Caribbean Cruise!

We finally went on our VERY FIRST CRUISE!!!
We went with our friends the Singletons. They have been on several and showed us the ropes.
It was SO MUCH FUN!

I am not going to journal much about it because I am posting this FOUR years later. Yeah.
But at least I am adding the pictures! They will have to tell the story. After all, a picture IS worth 1000 words!

Suffice it to say....I LOVED IT!!!

I can't wait to go on one again!
I loved everything about it.

Our ports were:
Dominican Republic (Dave served part of his mission there)
Puerto Rico (he also served most of his mission there)

St. Thomas

Grand Turk 

The joys of traveling to your destination.... We were famished and ordered Pizza Hut and devoured it!

View of Florida from the ship as it departed.

 The first thing we did was EAT!!!  We were so hungry! It was the longest day of travel and the lines at customs was insane!

 We were on Carnival Cruise lines. Our ship was awesome!
Time for some sun!

 Our first real dinner on board!
I am completely addicted to the chocolate dessert! It's called
CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE and it's TO DIE FOR!!!!

Our first port was:
THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

 Dave spent the night in this jail when he was on his mission. Yep!!!
It's a great story!  Hehe 

 Another shot of the jail bird! LOL

 We visited a fort and a brewery. They had samples but we passed. 

 People pile in trucks or like six people on a motorcycle.
I am missing some photos that I took of that!

 Our driver took his to his house and gave us a tour.  People are really friendly that way here!

 Lots of photo opps!

We shared the van with this couple. They were so nice!  We got to know them pretty well. It was a lot of fun. We keep in touch via Facebook now.

Our second port was:
PUERTO RICO

 It was nice to be back again. This is my third (or is it fourth) time here.

  I LOVE this photo of Dave!

I'm photo bombing them!  LOL 

  El Morro

 Purple houses and shops and purple cobble stoned roads!
That has always been one of my favorite parts of PR!

 Dave loves the El Messon shop with the Cabano sandwiches! 

 We got a tour guide and she took us to the rain forest. El Yunque

It was a bit different than what we have done before, but it was still pretty and fun

 Sorry for the duplicates on some of the collages. 

 We found a snake!  Yuk!

We went to the beach...

 We checked out downtown.... More purple houses.

The guide took us to get authentic food. Kind of sketchy.

We then went to some creepy place that had tons of HUGE spider webs!

 View of El Morro from the ship.

Some fun on the ship...

We ran every single day. Either on the deck or at the gym on the treadmills.
When you are training for a marathon, you can't miss any days! 

 Catching some much needed rays!!!

Getting ready for the formal dinner. 

Watching a movie on the deck!  So fun!

Our third port was:

St.Thomas

For some reason I missing most of my pix for our excursion!
We went on a speed boat and it was crazy fun!  But no pix! I had to get some from Robin!

 

We did a LOT of shopping !

 Funnest speed boat ride ever!!!  We were in a shark! SO FUN!

Back on board:

 Getting ready for dinner...

I had Chocolate Melting cake EVERY single night!  OH. MY. GOSH!  SO good!

The waiters did a show every night!  It was amazing!

 I REALLY liked their treadmill. I could go five miles and it didn't phase me. Nothing like mine at home. Plus the view can't be beat!

Our 4th port was:
GRAND TURK!

This one was my favorite!

 It is a very tiny island. I think it is only 7 miles long total!  

In 1962, John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft landed in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island off the southeast shoreline. A replica of the Friendship 7 is on display in Grand Turk at the entrance to the Grand Turk Island airport.

 We rented a car to go see the lighthouse. It was a clown car to Dave!  So funny!  And the steering wheel was on the wrong side. What a riot!

The 19th-century Grand Turk Lighthouse is perched on a rocky bluff in the north. Beaches with clear water ring the island, which is home to wild horses and donkeys. Since 1766, Grand Turk has been the capital of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

 The best part of this excursion was the private beach we found. Well, it was public, but the home on it was abandoned. We took advantage and had the beach and ocean all to ourselves! How often can you say that?!!!  

  I didn't want to leave this place!  

It was so gorgeous and peaceful and PRIVATE!

 We were famished when we got back to the ship!
They have the best cheeseburgers on the planet!

 It was sad to eat dinner for our last night. I am going to miss the Chocolate Melting Cake the most!

A photo with our waiters! 

 Robin and I wanted to join the dance party but Dave and Grant were not on board. SO we danced ourselves. Kind of. haha

 It was sad to see it come to an end. 

These cute lil' guys were also a favorite of mine!

We de-ported and caught our plane.

 Robin had a pass and so we got to go in a private room and eat. She only had two passes so Dave and Grant passed. They missed out. It was such a fun vacay!  Exhausting but fun!

 Bryce picked us up!
It poured on the way home.

Such a FUN FUN FUN trip!
Can't wait to go again!

Here are the some of the fun pictures the professionals took each night.  Well, most are just photos of the photos so the quality is horrible. But I will add them anyway, just for the memories.  We actually bought some of them (first three) so the quality is great on those, but the others are pretty bad. 

 With our friends we shared a van with in the Dominican

 

Here is the Chooclate Melting Cake recipe:

CARNIVAL’S MELTING CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE

Are you craving some chocolate cake? Learn how to make Carnival’s famous melting chocolate cake at home!

INGREDIENTS:

• 6oz Dark Chocolate
• 6oz Butter
• 4 Eggs
• 3oz Sugar
• 2oz Flour

HOW TO MAKE IT:

1. Melt the chocolate and butter
2. Mix eggs and sugar and whisk for a few minutes, then add flour
3. Add the egg mix to the melted chocolate and mix
4. Pour the mix in a greased mold
5. Bake directly in the oven at 390°F for 14 minutes