Personal Travel Journal // Caribbean Cruise Vacation
At the beginning of the month, my husband and I went on a Caribbean cruise vacation. We traveled on Royal Caribbean International on the ship Oasis of the Seas. We love to travel and especially love to cruise, so this trip was a true treat to us! I should also mention that I decided to ONLY take my film camera for this entire trip! I was so nervous taking just film. The beauty of film is that you have no idea if your shot turned out until you get it developed- this was also a major reason to have anxiety! LOL! I'm happy to report that they all turned out and my anxiety has turned into major excitement! We started in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where we flew in a day early. We had diner and I finished homework that I had to do before our trip. It wasn't very exciting, but it was necessary to enjoy a good trip! The next morning we were up bright and early and we headed for the port around 9am. We could not get onto the ship until 11am, but we were able to get through security and get our bags checked and just relax until they let us on. Getting there early is something that I suggest for everyone taking a cruise vacation! We skipped all the lines at check-in and security and the second that we could get on the ship, we were on!
The next seven days were spent relaxing in the sun and eating at the buffet...I wish I was kidding. Most people who go on a Caribbean cruise vacation will come home and talk about all the beautiful scenery and then also talk about the food, and there is good reason! The food on the ship is truly amazing. I tried to workout every single day to combat my overindulgence, but it was still tough!
One of the many amazing things that we love about Royal Caribbean is the entertainment! Never once did we get bored on the ship, or feel like there wasn't anything to do! We were constantly running around somewhere going to a show, karaoke, or another event somewhere around the ship.
On the trip we went to Labadee, Haiti (a private peninsula owned by RCI), Falmouth, Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico. At the first two stops we just hung out and explored, but we had a blast nonetheless. We went a little crazy in Mexico, but I'll let you read about that in a minute.
We had actually already been to Labadee once and loved it, but since we went snorkeling last time we decided to just hang out at the beach this time. It was pretty overcast, which actually made it very nice walking around and exploring the more jungle type areas. The ship has a free barbecue on the beach and tons of options for excursions such as zip lining, snorkeling, parasailing, and many more. We loved watching the people zip lining! You will see a photo below where we sat and watched them all fly by us.
In Falmouth, Jamaica we actually did not do very much, and we regret it. We had never visited Jamaica before and we weren't entirely sure what to do, so we just walked around and I took pictures; surprising, I know! ;) If/when, because it's only a matter of time that we go back, we will plan better for Falmouth. There were a ton of really cool excursions that we could have gone on! I am thinking about kayaking or visiting the cliffs next time we visit.
Now in Mexico, that was a little different story. We had never been there either, but we regretted the fact that we wasted our stop in Jamaica so we decided to just go do something crazy when we got off the ship. To us, crazy was renting a scooter and traveling all over the island. We bargained with the scooter man, which was awesome, but he decided to give us the worst scooter in the fleet because of it! Our speedometer was broken, so we had no idea how fast we were going. Another thing that was broken was our back break...which we found out very unfortunately when we came at a random speed bump at about 40mph (we'll never now because of the broken speedometer). That was a wild ride! We had the time of our lives exploring that island. All of the beach pictures that you will see are this small beach that we found on the opposite side of the island. We were the only two people there and it felt like paradise!
I am sorry I didn't get more pictures! I felt like I took a lot, but looking back there's so much more I should have taken pictures of! I guess I'll just need to go on another one to get those pictures! ;)
Ship: Oasis of the Seas
Bikini: Albion Fit
Film Scans: The Find Lab
