Last year at the office we made a production goal at the beginning of the year and worked hard all year to reach it. Our prize at the end if we reached our goal was a Caribbean Cruise. Well we did it! So in February we embarked on our week long cruise. No husbands or kids, just us girls!
The night before we were supposed to leave there was a big snow storm that dropped a lot of snow in Salt Lake but then went on to Denver and became an ice storm. Unfortunately Denver was one of our layovers for our flight to Florida. We got up the next morning to head to the airport and found out that our flights had been cancelled because the Denver airport was closed due to the ice storm. After talking with the Southwest agents, we found out that the soonest flight out was Tuesday - two days after our cruise ship was leaving Florida! So dad and I frantically started looking for other options. It turned out that there was a Delta red eye flight leaving late Sunday night that would get us there in time Monday morning to make our ship. Unfortunately that flight filled up very quickly and only 3 of the 12 of us were able to get on it. Our next option was to find a way to get down to Vegas and catch a flight from there. We figured if we didn't find a flight to Vegas we had enough time to rent a big van and drive there as a last option. So we found an American flight from Vegas to Florida and booked six of us on that flight. By the time we tried to book the other 3 that flight was sold out as well! Everyone from Salt Lake was trying to get on any flight possible! So we frantically kept looking and found a Delta flight from Vegas to Florida and booked the other 3 from our group on that flight. At least we were all on a flight to Florida at this time! Then we started looking for a flight from Salt Lake to Vegas for the 9 of us that had a flight leaving from there. We ended up finding a Southwest flight and were able to use the credit from our cancelled flights to get down there. So we were set. After hours of looking and calling we were finally able to get everyone on a flight that would get us all to Florida Monday morning within just a few minutes of each other. It was crazy! I said it would be a miracle if all of us and all of our luggage actually got to our destination. It was a miracle - we all made it!
It was very late at the airport - we were tired and ready to go relax!
All of us in the Tampa airport - we all made it and our luggage too!
Then it was time to head to the dock and check in for the cruise. They gave each of us our seapass card that we would use all week on the ship.
Then we waited for our turn to board the ship!
This cute little man was walking around letting us know which group could board the ship. We were group nine but we enjoyed watching him cause he was so sweet!
This is our ship - the Jewel of the Seas. I was amazed how big it was! And so pretty!
Our group.
Once we checked our luggage in and boarded the ship, we had a few hours to just hang out and explore before the ship took off. We found the pool, the dining halls, the workout room, the spa and everything else. Then we sat on the top deck and waved goodbye to land and headed out to sea!
We had dinner soon after we took off. We passed underneath this huge bridge as we were eating and could see out the windows.
Then all we could see was the open water - and the beautiful sunset.
We hit the karaoke bar that night and had such a fun time. Hayley, Kristina and Kilee entered a "Don't Forget the Lyrics" singing contest. Hayley made it to one of the last rounds and really got into her songs - it was super fun to watch them! Kilee also fell in love with the MC (who was almost 100% gay!) But he was a great dancer and she was after him the whole week long! Hee hee.
And just because we could, we went and got burgers and fries at midnight the first night and just laughed and laughed.
This is our room attendant. He said we could call him Speedy so that's all he went by all week. He was awesome and such a fun guy to have helping us out!
Our cute room with the sliding doors that go out to the balcony. So fun to have a balcony!
The next day was a sea day so we decided it was also a laying out day. We were in our suits all day just hanging out and enjoying the sun.
There was a band out on the pool deck playing and of course there was dancing!
We all got dressed up and pretty for Formal Night. It was fun to be all pretty!
This was our table the whole time we were on the ship. We had an awesome view being right next to the windows. There were a few that always had to sit with their backs to the windows so they didn't get seasick - Pat, Shanny, Kristina. The rest of us were ok.
One of our favorite parts about the dinners was the desserts. Always something unique and delicious - and we could eat as much as we wanted!
We did our fair share of dancing on the ship. Almost every night after dinner and the show, we would make our way up to the top floor and dance. We had a blast and Kilee and Sarah taught us all some new dance moves. I tried to master the body roll, but never could get the hang of it.
We ordered milk from room service one night and ate oreos and milk at midnight.
Our first port was Grand Cayman and we were so excited to get off the ship and see some beautiful weather and beautiful beaches! We booked an excursion to Stingray City and got on the fishing boat just as soon as we ported. It was a gorgeous day! And the water was amazingly clear and blue/green. Just what you picture in the Caribbean.
This was our boat for the day. We stopped halfway there to dive for conch shells. So we all got our snorkeling gear on and had a little while to enjoy the water and all the sea life.
These are the shells we were looking for. Gayle and I both found one and they got the conch out of the middle of it. They said we could take it home with us, but we ended up getting it taken from us as we were going through security on the way back to the Jewel of the Seas. Oh well, we had fun finding them anyway.
After snorkeling we headed to another spot that they called Stingray City. It was a sandbar in the middle of the water where there were tons of stingrays! It was pretty crazy. We were a little nervous at first but our guides taught us how to act around them and then gave each of us a chance to hold onto one and even kiss it! They really are beautiful creatures and so soft!
After the stingrays we headed to a private little island for lunch.
We had a little bit of time to relax and enjoy the sun. We collected sea shells, fell asleep on the sand and had a great afternoon.
Then we headed back "home." We had to be on the Jewel late that afternoon so we were rushing to get back. It was such a great day in Grand Cayman!
That night there was a party on the pool deck. Tons of delicious food and in such pretty arrangements. We had fun listening to music and of course, dancing!
There was a creepo guy that was after Sarah and we had a couple run-ins with him that night. It turns out he had a room on our same floor so he was lurking around trying to find Sarah that night. We were all creeped out and Hayley and I were too scared to sleep in our room alone. So we bunked with Terra and Kilee - 4 of us on 2 twin beds. It was cozy!
Our port the next day was Cozumel.
We took a ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen to meet up with our tour guide that would take us to Tulum - some ancient ruins.
We all squeezed into a big van and drove for about an hour to get there.
It was a really great place and our tour guide gave us lots of great info. It was an ancient city of ruins that was thought to be one of the cities of the Nephites (from the Book of Mormon.) We learned so much about all the symbolism from that time. Our guide's name was Helaman and said that his family has done tours of all the ruins for lots of years. He has sons named Nephi, Lehi and Laman. They are a Mormon family! He was really great and we learned so much from him.
A view of the ocean from Tulum.
Pat and I being scared of the lizards that were running around us all day.
Then back to the Jewel.
Our last night on the ship. We had 2 great servers and were sad to leave them!
That night we were just wild and crazy and decided to go to each of the rooms (of people in our group) and shoot oreos at them with our bras. Don't ask. We were stupid and thought we were hilarious. The joke was that the night we were all scared from that creepy guy, Shanny had said that if he came into our rooms then we could defend ourselves by shooting oreos at him with our bras. "Have some chocolate titties sucka!" That's what we said we would do. So that's what we did all night long - oreos were flying all over! Looking back now, we were idiots - but we had a blast! I haven't laughed that hard in such a long time!
We also had to say goodbye to our friend Speedy. He was so great and we were so happy to have him as our friend for the week.
All week long he left us towels shaped into little animals. They were so cute!
Our goodbye note to Speedy.
And goodbye to our beautiful ship and our awesome week on it!
Of course we were happy to get back to our families. And Josh informed me that our families were even more happy to have us back! We got to the airport and all the husbands and kids were there waiting for us with open arms.
And this cute sign!
We had such a fabulous week and can't wait for next year!
