Caribbean Cruise!

Mike and I were able to go on a post graduation Cruise to the Caribbean in April! It was...AMAZING! So relaxing and beautiful! I am also done working (until we move and I'll find a job in Boston) so it was a nice change of pace from the last 2 years of MBA school and work. We took a red-eye flight (not our most brilliant idea:) to Florida where our ship, the Carnival Valor set off. We'd heard mixed reviews about Carnival but decided since neither of us had been on any cruise line we wouldn't have much to compare it to and we were going for cheap. We were mesmerized by the ship, its amazing the rooms, the amount of people, and things they are able to do on the ship. Our only disappointment was some of the entertainment shows each night. The "family" entertainment shows were fun,  but we didn't bother with any of the "adult" shows...we'd go hang out in the kid arcade or play cards instead :) We had a balcony room off the back of the boat so one of our favorite things was to hang out on our balcony and watch the waves. It was fun to go out late at night and see other cruise boats pass you in the ocean. Here are some of my favorite pictures!

  Day 1-Boarding, Muster Drill and Exploring the cruise boat

 They had these huge hammocks and lounge chairs up on the very top of the boat...just be careful walking around during "sunbathing" hours in the afternoon...never know what you'll find.

 View from the top of the boat

 Beautiful lobby area on the boat

 Each night we got a new towel animal, we got a good laugh out of some of them!

 Day 2-Day at Sea

There were quite a few times you'd really feel the boat rocking or see the water in your cup sloshing back and forth with the waves but I'd try not to focus on it. We were a little worried about getting seasick on the boat and came prepared with all kinds of seasick bands and Dramamine but luckily we never had to use them. 

 Formal Night. It was fun to get dressed up and go to dinner with my handsome hubby! This first pic as out on our balcony before dinner.

 Our dinner table for the week. Had fun getting to know our new friends Ron and Stephanie.

 Day 3-Grand Turk

The Island is only 7 sq miles but has the most beautiful remote beaches ive ever seen!

 One of my most favorite pictures of the trip...right here! 

 This is the beach we waited at for our snorkel excursion. We went out on a small boat with about 8 other people and snorkeled for a few hours. Our guide was Jamaican and talked about shark sightings the whole time...freaked me out and ended up being the last person to jump in the water with all his shark talk.

 Before our trip we bought an underwater case for our camera. It was a little nerve racking taking our nice camera underwater but it worked great and was so nice to have our own camera, not a cheap disposable one to get some good pictures.

Breathing through a tube while being strangled by your life jacket makes it difficult to take good pictures of moving objects, however, Mike did manage to snap this picture of a sea turtle. 

I preferred to take pictures of Mike...

 After our snorkel trip we were talking to our guide about how far of a walk it was into town, he offered to give us a ride islander style-by boat. He dropped us off here at another amazing beach.

 Not quite sure why but Mike and I think its funny that in every tourist city there are Segway tours. They are a great idea, just funny looking I guess... It became a goal of ours to take a picture of people riding Segways in each of the islands we visited. 

 We wandered through the streets of Turks and Caicos for a while and headed back to the cruise boat... Wouldn't want to miss getting back on the boat when the island is only 7 square miles...that would be an expensive flight to the next island!

 View of Grand Turk from our balcony

 We ate lots of food and took pictures of almost all of it!  The dining room food, buffet, room service, and dessert bars were enough to look at and gain weight. The first few days the food kept us coming back but by day 5 or 6 we were over the food and nothing sounded appetizing.

 Day 4 San Jan Puerto Rico

 Mike and I imitating the funky statue in the city

 Capital Building

Another one of my favorite pictures! We rented bikes for the day and cruised all over San Juan! 

Toured both of the Forts in Old San Juan. The forts were built in the 1500's to guard the entrance to San Juan Bay.

Drawings on the wall of the dungeon where prisoners were kept

View from the top of the fort

Beautiful streets

There is a really old cemetery on the edge of the water near the fort

Segways!

The church where Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony got married

In San Juan it is a law that your home must be a different color than your neighbors so each of the houses were bright and colorful.

Day 5-St Maarten

We woke up to find this boat parked in the dock next to us. The name of it was Michael J!! 

We walked around the city and shops for a bit and then spent the rest of the day on the beach!

Segways! LOL

The beach and ocean was beautiful. Mike was so excited when we got there he ran right into the water... wallet and all. This was me trying to dry everything out...

We had a blast digging for seashells in the ocean. You can feel them with your feet and then dive down to try and pick them up.

About 11:30 one night Mike and I were walking back to our room when we came upon this.... a huge Mexican buffet with ice sculptures and all. So of course we hopped in line and got a plate of food. At first we thought we'd been missing out on this every night so we decided to come back the next night, only to find it wasnt there. Guess it was just the one night.

My favorite-the platypus!

Day 6-St Thomas

We walked around the city for a while and then took a taxi back to the boat

We went for a ride on this boat, called the Screaming Eagle. Its a jet boat that takes you for a thrill ride in the ocean twisting, turning, and making abrupt stops so you get wet. It was really fun and we were SOAKED by the end!

Views as we pulled away from St Thomas

Day 7 Sea Day

We hung out on the Lido deck for a while and read, relaxed, and watched all the all the drunks act ridiculous... Because everyone was on the boat this day it was nearly impossible to find a chair to sit on but we finally lucked out and found 2 together away from some of the craziness.

Last formal night!

After dinner we changed into our comfy clothes to and went outside to watch Toy Story on the big screen

Posing with the break dancers!

Day 8-Sea Day

We woke up early to watch the sunrise from our balcony. It was beautiful! We then went back to sleep for a few hours :)

Miniature golf on the top of the boat

View from the front of the ship on a secret deck. We read about this online so we decided to try and find it...we went all the way down one of the halls and out an unmarked door. It was beautiful and we never saw another person out there. If you looked up behind you could see the captains and their control room.

Last night at dinner with our fun waiters

and of course-another towel animal

We had a blast but by the end we were definitely ready to come home. It took a few days to adjust to being on land again, we felt like we were still rocking back and forth. Since we've been home Jordan came home from his mission in Tucson, Arizona, we went to a wedding in Logan, went to Boston for a week to find an apartment, and sold a car!