andy and I were booked for a cruise for may 2014. we were so excited to be planning another vacation and then 2 unexpected things happened. 1. dad crushed his heel not long before we were to leave and 2. we got a wedding invitation to kendra and cliff’s wedding for right after Christmas – and they were getting married on a cruise.
we knew that we wouldn’t be able to go on two cruises in one year and we didn’t know if my dad was going to have surgery and I didn’t want to be that far away from home if he did. so we called the cruise line and got our reservation changed. one of the best decisions we made. we got to go on a perfect vacation, see a wonderful marriage of two amazing people, and ring in the new year in style!
our boat was leaving from fort lauderdale, fl on sunday so we got up early Saturday morning (before the sun) and loaded up dad’s truck and away we went.
we made it to fl and met up with my brother and blair for dinner.
we made it to the port sunday after killing time shopping and driving around. we went through security and after dad got his new knife taken away from him (he got it back when we got back) we boarded the boat. there is something about walking through the walk way and to the boat.
we loved our room. it was a little bigger than the room we had on the last cruise. we had a love seat in our room. (I think my parents were jealous). they were around the corner and down the hall from us in a room that only had a chair (because of a connecting door). and like last time, we had a port hole in our room so we could watch the waves and the ocean.
the wedding was different. I had never been to a wedding on a cruise with the captain officiating. we went to the chapel and had champagne while we waiting on the ceremony to start and once all the parties where there, we watched as two wonderful people exchanged vows and rings.
(playing with editing a little bit)
(back to the wedding)
to the beautiful reception
the first stop on the cruise was to the grand caymens. we did our own self walking tour right around the port. we didn’t stray too far but we did a little bit of shopping. I love all of the towel animals.
we made a point to try to go to all of the shows. on our first cruise we didn’t get to many of them and we talked about wanting to make sure that we did on this cruise.
kendra arranged for us to all sit in the same area at meal times. we had a little trouble getting into the group since we transferred cruises, but we finally got it fixed to where we were sitting in the same area as the group. we were at a small table with another couple from the wedding group. allison and chris. we had a good time with them (hopefully they did with us as well).
we enjoyed after dinner festivities around the boat.
the next port was jamaica. we knew our room was close to where we got off the boat so I put my book in the window so that we could find our room. we walked around inside the port area, but we also went outside the gate and walked around a little bit.
after dinner we were invited to join the group in new year’s festivities. they reserved the bridge for our group only. it was so much fun to be with everyone (and to not be in the crowd below). we definitely brought in the new year in style.
the next stop was haiti
that night we took our towel animal and dressed him up so our cabin attendant could see his elephant dressed up.
they had the farewell show
the wait staff did their farewell song/dance. we loved our waiter, francis! someone ordered “nothing” for dessert and this is what he brought out!
when we got back to the room we noticed that the elephant had a few more decorations.
some random photos around the boat.
we went to an ice show – on the boat! there was an ice rink! it was a cute show and it was really done well.
view from our room
one of the shows had a violinist followed by a comedian.
some group photos
the marriage game! hilarious!
some photos of our room! ignore the name behind the curtain!
we had so much fun on vacation. it was hard to narrow down the pictures to post the ones that i did. looking back through all of them made me miss our trip. but it brought up a lot of memories. it was a wonderful wedding and festivities! we were so lucky to be able to ring in the new year and start 2015 on a cruise.
we were sad to leave.
we are planning another cruise for 2018 – I hope!
beyondthechaos 