We flew into Miami on Saturday night and got there around midnight. We spent the night in a hotel. A cheap one at that. It was kind of like an old college dorm. I guess you get what you pay for. Lesson learned. We crashed around 2am but it only felt like midnight or so because of the time difference, only it felt a little later than midnight because flying for 6 hours on a plane sucks.
Sunday morning we found out that there was no complimentary breakfast. Stupid cheap hotel. After a delicious breakfast of granola bars and some jerky that we brought with us we made our way to the Port of Miami where the cruises leave from. Our hotel had a shuttle that ran from the hotel to the port. That I think was the reason that we stayed there, other than the fact that Erica was at the computer and she picked it because it was the cheapest. The port wasn't too bad. We had to wait in line for a while, but it went pretty quick. We boarded just after noon I think and went on board and found some food and sat up on the deck and watched things happen.
The Carnival Triumph sailed out at 4:00 and we left at 4:30 right after they got turned around and headed out to sea. The beaches outside the port were pretty cool looking. It would be pretty awesome to live right there.
See what I mean. So we sailed off into the sunset. That night we met our dinner mates. You are assigned a table with other couples. We had a smaller table that sat eight. They do some matching and put you with people who are similar ages. Two of the couple have been married for two years and the others just got married the week before and this was their honeymoon, although I think that they have been together for a while. We made good friends with all of them and enjoyed our meals together so much that we started hanging out with them most of the time we were on the ship. Here is a picture of the gang.
Monday we spent at sea. They are supposed to be "Fun Day at Sea", but to me they were just day at sea. I don't really remember too much of what we did, we sat outside on the top deck and got sunburned. Another lesson learned, that makes #2. We had gone tanning and it helped but we should have put sunscreen on sooner. I'm sure that we took a nap, we made a habit of an afternoon nap for the rest of the trip. It was marvelous.
Tuesday we made it to Grand Cayman Island. We rode a tender ship to shore and sat in the crappy port area because nothing was open yet. We waited for a while before our excursion left. We went to the Stingray Sandbar and then to a small coral garden and then to see some starfish. It was a lot of fun to see the stingrays. Fisherman had started stopping there and cleaning their fish so the stingrays started coming to eat the leftovers and now they are accustomed to people and just want a little snack. They tell you before you get off of the boat that once you are in the water, the stingrays will brush up against you. They said that you can scream as loud and high as you want but not to jump, stomp, or kick at the stingrays. It was pretty awesome to be in the water, which was about chest deep, and have some 4 -5 ft diameter stingrays brushing up against your legs! The tour guides took pictures with a nice waterproof digital camera but they charged quite a bit for them, so we took a few with a waterproof disposable camera. The guides catch a stingray and then let each couple hold it and give it kisses. It was pretty exciting.
The snorkeling wasn't too exciting for Erica but I just enjoyed being in the water. I have never been to the ocean. It really is just like salty water! Who knew?! The underwater cameras are real great at taking pictures unless you are pretty close. Lesson #3. We did get a cool picture of the star fish, which were huge. I've only ever seen small ones, about the size of your palm, but these ones were as big as a dinner plate.
We had fun on Cayman but we walked around some of the shops looking for souveniers, but everything they had was pretty lame. Erica said it was like they had no culture, it was just a tourist place. They have a pretty nice beach called 7 Mile Beach, which we should have gone too instead of walking around the shops. Lesson #4.
Well, Gavin has decided to wake up from his nap, so that concludes this blogging session. I got up through Tuesday. You'll have to tune in next time.
To be continued.....
I am totally jealous about the cruise. That sounds like so much fun! Glad you learned some lessons along the way. lol
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