Hi all,
Just before Thanksgiving, I went on a much needed vacation.
JP and I met up with some longtime friends of mine from the Metro Detroit area
on board Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas. Our ship was destined for 4
ports in 7 days, more importantly it was destined for FUN.
Of course there’s so much you can do on a cruise that you
really have to pace yourself. Each port was 1 full, but quick day. As you can imagine, with a group of 8, everybody liked to do different things so most of our time spent together was around a table eating.
I enjoy
the days at sea as much as the days in port! Luckily for us (and mostly my hair) the first of our 2 formal
nights was the day before our first port.
I think we all clean up Really Well!!
It was great that 3 of us had new cameras so this trip was
very, very well documented. I wish I had thought to take a pic of our cameras
as they were often masquerading as our table centerpieces!!
This is what a Retired Detroit Public School Teacher looks like, x's 3!!!
Our first port was Labadee, Haiti. This is a private resort
area owned by Royal Caribbean, we spent the day frolicking in the water and soaking
up the sun. The most adventurous ones took a zip line ride on the longest zip
line over water!! (No, I did not).
The ocean floor here was covered with coral and shells and was difficult to walk on!
The next port was Falmouth, Jamaica. I had been to Falmouth
and had walked up Dunns River Falls and other excursions. While the others
took tours, etc. we went shopping!! Armed with Christmas shopping lists we
walked and shopped almost the entire time in port. It’s a bit of a challenge to
be totally disconnected from family, friends and the internet so we took
advantage of the free Wi-Fi available in the larger stores like Diamond
International. It was a great break to sit, sip cool drinks and connect with
folks back home. Oh yeah, and trying on crazy expensive jewelry just for fun.
Every night the group reconnected at dinner and sometimes
caught a show before dinner together and sometimes after or just hung out.
We all had a cute treat each evening as our cabin stewards made "animals" out of our towels. But my stewart took the prize, I cracked up over this one...
The next day was spent doing more shopping in Georgetown,
Grand Cayman. The view along the shore was amazing and we carefully chose our
lunch spot to sample local food. (Careful to make sure they offered free Wi-Fi!!)
We took a break from shopping in Grand Cayman near a beautiful fountain and along the shore!!
The onboard activities that we enjoyed included, a great
magic show by Drew Thomas, an adult comedy show, Love & Marriage , a game show with 3
couples competing for prizes.We also enjoyed playing Putt Putt Golf on the 14th deck in the middle of
the ocean .
And there was the casino. I actually took a short lesson on
playing Blackjack, but ended up feeding the slots and letting JP teach me to shoot
craps. My motto is as long as I leave with some of their money, I had fun. I
had fun!
There was also this crazy fun adult scavenger hunt game
called Quest. This was a lot of fun. The cruise director spotted JP and I doing
the twist (he told everybody to do it) and called us and a very senior couple
from Israel down front and center to do it for everybody!! We ended up in the
DVD that they make of the cruise. For the rest of the trip people kept coming up
to us and commenting on it. And no, we didn't buy a copy of the DVD!!
Our last port was Cozumel, Mexico. We took an interesting
tour of the Mayan Ruins at
San Gervasio and finished up shopping.
Iguanas were out in numbers at the Mayan Ruins at San Gervasio
Dry stacked arch at
San Gervasio
When I saw this view of the water off the coast of
Cozumel, I thought of the commercials that claim they can color match
anything!! I’d like to see them try. This is headed right to my Pinterest board :Color Au-Natural!!
How many shades of blue can you count?!!
At the end of many nights we sat quietly on deck in the
dark, listening to the ocean and just being still.
