Cruise Day 6 & 7

So, I decided to put days 6 and 7 together because we spent both days in pretty much the same way. We were at sea both days, on our way back to Los Angeles. We took advantage of the fact that we had no children to wake us up, and we slept in.

The weather was pretty overcast and chilly, so we bundled up and sat by the pool and read.

It was great. I finished 2 books on this vacation.

One evening, we had another formal night.
We also made sure we went to the various shows and live music venues.

We especially enjoyed the piano bar.

We tried to take full advantage of our last couple of kid-free evenings.

We had a wonderful time together. It was a great way to celebrate the sacrifice and hard work that has defined the last 6 years of our life. Now we're on to a new adventure!

Cruise Day 5

PUERTO VALLARTA!

This is what we saw when we opened our window the morning we had pulled into port in Puerto
Vallarta. I laughed so hard!

In Puerto Vallarta, we didn't take an excursion. We took a van ride to the city and walked around to take in the sights.

It was fun to see this big city with all its culture.

We were glad we hadn't planned an excursion that day, because the weather turned out to be pretty yucky.

We ate lunch at a great restaurant.

At one point during our meal, we were given an impromtu show.

We did a little shopping that day. Korey enjoyed bargaining with the vendors. At one point, one guy told him to "quit being so Mexican!" HILARIOUS!!

After dinner that night, there was a 70's dance party in the Promenade of the ship. It was rons of fun.

Cruise Day 4

MAZATLAN!

This was my absolute favorite port, not because of the port itself, but because of our shore excursion. We took a tractor ride through a VERY rustic town.

We ended up at a secluded beach.

We spent about 4 hours at the beach, playing in the water,

reading,

and eating at the great restaurant located right on the beach.

It was WONDERFUL. So relaxing.

That night we had another wonderful dinner, followed by a jazz show and the Love and Marriage Game Show (Hilarious!).

Cruise Day 3

CABO!!

Our first port was Cabo. We had a ton of fun. We went on an excursion through Royal Carribean. We were able to get this great shot of our ship as we left on our excursion.

Our day trip included a boat ride along the coast to see many of their awesome natural landforms.

Then, snorkeling at a semi-private beach. It was a blast!

After our shore excursion, we found a great little place to have lunch. There were maybe 2 other customers there. It was such a nice, quiet, peaceful meal. We did have a sweet dog come join us as we ate....only in Mexico.

At dinner that night, the dining room staff serenaded the whole dining room with Italian Opera.

After dinner, we went to a cabaret show and a late night comedy show. Good times.

Cruise Day 2 1/2

OK...so I forgot something from day 2. That night we went to the Captain's Reception. That itself wasn't a big deal. It was something that happened there that was quite memorable. There was a band playing and several couples were dancing. Korey and I were watching them. There was one couple in particular that was just adorable. They were probably in their late seventies and they were dancing in such a way that you could tell they had been dancing together for a long time. After they were done, they came and sat in a table by us. The man proceeded to then fuss at Korey and tell him to get up and dance with me. Of course, we couldn't argue with that, so we got up and danced. At then end of the song, we returned to our table where the man promptly demanded that I thank him for getting my husband to dance with me. It was hilarious. The greatest part was that we then continued to see this couple at various places areound the ship for the rest of the week. Each time we saw them, the husband was just being silly, and usually up to no good (teasing the waitresses, scaring other passengers with a fake rat). Quite a cheeky old man! Of course, he could get away with it beacause he was an older man...with a British accent.

Cruise Day 2

Day 2 of our cruise was our 13th anniversary. What a great way to celebrate! We were at sea all day, so there was no rushing around. It was great. The day was actually pretty cold outside until about 1:00. So, we took in the ice skating show.
After it warmed up, we went and took in some sun by the pool and READ. Yep, that's right, I got to read books, (that's right, books-plural) completely uninterrupted. It was fabulous.

That night was our first formal night, so we were able to get really dressed up for our anniversary dinner. I can't remember that last time we did that! After dinner, we went to another show. The band was a Beatles cover band. They were really good and the concert was tons of fun. Isn't the theater huge?


Then, we walked around the deck to take in the fresh night time ocean air. BEAUTIFUL!

Cruise Day 1

I know this is super late, but I wanted to do a few posts on our cruise. Mostly because I know I will forget about all the fun things we did (which would be a total drag because it was such a great time).

We left on a Sunday morning. The kids stayed with Grandpa and Brigit (a thousand thanks to them). We actually met up with Rita (my mom in law) and Pam and Terri (my aunts in law) in the parking lot. They were getting off the ship we were getting on. We had a nice little visit with them and they gave us some advice about shore excursions and shows. They were giddy with excitement and it was obvious they had a great time on their cruise the week before.

Once we boarded the ship, we had lunch overlooking the ocean (beautiful!!). Then, we went to our room. We had a balcony, which was nice because we had more space and a way to get fresh air. We walked around to try to get our bearings. It was hard. This ship was HUGE and it actually took a few days to really figure out where things were. We went to a safety drill, then an orientation. After that, the ship began to set sail. It was surreal. There were quite a few restaurants by the docks. People were standing along the railings of the restaurants watching the ship leave and waving to the passengers on the ship. There was even an announcer talking to us from one of the restaurants using a microphone. Crazy. I didn't realize what a big deal our cruise would be to people on land.

We had a wonderful dinner that night and I was pleased to find out that we would have a table to ourselves all week. We did "My Time Dining" which allowed us to have a private table and eat when we wanted. Later that night we went to 2 different shows. It was great.