Ok, so we haven’t finished posting our honeymoon stuff and I haven’t posted anything in a long while but I’m turning this from our wedding blog to our just life together blog. I’ll even redesign the site! We’re going to England on the 14th and I think it will be awesome to post from there. We’ll start to keep all our loyal readers updated on everything that is going on… I hope.. Anyway we’ve been married 6 months so we must have SOME interesting things to post about by now right?
We finally rounded up all of our wedding photos, and they all came out beautifully. You can see the pics here. There are lots more photos to come - these are the pre-wedding shots and the professional shots. In total, we have received 1826 photos that were taken by the photographer and our friends and family.
We’ll also put honeymoon pics up soon! Next on the list is making the DVD of the ceremony.
At Sea
Today we were at sea all day. We stayed in our stateroom mostly because the weather sucked. It was super windy. We went to a diamonds and precious stones seminar, it was ok. I was a little upset because we are not going to cocoa cay anymore. Instead we are going to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It should be interesting. At dinner we talked to our new tablemates. They are all nice but I can’t identify with them as much as with our old tablemates and I miss Mary as our server. Simon didn’t want to request to be at her table so that we could have an ‘adventure’ but now he even says she was the best server ever. She would say stuff like “Tonight we have the laaaaaaaaaamb,” or “the roasted duck wak wak.” I liked her.
We went to another show tonight as well. This one was called “Front Row” they sang some nice songs but it really bothers me that none of the shows have plots but Simon says he likes it like that.
I think I am becoming disenchanted with the cruise. I think next time we either need to take a 7 day cruise only or a 14 day straight cruise instead of a back to back one because it gets boring once you’ve seen everything.
Oh yeah, we went to the honeymooners party again. It was fun. We had cake and danced. We didn’t win anything though.
Ok, will write more from San Juan tomorrow!
<3 Amber
Port Canaveral
Hello loyal readers. Today we returned to Port Canaveral before the next leg of our cruise. Amber woke up after 6am panicking that we would miss any announcements and turned the room announcements on (elevator music began playing).
I don’t think she remembered this! We went back to sleep till 8am ish and then went for breakfast in the good old windjammer. At 10:30 we were told to meet in the Champagne bar on deck 5 and we were escorted to the pier in order to pass through immigration and reboard the ship. We got back on at 11:25ish and headed for the W.J. but it was closed till 11:45. There were around 20 back-to-back cruisers in total but only 6 (including us) went right back on the ship. We had the ship to ourselves (briefly!). When the W.J. opened people started pouring in.
Our plan: have lunch and then go to the pool at 1pm while people are moving into their staterooms. It worked! The Solarium pool was pretty cold but the whirlpool was empty.
At 6pm we met our new tablemates (same table, new waiters). All of them are older. To our left, Bill and Gail. To my right I think Annette (who likes lily Allen) and other people I can’t remember the names of.
Amber ate stuffed chicken and I ate cod. Mmmmmm! After that we went to the opening show in the Savoy Theater and met the new cruise director called Becky from Coventry.
Then we went to the family trivia in the Schooner Bar and there were a lot of questions we didn’t even understand. We ordered Martinis in souvenir glasses and they were really strong. Then we finished the night by going to the “Who Wants to Feel Like a Millionaire” gameshow in the Lotus Lounge. We finished our martinis with some cookies and saw two people win small royal Caribbean goodies even though the guy who played didn’t know any of the answers. “Trot” is slower than “canter!”
Our tablemates
Writing from: At Sea
Day 7!
Half way there!
Today was another day at sea. Everyone is getting ready to go home which is a little sad. I really liked our tablemates. I didn’t expect to but I did. Today there were really not a lot of planned activities. I was surprised because usually there are tons! But I guess that everyone is getting ready to leave.
–Side note: Right now Simon is staring at his watch. He wants to see the date change over. He asked if it was normal to stare and stare at a watch like that. I told him yes, but in my head I am thinking of all the loony bins I know of… hehehe—
We chilled out in our room a lot today. I slept some. We went to Johnny Rockets for lunch and had shakes and burgers. I didn’t’ like the burger, it made me feel gross.
We also had our spa appointment today. A couple’s massage. Simon carries a lot of tension in his shoulders apparently. He promised to go to his massage person at work. We also did this thing called a float where we were on a sort of inverted waterbed. It was cool. Simon fell asleep.
Dinner was sad because we said goodbye to everyone. They all seemed very nice. Sad story. The fruit soup was good though. Simon had three desserts.
After dinner we went to the farewell show. Only it was a mid-cruise show for us! I thought it was boring but some parts were ok. Then we went to Rock a Rockie which is a stupid name for Karaoke with a live band. Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting…
Continued from Simon
I wasn’t really “nominated” I was just the first to jump up onto the stage. The game was pretty funny. We had to get things from our teams such as 6 bras, 5 mens belts, foreign money, bald men, a cruise compass (the newsletter here on the ship – Simon was quick to pull it out of his pocket), and much much more. We were team 4. My male captain had to dress up like a woman in the end. He wore makeup, my flipflops, a bra, jewelry, and a purse! It was super funny. We lost though.
Writing from: Cozumel in Mexico
88F
$1= 11 pesos…
We are on our way to Port Canaveral with Mexico to our left and Cuba to our right. today we docked at Cozumel Mexico and spend a long day there.
We had a very late breakfast in the usual place and headed ashore at about 11:15am avoiding the camera folk. we spent a while looking around the shops and I bought some $7 sunglasses to replace the ones I lost kayaking. 750ml of Bacardi was about $9 but I didn’t buy any. Amber got a “diamond silver” (Mexican) bracelet with blue opals for $122 but it is probably actually $132 because of the exchange rate. We bartered down from over $200. After that we went back for lunch on the ship at 1 and spent the day on the pool deck swimming and reading. It was relaxing. Just before 6 we had wine, port, and hors d’oeavres at Vintages and then went to dinner in the dining room. It was lobster night! We each had a plate of lobster and then shared another. At the end, Mary (our waitress) folded napkins into animals. Dessert was good – chocolate cake with no flour (very rich), cheesecake, and ice cream. After that we went to “parent trap,” a game show to see how well parents know their kids. It was pretty funny.
At 10 we watched the project cruse director karaoke and it looked like the Dublin woman “Mags” won but the fat guy singing “I got you babe” was very funny. Then in sudio B after some guy won a cruise in bingo, was “the Quest,” a scavenger hunt in just that room. The room of approx 800 people was split into 12 teams and 2 captains were nominated from each team. Amber was the female captain!
Georgetown, Grand Caymon
My dance off last night really sucked. Everything I had planned on doing was already done by somebody else but I did the best I could. I am really glad I got eliminated though because the next stage is singing Karaoke.
Today we went to Georgetown in Grand Caymon. Our excursion today was the Atlantis submarine. Before we went on that though, we went shopping. The shops were all pretty generic but we bought a few gifts for people anyway. Simon said that he felt like he wasn’t seeing the whole island in that area or even the “real” island. But he did find Walker’s chips. We didn’t buy any but he did get chocolate from England and I got a ring with a barracuda on it to remind me of the kayak trip.
Then we went to the submarine. It was pretty cool. We went down to 100 feet below sea level and saw all kinds of awesome fish! We saw tons of coral too but I thought it looked dead because it was all gray and not colorful like you see on tv. The guide said that really it was tons of colors and not just the gray we were seeing. He said the water was diffusing the white light from the sun and that was why we couldn’t see any color.
When we surfaced we could see tons of rain drops hitting the surface of the water. It was really beautiful from below. Simon took tons of pictures. It was raining so hard that the ferry from the submarine to land couldn’t land us on our dock by the tenders which would take us to the ship. That really sucked because we then had to walk 3 blocks in the pouring rain to stand in line in the pouring rain. Needless to say, we were wet.
I was freezing the whole way back and when we finally got to our stateroom I took a hot shower and crawled into bed. We ordered room service and it took 2 hours to come. By that time it was time for dinner but we ate it anyway. It was cold. I was full before we went to dinner but I was SUPER full after we went to dinner.
After dinner we went for a walk around the ship. We tried to play pingpong but it was too windy so we played mini golf instead! It was fun. Simon won 27 to 32.
They had a midnight food extravaganza coming up and I really tried to stay awake for it but I fell asleep. Simon says he “tried” to wake me up and I just yelled “Blackjack! Blackjack! Blackjack!” and then kissed my pillow but I wouldn’t wake up. He says he got scared and thought I was trying to summon a demon. He went to the buffet without me. It’s ok though, I needed the rest and I can just see it next week.
More tomorrow!!
A-Bean
Writing From: Ocho Rios, Jamaica
90F
Today we were roused again at 8am by the wonderful wake up call. To our surprise, the ship was still approaching land. We had a quick breakfast in the windjammer again and then we headed for deck 1. We crossed the pier and met our tourguide “Lorienne” who taught us to say “ya mon,” “no problem,” and “irie.” Also “wagwan” (“what’s going on”). The bus driver was called Rennie and he was beeping the horn at everyone. We got to the Chukka Cove and each got on a horse. Mine was called Gorgeous and wouldn’t stop eating and Amber’s was Flying Eagle. We rode to a hut by the sea before resting and then taking different horses in smaller groups barebacked into the sea. It was like riding sea creatures!
The horses were in the water pretty deep, it was over their backs. After we rode back we took the bus (number 54) back to the ship and then had lunch at Jade and the Windjammer. I had a Thai or Chinese curry which was AMAZING. We then took showers and slept all afternoon. When we awoke, I picked up my new EcoDrive watch and we ate sushi at Jade. The tables had orchids (fake) and we sat by the window overlooking Ocho Rios. After that we played “guess the movie soundtrack” and got 14/15. Sadly another team got all of them right – we didn’t get ET. Oh well.
Then we went to the ice show and the best part consisted of two Russian people inside a metal wheel! It spun like a coin does right before it comes to rest on a table. After that we went to the love and Marriage gameshow and it was very funny. Finally, Amber did her dance-off and was sadly eliminated, then we got pizza (for Simon) and cookies before bed.
Island: Labadee, Haitie
96F
Today we went to the island of Haiti and the Dominican Republic to a place called Labadee. They speak French and Spanish and there are no paved roads on the island and the closest town is a 45 minute ride. We took a tender to the beach. The tender was called the Nina. At the beach we swam around in the crystal clear water and sat on beach loungers. At 10:50am we met at the kayak tours place and picked out a blue canoe because blue is Simon’s favorite color and started paddling away. We did periodic stops with our guide to learn about the island. At our second stop we realized that our canoe was sinking! We tried to ignore it and to keep paddling but we fell over and out into what we later found out were barracuda and jellyfish infested waters!
Simon lost his sunglasses. They pulled us onto the motor boat that they had and motored us to the beach where everyone was relaxing. They had little local shops on the beach and the vendors kept saying “hey come here” and practically dragging us to their little mats or tables to show us their wares. They all had the same things thought. We only had a $20 and we didn’t’ want to cart something back with us on our sinking canoe so we didn’t buy anything. We managed to row our boat all the way back to the shore without sinking again (they had emptied the water out of the canoe for us). It was fun even with the danger!
When we got back to the beach we went to the Haitian flea market. It was intense! We got a chess set and a box for Hamzeh for $20 Woo hoo!
(It came like that!)
Back on the ship we took showers and I took a nap and then we went to dinner. Simon had two desserts and our waitress, Mary sang an Itallian love song for us. Simon says it was called “arsehole –o- mio” He doesn’t think that’s how you spell it though haha.
Simon got a new watch too. And then we went to the schooner bar and listened to the guy play piano. He had big muscles. Oh yeah and before that we went to a Honeymooners party with bad champagne and then a show called Ole Ole with this guy and girl who danced so awesomely and a hot drummer!
Simon’s P.S. The guy tap dancer looked like Steve Davis!!