Our First Cruise: A Day in Miami

Our boat returned to Miami early in the morning but our flight wasn't until the next day. We disembarked the ship about 10:30 am, caught a cab to the airport, rented a car and spent the day seeing some sights.

We decided to go to the Florida Everglades first.


We took a tour of part of the Everglades with Everglades Safari Park. I didn't know much about the Everglades or how close to Miami it was before that day.


Alligators live right there!




Our first airboat ride was awesome! The boat is so loud we had to wear earplugs.


It was so fast. We would even drift the turns. It was so much fun!




The tour guide knew right where to find an alligator. Apparently alligators claim their own individual territory and stay there.


The guide parked the boat and talked to us about the alligators and the Everglades. This alligator wasn't shy; he came right up to the boat after we parked in his territory.


The Everglades were gorgeous.

We saw several alligators and turtles in the water heading to and from the Safari Park.


Back at the Safari Park, Josh and Carley got to hold a baby alligator.


After the Everglades tour, we headed to Miami Beach.

Originally I wanted to visit South Beach but traffic and parking were so ridiculous. It probably took us an hour to get to nearly Mid-Beach before we finally found parking!


I actually don't know what beach we ended up on. All I know is we were in Miami Beach, Florida at the Atlantic Ocean and that was good enough for us.


The sand wasn't a soft as in the Caribbean and the water wasn't as clear but the ocean was still surprisingly warm. The kids dove right in!



This picture just makes me smile. Josh is swimming in the background and all we can see is his feet sticking out like a whale's flukes. In the far distance is the Carnival Glory, our cruise ship, heading back out to sea. We wished we were still on it!


One of the reasons to head to the beach after spending many days on beaches during our cruise was to check Life List #59: Swim in the Atlantic Ocean off my list! Check.

For that matter, Life List #58 is "go on a cruise" so I guess I can check that one off too!



Looking back through the vacation pictures to post on the blog has been a real treat. I do remember the little things that were irritating such as Josh and Carley bickering a lot, Carley saying "this isn't as fun as I thought it would be", or the several other things. But those irritants don't matter much. All I see and feel from these photos are joy, adventure and fun. I had such a wonderful time. I'm so thankful for my hard working husband who was able to provide us with such a great experience. I am so appreciative that he and I were able to give this experience to our kids. 

Cheers!

Our First Cruise: Day 7

Our last day of the cruise was a day at sea as we headed back to Miami.

I learned throughout the week that in order to snag a couple lounge chairs on the pool deck we had to get them early. I was up by 8 am and already most of the chairs had towels on them to be reserved. I did manage to find two chairs together and claimed them for the day. Technically, chairs are not supposed to be saved without people present for longer than 40 minutes. That rule wasn't necessary followed.

The pool deck is where we spent a lot of ship time during the week. We spent the majority of our last day there.


We played chess, sunbathed, swam and rode the water slide.




There was a "Chocolate Extravaganza," which is right up Carley's alley. She had a little lunch and a lot of chocolate.


Walt and I drank. And drank.


Walt even got in the pool and rode the water slide too! And he got so sunburned.


 

Carley had her first Shirly Temple.


Anyone who has been on a cruise knows about the towel animals. There was a new towel animal waiting in our room for us every evening.


Carley and I attended a towel folding demonstration during the day. We learned how to fold a dog, elephant and swan.

That evening, we wrapped up our outdoor fun in time for one last family dinner served by our favorite guy, Gus. Walt went to bed early while the kids and I caught a comedy show.

The bags were packed, left out for collection, and we all went to sleep feeling a bit sad to have the cruise over.

Our First Cruise: Day 6

Our last port was Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.


This was one of our later ports so we had some time to kill in the morning. 


I finally played mini-golf with the kids like I had been promising for days. 

We also shot some hoops for a bit and played a little ping pong. The kids look happy to be together in this shot but really they spent most of the morning bickering. 



In Grand Cayman, the ship does not dock at a pier. Instead we had to take a tender boat to shore. 

Our excursion wasn't until the afternoon so we caught a cab to Seven Mile Beach. By "cab," I mean a large van that takes as many people as he can at a time to increase profits. There were probably four other people in the taxi with us. The driver, Eric, had all of us repeat a prayer after him before getting out of the vehicle. Odd. We did like Eric though and arranged for him to pick us up when our time was up. 




 The beach and water were absolutely beautiful; by far the best we'd seen on the trip. A true Caribbean Sea beach.


We all snorkeled. There wasn't a lot of fish to see but we did spy some. Josh even found a lion fish hiding in a rock. 

After spending 90 minutes at the beach, our taxi driver, Eric, drove us back into town to meet up with our tour. Our excursion was a 2-stop snorkeling tour with Captain Marvin's. 


After a tour bus ride to a boat, we took the boat across the North Sound to a sandbar called Stingray City. 

If you look at a map of Grand Cayman, the North Sound is the large bay cut into the north part of the island. There is a barrier reef that runs from point to point. The North Sound water is only, at most, 10 feet deep and the water is crystal clear. 

Grand Cayman is very flat; the highest elevation is 60 feet.  We could look back across the island from the North Sound and see our ship on the southwest side of the island. 


The stingray sandbar was only two to three feet deep. I was blown away at how clear the water was. 


I think Carley was very excited to get in the water with stingrays. She worked her way to the front of the pack and was first to jump in. 


At first there weren't too many stingrays in our area but more and more kept coming. I think they know they will get a snack when the humans show up. 






After awhile, we were given pieces of squid that we could feed the stingrays. We were shown how to hold the squid with our thumbs tucked in. Then we would hold it underwater and a stingray would sniff it out, swim over our hand and suck the squid into its mouth. So cool!




One of our tour guides helped us "hold" a stingray for a photo. 


And they made us kiss the stingray too. They say it gives you seven years good luck. It's worth a shot.

After Stingray City, we took the boat over to Coral Garden for some snorkeling. 




The water was only about 10 feet deep and there were fish and coral everywhere. And the water was so clear! I have never been in that clear of water in the ocean. I'm still stunned. Can you tell? 


We only spent about 30-40 minutes in the water there, which wasn't nearly long enough. I think my entire family would have loved to spend the whole day snorkeling in Coral Garden. 

Our snorkeling and stingray adventure was over and we headed back to George Town to catch our tender to the ship. The tour bus driver, Anju Priest (his stage name), was very entertaining with stories and jokes about the island. He also schooled us on saying "yah man" when answering "yes" to his questions. 


Do you see that in the picture? The cars drive on the other side of the road. It is the first time I have been in a country that drives on the opposite side. It was very odd. 

Another thing about Grand Cayman, everything is so expensive. We spent nearly twice as much on Grand Cayman as we did for similar items in Mexico or Honduras. Everything from the taxi, to fried conch, to a drink cost so much more. 


Friday night was our second "fancy dinner" night. The first was the day Josh was sick. 

By the time we got back to the ship, we only had 30 minutes to clean up and change for dinner. That was not nearly enough time to fight with my hair, which apparently does not like coastal air or salt water, so it was into a quick, wet, bun.


We also watched a show in the Amber Palace theater. 


To not waste a night when everyone was a little dressed up, which rarely happens, we got a family photo taken on the ship's staircase. (Please excuse the quality; it's a photo of the photo.)

Every port we stopped at was absolutely wonderful. I enjoyed each excursion we picked, even the back-up excursion in Costa Maya. If I had to pick my very favorite port and excursion I would pick Grand Caymen. The beach and water there was just so beautiful. I would go back there in a heartbeat.