Our Honeymoon
After the excitement and stress of planning a wedding every bride and groom need to get away and have some fun. Neal and I jetted off to sunny Miami Beach for a night at the Best Western Miami Airport Inn and Suites. The hotel was really nice, but let's be honest nowhere near the airport or cruise ship terminal. We had a swim and a nice dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. The very next morning a group of us made our way to the ship. Our Royal Caribbean cruise ship was the Freedom of the Seas. This is the 2nd largest ship in the fleet. Our trip would take us to Labadee, Haiti, Ochos Rios, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cosumel, Mexico and back to Miami. Our room was really spacious with a rather large balcony. We sat out on our balcony as we left port that evening eating our chocolate covered strawberries, provided by our friend and travel agent Jenny. What a perfect way to set sail. We were at sea for one day and there were so many activities to choose from.....there's an ice skating rink, rock wall, flow rider, mini-golf course and tons of pools to choose from. On our excursion to the island of Labadee in Haiti, which is totally owned by Royal Caribbean, Neal and I went kayaking. This was his first time kayaking and he did wonderfully. We made a few stops along the way to learn about the island's history and see a village and to actually stop in a village and get harassed by the locals who wanted us to buy their stuff. Then we paddled back to the beach where a BBQ was waiting for us. We had a lot of fun and then returned back to the ship to relax.
Our next stop was Ochos Rios, Jamaica where we took a tour of the island and then we climbed Dunn River Falls. Let me just say that the falls were the most difficult and slippery thing to climb. Here you have the water rushing over the falls and you are holding onto a chain of people and you are climbing over slippery rocks while photographers are trying to take your photo. I managed to make it half way up the falls before finally chickening out. I'd had more than enough and when I saw a flight of stairs I left. Neal, on the other hand, was a lot more brave than I and finished the climb to the top. I was waiting at the top for him with the camera and took a photo. We all had fun. As we were leaving we had to run the gauntlet of souvenir vendors before we got to the bus. That is not the kind of shopping that I will stand for. No sooner did we get back on the bus then the sky opened up and it poured rain. We had a brief stop at the local tourist shops before heading back to the ship. That night we had to get dressed up for formal night. We got to meet our table mates for the trip who were from Australia. We really enjoyed Jill and Peter's company. That night the show was a figure skating spectacular. Wow what those entertainers could do on such a small ice surface was incredible. They were doing double and triple jumps on an ice surface not larger than the floor space of my condo.
The next day we were in Grand Cayman. The day was dark and overcast but that didn't deter Neal and I from going ashore and exploring the many souvenir shops. We found one with free Internet service and good prices. Then it started to rain so we ducked into a mall to get dry. They had beautiful parrots just sitting there and of course Neal made friends with the birds. It was so cute watching him talk to the animals. He's a regular Dr. Doolittle! Then when we'd had enough rain we ran back to the cruise terminal to catch our tender boat back to our ship. Well, let me tell you, that tiny tender was sure tossing and turning as this storm had kicked up the sea a fair bit, but you could hardly feel anything once aboard the Freedom. The sky cleared later that day so Neal and I went for a swim. It didn't stay sunny for long as the sky clouded over while we were in the pool and the rain came gushing down. We took refuge under a bridge as the rain was really hard. The people at the bar just looked on and waved at us. Later that night was the 2nd of our formal nights. We saw a great show again and when we got back to our room. The room attendant had made us a sting ray out of towels and laid a chocolate on our pillow. Later that night we stayed up for the culinary feast or as repeat cruisers know it as the midnight buffet. We walked through the first time taking photos of the beautiful ice sculptures and fruit and vegetable carvings. It was just remarkable what they can do with food. Then once everyone was able to take photos people were able to eat. Holy cow did they ever eat. I had a little sushi and we sat and watched one very fierce storm outside our ship.
The next day we woke up to Cosumel, Mexico right outside our window. That morning we had an excursion to The Punta Sur Ecological Park. They picked us up in a modified jeep truck for our adventure. They first took as to see some birds and an old lighthouse. I'll give you three guesses to try and figure out who chose this trip.....Neal wanted to climb to the top of the lighthouse. I stayed below and had a look at the nautical museum, the bits of the original lighthouse and saw the souvenir shop. Our next stop was to be one of the most difficult snorkeling adventures I have ever been on. Poor Neal, this would be his first and last try at snorkeling. We put on our masks, snorkel, flippers and life jackets and we set off, but Neal was having trouble right from the beginning. His mask wasn't fitting right and he wasn't able to breath through his snorkel so the guy gave him a flutter board and sent him off. Have you ever tried to use a flutter board with a life jacket on? It's nearly impossible and what made it worse was that we were swimming against the current the whole way. At least I did manage to see a few fish and some coral but that was it. This reef had been damaged by a hurricane and it was just growing back. I think both of us were very happy to set foot on dry land once again. Our next stop was to this lookout to see crocodiles. We walked along this rickety bridge to see the crocs. Our guide was either fearless or had a strong connection to Steve Irwin because this guy tried to get the cros attention using his hat and then later his leg. He wanted to get the croc to open it's mouth. Wow that guy was nuts!!!! Our last stop was to a restaurant called Carlos and Charlies. They served many different kinds of tacos and a lot of booze. One guy had it poured right down his throat. We even got crayons and paper to draw on the table as we waited for our meal.
Then we were back on the ship for one full day at sea. Neal and I ventured over to the ice rink for a skating lesson from a former Olympic athlete. He was an excellent teacher as he had Neal and I skating forwards and backwards within the hour lesson. We even learned to stop without bashing into the boards. Later that day we watched a cooking demonstration with the head chief. It was really interesting to see how they make some of the food that we've eaten all week. Our last show featured an act that looked strangely like it was Cirque Du Soilel. There was also singing and dancing as well.
All too soon we were back in Miami heading for Sunny Isles Florida. We were staying there for two days at the Doubletree Resort and Spa. Wow our room was absolutely spectacular. It was no ordinary hotel room, this was more like a condo. We had a full kitchen, dining room, den, huge bedroom with a king size bed and a washroom that you could have done cartwheels in. We had a huge soaker tub and then a separate shower and a his and hers sink. We also had a wrap around balcony. The view was right out onto the ocean. We didn't want to ever leave it was so beautiful. We even had our very own washer and dryer inside the unit.
Unfortunately, our stay in paradise had to come to an end and we made our way to Las Vegas for a friend's wedding. As we got closer to Las Vegas there was a terrible sand storm and the plane was tossing and turning really badly. Neal and I were holding onto each other for dear life. The pilot, bless his soul, got us down with a rather hard bounce off the runway. We hopped a shuttle to the Monte Carlo. Our room was nowhere near as luxurious as we had in Florida. As a matter of fact, our air conditioner was broken and we had a repair person fixing it at 11:00 p.m. while all we wanted to do was sleep. The next morning we met up with my brother and sister-in-law for brunch at the Mirage. Wow I've never in my life eaten that much food at a buffet. After that we walked around to try and burn off a fraction of what we'd eaten. Thankfully it wasn't as hot as Las Vegas could get. Later we returned back to the hotel for a swim in their wave pool and lazy river. The next day we did it all over again. The last day was our friend's wedding and we all had a good time.
Our last few hours in Las Vegas I played the penny slots and won $2.75. Hey I know what you're all thinking, but at least I can go home saying that I won in Vegas. Not many people can say that. All in all we had a great honeymoon.
Our next stop was Ochos Rios, Jamaica where we took a tour of the island and then we climbed Dunn River Falls. Let me just say that the falls were the most difficult and slippery thing to climb. Here you have the water rushing over the falls and you are holding onto a chain of people and you are climbing over slippery rocks while photographers are trying to take your photo. I managed to make it half way up the falls before finally chickening out. I'd had more than enough and when I saw a flight of stairs I left. Neal, on the other hand, was a lot more brave than I and finished the climb to the top. I was waiting at the top for him with the camera and took a photo. We all had fun. As we were leaving we had to run the gauntlet of souvenir vendors before we got to the bus. That is not the kind of shopping that I will stand for. No sooner did we get back on the bus then the sky opened up and it poured rain. We had a brief stop at the local tourist shops before heading back to the ship. That night we had to get dressed up for formal night. We got to meet our table mates for the trip who were from Australia. We really enjoyed Jill and Peter's company. That night the show was a figure skating spectacular. Wow what those entertainers could do on such a small ice surface was incredible. They were doing double and triple jumps on an ice surface not larger than the floor space of my condo.
The next day we were in Grand Cayman. The day was dark and overcast but that didn't deter Neal and I from going ashore and exploring the many souvenir shops. We found one with free Internet service and good prices. Then it started to rain so we ducked into a mall to get dry. They had beautiful parrots just sitting there and of course Neal made friends with the birds. It was so cute watching him talk to the animals. He's a regular Dr. Doolittle! Then when we'd had enough rain we ran back to the cruise terminal to catch our tender boat back to our ship. Well, let me tell you, that tiny tender was sure tossing and turning as this storm had kicked up the sea a fair bit, but you could hardly feel anything once aboard the Freedom. The sky cleared later that day so Neal and I went for a swim. It didn't stay sunny for long as the sky clouded over while we were in the pool and the rain came gushing down. We took refuge under a bridge as the rain was really hard. The people at the bar just looked on and waved at us. Later that night was the 2nd of our formal nights. We saw a great show again and when we got back to our room. The room attendant had made us a sting ray out of towels and laid a chocolate on our pillow. Later that night we stayed up for the culinary feast or as repeat cruisers know it as the midnight buffet. We walked through the first time taking photos of the beautiful ice sculptures and fruit and vegetable carvings. It was just remarkable what they can do with food. Then once everyone was able to take photos people were able to eat. Holy cow did they ever eat. I had a little sushi and we sat and watched one very fierce storm outside our ship.
The next day we woke up to Cosumel, Mexico right outside our window. That morning we had an excursion to The Punta Sur Ecological Park. They picked us up in a modified jeep truck for our adventure. They first took as to see some birds and an old lighthouse. I'll give you three guesses to try and figure out who chose this trip.....Neal wanted to climb to the top of the lighthouse. I stayed below and had a look at the nautical museum, the bits of the original lighthouse and saw the souvenir shop. Our next stop was to be one of the most difficult snorkeling adventures I have ever been on. Poor Neal, this would be his first and last try at snorkeling. We put on our masks, snorkel, flippers and life jackets and we set off, but Neal was having trouble right from the beginning. His mask wasn't fitting right and he wasn't able to breath through his snorkel so the guy gave him a flutter board and sent him off. Have you ever tried to use a flutter board with a life jacket on? It's nearly impossible and what made it worse was that we were swimming against the current the whole way. At least I did manage to see a few fish and some coral but that was it. This reef had been damaged by a hurricane and it was just growing back. I think both of us were very happy to set foot on dry land once again. Our next stop was to this lookout to see crocodiles. We walked along this rickety bridge to see the crocs. Our guide was either fearless or had a strong connection to Steve Irwin because this guy tried to get the cros attention using his hat and then later his leg. He wanted to get the croc to open it's mouth. Wow that guy was nuts!!!! Our last stop was to a restaurant called Carlos and Charlies. They served many different kinds of tacos and a lot of booze. One guy had it poured right down his throat. We even got crayons and paper to draw on the table as we waited for our meal.
Then we were back on the ship for one full day at sea. Neal and I ventured over to the ice rink for a skating lesson from a former Olympic athlete. He was an excellent teacher as he had Neal and I skating forwards and backwards within the hour lesson. We even learned to stop without bashing into the boards. Later that day we watched a cooking demonstration with the head chief. It was really interesting to see how they make some of the food that we've eaten all week. Our last show featured an act that looked strangely like it was Cirque Du Soilel. There was also singing and dancing as well.
All too soon we were back in Miami heading for Sunny Isles Florida. We were staying there for two days at the Doubletree Resort and Spa. Wow our room was absolutely spectacular. It was no ordinary hotel room, this was more like a condo. We had a full kitchen, dining room, den, huge bedroom with a king size bed and a washroom that you could have done cartwheels in. We had a huge soaker tub and then a separate shower and a his and hers sink. We also had a wrap around balcony. The view was right out onto the ocean. We didn't want to ever leave it was so beautiful. We even had our very own washer and dryer inside the unit.
Unfortunately, our stay in paradise had to come to an end and we made our way to Las Vegas for a friend's wedding. As we got closer to Las Vegas there was a terrible sand storm and the plane was tossing and turning really badly. Neal and I were holding onto each other for dear life. The pilot, bless his soul, got us down with a rather hard bounce off the runway. We hopped a shuttle to the Monte Carlo. Our room was nowhere near as luxurious as we had in Florida. As a matter of fact, our air conditioner was broken and we had a repair person fixing it at 11:00 p.m. while all we wanted to do was sleep. The next morning we met up with my brother and sister-in-law for brunch at the Mirage. Wow I've never in my life eaten that much food at a buffet. After that we walked around to try and burn off a fraction of what we'd eaten. Thankfully it wasn't as hot as Las Vegas could get. Later we returned back to the hotel for a swim in their wave pool and lazy river. The next day we did it all over again. The last day was our friend's wedding and we all had a good time.
Our last few hours in Las Vegas I played the penny slots and won $2.75. Hey I know what you're all thinking, but at least I can go home saying that I won in Vegas. Not many people can say that. All in all we had a great honeymoon.
posted by Dolphingirl240 at 4:02 PM
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