Caribbean Cruise

We've been back from vacation for a couple weeks now so I suppose it's time to catch up this blog.  We had an absolute blast on our trip.  I'll tell ya all about it.

We flew in a day before departure and stayed at the Radisson at the Port in Cape Canaveral.  Here we are waiting for the shuttle to take us over to the ship.

Our ship was called The Freedom of the Seas and it was beautiful!  Here is a picture of The Royal Promenade.  It's a long alley down the center of the ship with restaurants, shops, bars, etc.  Very impressive.  We spent a lot of time here.

Checking out the boat. 

Kids pool area.

Rock climbing wall.

Adult pool area.  I spent a lot of time here!

Coco Cay, Bahamas
Our first port was Coco Cay.  I was looking forward to this port the least for some reason and it turned out to be a great time.  It was the perfect initial stop for this cruise.

There's our beautiful boat!

Hammock living.  That's how we roll.

We got a tip from an online video that Barefoot Beach was the best on the island so we sought it out.  It was VERY nice.

Howie found a shaded cabana...

while I laid out on my floating beach mat.

We forgot to take our camera with us on our sea-do adventure, but we got to ride on one!  It was super fun, but it hurt.  We were both sore for several days afterwards.  That thing really beat us up.

That night was our first formal night. 

After dinner we walked the deck of the ship and caught the sunset.  So pretty.

St. Thomas
After a full day at sea, we arrived at St. Thomas.  This island was beautiful so I was a little sad that we booked an excursion that took us away from it for the entire day.  But, that just gives us a reason to go back someday, right?

We boarded "Blackbeard's Revenge" for a full day of sailing and snorkeling.

Plenty of turtles to be seen!

If you look at this picture just right you'll see a stingray!

The boat crew gave us pirate tats.  We felt pretty hardcore.

After snorkeling, we sailed on to a little beach that is not as well known.  It's on a smaller island just south of St. Thomas.  It was so nice.  They served us a Caribbean BBQ and gave us time to play.

Such a pretty stop.  We loved it.

 St. Maarten

We had a blast in St. Maarten!  We did a zip line treetop adventure tour and it was the coolest thing.  We ported on the Dutch side of St. Maarten, but drove over to the French side for this excursion.  It was at a place called Loterie Farm.

We had to wear these harnesses with attachments on them for the course.

We climbed trees, walked across bridges, ziplined through the trees.  So cool.

Hard Rock Cafe St. Maarten!

After our excursion was through, they dropped us off in town to do a little shopping before heading back to the ship.  I got a beautiful jewelry set from a store called Effy Jewelers.  The Caribbean is THE place to shop for diamonds and gems.  Just beautiful.  Speaking of beautiful, check out the dining room we ate in every night:

Cruising is the bomb!  Here is who we ate dinner with:

We got to know some neat people.  There was a couple from Maryland, a couple from Virginia, a couple from Illinois, a mother-daughter duo from the Washington D.C. area, and then us.

After the cruise we spent some time in Orlando, FL before going back home.  I'll save that for another post since this one is already so long!