Cruise Recap

I am going to recap our cruise while it is fresh on my mind. This will probably be a long post so please don't feel obligated to read it. Lets start from the beginning...We left Friday at about 11:30am. It was a fairly easy day of traveling. We left on time and landed on time. Flying to Florida is definitely not my favorite but it was well worth it. We stayed at a semi-trashy hotel. We went with some friends of ours that Jeff met through work a few years ago. We have been friends with them for a while and decided to take a cruise together hoping we would enjoy each other as much as we do when we hang out for a weekend in St. George or just a weekend night. It turned out that we seemed to do great with each other and didn't really have any mishaps. Jordan and Kjersti (our friends) on the other hand were delayed about 3 1/2 hours leaving from Salt Lake and that kind of sucked for them. It took them about 10 hours to get to Florida. The next morning we woke up to THE most annoying guy ever on a microphone announcing every 10 seconds who was leaving for what ship. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get out of there. We then very quickly got on the boat. Carnival Freedom.

Saturday-Board the boat and just checked it all out. It had a water slide, mini-golf course, huge theater screen by the pool, 6 hot tubs, adult only section with AWESOME couches to lay on, etc...it was the best ship we have been on out of 5 cruises.
Sunday-First day at sea. We layed out and just kind of vegged. We ate way too much and enjoyed a little bit of the boats entertainment. I believe this was the night we went to karaoke and Jordan performed an amazingly funny rendition of "Johnny Be Good". It was very entertaining considering the average age in the room was about 78 and the same 2-3 people were cycle through. He might have saved karaoke that night. He got a standing ovation. We then went to comedy show that was a little crude for me but still funny.
After that I think we called it a night
Monday-we were at sea until about 6pm and I think we just layed out and made our rounds to the buffets. We finally made it to Puerto Rico at about 6 that evening...we were not huge fans of this stop. I think it had to do with the fact that almost EVERYTHING closed before we got there. It was night time so we couldn't see beaches and didn't really want to pay for an excursion in the dark. It also was raining so we didn't love that. It was still nice to get off the boat. Jeff bought a sweat band that has the Puerto Rican flag on it...yes, he wears a sweat band when he plays basketball sometimes. I know. Jordan decided he wanted a big Puerto Rican flag. We later realized it smelled like absolute crap. Overall it was still enjoyable. We got back on the boat and went to our usual spot on the adult couches and talked and watched stars and hung out. This night was fun conversation about everything and anything. We got to know a lot more about each other. I also learned Jeff apparently "dated" (made out with) a girl named Roxy....really, Roxy?!?! :)
Tuesday- Ended up being first really fun stop. St. Thomas. We decided to just head to a beach. After feeling totally screwed by taxi fairs and all the people totally assaulting us to get in their taxi. We payed a taxi to take us to Meghan's Bay. It was BEAUTIFUL! The only down fall was that EVERYONE from EVERY cruise ship seemed to find the same place. So we layed out and swam in the ocean with 400 of our closest strangers. It was still amazing and SO fun! We went back to town and wondered around the shops. We decided up until the last stop the shopping was ALL the same. Same crap: t-shirts, cheap necklaces, totes and sun dresses that all looked the same. We just headed back to the boat about an hour before we were supposed to be back on. It was overall still amazing and fun! The water was a little cold but luckily the sun was beating down to make it warm to get out. I am a fan of St. Thomas but next time we will ask a local for a more secluded beach.
Wednesday-Antigua. This was an educational stop. We wondered for a minute once we got off the boat. Once again we were bombarded by taxi drivers that wanted to drive us to who knows where. We walked a little farther down and found a driver willing to take us on a island tour. We went to a place called...crap I can't remember. It was the place where the island fought for independence from British rule. We ended up on a huge hill overlooking the bay. It was beautiful. Our taxi driver/tour guide was great. He told us everything we wanted to know and many things we didn't need to know. I asked the average marriage age and he didn't answer the question but very quickly went off about his sex life and how he was late to the game but made up for it by sleeping with 7 different woman almost daily. He also told us that he was trying really hard not to cheat on his wife but it was just too hard not to. He also went on a religious tangent about clergy members that no longer wear the appropriate attire and how they were embarrassed of God.  It was a very VERY entertaining drive back to the boat. We enjoyed Antigua. Only regret was that we heard we missed out on some amazing beaches. However it rained alot of this day and we had gotten plenty of sun the day before in St. Thomas. It was a great stop.
Thursday-best day of the trip. Tortola. I would go there for a week to visit. We reluctantly decided to rent scooters and drive around. We asked a local for a good recommendation of a beach that wasn't too busy. He referred us to Nature Boy's beach. It was more than we could have EVER anticipated. It was the 4 of us and about 7 other people on a mile long beach of the most amazingly blue water you will ever see and sand that felt like flour. We layed out, swam in the ocean, walked along the beach and just loved every minute of it. The most entertaining part of this day was watching/experiencing Jeff learning how to drive a scooter. They also drive on the "wrong"/other side of the road. The guy at the rental place asked Jeff if he had driven a scooter to which he lied and said yes. The first time he hit the gas it was like in the movies where people dive out of the way screaming. I was laughing pretty hard. On the way back to the boat he took a turn at the wrong speed (he blamed me by saying I wasn't leaning correctly into the turn. Right, that was the problem...) we came EXTREMELY close to running into a cement wall. I was laughing pretty hard. We decided to stop at a local restaurant called "Pusser's". We were starving so we thought anything would work but it turns out we picked an awesome place. We ordered a little bit of local food and a mango smoothie that has officially ruined any other smoothie I will ever try. It was the best thing ever!! I ordered 2 and wish I had had room for a third. Nothing will ever compare. Then headed back to the boat. Tortola was the best stop of the entire vacation. We went hot tubing later that night and met some super fun people. It was by far an interesting conversation. We were informed there was a singles group on the cruise of about 200 people. It was a 30's-40's cruise of singles. We talked to a few of them in the hot tub and got fairly uncomfortable when two people from that cruise got a little bit too touchy in the hot tub. They were also PLASTERED. It made for some entertaining conversation though. We made friends with some of them and had fun hanging out with them later on the cruise.
Friday-Friday was an interesting day. We quickly learned this was going to be a rough day for our friends. There were 10-15 foot swells/waves that made the boat rock more than I have ever felt. Luckily for us (Jeff and I) we don't get sea sick. It was an entirely different story for the couple we were with and about 70% of the boat. They cancelled the entertainment shows that night due to rockiness.  Jordan and Kjersti stayed in their room all but about 3 hours that day. We felt pretty bad for them. Jeff and I entertained ourselves with laying out, playing games, and random other things. We decided at about 9 to hit up the "superstar live karaoke" event in a club. Jeff and I were dared to do karaoke. I wasn't sure if I had the confidence to make a complete idiot of myself but for those of who know me....I did it. It was fairly easy to make a fool of myself. We ended up running into the people we met in the hot tub and at a game show earlier in the week. I ended up doing "Flo" by Flo Rida with a girl from Detroit. She was way cool. At the end I stepped off the stage not realizing there was a foot drop instead of 3-4 inches and fell straight on my face. Don't worry, it was video taped and totally funny. Jordan and Kjersti called it a night due to sea sickness. Jeff and I hung out with our new friends. I learned that Rachel's (Detroit girl) best friend died of a heroine overdose a few months prior to this trip. She had a new insight on life and it was fun talking to her. Amanda and Cody (hot tub friends) were brother and sister and were SO much fun to get to know. Cody could NOT find a girl his age to hang with for the life of him. He was popular with the 7 year old girls and the 37-47 year old cougars. He is 23. :) We had fun talking and singing to the acoustic guitarist performances. We stayed up late and then called it a day.
Saturday-2nd runner up for the best stop and a close one at that. Nassau. We went to Atlantis. We only had a very short period of time here but it was still SO fun. Jeff and I decided we will go back and stay there in the next few years. It was AMAZING. We went to the water park. They had tube slides that you didn't even have to get out of your tube. It just took you on a conveyor belt up and you told the lifeguard which slide to push you towards and you could do about 4 different ones without having to get out and move. They had a slide with 120 ft. vertical drop. It was crazy! We went through 2 slides that take you in a glass tunnel through a shark and pirhana tank. It was amazing! We ended up going back about an hour and half early so we could go to the straw market. I am SOOO glad we did. It was my heaven. Purses, jewelry and everything that I love!! I was glad the shopping had sucked up until our last stop because I would have spent alot more money. But since I hadn't bought anything really before this stop I was able to get pretty much everything I loved! We got back on the boat wishing we had more time but so glad it was such a fun stop. We hurried and changed and tried to catch the sunset...which we missed and then went to dinner. After dinner I HAD to wash my hair since I had chlorine water in it and looked awful. After that we went and layed in our nightly spot and talked. The weather that night was unforgettable and perfect. We watched the stars and talked. After that Kjersti showered and went to bed. So Jordan, Jeff and I hung out with our new friends...they were a little tipsy and totally started screaming and cheering for us when we walked in. After that it was about 1:30 and we decided to take advantage of our last room service night. We ordered 14 plates of food....yeah, 14. We laughed and then about 2:30 called it a night.
Sunday- We woke up and ate breakfast and headed off the boat to the airport. We sat at the airport about 6 1/2-7 hours before our flight started boarding. I won't even start about how this flight went. Let's just say we all sat separated, even from our spouses and when we got off the plane in Denver...there were a few choice words dropped from a few people during our layover. This was the first time we got a little irritated but not really with each other just in general. It was a 4 1/2 hour flight and a few of us sat by some really crazy people. We then boarded our plane in Denver and headed for home. We landed in Salt Lake at about 11:40 and got home at about 12:30 or 1. It was a 18 hour travel day. Still well worth it!!!
We had an unforgettable trip. It was so much fun. I can't wait for the next one. We are trying to aim for one in January with some other friends of ours. Hopefully it will pan out and if it doesn't it better be because I am pregnant. :) Thanks Kjersti and Jordan for coming with us. For pictures and videos see Facebook since I still don't know why my computer doesn't upload pictures on the blog. So, back to the snow and reality...lame.