Thar she be: The Navigator of the Seas.  Not so much a “cruise ship” as a “gigantic floating country.”  We left the port in New Orleans on Saturday, the 17th, for a 7-day Western Caribbean cruise.  As a first time cruiser, I can safely say, I LOVE cruising!  I can’t wait to plan my next cruise!

On the inside–this picture is of the promenade, where there are several shops, cafes, bars, etc.  It’s kind of ridiculous how much fits on the ship.  They had multiple parades during our cruise, which were extremely impressive.

I think this was from our first night.  Cruise ships are mostly about eating ridiculous amounts of food, so forgive me if meals run together a bit.

Roxana, our server throughout the cruise, was hysterical.  She liked to make fun of Rene, but we were all guilty of ordering like gluttonous fools. 

On our second night at sea, we had our first formal night.  Awww… aren’t we cute!

And then… a surprise.  We were invited to dine with the captain!

The Staff Captain turned out to be less of a salty sailor, and more of a shy, soft spoken Swede.  

After dinner, another surprise.  The infamous towel animal!  Our first critter was a rather good looking snail.

On our fourth day, we arrived at Falmouth, Jamaica.  A view from our balcony.

We decided to do an excursion to the Good Hope Estate, which is a sugar plantation tour.

Part of the tour involved going up to the main house at the top of the hill.  Totally gorgeous view from the top.

 

The house was absolutely beautiful.  I have lots of shots on my flickr page, if you’d like to see more.

And the sugar plantation itself.

You know what else was awesome?  Lunch.  Red Stripes, jerk chicken, and johnny cakes.

When we got back to the port, we did a little shopping.  Rene found Wilson, who we all fell in love with.

Wilson is so pensive.

The following day we arrived at Grand Cayman.

Arrrrrrrrrg!  There be pirates in Grand Cayman!

We took another excursion while there, which turned out to be the best idea ever.  First stop, the turtle farm!  Which had wild chickens running around the front of the building?

Next stop, the rum factory.  Or really, a store where they try to sell you rum and rum cakes (which are SO GOOD!).  The bus actually started driving away before we realized Cindy and Rene weren’t with us.  Whoops!  Too much rum cake?

Next stop?  Hell.  No seriously.

Turns out hell is really just a dead coral reef tourist trap in the Cayman islands.  Who knew?  At least I found out that they do indeed serve beer in Hell:

Next stop, and my favorite activity of the entire trip (NOLA included): swimming with the stingrays!  We took a boat out to a sandbar, jumped out, and swam with the stingrays.  They are very tame and actually super cute.  I fed** one of them a squid and he came back and rubbed up against my legs, like he was saying “hey thanks!”  They were like big, wet, slimy dogs.

** When I say that I fed a stingray, what I really mean is that I was given a squid, which I promptly dropped (and screamed like a little girl) when a giant flipping stingray came swimming at me at full speed with it’s mouth open.  I stole this picture off Google, so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about:

When we got back to the boat later that day, they had decorated for Thanksgiving!

The following day, Thanksgiving, we went to Cozumel, Mexico.  Not a bad place to spend a holiday.  Cindy being thankful for beer.

Jumping up and down for beer!

There’s not much in this world that compares with my mum’s turkey and gravy.  However, if forced to spend Thanksgiving in Cozumel, shrimp tacos on the beach is not a bad substitute.

And followed up by the obligatory Señor Frogs.  I am thankful for fruity yard drinks.

And then Rene decided to climb the rock wall.  Because our cruise ship had a flipping rock climbing wall (of course).

That night, our second formal night, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast as only a cruise ship can do.

What a fabulous trip!  Thank you to all of you who joined, made it possible, or otherwise supported our silly shenanigans!