Wanderlust and Wanderlost

Lately, the big thing on my (and Casey's) mind has been where we want to go this year on vacation.

There are so many places we want to visit, but we can't decide where to go. We don't want to spend a fortune either. How do you choose where you want to travel?

So far, we've been to Cancun, Mexico (for our honeymoon), cruised on the Oasis of the Seas (western Caribbean), and went to the Riviera Maya, Mexico.

Both times we went to Mexico, it was to an all inclusive resort. They were two very different trips.

On our honeymoon, we went somewhere/did something fun almost every day. I think we might have spent the whole day on the resort once. We went to Chichen Itza, on a tour, that let us swim in a Cenote (sinkhole) in the jungle. It's always been a dream of mine to see that place, and it was wonderful. One day we travelled to Isla Mujeres, rented a golf cart and explored it. We went snorkelling there, off of the beach. It was fun, but there wasn't a whole lot to see. We went to a turtle farm that day too. That evening, when we returned to our resort, we were able to see sea turtles laying their eggs on the beach. We went deep sea fishing one day, and caught Barracuda. It was pretty awesome, but so hot out on the boat. We travelled around Cancun by bus on the other days, checking out whatever there was to see. We went to a few of the shows on our resort. We had a wonderful vacation.

On our Honeymoon at Chichen Itza! 

Our trip on the Oasis of the Seas was amazing. The ship was incredible, and there was always something to do. Sometimes it was a difficult to pick between things to do. The shows were spectacular, and the food was unbeatable. We travelled to Labadee, Haiti on the first day. It was beautiful there, but there wasn't a whole lot to do. We checked out the beach, for a while. We ate at the buffet there, and then we decided to go back onto the ship to see if there was a line at the wave runner (there wasn't!). Next, we docked at Falmouth, Jamaica. That was my favourite port. We booked a trip to Dunn's River Falls, which was awesome, and to a place that had sharks and dolphins and a couple other things to do. We got to pat stingrays. Pretty fun! Our last port was Cozumel, Mexico. We booked a snorkelling tour from there, and it was really disappointing. I got stung a lot by some funky jellyfish, and there wasn't much going on in the fish department. We did see a few eagle rays and a small barracuda. Not much else though. We really enjoyed our time on board the ship. We even got to watch the Superbowl at the Aqua theatre! Fun!

In Labadee, Haiti, in front of the Oasis!

When we went to the Riviera Maya, it was for our Babymoon. It was super hot, and I was pregnant, and I didn't want to do much. We did go snorkelling there, at a barrier reef there, which was beautiful, but it was windy, and we didn't see anything too spectacular. The food was okay at the resort, and I thought several of the workers were rude. I read 5 books on that vacation. It was very relaxing!

Checking out these cute monkeys on our Babymoon.

Now, here we are, a the time of year we are supposed to think about where we want to go this year. We can't really decide. I want to take Harper, but Casey doesn't. I think that maybe I'll be thankful to be baby free for a week, even though she's really not a difficult baby, but I will be sad to not have her with us. So, if we don't take Harper, I know I'm going to want to be busy. To be able to go and do all the time, to keep me occupied.

So where do we go? What do we do?

We thought about Costa Rica, but we have no clue where to go there, and we know that it's not really an 'all inclusive' kind of place, and that makes me nervous, because I don't want to have to worry about eating and paying for everything we eat/drink.

We thought about going on another cruise, but now that we've been on the Oasis, nothing is even going to compare. I always thought I wanted to go on a smaller ship, just to experience it, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep busy like we did on the Oasis. I want to see the southern Caribbean, but the ships that go there are 2 classes smaller than the Oasis, BUT you have a new port of call every day, so you don't really NEED a ton of stuff to do on the ship. The ships that are only one class down from the Oasis travel to the same places that the Oasis/Allure go to, and they're actually more expensive (WTF right?!). So, if we go on a big ship, we could do the Allure and do the eastern Caribbean this time (though Casey has already done the eastern with his grandparents in high school). Or, I could put my big girl panties on and go on a smaller ship in the southern Caribbean.

Those are just the things we've thought about so far. There are SO many places I want to visit.

I NEED to see Hawaii one day.

I want to go to Puerto Vallarta (which we have thought about).

I want to see SO much of Europe, but that's not really on the table right now.

Same goes with Australia/South Pacific.

I DON'T want to go back to the eastern side of Mexico. We've been there 3 times now, and I'm ready for something new.

I DON'T want to go to the Bahamas. Just no.

Ugh! What do we do!?

Keep dreaming I guess!

(That, and I am getting in touch with a travel agent!).