Adventures of Ashlee...: January 2011

We had our 7 day cruised planned for about 6 months and boy, when the time came we were READY! There was quite a large group of us, 14, going together and it was so exciting! 3 families with kiddos and 3 single guys, all who'd all known each other for a very long time!

First, I have to brag about how awesome Ashlee did traveling ALL DAY from Denver to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We started our journey at 4:30AM (yep, that's in the morning) and got to the hotel about 5:30pm San Juan time. She was a trooper, never threw a fit or cried, and slept on both flights. We did do some awesome planning and brought a portable DVD player (thank you Dora).

Our cruise left out of San Juan (note to self: we will NEVER do that again). We got in a day early and stayed at a gorgeous hotel with an amazing beach. We made a big mistake though, instead of relaxing at the hotel and playing in the 24/7 pool and hot tub, we decided to check out the festival going on in Old San Juan that night. BIG BIG BIG Mistake! We spent an hour stuffed like sardines in our tiny cars trying to find a parking spot in the WORST traffic jam ever. Another mistake we made was not feeding the kids or ourselves before we headed out. The poor kiddos were starving and it was SO packed and insane that everywhere was an hour or more wait to eat (except the shady side street carts). The music was blaring loud, the kids were SO tired, it was so crowded, let me sum it up...it was miserable!

Ok, enough of that! The next day we woke up, got on the ship and explored! Oh, and we successfully snuck on 8 bottles of alcohol! Funny thing, I didn't even finish my bottle of vodka I brought aboard....I'm still pondering why this was the case. The ship left port about 10pm that night and we spent it wandering around, eating, drinking, checking out the casino, etc. Poor Dj wasn't feeling well and had to spend the night in the room. :(

Day 2 (Port 1): St. Thomas. Love this port. The island is just beautiful, tons of shopping, easy to get around. Dj and I did an underwater scooter adventure with a few of our group (see pictures below). Needless to say, if you are a scuba diver (as are we) do NOT do this. You will be severely disappointed. But, it was an experience and the weather was gorgeous so all in all, not too bad.

Day 3(Day at Sea): Not much to say about this day. We did a little swimming in the pool (which was terribly small) and took a nap. In the afternoon it got really cloudy and rained a bit. This was our first formal night and it was fun to see everyone get all spiffed up in their Sunday best. Especially my handsome hubby, HOT!

Day 4 (Port 2): Barbados. Dj and I love this island. It is very adventurous and rugged. We decided to do something as an entire group kids and all in this port. I had read there was a beach not far from the cruise ship dock where you could snorkel with the turtles. We decided to give it a shot. We found a big bus that could accommodate us all and took a small tour around the island. One of the kids favorite things we did this day was stop and feed some monkeys (there were pretty cute)! Once we got to the beach and got settled, we got some snorkel gear and headed out to where all the catamarans where. It wasn't far at all and the water was like glass, we definitely got lucky with the conditions. In the beginning, there was not a turtle to be found. Then Dj had the idea we should swim closer to the other boats, and once we got up there it was turtle city! It was so cool, they would swim right up to you! I actually touched 2 turtles. They are such beautiful creatures, so graceful. In all my scuba diving I had only seen a turtle in Belize, so it was quite an experience. After and hour or so, we headed back, got some food, played on the beach (Ashlee loves the beach) and then headed back for a bit of shopping and a nap!

*****Here are a few pictures from the first days of our trip******