Cruise Recap!

Hi all! Man, this week seemed to fly by and drag on at the same time! I've never been away from work for 2 straight weeks before, so it was definitely an adjustment coming back. In addition to just getting back into the swing of things, I found out I'll be temporarily moving to a new position because someone resigned while I was out - which is both exciting and daunting! I was expecting to be moved to something new this summer, but I won't be moved to my new permanent role for a few months - so I get the pleasure/pain of learning two new jobs in a short period of time haha. I'm grateful for the experience I'll get but it was a bit overwhelming for the first day back.

Anyway, I promised a cruise recap, so here's the highlights! We were on a 7 day cruise with 3 stops, which basically meant 3 full days on the boat and 3 days in port (and two half days on the boat). We left from Galveston on Sunday afternoon, and then Monday and Tuesday were "sea days". Mostly we enjoyed laying out in the sun and a lot of eating, but here's some highlights from the Carnival Magic. I now realize I really didn't take many pictures of the boat, which was huge and super impressive. But if you google image search "Carnival Magic" you can see pics of the waterslides and pools and such...

"Cruise Formal Night" - Monday (scored this dress for $40, btw!)

The large pool area on the top deck.

Lounging!

"Cruise Formal Night" #2 - I think Thursday? In the "Magic Lobby"

We also tried to channel our inner towel animal whenever possible...

We both really enjoyed being on the boat - always live music in multiple locations at night. Lots of food of course (and I really didn't hold back, its a miracle I didn't gain more weight!) and we saw some good comedy, a magic show, and of course some good and bad kareoke. The people watching was pretty entertaining too.

Our three stops were in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Jamaica was on Wednesday and we signed up for the "Tranopy Adventure" which consisted of a "sky explorer" chairlift ride over the jungle, then a ride on a 'Jamaica Bobsled", lunch and then zip-lining through the jungle back down to the start. My hair was looking pretty rough that day, but here's the acceptable pictures :)

View from the chair lift- the water is so clear even from way up here!

Sam ready to ride the bobsled

In our harnesses ready to zip-line!

Zip-lining! Very fun.

Gigantic tree!! We took a lot of pics here.

Our second day was at Grand Cayman Island, and we took a trip on a catamaran out to "Stingray City" to swim with the stingrays. At first I was kind of creeped out (Sam was fearless haha) but they were quite friendly (and domesticated by all the tourists) and surprisingly cute and soft! I kept saying to Sam for the rest of the trip "can you believe how soft the stingrays were?!?"

"Stingray City" - both stingrays and tourists everywhere haha

Sam holding a ray- they like to cuddle!

The boat on the left is ours - huge!

The third port was Cozumel, Mexico - although the excursion we went on was actually near Playa del Carmen. We took a 45 minute ferry ride to the mainland, and the went on a tour called the "Amazing Secret River" - a cave that is partially full of water.. so we did some walking and some swimming to make our way through. This was definitely our favorite excursion. Our guide was awesome and you could tell that everyone working there loved what they were doing really cared about both preserving and showing off the cave. We couldn't take our cameras in, but we did buy this picture at the end (pretty amazing, right!):

Not like we needed anymore food after everything we ate on the boat, but the lunch they gave us was especially tasty. And then we had a bit of time to hang out in some hammocks before heading back to the ship.

We got back into Galveston early Sunday and spent a few hours there before we headed home. The puppies were super happy to see us when we picked them up, and of course we were thrilled to see  them too :) All in all, it was a great trip! I don't know that I'll become a every year cruise enthusiast, but it was definitely a good experience. Beware though, if you've never been - you may go in with good intentions at the beginning, but by the end you'll be just like everyone else - ordering 3 appetizers and 2 entrees in the dining room, just for yourself haha!