Cruzin'

I have so many pictures and so many words to describe our week on the Norwegian Pearl Cruise Ship! It was sooo much fun and I had an amazing time with my family.  My parents and all my siblings and their spouses were there and I couldn't have asked for any better company to holiday with.  I am so greatful for my family and I am especially greatful that I get along with each one of my siblings and their spouses!

We flew Calgary to Toronto to Miami.  It was a long day of traveling...or maybe the anticipation of getting there and getting on the ship was getting to me.  No, it really was a long day of travelling.  Toronto was experiencing a bit of a blizzard and the runways were icy.  BUT, they didn't discover they were too icy until AFTER we were all boarded.  Once we all got seated and settled, the captain said that the runways were not safe for takeoff, and he was just waiting to hear another update.  They had TV screens on the back of each seat with video on demand, so I started watching a movie.  The captain would continue to update us until we could finally prepare for takeoff.  BUT, we had to be de-iced first.  I watched an entire movie (Moneyball) sitting at the gate, before we even got to the runway.  So, that added an extra 2 hours of sitting in a crammed airplane seat.  We got to the hotel and didn't get to bed until around 2am.

The next morning we got on a shuttle to go to the port. 

 Check-in takes a while as there almost 2,400 people trying to check into their "hotel".  Finally, we got our magic room key and we were on our way.  (Most of my pictures are of everyone else, because you know how it is...I'm the one taking the pictures...)

 We immediately found the nearest restaurant so we could have some lunch. As soon as you are on the ship you can hit the buffet, restaurants, you name it.  Our rooms were not available until around 2pm so we wandered around the ship trying to navigate where everything is, until our rooms were ready.  They deliver your luggage right to your door, so thankfully we didn't have to lug everything around with us!  By the way, in the picture below, that thing above their heads are the life boats.  They were not small either!

We all had balcony rooms, all pretty close to each other.

Our first stop was supposed to be Norwegian Cruise Line's private Island called the Great Stirrup Cay, in the Bahamas.  The winds were too high for the boat to anchor, so instead of driving 25 knotts, we drove 13 knotts to our next destination and we had two days at sea.  That was a bummer.  They had things going on  like Bingo, Dancing, Deal or No Deal, musicians playing on the pool deck, etc. The boys played a little dodge ball.

We did very little of this because of the high winds and cloudy weather.  This was probably the only time we all sat out on the pool deck (but not for long because it was so windy).  The rest of the time it was cloudy and too cold with the wind.

Then they had a synchronized swimming contest.  My brothers and their wives and my mom entered.  They were a hit!  The grand prize was a bucket of beer.  Guess who won?!?!  You should have seen the look on the cruise directors face when they passed up their bucket of beer and asked for virgin pina colada's.  Who goes on vacation and doesn't drink?

Our first "real" stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  It was a port and it is amazing to stand right next to the ship and see how big it really is.  Those little circle holes are windows to someone's room.  The ship had 14 floors.

Besides a couple dinner shots, I think this is the only picture I have of ALL of us. The water in Jamaica was so blue...I just love the color.

Jamaica was probably one of our nicest days but we spent it in the jungle ziplining.

My dad bought a GoPro camera that you can strap to things to video.  You can clip it to a surf board, skateboard, motorcycle...anything really.  We were really excited to wear it ziplining.  So Brandon clipped it to his helmet and took some great HD footage of ziplining!  It is pretty funny to watch the video's.  For the most part we had it strapped to our heads so they usually start with a close up of someone's face saying, "Is it turned on?  Is the red light flashing?" 

The second part of our day in Jamaica we spent in the jungle going down the river on tubes.  It was a lot of fun! 

Next stop, George Town, Grand Caymen Islands.   This was a tender stop where the ship has to anchor and you take these little tender boats to shore.  By little I mean it  holds about 250 people.  There are two of them next to our ship and you can hardly see  them!

We got on a boat and headed out to sting ray city.

We got to feed the sting rays and I have to admit I squealed a little.  I was all brave and was going to do it but then when it came up to me I screamed and dropped the food!  Then I was brave enough later to let them touch me.  I don't know why I was such as chicken!

Then we stopped at a reef and went snorkeling.  It was pretty good snorkeling.  When you go snorkeling at a resort the water is usually pretty poluted from the traffic of people, but here we stopped somewhere what seemed like the middle of the ocean and snorkeled.  The water was so clear.

On the way back our guide stopped and dove off the side of the boat and came up with a star fish.  Then he did it again and got another one.  Those are some interesting creatures.

Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico.  Next to us was the Norwegian Star (Another NCL ship).  When we got back on the ship, it was a party between the two ships with the staff, welcoming you back on board.

We rented scooters and had quite the gang.  The boys were like little school boys with a new toy.

We drove around the island and stopped at a few places until we found a nice beach to go to.  The sun was NOT shining that day.  Still warm and humid though.

We found a beach and walked until we found someone with a boat.  We asked them to take us out somewhere snorkeling.  We honestly had the BEST snorkeling and the BEST guides.  This guy would dive down and disappear in some reef tunnels and come out on the other side.  At one point I thought he died under there because he held is breath so long.  Then he appeared on the other side of the reef.  He held is breath for over a minute.  He would dive down so deep and point things out.  His name was Angel.

Here he is diving down and chased this turtle around, caught it and brought it up for us to see!

Then he would blow bubble rings and then swim through  them.  This one he is under our glass bottom boat blowing bubble rings.

We all got stung several times by little baby jelly fish.  You could hardly see them, but you could sure feel them...for a few minutes anyways.

Don't mind my sister and I, we like to dress the same to throw people into thinking we are twins!  Kidding...my sister-in-laws and one of my sisters all bought swimming suits from Hapari when they were like 60% off and we ended up ordering some of the same ones.  We joked about making a schedule for the cruise for what swim suit to wear on what days.  Tammy didn't get the memo that day not to wear her black and blue one.  We took our shirts off to go snorkeling and just started laughing.

My other sister and brother and their spouses didn't come snorkeling.  They stayed back at the beach and ended up going parasailing.

It was really cloudy that day.  We had to get back on our scooters and race back to the ship.  It started pouring on us.  It was warmer rain, and warmer air, but on a scooter it was a little chilly.  My sister-in-law says it best.  We looked like Dumb and Dumber riding on a scooter shivering as we drove back to return our scooters!  It was pretty funny!  We were completely drenched!

I had to put this picture of the head chef on here.  We called him Chef Boyardee.  He was hilarious.

The ship was beautiful and had lots of things to do.  It had a climbing wall, a golf driving range, bowling alley, giant chess/checkers boards, shuffle boards, a water slide...

We spent a lot of nights playing Rook and other card games and a lot of Sudoku puzzles.

Our last day at sea heading back to Miami they had a juggling workshop put on by "Sharkbait", one of the evening entertainers.  I had to try it out.

We also went to the evennig entertainment in the theater every night which was pretty good.  Better than an all-inclusive in Mexico.  They had a comedian, "The Second City" improv comedians, dancers and singers, Sharkbait (my favorite and by far the most entertaining), and male quartet singers that sang oldies by Frankie Valley and  the Four Seasons - that my parents loved.  In fact they were blaring it in their stateroom later that night as we were packing to leave the ship.

Despite the poor weather, it was a really relaxing, fun vacation.  A nice getaway without kids where we had time to visit without interruptions.  I hope that one day we can all arrange to do this again.  Memories I will never forget...