Cruise Photos- Lots of them!!

*You have been warned, extremely long post!* So James figured out some funky way to upload the photos since our computer is somehow not recognizing our camera, wahoo! Wow, that took a long time to upload all of these! This trip was amazing. We had such a blast with everyone. I loved having such a big group (12 of us) so we always had someone to do something with. We took the red eye in to Fort Lauderdale and arrived at about 5:30 am. We waited for my cousin Shannon and her husband Tim's plane that came in at six and we set off together to my siblings hotel that they had rented the night before. It was across the street from the beach so we got there pretty early and decided to wait to wake them up and eat some breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We watched the sunrise and had a great view. After we crashed the party in their room, we all went to the beach waiting to get on the ship. It was perfect warm weather and I got my feet (and capris) wet! Here's a pic of the girls minus my mom, who was staying in her own hotel with my dad. L to R Shannon(cousin), Lisa(sister-in-law), me, Melanie(sister), Shauna(sister)
Mike and Carl (my brother in laws) decided to take a dive in the ocean. Mike was like a little kid and ran as fast as he could in the water. He was a crack up the whole trip!
Our first night on the ship we all just kindof relaxed and slept since getting no sleep the night before. We met our waiters Cesar and Mauricio from Mexico that night, they were so great and always we so helpful in getting us whatever we wanted to eat.

It was also Scott(my brother) and Lisa's anniversary so we got serenaded by the worst sounding group of men I have ever heard to Happy Anniversary to you. In fact, they somehow forgot that they had sang it this night and ended up singing it again to them the next night. So funny. Don't you love the side view of my face in this picture too? My family is ultra competitive. At everything. They had karaoke on the ship called "Princess Pop Star" where you could compete for a final show at the end of the week. They had three nights to compete so Scott won the first night singing "The Dance" by Garth Brooks. Shauna won the second heat singing "The wind beneath my wings" by Bette midler. The finals were totally rigged and the guy that won only won because his family grabbed a huge stack of ballots and filled them all in. Cheaters!! I think Scott was pretty miffed that he didn't win, especially since the guy wasn't even good. If I don't hear the songs Mack the Knife or New York, New York again I will be a happy girl. Someone sang those songs every night and then they were stuck in my head for the rest of the next day until they sang it again!

The second day we were at sea so we went to the trivia and saw a comedian that night who was the funniest guy ever. If you ever see Rollin Jay Moore on Comedy Central keep watching, I'm sure you will laugh your head off. It was also formal night so we all got dressed up.

Me and James

Our first island visited was Jamaica. It was really pretty in some parts and really ghetto in others. We had people trying to sell us stuff everywhere and bartering got kindof fun. We also got offered pot and Mike my B.i.l. got offered cocaine. He was so excited to tell the rest of us the tale. He felt so cool, we told him it was just because we didn't stay and chat with the guy long enough like he did! For our excursion we went to Dunns River Falls which was so much fun. You hike up this huge waterfall that is like 600 feet high. We all slipped on rocks and some got some bruises, but all in all a great time!
The gang minus Carl Lto R Lisa, Shannon, Scott, Tim, Dad, Mom, Mike, Shauna, Melanie, Me, James about halfway up the falls
We bought our boys shirts that had "Spidermon" on them. Yes you read that right, Spidermon. It was so funny to me how they really all do say No problem mon, and had Bob Marley playing non stop everywhere. It was awesome.
Day Four: Grand Cayman. We went here on our last cruise and loved it. Most of the gang had not been to Stingray City so we went again. We were disappointed that they didn't get as good of an experience as we had last time. Our boat this time had way more people, the guides didn't show us anything, and the water was really choppy that day so it was hard to be out in the water without getting dunked underwater occasionally. I still loved feeling the stingrays and got to kiss one again which means seven years good luck for me! Here us on the boatride out to the sandbar.


Shauna and Mike

That night was island night on the ship so everyone was supposed to dress up in island gear. Mauricio our junior waiter was showing us how he could fold all sorts of shapes out of napkins. He decided to make a bra for Tim to wear.
Shauna and Mike in their matching island outfits. No, Mike is not stoned (unless he really did take the pot from the guy selling it in Jamaica) hehe
They played a bunch of games that night and one was pass the hats. It was kindof like musical chairs with hats and you if were left without a hat when the music stopped playing you were out. Tim made it to the final two and they told them to close their eyes and put them back to back and took off both of their hats so they were feeling around for a hat that wasn't there! He won some champagne and ended up giving it to the other guy who was only 18 we found out later ,oops.
Day 5: Cozumel, Mexico. This was probably my favorite day. We went snorkeling and saw some amazing fish. There was a whole school of fish ( I mean thousands) following this one barracuda. I guess he protects them from other fish and occasionally will eat one when he gets hungry. We also saw some yellow finned tuna, a lots of other cool stuff. Our guides were great. We all got a little sick and Tim ended up throwing up over the side of the boat. Poor guy. I was pretty done with boats by that day.

After snorkeling, we went to this great Mexican restaurant recommended by our snorkeling guides call La Mission. They had the most amazing fresh guacamole and garlic bread. It was my parents anniversary that day so the meriache(sp?) band they had came and sang them a love song. It was really cute.

We got the anniversary song AGAIN for my parents that night. By this point people were starting to wonder about our family and if we were just trying to get the little cake and ice cream for free! My parents have been together 37 years and still going strong. They were so much fun on this trip. My poor mom was really sea sick but still was a good sport and did everything we did.
The next night we were at sea and it was our second formal night. james surprised me and got me an appointment to get my hair done at the salon on the ship. My stylist was a gay guy from Serbia. We had an interesting chat! I wanted to go curly for fun, it turned out okay, but cost me an arm and a leg!
Our last day was at Princess Cays, Bahamas. Princess cruise line owns this island so we got free food and just relaxed. Well I should say the girls relaxed, the boys went and played sand volleyball and went snorkeling. Pretty much the entire trip James was working out somehow. He couldn't stand to be in the room for more than five minutes. He kept making fun of me for sleeping and lounging so much but I was on vacation!! Here is some of the crew lounging on beach chairs on the beach. It was paradise. I miss the warmth already!
For our final dinner they had the lighting of the Baked Alaska cakes and turned the lights out and the waiters walked around with these cakes on fire, pretty cool. Then we had Mike put the chocolate sauce on it for us. Yummy!
Thanks to the grandparents for watching the boys, and all those that helped them during the week to keep them occupied. We had so much fun and laughed our heads off the entire trip. Lots of inside jokes!! I love my family and am so glad that we got to do this together. We missed my brothers Kevin and Greg but hopefully next time they can come with us. Hope you survived the longest post of the century!! It took me forever to type it too!