The cruise (finally!)

We've been back for over a week and I'm just now getting around to uploading pictures and blogging about our absolutely wonderful vacation. I guess I'm still in lazy vacation mode :)

Sigh. I miss this.

Actually, I'm in exhausted and bummed out post-vacation mode. I've been more interested in vegging out at night and catching up on the huge backlog of DVR'd shows and the 535 unread items in my google reader than blog. Either way, I've been super lazy.

Anyway, we had such a great time on our cruise! It was a great mix of relaxing and exciting. Despite a 3am wake up call for a flight at the butt crack of dawn, and a rainy start in Miami, we had gorgeous weather the whole time, and our pasty white selves didn't even get sunburnt (too badly at least).

Thank goodness for Starbucks in ATL!

Adios, rainy Miami.

In hindsight, I really wish I'd taken our good camera so I could have gotten some better pictures. But we figured it would be too much to lug around when we were on our excursions, so all we took were our iPhones and a new waterproof video camera (which also took still photos, but not the best quality).

For some reason, we didn't take a ton of photos while we were on the ship, and Adam and I didn't even really get many pictures of each other or of us together at all, which kind of sucks.

I guess we were having too much fun relaxing...




...water sliding

...playing putt putt

Thanks to the kindness of a stranger for any pics of us together that aren't taken blindly at arms length :)

Please note that I kicked Adam's butt with like 3 holes in one.

...eating (I may or may not have had two desserts with dinner most nights, and yes that is a huge plate of chocolate desserts from the chocolate bar, don't judge me ☺)

    

...seeing shows, exploring the ship and gambling. Ok, so Adam did all the gambling and I tried my best to stay as far away from that nasty ashtray as I could. It was so smokey and unventilated, I couldn't stay in there for long without getting a headache. Thankfully he didn't need me to gamble away all of our money ☺. Just kidding! He ended up about even, and had fun doing it. The fact that cruise ships have casinos was one of the deciding factors when we chose this vacation over some of the all-inclusive resorts we looked at.

The atrium, our dining room, and the main theater.

Our room.

I liked our room, and I'm so glad we opted for an outside room. I didn't miss having a balcony like we did on our honeymoon, but I would have really missed waking up and not being able to look outside to see where we were and what the weather was like, or watch as we left ports. The bathroom was small and the shower didn't get as hot as I'd like it, but it wasn't too bad. The only disappointing thing about the room was the bed, which was was not comfortable at all. I got used to it, but Adam never did. Oh, and the fact that we must have been over the engine or something because our room was really warm. There was a noticeable shift in temperature as you walked down the hallway and got close to our room. It was a nice break from the cold air on the rest of the ship (I hate being cold), but it made it kind of hard to sleep at night. I wish I had complained sooner, but they sent a tech to look at our unit and said it was within normal limits so they didn't do anything. Bummer.

As far as the rest of the ship, we really loved having the water slide. The pools weren't very big and we didn't hang out in them much at all, but we used the heck out of the slide during our two "at sea" days. There was also a really nice adults-only lounge deck with a bar and nice, cushy couches and lounge chairs. We were able to be under the shade on the couches some of the time, and in the sun on the lounge chairs, and didn't have to worry about loud kids or anyone smoking. Very relaxing, and there was a nice breeze (to put it mildly--I almost lost my hat, but at least I didn't get too hot!).

We got off the boat at every port, too, and had an amazing time on our excursions.

The Carnival Glory

I'm going to have to do separate posts for those though, because I started this post on Monday and I'm just now finishing it on Friday. See, I wasn't kidding when I said I was being really lazy! (Side note: I'm almost all caught up on our DVR'd shows and I only have 14 unread items in my google reader now, so I did accomplish something, ha.) I got out of my blogging groove. I guess that's what a week of this will do to ya ☺

  
 
Why, yes, there is a Fat Tuesday at Mahogany Bay in Isla Roatan, Honduras. I felt bad using their free wi-fi (the only free wi-fi the entire trip, ugh) without buying anything ☺.

We really missed the kids, but we were able to buy a (ridiculously expensive) wi-fi package and do a few minutes of FaceTime with them from our iPhones just about every day, which helped them and us not miss each other as much. I took some videos from my phone and was able to upload them to YouTube using the free wi-fi in Roatan, so they got to experience some of what we were seeing in (almost) real time.

I also made a video of me singing the ABCs to Lorelai and a couple other messages to the boys that my mom was able to play whenever they needed more mommy. My mom said that was really helpful. She also said the kids were all perfect angels while we were gone, so we're really proud of them for coping so well. Especially Lorelai, although we're dealing with the fallout now in the form of some serious separation anxiety. She's literally been attached to my hip since we've been back and wants me to hold her all the time. As hard as that makes it to get stuff done, I can't complain. It's my fault for leaving her, after all!

Speaking of my mom, she graciously rearranged her whole week to stay at our house and watch the kids, and my sister, Adam's sister and his parents all were on hand to help out as well. We wouldn't have been able to go on this wonderful vacation without them, so we're just SO incredibly grateful.

Stay tuned for more pics from our excursions to Tulum, Belize and the Cayman Island turtle farm!