Wedding Blog

Cruising Part I

Paul and I went on a lovely 9 night cruise to St Thomas, St Maartean, Puerto Rico, and Labidee, a private island owned by Royal Caribbean, for our honeymoon. Since the ship we took was the sister ship of the one we went on last summer to Bermuda and are basically the same, we didnt take many ship shots. We enjoyed ourselves so much again, we booked our next cruise for Summer 2008. We are hoping to go on one last long cruise with all our friends before the babies come.

Bye NY

Bling

I have a thing with visiting the ship’s chapel everytime we sail. We actually saw a couple get married on the ship the first night. They wore their wedding gown and tux to dinner! Later during the cruise we also got invited to a honeymooner’s gathering and we got to meet all the other honeymooners on the ship (about 10 in total). We got free champagne, mimosas, cake, and deserts as well as a private room for 2 hours to dance and mingle.

Last year we had just gotten engaged so we did this at the chapel.

This year we got married so we decided this would be better.

Our first night at dinner, Paul and I sat at an 8 person. We actually became good friends with one couple close to our age, and spent most of our time with them when we weren’t alone. We exchanged emails and hopefully we will stay in touch.

The first Saturday of our cruise was our one week anniversary of being married, so Paul surprised me with this!

It was waiting on our bed when we got back from dinner along with a bottle of champagne.

Paul and I both took full advantage of the pools and hot tubs on the ship. Since we had second seating for dinner, we went to the pool deck everyday around 6 when most people were at dinner and we got a hot tub and a pool to ourselves almost every time!

Our first stop was St Thomas!

Paul and I did an excursion on this island. We went snorkeling with wild sea turtles in a place called Turtle Cove and rode a pirate ship to get to there. Here is the other ship in front of us.

I had gone snorkeling in Bermuda with Paul and really didn’t enjoy it. They just boated you out to the middle of the ocean where the currents were really strong and didn’t give you much of flotation device. So I was worried about going again, but this time it was so different.

The water was calmer and warmer and the life vest actually worked in keeping me afloat so I was able to enjoy myself. Paul and I saw 4 turtles and even got to see one surface in front of us. We also saw lots of fish and some sting rays (babies!) It was an awesome experience! Stupidly Paul and I forgot to bring an underwater camera so this is a shot from the ship’s website.

St. Thomas at night.

The next day was St Maarten. Paul and I had made friends with the couple who sat with us at dinner, and they were planning on going to Maho Beach. Eddie, the guy, works for an airline company and thus loves planes. Maho beach is right by an airport and the planes literally fly right over you as you play in the ocean. It was a really neat sight. And the water was as blue as you can imagine.

Our friend got us these slippers as a wedding gift, so we left these footprints all over the beach.

The next day we arrived at Puerto Rico. Paul and I went horsebacking through the rainforest!

These dogs followed us the entire time. Here we are at the rest place.

Unfortuntely horse back riding pretty much took up our entire time in Puerto Rico so Paul and I definitely want to go back.

Our last island was Labidee, privately owned by Royal Caribbean off of Haiti.

The boat couldnt dock close to the island so we were tendered by ferry.

Since Paul was pretty badly burnt, we stayed out of the sun most of the time and enjoyed things in the shade.

The next night was the second formal night. Paul forgot our garment bag at home so he had to rent a tux and I had to make do with what dressy clothes I had with me in the bags. Please excuse my dressed downess compared to Paul.

That night was the midnight buffet. The food was amazing!

Finally here are some towel animals Percival, our state toom attendant, left for us each night in our room - elephant, monkey, sting ray.

Thanks for reading! We had a fabulous honeymoon!