Our First Cruise - Part 3

Caribbean Cruise - Part 3

April 2015

The Carnival Breeze

We didn't do much research as far as the ship was concerned before booking our cruise, as we were more concerned with the dates! However, our travel agent must have been looking out for us because our ship was awesome!

Overall, Carnival is a family friendly cruise line. I've obviously never cruised on any other cruise line, but I've heard that others are geared more toward adults. As two teachers and as parents, kids don't bother us! ha! It would actually be really weird to go somewhere without there being kids...

Since it was our anniversary cruise, we spent a little more to get a room with a balcony.

It was small and simple with just two chairs but it was nice to be able to see down to the larger deck below.

I won't lie, I had visions of the Titanic movie a few times when walking down these halls. After a couple times, you get used to it!

Unfortunately, these were the only pictures I seem to have taken of our room. It had a couch, bed, tv, dresser, small cabinet/closet, and a small bathroom. Plenty of room for just the two of us.

Around the ship

(Please excuse my pictures. I'm not a photographer and often found myself snapping pictures without really even looking at the camera!I can promise that my pictures don't do this ship justice!)

This is the main level where you board. Our dining room was also on that floor as well as a bar, customer service, and access to the theatre. 

This is the Lido deck with lots of restaurants, bars, and access to the buffets. It stayed pretty crowded the whole time. Also, they did a morning show on that tv as well as movies at night!

This is what made the ship so awesome for kids! A water park on a ship! How cool is that?!? Also, putt putt, basketball, and a track.

The Blush Restaurant! We ate breakfast here a couple of times. Most mornings, we ordered room service so that we could eat a quick breakfast before our ports.

Our main spot was the Serenity deck. Adults only. Peaceful. Breezy. The best views!

Ahhh..... Until next time, Carnival!

Our First Cruise - Part 2

Caribbean Cruise - Part 2

April 2015

My first post about our first cruise was super long, but it was our favorite port, so hopefully I can shorten this one a little! In case you missed it, click here to read about Ocho Rios, Jamaica!

Stop #2 - Grand Cayman

Our second stop was Grand Cayman and it did not disappoint!

First things first, with the port in Grand Cayman, the ship can't come as close to the island, so you have to ride a charter boat over to the docks. It was pretty choppy, but a short ride.

I had to get a picture of this because it was so darn cute.

When you first get into the port, there are very friendly taxi drivers who will make recommendations for you based on how you want to spend your day. We wanted a chill day and our driver recommended a hotel that was close by.

We paid a few dollars for access to this hotel for the day where we could use their beach, restroom facilities, pool, and bar/restaurant. We got there very early so we had the beach to ourselves for awhile, but it did get packed out by the end of the day there.

Grand Cayman had BY FAR the clearest, most beautiful water of our three ports. (I included my foot in the second picture so you could see how clear it actually was) Stunning.

We strolled up and down this beach a pretty good distance. It was just beautiful!

After lunch and some more relaxation, we headed back to stroll through town.

This man was slicing coconuts open with a machete and serving it with a straw. Now, that's a true island experience!
There were cute shops and a Margaritaville nearby, so we did lots of browsing. I wish I had snapped more pictures there. Overall, Grand Cayman was great!

Stop #3 - Cozumel, Mexico

Our final port of call was Cozumel, Mexico.

I loved the actual port here. There are shops immediately when you dock. We enjoyed admiring all of the colorful trinkets and decor and even purchased a couple of maracas.

We booked a beach house excursion for this port. So, when it was time to board our taxi, we loaded up for a 15 minute ride down a road that was surrounded by absolutely NOTHING but trees. Seriously, the WHOLE time. I guess it wasn't quite what I expected. Certainly not "touristy" like all of the beaches I know. For some reason it made me a little uneasy.

When we finally got to the house down a sand driveway, we met Clemente, who was the head of this excursion at La Casa en la playa. He was VERY nice and hospitable. He spent about 15 minutes showing us around the house and introducing us to the chef and other house staff.

The front of this house had a stunning view! We enjoyed a lesson on making guacamole and ate some delicious fresh fish under the shady palm trees.

A few things that made me uneasy on this excursion:

1. the long ride surrounded by nothing but wilderness

2. the fact that people on the ship had scared us about NOT DRINKING THE WATER or ANYTHING THAT HAD TOUCHED WATER, such as lettuce, any fruits or veggies that had been rinsed in the water, etc.

3. the beach was dirty

4. we couldn't flush anything in the toilets. Even paper. Yep, there was a special trash can for it.... ew

5. there weren't very many people there and it felt secluded

For these reasons, I couldn't seem to get "relaxed" here but like I said, the people were great and we even did some snorkeling. But overall, it was my least favorite port.

I snapped a few more pictures back at the port.

I did have to snap this picture once we got back onboard from our balcony. I was totally amazed on the whole trip at how close the cruise ships could get to the docks and to each other! You can't see it from the picture, but there was a large concrete dock in between these two ships where everyone was waiting to board. Very neat.