Day 4 – St Thomas, USVI

We had most of the day in St Thomas.  Here is the view from our balcony where we docked the ship.

We got to the port at 7am and didn’t have to leave until 6pm.  So we booked two excursion for that day.  I’m all ready to go!

There’s the side view of the Carnival Freedom as we were waiting for our departure for the first excursion:

First on the agenda was sNuba diving at Coral World Ocean Park.  That’s right, we didn’t go sCuba diving but we went sNuba diving.  I would say it’s in between snorkeling and scuba diving.  You still have a regulator and weight belt but your air supply floats on the top of the water thus you can only go about 20 feet deep.  I am certified to scuba dive but no one else was.  It was really fun and if you’re not certified to dive I would definitely recommend it.

Sara was the one who picked this one out.  She and Lowell had done it on one of their vacations to Hawaii.  They though it would be fun to do in the Caribbean as well.

Here are Dan and I ready to go.  As you can tell by those smiles, we are totally ready to go!!!

Can’t forget Sara and Lowell. . . don’t they look good in their shades?

The tower behind us in the following photo is where we started the snuba adventures.  If you go downstairs they have an observatory where you can see the ocean without even getting wet!

Of course we got wet and had a blast!  Here is our guide who took us diving:

 

Here is Sara and Lowell after the dive:

There’s the walkway out to the tower.

At the park, they don’t pigeon problems, but rather iguana problems.  They were everywhere!

Thus they had to invest in some signs. . . .

At Coral Ocean park they had more than just snuba diving. 

You could swim with sea turtles:

 

We didn’t get to swim with the sea lions, we did get to see a show where two sea lions were the stars.  It was really neat because they were probably about 10 feet away from us and and there were only about 8 of us in the room, besides the sea lions of course.

After lunch back on the ship and a warm shower, we were off for our  Kayak, Hike, and Snorkel Adventure.  This excursion consisted of us riding a shuttle to our destination, jumping in a kayak, kayaking through a mangrove preserve, walking (they called it a hike but not so much!) to some blow holes, and then snorkeling in the bay. 

Here is part 1: Kayaking. . . .

 

Part 2: Hike (really just a walk along a path)

Posing for some pictures:

Playing with some sea animals.  Sara really enjoyed holding all the funky animals.  This, I think, they called a sea comb . . . or something.

 

I on the other hand didn’t enjoy the hold the animals part.  They kind of freaked me out!!!

I was a able to smile for a picture though . . . well sort of.

This is our guide as we got back from our “hike”

Part 3: Snorkeling

 

After all the excursions that day, we were ready for dinner that night.  To the right of where we are standing is where our assigned table was for dinner.  It was a booth with room for just the four of us which was nice because we could be ourselves and we didn’t have to make small-talk with strangers every night!

Our waiters even put on a show for us that night!

It was a full day and it was mighty fun!!!

Day 3 – San Juan, Puerto Rico

Our first stop was Puerto Rico.  However we weren’t going to get there until six o’clock at night so we actually had most of the day on the ship to do some activities.  Of course Dan and I slept in and then went to the gym.  Lowell and Sara worked out and then went and did some sports as well.

Sara practicing her mad volleyball skills on the court. . . .

Lowell getting ready to putt a hole in one. . .  . hopefully the wind doesn’t mess him up too bad!

Wow look at the ocean behind them! I wonder how high they are?

She sure got some air on that one!  Hope the ball makes it in the basket. . .

Eating some yummy lunch.  Look at the view.  As you can see Sara and Lowell aren’t really eating but Dan and I had no problems. Yum. Yum.

In San Juan since we were only in port from around six o’clock until about midnight there was not a whole time there.  So we decided to do the Bioluminescence Kayak Tour.  It took a little convincing for Sara to join us but it sure was a lot of fun. 

Here she is.  And must I say she looks totally stoked about the kayaking!!!!

The excursion consisted of us getting on a bus and driving completely (or at least it seemed like it) across the island.  Because of the time of the evening we sat in rush hour traffic for a large portion of the travel time. 

When we finally arrived at the launch site it was dark.  We got our life jackets on and then jumped into some kayaks.  Then we paddled across the bay, through a passageway, and into another bay.  It was really dark that night with not much of a moon at all which made it really cool.  Paddling through the channel there were lots of mangrove trees that made it feel even darker that night.  All you could see were the glow sticks that were tied to the kayaks in front of us.  As we got closer and closer to the bay, we started to notice that the water would light up as we put our paddles in the water.  When we finally got to the bay we saw what they really meant by “bioluminescent.”  There is a special kind of plankton in the water there that when disturbed emits photons (or something like that).  Anyway as you put your hand in the water or picked up water and splashed it on your legs it was all sparkly.  Also there were some fish and our guide scared it so it was swim away really fast and it made it look like fireworks in the water.  It was really, really neat to see!  My explanation doesn’t do it justice!  You’ll have to go see it for yourself!!!!

Because it was dark and we didn’t think any pictures would really captures what we saw, the only pictures we have are of us on the bus ride home.  And by the way, it was a little chilly on that bus (we were all wet and they wouldn’t turn of the A/C. . . us Arizonans are wimps!).

Day 2 - Sea Day

Sara decided that we all should do a pilates class the first day on the ship. So we all (except Lowell of course) for the class. I had never done a pilates class before so it was really fun. For those of you who have never done a class before he had us do a lot of core work and almost some yoga-like positions. Needless to say balance was a crucial part of this class. And, well, balance was a little more difficult on a moving ship than perhaps on land!

Of course Sara decided to chat with the instructor (he was very nice) and found out that he was getting married to another crew member who worked in the gym at St Thomas. How exciting!!

After our gym class, Sara made a hair appointment for a makeover hair do. I think it turned out pretty good.

BEFORE:

AFTER: WOW she looks HOT!!

Then we decided to take advantage of the sun and pools on board the ship. So relaxing in the sun was the plan for the rest of the day (at least while the sun was out).

Sara & Lowell: Look at the outfit coordination. Now that's a cute couple!

The Sisters: I must admit, we look pretty cool. Plus look at the awesome slide behind us. . .

Here are me and Dan reading our books in the sun. It sure was relaxing.

On our first sea day, it was a formal night. This means that you are supposed to dress up really nice for dinner that night. Some people were in ball gowns and tuxedos and others were more casual. I'd way we were probably in the middle of the spectrum.

Lowell resting before the night out:

Now that Lowell was all rested he just needed some arm candy . . . . Oh wait, there she is:

We sat at the same table every night for dinner and we had the same two waiters. They were both from the Philippines and were very nice and fun. They weren't shy about bringing us lots and lots of food!

We even did a little bit of dancing that night!

Then when we got back to our room we found a lovely suprise. . . . not quite sure what it was but we think it might be a lamb or something like that. It was a four-legged animal anyway.

The Cruising Adventure

It has taken me FOREVER to post this but I finally set aside some time to get the Carribean cruise on the blog. So here it is:

Dan and I took an Alaskan cruise for our 1 year anniversary and had an absolute blast. We really like the cruise atmosphere because you never had to worry about what you were going to eat or what you were going to do. There was enough structure that we didn't feel like we were twidling our thumbs but we also didn't feel tied down to one activity because there were lots to choose from. So we decided to plan another one. We tried to get as much family as possible to join us on this adventure but only Sara and Lowell decided to come. We sure had a blast with them and I am excited to show you some of the pictures that we took while in the carribean.

Getting Ready: Dan and I decided that for this trip we were going to buy new luggage. We have been using hand-me-downs which have worked great but we decided to get some nicer luggage that we can use on our many FUTURE adventures. Also it was really nice to use our loft to do all the packing. We could lay it all out and make sure we were only taking the essentials. . . . ok and maybe a few extras!

On September 11 we flew from Phoenix here are Dan and I waiting for the plane to arrive:

When we got to Fort Lauderdale, we had to wait for a shuttle to take us to our hotel, so of course we had to take a picture. Here is Sara and I:

When we finally got to the hotel we got settled and went to a local restaurant. I don't even remember the name of it anymore but it was a fish place attached to Bass Pro Shop or some other similar sporting store. After dinner we retired to our room and the next morning Sara and Lowell were trying to get a head start on all the food we were going to be eating on the ship and worked out before we left for the ship. Dan and I on the otherhand felt that sleeping in was much more worth it and slept until we had to get up to go. After taking the shuttle:

We were finally on the ship. Of course the first thing to do on the ship is to eat! After eating we set out to do some exploring. After all it was a big ship and we had to see what it all had to offer. We found the gym, all the pools, the spa, the kids play center, and lots of other things. Here we are at the top of the ship before we took off from Fort Lauderdale:

And Sara found her favorite chocolate cake. She really enjoyed it a lot however during the whole cruise it was only served on the first day during lunch. It wasn't even served at the chocolate buffet which was kind of amazing because they sure had a lot of chocolate desserts at that buffet. Although it was probably a good thing that the chocolate cake wasn't served everyday because then Sara probably would have had to eat it everday. Unfortunately for me and Sara, though the soft serve yogurt and ice cream machines worked everyday. . . and we DID have that everday!!

Alright becuase this program doesn't make it that easy to make long posts and add pictures as you go I will be breaking up the rest of the cruise into ports/days. It doesn't flow as well but that's okay!!!