Look at that color!
I was really excited about the excursion we had booked in Cozumel, but I’ll be totally upfront and let y’all know it wasn’t all I had imagined it to be. It was a zip-lining excursion, which I’ve always wanted to do, but I didn’t realize until we got there that we weren’t zip-lining through a forest or anything…it was just a zip-lining/ropes course set up at a local resort. It was still a ton of fun, but not the exotic adventure I had pictured in my mind!
It was a bit intimidating looking, though!
As soon as we got there, we got all decked out in our safety gear, and we were ready to go. Now, Mr. Cardy wouldn’t ever admit this, but he was absolutely petrified of this excursion. He’s not a fan of heights or adventure-type things, so this was not his idea of a good time. But he’s an awesome hubby and he booked it for me because he knows how much of a thrill seeker I am!
He looks a bit unsure in this picture, no?
I felt a bit ridiculous in the get-up that you have to wear for this. Crazy climbing shoes, a huge helmet, and a super uncomfortable harness. But, it was totally worth it, and I had a blast!
Look at me go!
Mr. Cardy ended up admitting that he had a really good time, but the whole time we were doing the course he was really looking forward to the next part of the excursion…which just so happened to be the part that I was dreading. Snorkeling.
Why was I dreading snorkeling, you ask? Because I. Hate. It. I know snorkeling is kind of a ridiculous thing to hate, but I have my reasons. For one, I’m extremely claustrophobic and the goggles you have to wear to snorkel totally set that off. I don’t like having my nose covered up and I get really stressed out the second I put them on.
I could deal with the stress of the goggles if it wasn’t for the fact that the first two times I went snorkeling, I had horrible experiences.
The first time I ever snorkeled it was in Cozumel on my first ever cruise. I was loving it and had been in the water for, oh, I don’t know, about 3 minutes when I got stung ALL up and down my leg by a really mean jellyfish.
I decided to give it another shot on my second cruise in Grand Cayman, but the waters were so insanely wavy that day that every time I tried to put my head down a wave would splash over me, shooting salt water into my mouthpiece.
So, um, yeah. Snorkeling isn’t my thing. I was very, very stressed the whole time we went and I’m embarrassed to admit that I almost had a full-on panic attack. But, I survived, and Mr. Cardy had a blast, so that’s all that really matters, right?
We snorkeled for a while, then grabbed a drink from the bar at the hotel before heading back to the ship. We were pretty exhausted after our all-day adventure in Cozumel, but we still mustered up the energy for my absolute favorite cruise activity that night.
Before I tell you what it is, you have to promise not to laugh.
Promise? Because it makes me look kind of lame. (Okay, really lame.)
BINGO!
I love, love, love playing Bingo on cruises. I never play it any other time but there is just something about being on a cruise ship and playing Bingo that makes my soul happy. I’m ashamed to admit that we wasted a pretty ridiculous amount of money playing Bingo over the course of the week. But it was all worth it to me, and I’m lucky enough to have a sweet husband who indulges me in my crazy whims.
The next day was our second port of call: Belize!
In Belize we had another pretty exciting excursion planned…we went cave tubing! Before we actually got to the excursion, I had no idea what cave tubing would be. I’d read the description on our ticket, but it wasn’t exactly clear on what was going to happen, so I didn’t really know what to expect.
We took an hour-long drive to the area where we’d be tubing, which gave us a really awesome chance to see a lot of Belize and learn a little more about the culture. Then, when we got there, we got to don some more really silly looking gear. We couldn’t stop laughing at how both excursions we had been on so far had made us look and feel like complete idiots.
Once we had all our gear on, we set off on a twenty minute hike through a beautiful rainforest, until we reached the river that we’d be tubing in. We hopped in our tubes and got ready to go!
Oh look! A cave…and we’re in inner tubes. So THAT’S what they mean by cave tubing!
It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. It was very relaxing to be floating in the river, and the caves we went through were beautiful. We didn’t get many pictures because, you know, it’s kind of dark in caves.
After we finished tubing we headed back and had another fun night on the ship. And this is where things went a bit off course.
You see, I don’t know if you know this, but January isn’t exactly prime cruising season. And the water was um…not calm. At all. The boat was pretty rocky for most of our trip, which didn’t really bother us at all—I don’t get seasick and Mr. Cardy is just fine as long as he has a patch on. So, up until this point the crazy water hadn’t really affected us at all. But the next morning, when we were supposed to be getting off the ship to go spend the day relaxing in our own private cabana on a beach in Roatan (!!!), we were informed that we wouldn’t be able to dock because of bad weather.
Boo!
In all honesty, we didn’t really mind too much. We got the money back from our excursion and we were still on a freaking cruise ship, so we could still enjoy ourselves. We were a bit disappointed but we didn’t waste any time in heading up to the deck and snagging a hammock to chill out in for the rest of the day.
I mean, really…how could I complain about not getting to stop in Roatan when I still got to lounge in a hammock with my shiny new husband and sip cocktails all day? Still sounds like a pretty freaking awesome day to me!
We spent the day relaxing and making fun of all the people who were so grumpy about the change in plans that it was ruining their whole vacation. We both had a hunch that the bad news wasn’t over, though, and we weren’t at all surprised when we were informed that evening that due to bad weather, our next port, Costa Maya, was closing down and we wouldn’t be able to dock there either. The captain informed us that we’d be going back to Cozumel instead so that we’d still have a chance to get off the ship.
It was really interesting to see how other people on the ship reacted to the change in plans. We overheard countless people grumbling and complaining about the bad weather (which, um, who can control that?!) and people sounded completely miserable! Not us, though. Mr. Cardy and I just took the changes as they came and chose to look on the bright side instead. We were still having a great time, and we ended up getting a ton of money back because of the excursions we had missed. PLUS we got a coupon for 20% off of our next cruise—score!
As I mentioned before, we aren’t huge fans of Cozumel (and the weather was less than ideal), so Mr. Cardy and I spent the next day relaxing again. Only, this time we stayed out of the sun because it had been very unkind to me the day before (boo, sunburns). Over the next two days (one day in Cozumel and then our last day at sea), Mr. Cardy and I took full advantage of our relaxation time. We lounged around in the room, took naps, and played lots of cards.
We also made sure to fill ourselves up as much as possible on the yummy cruise food. My favorite part? The chocolate buffet!
YUM!
The weather on the last two days wasn’t great at all. It was very windy and in the high sixties, so it definitely wasn’t really the best weather for lounging in the sun. We stayed inside for the most part, except on the last day. There was one last game of Bingo and it was out on the deck, so we grabbed some towels to wrap up in and braved the wind for one more game of Bingo!
And we may have snuggled a bit to keep warm…
And then, even though it felt like we had only been on the ship for five minutes, our week was up and it was time to get off.
BUT. We had one more day to spend in Florida and we spent it doing something very, very exciting. I loved our cruise, but this last day may have been my favorite part of the entire vacation.
What’d we do?
You’ll have to wait for the third (and final) installation of our honeymoon recaps to find out!
Are you the type of person to get upset when your vacation plans change, or do you just roll with it like Mr. Cardy and I did?
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