the boat. We even had a ski ball contest in the arcade.
It was an amazing week, and I loved being with Cole, Kristi, Lindsay and Kyle. On our flight home we did have a big lay over in Ohio. Micah and Cole played battleship on their phones, and I was able to study up a little bit for my devotionals at girls camp. I was off to girls camp the day after we got back. We flew into Utah at 9pm Sunday night, and then they dropped me off in Beaver to meet up with our Young Women at 10am the next morning. It was so hard to leave my kids again, but you do what you have to do I suppose.
This trip was so wonderful, and I hope that we can do it again someday. But, the next cruise I have promised to bring my kids along. I'm excited to do that with them someday. I think they will love it.
