Day 5: Cozumel, Mexico. Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico. Mexico was….F’ing Hot! We decided to go to the ruins in Tulum, which were actually on the main land about an hour south of Playa del Carmen (two hours south of Cancun).

We had a great time, though it was extremely hot out. The ruins were neat, even though they weren’t the ones we thought they were (I guess we were thinking of Chichen Itza) and we didn’t actually get to climb any of them. Probably a good thing cause, did I mention it was hot? Our tour guides were great, both of Mayan descent. We learned a lot of the culture and people, and weren’t too terribly annoyed by all the people trying to get “tips” from the tourists for all of their native displays….though I kinda wanted to get a picture of Keith holding the giant iguana (for a small donation, or course). And the air-conditioned bus rides back and forth were awesome! It was a little warm out…

The rest of the Tulum pictures, and a little Playa del Carmen & Cozumel

Day 6: The last day we spent at sea, getting back to good old Port Canaveral. The day was relaxing. We slept a lot and hung out in the hot tub one more time. All –in-all, we had a wonderful time

and weren’t exactly ecstatic about going home. Luckily, I had a whole other week to sit around at home doing nothing and recover! Woohoo!

Day 4: Grand Cayman: Was crazy! We went on this insane tour where you go to the Turtle Farm, then the Rum Cake Factory, then Hell, then Stingray City! It was insane! First, we only had about an hour at the turtle farm, which included the 45 minute tour. We had a great time,

but I really wanted to try the turtle stew, just to try it! Oh, and Keith almost lost the camera, and his hand, when he refused to listen to the tour guide tell him that the turtles will go after anything put into the tank as they will think it’s food. But he got a great shot!

So we got to the bus on time….but no one else did! We had to wait 30 minutes for everyone else to get back. So that started us off late. Then we went to the rum cake factory…which was actually just this average-sized tourist trap. Ok, fine, I wanted to get a bunch of rum cakes anyway. Except for one small problem. In addition to the 30-40 people on our bus, there were about three other tours that stopped there at the same time! You couldn’t move, let along shop! That’s ok….we waited for everyone else AGAIN but we’ll have plenty of time after the tour to go shopping for rum cakes closer to the dock. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

On to the next stop, Hell, Grand Cayman.

It was ok. The biggest attraction was the post office/gift shop. Yeah, that time it was my fault that we stayed too late…

So then we arrive at the dock for our boat out to Stingray City. Oh yeah, it’ll be here in 10 minutes. And it’s not big enough for all of us. And the next one has a bad engine…By this time we are all a little nervous about our ship leaving without us. No, seriously! But we are assured that the company has a contract with the ship to 1. Give us our full excursion and 2. Get us on the ship. And they did. We were the 2nd to last tender….about 15 minutes after the cruise line told us the last tender would leave. Ah well, they didn’t leave us there!

The stingrays were pretty cool. It was basically a shallow sandbar, about 3-4 feet deep, and the wild stingrays hang out there because the tourists feed them. Yep, we fed them. Or at least Keith did. I stayed in the water for, oh, about 15 minutes…until about 5 stingrays the size of a patio umbrella (open people, not closed) all came up to me at once. They passed right up against my legs.

Well, except for the last one. He realized his mistake and veered off, his tail scratching my thigh. Ok, time for me to get out! Course, I got to pet Frisbee first, the tailless stingray! That’s my kind of stingray!

But Keith stayed in. He got to feed a few, too. Here’s a decent video of him feeding the stingrays.

We decided, next time, to stick with one or two spots instead of four!

Here are the rest of the pictures of Jamaica.

Day 3: Ocho Rios, Jamaica:

Was ok. We did this tour where we went to the Cobayo River Gardens and Museum and then went to Dunn’s River Falls. Let me tell you, every tour in Jamaica went to Dunn’s River falls! You can’t avoid that place!

So the first stop was the gardens, which were nice. Very well taken care of and the tour guide was pretty cool. A lot of the plants were stuff we have here in Florida, but the Banyan trees were really neat!

They also had a koi pond and a mullet pond! We received the usual “We have photos and video for sale” and were ok with that till half way through the tour we stopped for a guy who ate fire, asking for tips, and a guy with a parrot who would let you take a picture with the parrot, for a small donation of course. I didn’t know if I should be annoyed or feel bad for them!

Dunn’s River Falls was not what I expected. I thought you just walked up stairs and stuff along the falls. Checking out the scenery along the way. HELL NO! You literally walk up the falls!

The guides and your fellow group mates help you, and they were very nice. Unfortunately, half-way up my legs were shaking from the strain so bad that I was afraid I would fall and hurt myself, so I went ahead and collected our stuff to head out. “But wait! You have to do this! No chickens in my group!” my tour guide says. You see, there was this one spot where you fall back and the water is real deep so it’s safe. Oh yeah, but you need to keep a hand on your glasses. You mean the hand that was holding the water bottle or the hand that was holding the camera? Yep, you guessed it…I lost my prescription sunglasses. On vacation. Again. *sign* Maybe that’s why I had brought the goggles that were in the pack on the bus……

Obviously Keith finished the climb.

And we both had fun.Till I decided I had to go to the bathroom…which you had to go through the straw market to get to….*sigh*

Here are the rest of the pcitures from Jamaica.

Sorry for the delay…

Day 2: Labadee, Haiti: As this is a private island, we didn’t find too much to do that looked all that interesting to us, so we decided to make that our snorkeling day. OMG!

That was the best snorkeling ever! The reef hadn’t been destroyed by recent hurricanes, like in so many other places we have been, so there was a lot of different types of corals to look at, and some really awesome fish! What made it more interesting is that we recently started a reef aquarium, so we knew more about what we were seeing and had a lot of fun wishing we could bag stuff up and bring it home! Oh yeah, and the jelly fish! EVERYWHERE! Knock on wood; I haven’t been stung by one yet.

Then we walked around the island and stuff. It was really pretty awesome! They had a bunch of land hermit crabs, like everywhere.

You had to watch where you stepped so you didn’t crush the little guys. Which was again cool because they are the same type we have at home (though I think ours are bigger). We went to a place called Dragon’s Breath Peak. The wind whistles through the rocks and sounds like a Dragon Breathing, thus the name. Check out the video.

Oh yeah, and avoid the island’s straw market. No, really! They were terrible! I only went because I was collecting coins as my souvenir and I needed a Haitian coin. I think I would have been better off going to the bank in Grand Cayman and asking for Haitian money!

then we had a yummy lunch and relaxed.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

So, now that we are back from our vacation, I can post about it! Sorry this took so long, I was being lazy! As we visited 4 stops, this will be a 5 part mini-series!

We went on a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Freedom of the Seas, visiting the cruise line’s (Royal Caribbean) private island in Haiti (Labadee); Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Grand Cayman; and Cozumel, Mexico. So here’s the break down:

Day 1: The first day we spent on the ship exploring as we headed to Haiti. And by the way, it was awesome! We got a free upgrade from the smallest, lowest cabin to one with a window overlooking the Royal Promenade. At first, I was worried about the noise and lights, but the room was soundproof (or at least I hope it was) and the curtains shut out all light (when I remembered to close them… ) Our cabin was right over the pizza shop, poor Keith.

But it was really cool to grab a slice before bed and only need to go up one flight of stairs (or one stop on the elevator, depending on how tired we were). And there was a Ben & Jerrys. And a wave rider and mini putt-putt golf course. And an ice skating rink. And a casino (of course). I learned how to play craps! Of course, I watched Keith the whole time. I lost all my gambling money at black jack. The cards hated me!

We also found out that there was a mini movie theater on the ship. I finally got to see Dark Knight. Kinda disappointing, actually. There were really great shows, including the ice skating show, and the food was awesome! Well, the pizza was ok…

And did I mention the hot tub? OMG! IT was soooo cool. For all my friends afraid of heights, ignore this picture…

on each side of the ship was a hot tub, big enough for about 15-20 people, that extended out over the sides of the ship! You look out the windows and straight down!
We obviously enjoyed the ship very much. Not only the chance to rest and get away from the world for a while, but the food and people and entertainment were great. As we expected.

Side note: Before we left on Sunday, we got to see the local sea turtle. One of the crew members said he always comes out to see the ship off. Then, about an hour later, we were still standing on the deck watching the water pass and we saw another one! He went under real fast and We didn’t get a picture, but he was sooo cute!

and go here if you want to see the rest of the pictures of us on the ship!