Cruise

Wow, I don't know where to begin. We had so much fun. I will only post a few pictures here but I will give a link to photobucket for more pics if you want to check them out. Here's the link: http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff77/scuth2/Cruise%2008/
Our first day was on St. Thomas. We kayaked through a mangrove area to a deserted island and went hiking to what was supposed to be a blow hole. Apparently it was sleeping that day. Then we went snorkeling. We saw 2 HUGE puffer fish and I went to grab my underwater camera and noticed that it was full of water!!! AAHH! Apparently it hadn't sealed. I was pissed, but I didn't let it ruin the day. Then we kayaked back to base. It was a beautiful day. The next island was St. Maarten, where we boarded an America's Cup Regatta sailboat and did a real race. We did an actually job the a real crew member would have done in a race. Ryan thought it would be fun to be on seperate teams. His boat was Stars and Strips and my boat was True North IV. It was a good race but in the end my boat and team won-can you say bragging rights? After that we headed into town and purchased another underwater camera that doesn't have to have a case. It is awesome and worth every penny. We also enjoyed some time at the beach. Next we headed to Antigua. Our original Ultimate Adventure was canceled due to lack of participation. I was totally bummed out, but we went and did a canopy tour in the forest. It consisted of about 8 ziplines and then about 8 rope and bridge challenges. It was okay but not nearly as fun as the Ultimate Adventure would have been. My pictures of us on the zipline haven't been emailed to me yet. I'll post them when I get them, IF I ever get them.

St. Lucia was next and was my favorite island. We did a private tour and it was well worth the cost. We went all over the island tasting a lot of the local fruit and bread. We took a hike in the rainforest to a pool and waterfall and had it all to ourselves. While we were at the waterfall, terrential rain fall came down on us. It was awesome. The hike/waterfall/rain was probably my favorite part of the whole cruise. After that we headed to lunch with a view of the Pitons (Peetons). Then we headed to a drive in volcano. It's been dorment for years but you can see steam and mud/water boiling. Below the volcano there is a mineral/mud/water bath that you can soak in. It was really hot but soothing. Of to snorkel in the ocean was next. We saw a ton of fish including 6 cuddle fish which belong to the squid family. It was the first time I had ever seen them. It was really good snorkeling. We both loved it. We plan on going back to stay on St. Lucia. That's how much we loved it!

Barbados was our next stop. We did a Best of Barbados tour and went to the Harrison Cave, The Animal Perserve, and snorkeling with the turtles. Barbados was my second favorite place. The cave was really cool, it had fresh water running throught the whole thing. The animal preserve was so cool, the monkeys would come up right by you. One of them tried to take our camera while we were taking a picture of it. It was hilarious. We also saw a baby monkey-too cute.

As far as the ship goes, it was huge. We enjoyed being on the boat. The food and desserts were really good. We went to the entertainment every night. Most of it was good, however the last night was terrible. I loved dressing up, Ryan not so much. But our pictures turned out great. We met a lot of fun people and will probably be staying in touch with a few of them.

Sunset from our balcony on the last day.