Caribbean Cruise-Celebrating 10 Years

This past week Karl and I left the kids at Grandma & Grandpa's house and went on a cruise to the Caribbean to celebrate our upcoming 10 year anniversary. It was SO much fun.

Leaving Ft. Lauderdale Florida-Sunday

The next morning Karl and I got a  bit of a workout in at the gym and walked the track. Below we are standing in the royal promenade, or in other words there shopping district on the boat.

 Since Monday was a sailing day we decided to try out the extra curricular activities on the boat.  Karl took a try at surfing and I tried a bit of boogie boarding.

 

Here is me Boogie Boarding

Karl Surfing

Afterwords Karl entered a Table Tennis match and ended up winning the Bronze Medal

My Handsome Medalist

Wouldn't be a Royal Caribbean medalist without the official medal biting picture.

 That night we had our first formal dinner night.

This is how I found Karl when I was finished getting ready.

The dinning room where we ate.

 Throughout the trip we would come back to our room and find these fun towel figurines.

Elephant

This apparently was suppose to be a dolphin

Tuesday Karl and I got up early to catch pictures of the sunrise.  I'm so glad we did because the view was breathtaking.

Here is me waiting for the sunrise

 Entering the Island of Grand Cayman

Our excursion in Grand Cayman consisted of swimming with the stingrays and snorkeling.

 Heading out to see the stingrays.

This particular area had a sea bench which was only waist high in some places (the turquoise color) then it just drops into deep water  (the dark blue) 

 I have to say swimming with and feeding the stingrays was way cooler then I expected it to be. It was one of the highlights of the trip. They were so agile and quick to move between every one's legs.  Definitely an excursion I would do again, it was really neat.

Karl and I holding this monsterous sting ray

These things would literally come right to you and brush there bodies against your chest, legs and back.  

 Snorkeling-Grand Cayman. I unfortunately wasn't able to participate in the snorkeling here as the gear we purchased ended up being too big for my face and water kept coming into the mask but Karl was able to get some of these fun pictures for me to see.  Luckily we were able to exchange the goggles I had for a smaller size and I got to go snorkeling later in Haiti.

 After the excursion Karl and I found this restaurant along the coast and had lunch.

This is a picture of the boat we were on taken from the dock.

Later that afternoon after playing on the Island we signed Karl up to do a longest yard golf competition held in the Golf Simulator on the ship.

 

Wouldn't you know it...Karl took the silver medal in that event

On Wednesday we arrived in Jamaica.  I thought Jamaica was so beautiful.  It was personally my favorite Island to see. 

 While in Jamaica we decided to swim with dolphins.  I love dolphins so this was a dream come true.  Unfortunately you can't take pictures and have to purchase pictures through the company, which we had done.  However when I got home and open the CD only the first few pictures came through so all the cool pictures I actually wanted I don't have right now.  I've contacted the company and I'm really hoping they get back to me regarding the pictures I purchased and didn't get.  In the meantime here are a couple of the pictures I do have.

Our dolphin Connetta shaking hands with the trainer

Karl and I are dancing with Connetta

Dolphin Cove was a fun.  They provided us with a yummy Jamaican chicken dish and had a bunch of other wildlife and entertainment for us to enjoy. 

We got to see a pirate show with the sharks.

This lady was holding one of the sharks. 

 After the show we walked the local trail where they had this cool remake of the "Cool Runnings" bobsled.

An iguana chilling out on a bench

 We got to feed and interact with the parrots. 

 Later that day we were then taken to Dunns River Falls where we hiked the waterfall. 

This is the base of the falls that goes into the ocean

Almost to the top of the falls

 On Thursday we arrived in Haiti at Royal Caribbeans private beach resort.

 We found this cove with some great snorkeling. A friend we had met at the airport and taking the same cruise as us loves to scuba and was nice enough to give us information on the local sea life.

I loved listening to the local music.

 We also got an all day pass to go down the waterslide.

This is Karl walking up to the waterslide.

Video of Karl going down the slide

Laying back and being a beach bum

Snorkeled some more.

Karl

 Getting a few last pictures before we headed out.

That night was our second formal dinner night.

 On Friday we had our last sail day before arriving back in Ft. Lauderdale and heading home.  They had a bunch of events and shows on the ship.  One of the events we watched was the bellyflop competition.

The video is just one of the guys who participated in the competition. 

The cruise was a lot of fun.  They had amazing entertainment and shows the entire time.  There was always something going on and things to see.  There really wasn't a boring moment. The food was great, the activities and events were fun and the company was even better.  Thanks Karl for joining me on this adventure together.  Had a great time and can't wait for our next trip.