Vacation 2014

I can't believe it has come and gone, but we had a great vacation this year. I really love to visit new places, and this time we got to visit 3. It was really fun!

Casey and I left the island on January 15th, so we could get a few things before we flew out the next day. It was hard leaving Harper, but I managed it. The night before we snuggled and I shed a few tears, but when we actually left, I just put her down for her nap and left. I'm not sure how, I just did it.

We flew out the next day, and landed safely in Ft. Lauderdale after a very bumpy ride. I was quite happy to be back on solid ground. We went to the Golden Corral with Casey's grandparents that night, and went to bed early because we were beat.

Leaving Canada, Bye Bye Cell Service! 


Friday we went to Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure. I've been there once before, like 12 years ago, but it has changed a bit since then, and I really wanted to go back. It was not exactly a warm day, so we opted out of a few of the rides, due to the fact that you'd get wet. Brr. The best part of the park was the Hulk roller coaster and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I've wanted to see it since it was announced that it was coming. It was so awesome! There is a ride that takes you through Hogwarts school and there is a couple of actual roller coasters in that part too. You can walk through Hogsmeade village and go to Zonko's Joke Shop, Ollivanders, and Honeyduke's Sweet Shop. So fun! We ate there too and got ourselves some butterbeer. Yum!! (It's like a butterscotch smoothie).

Hogsmeade Village
On Saturday Casey got in his much anticipated golf game with his grandfather and I hung out with his gram. We went to a flea market and ran a few errands. I read some and basically just relaxed. We played mexican train that night too.

Sunday we went to church and then drove to Ft. Lauderdale to get on our cruise. The Royal Princess is Princess Cruises newest ship. When we got on, we were starving, but apparently so was everyone else. We went to the buffet but couldn't find anywhere to sit so we ended up ditching our food and going somewhere else.  We basically just hung out around the ship that day, getting to know our way around. We sat with people that night at supper. This was something sort of new to us, since we're not overly social people. It ended up going really well though, and we met lots of  new people and saw them around the ship throughout the week.


Our ship.
Monday we were in Princess Cay, on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. It was beautiful!! I had really low expectations for it but I really enjoyed it. I rented snorkel gear and swam around while Casey played beach volleyball. I love snorkelling but Casey can't see very well without his glasses so clearly it's not as much fun for him. I saw lots of beautiful fish, and it was kinda nice to be on my own, not in a big group that bumps into you and forces you to wear a life jacket. Later on we participated in the egg toss and won! Whoop whoop! We asked to sit with people that night, but apparently there wasn't anyone to sit with because we sat alone. We went to a short show by the magician on board, as a sort of pre-show to his actual show. It was pretty good.

Panorama of Princess Cay with the ship in the background. 
Tuesday was a sea day, so we ran around and went to trivia and game shows and whatever else we could find. We played in a shuffleboard tournament and did horribly. Everyone did actually, it was quite sad. We went to several games/game shows in the Princess Live! theatre throughout our cruise. That night was the first formal night. We dressed up nice and went to dinner, but didn't get seated with anyone that night either.

Wednesday we were docked in St Thomas, US Virgin islands. It was so beautiful there. We went zip lining and had a great time. After we found a cafe and had our first and only internet contact on the cruise. This was my favourite place, I really want to go back there someday! It was absolutely breathtaking! I think we sat with people at dinner for the rest of the cruise. We met quite a few great people.

Panorama of Majens Bay in St Thomas
Zip-Lining like a boss.
Thursday we were docked in St Maarten. There were some good and bad points to this place. We went on a tour of the island that took us to Orient Beach on the French side, their most popular beach. It's also a 'clothing optional' beach. We didn't see anything too shocking (Thankfully). We got lunch there, which was tasty, but ended up being 20$ for a hamburger and fries. It was due to the exchange rate and also just the stupidly high price. The beach was beautiful but we only had an hour there. After we finished our tour, we went walking around the downtown area, looking for somewhere to sit and use wifi. It was kind of nuts downtown and we didn't find anywhere to go. Also, we had to use the bathroom, but they wanted us to pay to use it, so we just held it and went back to the ship. There were a lot of people trying to get you to come into their store, which I hate. If I want to come in, I'll come in, don't frigging harass me.

Orient Beach. Beautiful! 
The last two days were sea days. We went to as many activities as we could, but I have to say, they weren't really geared to our age group. We did go to lots of trivia and game shows and played in a mini putt challenge, which wasn't really a mini putt, but a green with 12 holes on it with flags in each. I'm not exactly sure how you were supposed to play mini putt. We watched Now You See Me on the big screen under the stars which was really nice. We tried to play ping pong but it was in a really windy part of the ship and we couldn't even hit it to each other without it blowing away.

Formal Night
The ship itself was beautiful but poorly laid out and disorganized. It felt cramped and crowded. The activities deck seemed like an after thought. The pool deck was really nice, and the food was really good. The buffet was laid out really weird though, and it was difficult to find anything. The dining room was really nice but had a very small capacity and there was often a wait time if you didn't go early. I never had a bad meal on the ship though, everything was delicious.

All in all, it was a great trip, and we had a blast, regardless of any negatives we found on the ship. But it's always nice to be home. I missed my baby girl, especially on the last 2 days at sea, when there wasn't much to do. On the way home our flight in Montreal was delayed and we ended up missing our connection in Halifax. Air Canada put us up in the hotel in the airport in Halifax, which was super nice.

So, after a wonderful vacation, only one question remains....

Where to next???

Comments

  1. I found the same thing when I did St Thomas and St Maarten. St Thomas was beautiful and I found more laid back, while I felt harassed constantly in St Maarten. Also, I went to the same "clothing optional" beach as you! We saw old men. *barf*

    Looks like an amazing vacation!!! I think you should head across the bog next, but that's just me. ;)

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    1. Oh thank goodness we saw no old men! Of course I'm a nurse, so it's not like anything I haven't seen! :P

      We can only travel in either Jan-Feb or Sept-Oct because of the way that fishing season works for Casey. I'd really like to go on a tour of Europe sometime soon. We're thinking Hawaii for our 5 year anniversary :)

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  2. Glad you had a wonderful time! Loved seeing the pics!

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  3. Loved this post! We're going on a cruise in less than two weeks, only we're taking our little girl with us, which should be more than interesting. I'm mostly worried about naptimes and if we'll have to just twiddle our thumbs in our room while she naps. We'll see! Oh, and I love that blue dress with the pockets!

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    1. Do you have a room with a balcony?? Take a book and it'll be much easier to handle.

      The dress was actually a bridesmaid dress from before I got pregnant, and I was totally pumped to fit back into it, AND have a reason to wear it!

      Thanks for reading, and have an amazing time on your cruise!

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