Well I made it back in one piece! I had a good time and thought I would share my trip report :)
Day One - left early in the AM for Miami. Uneventful drive down there except for some wanna be race car drivers near Daytona. Here is a lovely picture of Daytona Shores at sunset.
Once we got to Miami we spent 3 hours looking for a room without success. So we took a nap until 6am and headed over to the pier (note - this is the first dumb thing we did on the trip, we were so tired!).
Day Two- We didn't have any issues getting our stuff on board. Here are some pictures of the ship:
And here are some pictures of Miami as we left port.
Don't you love the people on shore sending us off?
HERE WE GO!
AND WE ARE GONE!
Our first meal on the boat. I know it seems silly to take a food pic, but the buffet food was really good on this trip.
I did some power shopping for booze before dinner. I got 2 liters of Absolute ($10 each), 4 liters of rum ($7 each) & 2 liters of cream rum ($13 each). If this booze is anything like the last batch I bought, it will be sitting in my liquor cabin for a good 2 years before it's opened lol.
I also won $20 in nickels with my very first bet in the casino :) I cashed out and left lol
We had filets for dinner that night. Not as good as it sounds, I think mine was steamed not grilled, it had the consistency of pot roast. But it was still better than what I would of had at home :)
Day Three - Woke up early to graze at the breakfast buffet on the Lido deck. I ate something I was allergic and I was very sick for 6 hours. Here are some of my spots:
I also blew 50% of one eye and 75% of the other eye's blood vessels while being ill. It was like throw me off the boat and let me get over it ill. I'll never look at breakfast the same way again!
Anyway, my mom managed to get me from our cabin to the top of the boat. They covered me up in beach towels and let me die in peace until about 4. I guess at that point it was out of my system because the spots appeared and I was ok enough to eat not one but two lobster tails at dinner that night. I am sure I scared my table mates with my spots and eyes (should of took an eye pic, that would of been cool lol) Two Benedryll pills later and I was out like a light and half the spots were gone by morning :)
Day Four - Grand Cayman is beautiful place! We weren't able to stop at our normal port and had to swing to the opposite side of the island. We tendered in Spot's Bay right next to the Inspiration! That was my first cruise ship and I didn't have any pictures of her so I was happy to get some great shots while going to the island. She was a sister ship of the Imagination; they were identical in every way. They joked with us and told us to make sure we were on the right ship when we came back. Even the decor is the same!
The water in Grand Cayman is normally crystal clear and smooth like this:
This was the water on the Georgetown side:
Wow! Can you see all the sand in the waves? The riptide was huge, I am an excellent swimmer but could only stay in it for 10 minutes. Those waves don't look as bad as some in Daytona but they were so strong. They were knocking people down left and right. I know this is so wrong of me but I spent a good 20 minutes laughing at my mother as she tried to get up after being knocked over. She had sand embedded into every crevice and wore a stunned expression for a good 5 minutes while she sort of sat there. She says I'm evil lol
The sand was the perfect tan color too with the consistency of powdered sugar. It was fantastic, when I go back in April I am going to get a Ziplock of some so I can paint my office that color :)
This is one of my fav pics from the trip, it was right above where we were laying out in the sun:
Back to the boat, dinner was gross, we got a weird shrimpy thing. It was so bad I took a pic to warn others! eeeww
But the duck was so sooooooooo good, be sure to try it if you are on a Carnival boat :)
We had the nicest table mates, they were Gerry, Cheryl and Catherine from Kansas City. They worked in the Instructional Design group for Sprint. How weird is that? I work in the Instructional Design group for Citi! Here is Cheryl doing the chicken dance. For the low low price of $20 I'll take it off my blog Cheryl and never mention it again. I take paypal ;)
After that stellar performance I was inspired to try the casino again. Three 7's means $25 :) I cashed out and left again lol
Day Five - Jamaica - Am I glad I went? Sure, I can say that I've been there. Won't do it again though. My idea of a vacation is nice clean things and not being bothered. You don't get that in Jamaica! We started the day at 7:30 AM. We walked to the other dock where all the touristy stuff was. There was a sad little beach there that we walked on for 5 minutes then decided to leave. We took a boat ride (add that to our dumb list) to Mahagony beach from this guy who had nothing else better to do. We were the only ones there for a long time. We picked up teeny tiny shells which was fun but got bored pretty quickly. We decided to start walking towards the boat and ended up in downtown. Ok that was dumb too lol. A cabbie stopped and made us get into his car and he took us to the Tahjma Hall (sp??) shopping center. We messed around there for a bit and wandered back towards the tourist area. Low and behold we found the place we were trying to find all along, Margaritaville. It is tourist city, booze, pool and beach! But truthfully by then we were so pooped we got on the boat early. That was the most enjoyable part of the day. We camped out at the childen's pool which faced the island. The wind was blowing, the sun was bright and no one was on the ship. I now know why people stay on the boat during port days!
The mountains near our port..look at those houses!
The resort area that we had such a hard time trying to find:
Close up of Jamaica water:
Our wake while leaving..I can see why people try to get the aft balcony cabins, it's mesmerizing:
Oh and I forgot to mention lunch, it was all Jamaican food. Lots of spicy chicken and fish, good stuff. We skipped the formal meal because it didn't sound good but ate the late night mexican buffet. Note to other travellers, the steak taco thingy on the bar was GOOD! I don't eat sweets, but the dessert area was pretty and picture worthy:
Day Six - Our fun day at Sea..and it was fun. The sun was bright but the wind kept us cool. Spent the day vegging at the pool with 2000 other people (no joke, there were 2400 passengers and 900 crew members on that boat..every sunny spot was covered with a chair!). I lost all the money I won in the casino except for 3 dollars...that is good for me :)
Day Seven/Eight/Nine/Ten - We got off the boat at 10-ish and headed to Daytona. We stayed there 3 nights and left Sunday morning. Thursday was a little cool but it warmed up slowly. Saturday was really nice for swimming, the pools were very clean and heated at where we stayed. I should of taken a picture but I was all pictured out by then. I am nice and tan! :)
Crazy Daytona birds! Don't they know the water is cold?
So I'm back! I'll be on the Legend on April 29th. My next cruise will be Dec 6, 2008 for 8 days. Little Miss Natalie will be on that trip with me :)
