The next morning we woke up in beautiful Ocho Rios Jamaica. I was totally surprised when I stepped out onto our balcony and saw what it looked like. It was so green and lush! Everywhere else I'd been in the Caribbean had been so much more sandy and dessert like. Here's what we saw from our balcony:
Ok, this picture is totally out of order, but it's our stingray later that night:
Our shore excursion in Ocho Rios was to climb Dunn River Falls, then head to Dolphin Cove for unlimited food and drinks and watersports. We were pretty excited. We boarded a bus and headed for the falls. As soon as we were off the bus people were shoving water at us and different necklaces trying to get us to buy things. Luckily we escaped without buying anything. We got changed and put our things in a locker and divided up into groups. They took groups of about 20-30 people at a time with 2 group leaders, with one in the front and back. From the top of the falls they didn't look very big, so we were feeling pretty confident. Then we climbed down to the beach, and I had a feeling we didn't see all of the falls because walking down there took forever! When we reaced the bottom it looked a lot bigger, you just can't tell from the top because it's broken up into a lot of different sections with little pools. We were all told to form a line and hold hands. They made sure it went boy, girl, boy, girl, etc. Then we started! It was about 9 a.m. so the water was a tad cool, but you got used to it fast. It was harder than I thought because the rocks were so slippery, and if they went under the water at all it's hard to see if it drops off. We slowly made our way up pausing for pictures under the falls (they took the pictures and wanted like $40 for them, so we didn't get any). About three quarters of the way up there's a big deep pool and they had everyone doing a trust fall into it. You turned backwards, held up your hands, and just let yourself fall. It was a little scary, but I'm glad I did it. Ryan chickened out, saying he didn't want to go under into the cold water. I'd say it took us a good hour or so to make it all the way up. It was a fun adventure and I'm very glad we did it! Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures while doing it because we didn't get an underwater camera, but we climbed down the stairs and took pictures of most sections to show everyone what we climbed!
This part was a little tricky:
It started pouring almost as soon as we finished. It didn't really bother us because we were already soaked, but we didn't want our camera and other things to get wet so we waited for a while to head out to the buses. We headed over to Dolphin Cove, it wasn't raining anymore, but it wasn't sunny either. We grabbed a burger and a pop and relaxed on a beach chair and ate. We felt the water, then it started pouring again. We tried to wait it out, but it stormed really hard and after waiting 2 hours we gave up and headed back to the boat. We were really dissapointed because they had a lot of fun things you could do there! By the time we made it back to the boat we were pretty wet and cold. I took a long hot shower to warm up, we grabbed some lunch, then took a nap. It didn't stop storming, so when we woke up were back at sea and the boat was swaying a lot more than normal. Usually I get sea sick way before Ryan, but for some reason he wasn't feeling great, and I was fine. It was the second formal night so we got ready and Ryan decided we would try and eat even though he didn't feel good. Ryan ordered chateaubriand, and I had grilled shrimp. I noticed he wasn't eating, and not long after they set our food down he said he needed to go. So, we skipped the comedy show and went to bed early that night. Ryan still claims it was the jerk chicken that we had at Dolphin Cove and not motion sickness. Who knows. Here's some pictures of us before dinner:
When I woke up the next morning I could tell the weather was better, I couldn't feel the boat moving anymore. It was our last full day on the boat, and our second day at sea. We headed up to breakfast and came back to change into our suits just like the first one. Before we settled into lay out in the sun we decided to try out the putt putt course. It's at the very top of the ship, there's some gorgeous views up there! I'm not bragging, but I did take 2 out of 3 games :). It was fun. Then we grabbed our icecream and lemonade again and settled into some chairs to enjoy the sun. The previous day of rain had helped my sunburn a lot, so I wasn't in so much pain, plus we were wearing spf 30 sunblock this time, so I wasn't so afraid. Lunch rolled around, so we went in and I had my usual, I think Ryan had Mongolian BBQ this day. They were having a "battle of the sexes" competition on lido deck, so we headed out to see what it was about. They picked a guy leader and a girl leader to answer questions. Guys got questions girls would know, and vice versa. Anyone from the same sex could help. It was fun, but ultimately the guys one in a sudden death overtime. Oh well. Then we went and played a round of BINGO for a free cruise, but we didn't win. Then they were having the "marraige game" so we went to watch. It was hilarious, sort of like the Newlywed game, but with a couple married 40 years, and two sets of newlyweds. Then we headed out to do the waterslide and swim one more time before we needed to head back and start getting ready for dinner.
Ok, this picture is totally out of order, but it's our stingray later that night:
Our shore excursion in Ocho Rios was to climb Dunn River Falls, then head to Dolphin Cove for unlimited food and drinks and watersports. We were pretty excited. We boarded a bus and headed for the falls. As soon as we were off the bus people were shoving water at us and different necklaces trying to get us to buy things. Luckily we escaped without buying anything. We got changed and put our things in a locker and divided up into groups. They took groups of about 20-30 people at a time with 2 group leaders, with one in the front and back. From the top of the falls they didn't look very big, so we were feeling pretty confident. Then we climbed down to the beach, and I had a feeling we didn't see all of the falls because walking down there took forever! When we reaced the bottom it looked a lot bigger, you just can't tell from the top because it's broken up into a lot of different sections with little pools. We were all told to form a line and hold hands. They made sure it went boy, girl, boy, girl, etc. Then we started! It was about 9 a.m. so the water was a tad cool, but you got used to it fast. It was harder than I thought because the rocks were so slippery, and if they went under the water at all it's hard to see if it drops off. We slowly made our way up pausing for pictures under the falls (they took the pictures and wanted like $40 for them, so we didn't get any). About three quarters of the way up there's a big deep pool and they had everyone doing a trust fall into it. You turned backwards, held up your hands, and just let yourself fall. It was a little scary, but I'm glad I did it. Ryan chickened out, saying he didn't want to go under into the cold water. I'd say it took us a good hour or so to make it all the way up. It was a fun adventure and I'm very glad we did it! Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures while doing it because we didn't get an underwater camera, but we climbed down the stairs and took pictures of most sections to show everyone what we climbed!
This part was a little tricky:
It started pouring almost as soon as we finished. It didn't really bother us because we were already soaked, but we didn't want our camera and other things to get wet so we waited for a while to head out to the buses. We headed over to Dolphin Cove, it wasn't raining anymore, but it wasn't sunny either. We grabbed a burger and a pop and relaxed on a beach chair and ate. We felt the water, then it started pouring again. We tried to wait it out, but it stormed really hard and after waiting 2 hours we gave up and headed back to the boat. We were really dissapointed because they had a lot of fun things you could do there! By the time we made it back to the boat we were pretty wet and cold. I took a long hot shower to warm up, we grabbed some lunch, then took a nap. It didn't stop storming, so when we woke up were back at sea and the boat was swaying a lot more than normal. Usually I get sea sick way before Ryan, but for some reason he wasn't feeling great, and I was fine. It was the second formal night so we got ready and Ryan decided we would try and eat even though he didn't feel good. Ryan ordered chateaubriand, and I had grilled shrimp. I noticed he wasn't eating, and not long after they set our food down he said he needed to go. So, we skipped the comedy show and went to bed early that night. Ryan still claims it was the jerk chicken that we had at Dolphin Cove and not motion sickness. Who knows. Here's some pictures of us before dinner:
When I woke up the next morning I could tell the weather was better, I couldn't feel the boat moving anymore. It was our last full day on the boat, and our second day at sea. We headed up to breakfast and came back to change into our suits just like the first one. Before we settled into lay out in the sun we decided to try out the putt putt course. It's at the very top of the ship, there's some gorgeous views up there! I'm not bragging, but I did take 2 out of 3 games :). It was fun. Then we grabbed our icecream and lemonade again and settled into some chairs to enjoy the sun. The previous day of rain had helped my sunburn a lot, so I wasn't in so much pain, plus we were wearing spf 30 sunblock this time, so I wasn't so afraid. Lunch rolled around, so we went in and I had my usual, I think Ryan had Mongolian BBQ this day. They were having a "battle of the sexes" competition on lido deck, so we headed out to see what it was about. They picked a guy leader and a girl leader to answer questions. Guys got questions girls would know, and vice versa. Anyone from the same sex could help. It was fun, but ultimately the guys one in a sudden death overtime. Oh well. Then we went and played a round of BINGO for a free cruise, but we didn't win. Then they were having the "marraige game" so we went to watch. It was hilarious, sort of like the Newlywed game, but with a couple married 40 years, and two sets of newlyweds. Then we headed out to do the waterslide and swim one more time before we needed to head back and start getting ready for dinner.
Here's me and lido deck:
Us before heading to dinner:
We were sad it was our last dinner. We had gotten to know the couple we ate with pretty well, so it was sad to say goodbye. We had a fun crazy waiter that made us laugh every night. After dinner we went and saw a tribute to the Beatles. I enjoyed it, but since Ryan doesn't really like the Beatles, he was kind of bored. We walked around the ship taking everything in one last time before we headed to bed. It would be an early morning if we wanted to grab breakfast before we had to get off the ship.
Us before heading to dinner:
We were sad it was our last dinner. We had gotten to know the couple we ate with pretty well, so it was sad to say goodbye. We had a fun crazy waiter that made us laugh every night. After dinner we went and saw a tribute to the Beatles. I enjoyed it, but since Ryan doesn't really like the Beatles, he was kind of bored. We walked around the ship taking everything in one last time before we headed to bed. It would be an early morning if we wanted to grab breakfast before we had to get off the ship. The next morning we woke up around 6:30, got ready and grabbed breakfast. Then we waited for them to call our floor number. We decided we could carry everything ourselves so we would leave the ship first, before the people that were having their luggage carried down. It didn't take long at all to get through security. We caught a cab to the airport and decided to check in because we were flying Southwest, and the earlier you check in, the better your seat will be. They wouldn't take our bags though because our flight wasn't until 5 ish? Ryan had reserved a rental car because he knew we wouldn't want to sit at the airport all day. We went to a state park, but it rained, so we sat in the car and called the girls to talk to them. It stopped raining, so we ended up walking down the beach for a long time, and Ryan collected sea shells for the girls. Then we headed to the shops on Ft. Lauderdale beach and finished up our shopping. We grabbed some lunch (which sucked, we already missed the food from the ship), then headed back to the aiport. We both looked really funny that day because when you get off a cruise ship after being on it for a week you can hardly walk straight because you're so used to walking on the ship. I know I almost fell about 100 times. Our flight ended up being delayed about an hour, so when we arrived in Baltimore we ran to Quizno's got our food to go and ran to our gate right as they were boarding A's, which we were. It was a smooth flight back to Detroit. Nicole picked us up and we headed back to Burton. The girls had already been in bed for awhile, so we couldn't wake them up, but we did sneak in and see them and give them hugs and kisses without them knowing. Sara looked HUGE, and Lindsey actually looked smaller. We ended up going out to Firken and Fox with Scott and Joy because it was Joy's graduation celebration. After that we were exhausted and headed to bed. The next morning was fun. I got to go get Lindsey and surprise her. She was really excited to see me. When Sara woke up she smiled at me, but didn't really act like she cared either way, lol. She's too easy going. We had a great trip, and I think we did really good being away from the girls for the first time. Thank you mom and dad for watching them! I know they keep you busy!
No comments:
Post a Comment