Caribbean Cruise 2018

Caribbean Cruise

Thursday, December 20

We left Logan around 2pm and drove to the Sheraton in Salt Lake City. Brett said we could leave our car there and take the hotel’s airport shuttle. We will definitely be doing that for every trip from now on! It was so quick and easy! All you have to do is tip the driver but that’s way cheaper than leaving our car at the airport. So we took the shuttle to the airport and got through security. We had time to go into the Sky Club and get some food and then we boarded. Once we got to Fort Lauderdale, we grabbed our bags and scheduled an Uber to come. I was so dumb because the hotel we were staying at had an airport shuttle and I totally spaced that so we paid for an Uber when we didn’t even have to. So annoying. We stayed at Hotel Morrison and it was nice but the service was terrible. The front desk lady was very short with us. Anyway, we got to our room and we were starving. There weren’t any places for us to eat close by so we used Uber Eats and the guy brought us McDonald’s. It was awesome ha then we went to bed. 

Friday, December 21

We woke up right before breakfast was over and went downstairs. One of the workers was already shutting breakfast down before it was supposed to be and every time someone would ask for something she would say you’re late breakfast is over. But it wasn’t actually over! Seriously the service was awful at this hotel. So we got hardly any food and then we went back up to our room and took a nap until noon. After our nap, we got up and packed and then scheduled an Uber to take us to Port Everglades so we could board our ship. Once we got to Terminal 21, some workers took our bags (we were on the Veendam ship with the Holland America Line) and then we got in line to go through the boarding process. It was a pretty quick process! We filled out the Cuba visa, they took our picture, and gave us our key card and then we boarded. We dropped our stuff off in our room and our bags got there right when we did. After reading the papers in our room about what was happening on the boat that day, we wandered around the boat and got to know the ship. Once we hit every spot on the ship, we went to the Lido Deck and got some food at the Dive In. I got a chicken sandwich and it was delicious!! We also ended up buying the unlimited soda package because for the past three weeks we haven’t been drinking soda (except on the weekends) and this was our reward. After we ate we went to our room and looked through the thousands of movie titles that this ship offers and then we went to the front desk and got Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We watched it in our room (the disk was really scratched) and a lot of the movie was skipped ha so we watched it very quickly and then we went to the front desk and tried to get the sixth movie but they don’t have that one. They have all of them but that one! So lame. Anyway, then we went to the Tree Lighting ceremony. We sang Christmas songs and drank hot chocolate and egg nog. It was so fun! Then we went to the top deck and walked around outside (it was dark at this point). Then we went to the show Listen to the Music in the Showroom at Sea. The dancers and singers performed and it was fun to go to. After the show, we rented I Can Only Imagine and ordered room service. Then we watched Get Out. We were up so late ha then we finally went to bed around 2:30am. 

Saturday, December 22 (Half Moon Cay, Bahamas)

We had to be onshore by 8:45am so we woke up at 8am and got ready and then we went to the deck where the tenders were located and we waited in line to take a boat to the shore. Once we got on shore, we checked in for our Stingray tour and then we boarded a little bus to go to where the tour started. Once we got there, the guide started to teach us what to do but then our tour was postponed. Apparently there had been some bad weather the day before and they had to fix a bunch of stuff before we could go swimming. So the bus took us back to where we started to wait (the Island was tiny) and we walked through the shops while we waited. Then they called us over and we boarded the bus again and went back to the Stingray tour. The stingrays were enclosed right off the beach with a net surrounding the area. The water was freezing! And the wind didn’t help. But we got in and we had to shuffle our feet so we didn’t step on any of the stingrays. We were able to swim around and snorkel for a little bit and then the guide grabbed a stingray and took it around to everyone and we were able to pet it. Once everyone was able to pet it, it was feeding time. We stood in the water in a big circle and the guide walked around and handed us all part of a fish. We had to put it between our pointer finger and thumb and then put our thumb down so it was enclosed by the rest of our fingers because the stingrays eat like a vacuum and they may mistake your thumb for food and try and bite it. Some people were slightly bitten because they didn’t do it correctly. It left a mark that looked like a hickey ha after we all fed them, we got out of the water and then the bus took us to the dining pavilion for lunch. I got a hot dog, jerk chicken, and a bunch of different salads. After we ate, we walked down to the beach and found some chairs to lay on. The wind was so cold I had to wear a jacket but with a jacket on I was fine. I ended up falling asleep on the beach. It was a great nap! When I woke up, it was time for our next tour so we walked to the meeting area and checked in for the jet skiing tour (Aqua Trax). The same bus took us to the jet skiing area and there were only like 7 of us doing the tour. We got our life jackets on and they assigned us to a jet ski. The guide had me follow directly behind him and then everyone else made a line behind us. We had to stay fifty yards apart from each other. It was SO MUCH FUN following the guide. He went so fast and we did a bunch of fun turns and loops. He had told us the people that want to go fast should follow him and the slower people could be in the back and another guide would follow them. We drove around the island and I had a blast. The water was CRAZY blue. It was beautiful! We watched a water plane land by us and it was so much fun. I loved this tour. It went by too quickly though. After we got off the jet skis, we took the bus back to the port and we walked down to the beach again. We got in the water this time just for a little bit and then we laid out in order to dry off. Once we were dry, we went to the dock and took the tender back to the cruise ship. Once we were on the ship, we went to our room and showered. Then we got ready (dinner was smart casual attire) and then we went to the fine dining room. The food was delicious! After dinner we went to the comedian show (Mark Pitta) in the Showroom at Sea. It was okay. He was old and made a lot of dirty jokes and also really lame jokes. After the show we rented this movie called Life. It was a terrible movie. Then we went to bed. 

Sunday, December 23

Sunday was a day at sea. We slept in until 1:30pm and then we got some pizza at New York Pizza. After we ate, we found some available chairs on the top floor and we just laid out and read our books. It was so relaxing and so nice! We read until the sun set and then we went to the front of the boat and watched the sun set and took pictures. On our way back to our room, we played PIG on the basketball court. I lost. Then we went to our room and changed (dinner was smart casual attire again) and we went to the fine dining room again. After dinner we went to the Classique show in the Showroom at Sea. We watched the singers and dancers perform again. It was a good show! Then we rented Murder by Numbers and went to bed. 

Monday, December 24 (Ocho Rios, Jamaica)

We had to be on shore by 8:45am again so we woke up at 8am and went to the Lido Market to get some breakfast and then we went on shore and met our guide. We took a bus to the Dunn’s Rivers Falls and started the tour. When we were checking in at the entrance to the waterfall, this old lady was being so obnoxious. She kept making super pompous comments. She had to use the restroom and she had already gotten in line to check in so she says, well I guess I’ll have to go to the back of the queue. When she got back from the restroom she made another comment about having to go to the back of the line. We went to the bottom of the falls (it started at the beach) and we climbed up the entire length of the falls. Even at the bottom of the falls, the old lady made another comment. When we were on the beach, the guide told us we all had to hold hands for the first part and Jeff and I were at the very end. There was a family in front of us and they had a daughter who looked like she was maybe 15 and she had a full blown temper tantrum about holding my hand. It was honestly ridiculous. She freaked out. She started pushing her little sister towards me so she would hold my hand and the sister wouldn’t budge and she was pissed when she didn’t win. So we climbed the waterfall without holding hands and I was totally capable ha I just thought her tantrum was ridiculous. I feel like there are a lot of snobby people on this ship who are raising snobby kids. While climbing up the waterfall, we rode a natural slide, we jumped in a really deep area, and we sat under part of the falls. The climbing of the waterfall was really slow because of how many older people were in our group but it was beautiful! After climbing the falls, we got out and we had to walk through a bunch of stands of Jamaican people selling things and they were very in your face. They would say don’t disrespect me mon. And you felt like crap ignoring them ha but we just put our heads down and walked through. I’m not good at saying no. Ha finally we made it back to the bus and our guide took us to two different shopping centers. At the second one, we stayed even when the bus left and we got some food. It wasn’t great food but we were starving. We got to listen to Bob Marley everywhere we went and hear ya mon from everyone ha after we ate we made our way back to the ship. I really wanted some braids in my hair so when we passed a lady that did braids, I stopped and talked to her. She walked us to her “shop” and it was in a really sketchy area. Jeff was offered weed at least five different times. I told her I wanted three braids and she charged $3 a braid so I thought it would be cheap and then she just kept on braiding! She ended up doing 13 braids and she charged me $39! I guess I’m a sucker for not stopping her but I couldn’t tell what she was doing! I thought she was putting multiple beads on each braid so I just kept handing her beads! So dumb. But I had to pay her ha I couldn’t just not do it. So after paying her, she walked us back to the pier and then we tried walking around for a little but everyone is SO FORWARD there and we were sick of fighting them so we just got back on the ship ha we went straight to the hot tub and sat in there for a minute and then we found some chairs and laid out while we departed from Jamaica. After we started moving again, we went back to our room to get ready for dinner. It was gala attire night. After getting ready, we went to dinner at the fine dining restaurant. After dinner, we went to the Showroom at Sea and watched Juan Pablo perform. He is really good at the piano but honestly his show was pretty boring. After his show, we went back to our room and watched Christmas Vacation. Then at 10:30pm we went to the Sounds of Christmas concert. It was a good show! Then we watched a movie and went to bed. 

Tuesday, December 25 (Cayman Islands)

We had to meet in the Showroom at Sea by 10am so we woke up, grabbed breakfast, and headed that way. We got stickers that indicated which tour we were doing and when they called our number, we had to go down to the tenders and ride them to shore. We took a bus to the dolphin cove. Once we got there we put all of our stuff in the lockers and then we were separated into groups. Our group was awesome. It consisted of a family (grandparents, parents, and two kids about 18 and 15), and two other women. While we were in the water, we got to hold the dolphin, kiss it, receive a kiss, dance with it, ride belly to belly, and do the foot push with a boogie board. We watched it jump, do flips, talk, and it splashed us ha after swimming with Nemo we bought a water bottle and Pringle’s and then got on a boat to go out to the sand bar with the stingrays. We made friends with Christina from Michigan and her parents. She’s super talkative but very friendly!! It was about 30 minutes out to the sand bar. The water was incredibly blue still. I’m just in shock at how blue the water is. It’s amazing! Once we got to the sand bar, we got off the boat and we were immediately surrounded by TONS of stingrays. WILD stingrays. They weren’t fenced in or anything. Our guide dove into the water and just randomly grabbed a stingray. We petted it and while we were swimming around, he would sneak up behind you and put the stingray on your back haha we also got to hold a stingray. It was kind of scary haha I mean they are wild! We also got to feed the stingrays. This time we fed them with little squids. He handed me one and as I was placing it in the proper place, a seagull dove down and tried to grab the squid and it got my finger instead! It freakin scared the crap out of me! And it kinda hurt! Ha but luckily I held onto the squid and I was able to feed the stingray twice. We swam around for a while and then we got back on the boat and headed back to the dolphin cove. Once there, we bought our pictures and an ornament and some bracelets and then we got back on the bus and they took us back to the pier. We walked around the shops closest to the pier and then we took the boat back to our ship. We showered and got ready and then we went to dinner at the fine dining restaurant. After dinner we watched Love Actually and did the daily Sudoku and crossword puzzle and then we watched Rumor Has It and went to bed. 

Wednesday, December 26 (Cienfuegos, Cuba)

We woke up at 8:15am (slept in a little) and didn’t have time for breakfast so we just got dressed and went to the Showroom at Sea to get our stickers for our tour. It was Cienfuegos, Cuba. On Tuesday night they thought we wouldn’t be able to stop in Cuba because of the weather but we were able to and the weather was beautiful! We took a tender out to the shore of Cuba and had to go through immigration and passport control. It was easy though. It was intimidating being in Cuba ha we exchanged our $20 for Cuban pesos and then hopped on our bus for the Tobacco, Rum, and Coffee tour. Three of our least favorite things haha the tour was awesome though. Our local guide took us around Cienfuegos and talked to us about the different buildings and customs in Cuba. We saw a ton of old fashioned cars. They were awesome! We drove to the Main Square in Cienfuegos and we walked around while she talked to us and then when everyone went to Club Benny for the taste testers, we went to the bathroom (had to pay 25 cents) and then we snuck out to the street to wait for that portion of the tour to be over. We people watched and it was fun! They have people dressed at statues (like we’ve all seen before in other places) but these people looked LEGIT. They had different shading and everything. It looked so real! It was amazing to watch. One guy would stand still until someone put money in his “jukebox” and then he would dance! When the “time” started to run out he would slow down and then stop. Once everyone from our tour came out, we blended right in like we had been there the whole time haha then it was time for free time. So walked around the shops and through the wood carving stands and it was HOT. We walked out to a pier and then we met back in the Main Square when it was time. We got a Cuban Coke and it was very sugary but so delicious. We boarded the bus and it took us back to the tenders. We had to go through a gate so we weren’t sure we would be able to leave again, plus we were starving, so we went back through immigration and passport control and boarded the boat back to the ship. Once we got to the ship, we went directly to the Lido Market to eat. After we ate, we laid out on the deck and I fell asleep. I woke up as we were about to leave Cuba. We went to our room and watched The Five Year Engagement and then we went to dinner in the fine dining restaurant. It was delicious as usual. After dinner, we went to the show in the Showroom called Heat. It was the singers and dancers performing. It wasn’t my favorite show. After watching the show, we watched Wanderlust and then went to bed. 

Thursday, December 27

It was a day at Sea so we slept in so hard. When we finally woke up it was noon so we got dressed and went to the Dive In for lunch. As we were eating we saw DOLPHINS out in the water jumping and swimming! I was so stoked! After we ate, we went out to the deck to lay out and read but they had locked up all of the bed chairs! So we sat in the hot tub and then we just got normal chairs and put them in the sun and read for a while. It was super windy so after a while we left and went up to the sky deck. It was so windy we almost couldn’t walk! It was crazy! Then we got a Coke in the crows nest. Then we wanted to watch the sunset again so we walked on the outside deck on our floor and watched the water and talked about what we would do if someone was in the water ha the sunset wasn’t nearly as great as the first time! Then we went to our room and got dressed for dinner. We ate in the fine dining restaurant and the drink specialist over our area called us children because we didn’t want alcohol. He kept giving us crap about it. Kind of obnoxious. Then we left and did the daily Sudoku and crossword puzzle in our room. We went to the Famous Faces Trivia and did terribly and then we went to the variety show with the comedian Mark Pitta and Juan Pablo. Mark Pitta is just not that funny. It was an okay show. Then we went back to our room and packed up our stuff and went to bed! 

Friday, December 28

We woke up early so we could eat breakfast before getting off of the ship. We went to the buffet and ate and then when our area was called, we took our bags and went through customs. It took quite a while! Once we were out, we took an Uber to National Car Rental and picked up our rental car. Then we parked at some rando building and chilled for a little while because we weren’t able to check in to our Airbnb for a while. We couldn’t figure out what to do since it was raining ha we ended up driving to a mall, shopping for a bit, and then going to see A Star is Born. After the movie, we drove to BJ’s Restaurant and ate. Then we went and saw Mary Poppins haha after the movie we went to our Airbnb and it was in a VERY sketchy area. And of course we rented a Dodge Challenger just to “fit in” in Florida so we felt even worse about the area because we didn’t want the car to get stolen ha moral of the weekend was to never rent a luxury car again haha our room was not even a real room. They had put walls up in the living room to create a room. The full size bed barely fit in the room. And it was hot and uncomfortable. Jeff wanted to just eat the money and go get a room at a hotel. It was that bad. And it smelled like weed. The WiFi was also out. The people who rented it to us were very nice but man we hated staying there. Eventually we were able to fall asleep. 

Saturday, December 29

We woke up and got ready to go to the beach and we took all of our stuff with us. We didn’t trust that place at all ha we got breakfast at McDonald’s and then we went to Fort Lauderdale Beach. We walked the boardwalk for a while and then we set up camp. We read our books, took a nap, swam a little. It was perfect. Then we left around sunset. We went to a little Mexican restaurant by our Airbnb and ate and then we went back to our Airbnb (unfortunately) and went to bed. 

Sunday, December 30

We had a super early flight so we got up and headed to the airport. We ate breakfast in the Sky Club and then flew home. We got home at like 10am! It was nice getting in earlier. It allowed us to get home and unpack and actually chill before work the next day. It was a great trip!!