Western Carribbean 2010...

We had the greatest time on our cruise, It definitely is in my top 3 of favorite vacations, It was our first cruise and i seriously think it is the best way to vacation, you get to see all these different islands or places, you get to eat awesome food and you get served like king and queens and much much more. We will defintely be going on more cruises in the future! Thank you so much to my inlaws for taking us all, we loved being with all of our family and without the kids although they were missed, it was so awesome! This will be a long post for my journal, so read on if you'd like!



Day 1:Saturday Feb. 6, 2010
We dropped the kids off to Wagstaff's and Doug's house and we flew to Miami where we stayed in a little scary hotel, I didn't realize we were in a dangerous part of town until we were escorted to our hotel room by a security guard, after that I was a little nervous but we survived and we also survived all the crazy drunk super bowl fans that were in Miami waiting for the big game the next day!




Day 2:Sunday Feb. 7, 2010
We enjoy some mcd's for breakfast then took a shuttle to the pier where we got on the beautiful Royal Carribbean Liberty of the Seas, I was so amazed by this ship, the whole trip Trav and I kept saying to each other can you believe we are on a ship in the middle of the ocean, it seems like just one huge hotel plus some! It was serisously awesome. Our first dinner was so yummy and our waiters were so great, I seriously looked forward to dinner every night, it was probably my favorite part of the day. Travis ordered two differnt entrees for dinner on this night and I don't think we realized we could eat all we want, every dinner after that though, i think we all ordered a couple of everything especially trav, I think one night he had 2 appetizers, 2 or 3 entrees and a few desserts, it was so awesome, not to mention all the bread they bring to you every 5 minutes, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Our first night on the ship was the super bowl, so after dinner we head down to Studio B where they have the super bowl on a humongous screen and yep, more food, lots of it!! There was tons of flat screens all throughout this room and lots of cool stuff for the super bowl. We weren't too happy with the outcome of the game but who cares we were cruising the carribbean. That night trav and I went to the welcome aboard show that was so awesome, and we went to a parade and we stayed up till about 1:00am, something we never do, we had cookies and sandwiches at midnight just because we could, it was so fun!
I made Travis take a picture with every day, we called it the Picture of the Day!
The Superbowl party, everything on the ship was above and beyond!




Day 3:
This was our first full day on the ship and we cruised the open sea all day, it was so fun to just be with Trav and to be able to just focus on "us", we haven't done that for a long time and it was needed. We had so much fun together all week! We were able to check the ship out some more, we played some basketball, layed out on the top deck of the ship, had more yummy food, Travis did the flowrider and the rock climbing wall and him and his bros and dad even entered a dodgeball contest, it was pretty funny, but great entertainment, we had our first formal night,and that was so fun to get dressed up, we went to a show after dinner and stayed up late again eating some more :) They had this ice cream machine that you could get ice cream cones whenever you wanted, i think travis had at least 5 a day, it was awesome!

You couldn't go to lunch withouth a shirt on so Shane put on his moms swimsuit cover up, nice!


















Dodgeball, check out that action shot!




Day 4: Costa Maya, Mexico
We got off the ship about 9:00 am and it was so hot and humid,I couldn't believe all the little mexican shops and all the bartering that was going on. We hung out in the pool and on the beach and had some lunch, than we decided to check costa maya out a little bit so we rented some golf carts and drove around the little island, I was amazed at the poverty, and all the little shacks that these people lived in, They had really pretty beaches but costa maya reminded me a little bit of Tijuana, so after sweating and burning in the heat we headed back and boarded the ship again, Can I tell you how good I felt when we always got back on the ship, it was like I was in America again :)! That night we had another yummy dinner and enjoyed getting to know our waiters, I still can't believe they stay on that ship for 6 months at a time! I think we went to another show oh and we went miniature golfing but i think we hit the sack a little earlier this night, we were exhausted!















Day 5: Belize city, Belize
Belize was probably my favorite stop, It reminded me of what jamaica might be like, lots of dreadlocks and rasta stuff and bob marley! We decided to go cave tubing here and we took an hour long bus ride to the jungle where we hiked up a little bit than got on tubes and went through some caves, it was really cool after that we zip lined through the jungle, this was really fun, freaked me out a little but it was awesome!
then we headed back to the ship had another wonderful dinner, went to another show, and played games. Another fantastic day on our cruise!
They cleaned our rooms twice a day and every night after dinner this is what we had to look forward to, a towel animal!





Ziplining!












Day 6: Cozumel Mexico
This was another one of my favorite stops, We rented little scooters and cruised the Island of Cozumel all day. We hung out at a little beach for a little while where we found awesome seashells and I also found a little hermit crab, we wanted to bring it home to Parley but we didn't think we would be able to. We had lunch at coconuts, it was pretty much Rated R, but it was an experience! We tried to shop a little bit in the city but that place is crazy, Trav's mom drove one of the little scooters all by herself, She was so brave because that city was anything but safe to be driving around in. We headed back to the ship, got in the hot tub, something we did every time we got back to the ship that and have a couple of ice cream cones. Had another awesome dinner and another great show and I think we played some more games and watched Kyle do the flow rider.

I seriously felt like we were on dumb and dumber!








This was the menu at coconuts, this place was seriously kind of scary!

Picture of the Day!


Day 7: Georgetown, Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman was beautiful and very nice especially compared to the other places we went to, we took a boat out to a little sand bar in the middle of the ocean and we swam with sting rays and held them and fed them, it was a little creepy but really pretty cool, I didn't have a waterproof camera so i will get those pictures from my sister in law, After the sting rays we went snorkeling a little bit and then stopped at this beautiful beach that had the most amazing sand i have ever seen, and i have seen a lot of sand living in Hawaii. I also couldn't get over how brillian blue the water was in Grand Cayman. We had some lunch than headed back to the port where we did a little souvenir shopping and back on the boat for our last formal night, Dinner again was delicious, we had a seat right by a big window at dinner so we were able to watch the amazing ocean and sometimes there were some pretty big waves, We went to another show, Travis always got a pina coloda when we went to the shows, played some more games and went to bed.



Sting rays!







Our waiters Anselm and Milton, Anselm was from St. Vincent and Milton was from Guatemala, so him and shane got along great! These guys were great, always showing us funny magic tricks or telling us about there families. These guys made dinner so awesome!

check out that huge piece of meat!




Grant gets a little sick when he snorkels so he stayed on the boat with Heather and I. I am not a big fan of snorkeling either, I did it enough in Hawaii! I did hold a sting ray though!







Waiting for a show in the theatre.



Day 8: Cruising
Our last day on the ship we cruised the sea all day, so we were able to just hang out and relax on the ship unfortanately it was very windy and overcast and the boat was rocking like crazy, Andrea got pretty sick and was laying on the lower deck trying to get some fresh air and people kept walking by her and saying, oh look how drunk she is, hilarious! So we pretty much hung out in the hot tub all day, where we stayed warm but also had some fresh air blowing on us so we didn't get sea sick, than we showered and got ready for our last dinner, I really don't think i have washed and blow dryed my hair so much as I did in these 7 days! My camera had died on this day so I didn't get any pictures, I really wanted to get a picture of Trav with his ice cream cones but oh well. Dinner again was delicious, Our first dinner i had Pavlova for dessert and it was seriously so good, so all week I kept jokingly asking our waiter if they had pavlova again and he told me they never make the same thing twice so our waiter made a special request for me to the Head waiter for Pavlova on our last night, so come dessert time on this night, our waiter brings out 15 Pavlova, it was awesome, and yes I think i ate 3, and i would have eaten more if i wasn't so full! They had made for our table only, it was great! Than we enjoyed the farewell show where they had a comedian and they played a little dvd of the whole week and Travis, shane or kyle and Amy all made the movie!! Than we had to go pack our bags and send them off!!

On Valentines day, we ported in Miami and got off the ship and flew home! It was so nice to come home to the kids I didn't realize how much i missed them until we were on the airplane and then I couldn't wait to get home to them. but we really had the best time and I really think we will be going on more cruises. WE loved it!!Thanks again to the shupe's for such a fantastic time. We will never forget our first cruise!! And thanks again to my wonderful sister Angie and her family, Ella loved being there and she was taken care of so well!! And thanks to Katie and Doug and the boys, Brigham is still talking about his cousins and Parley seriously misses Boston, I think he has been a little bored since we have been home. I was so grateful they were in the best hands possible and That I really didn't even have to worry about them!

So farewell Royal Carribbean, We hope we will be seeing you again!!


Now we get to look foward to March (our families bday month), we can't wait!!