When we were planning our honeymoon, I knew that I wanted something all inclusive. After embarking on a month long road trip across the country camping and touristing and Airbnbing, we knew we wanted something a bit more relaxing. We investigated various resorts (like Sandals), but my eye was on a cruise. I had been on one cruise previously, a Disney cruise, and Nick had been on several throughout his lifetime. With the generosity of family, we were able to pull it off!
We took a seven day Royal Caribbean cruise, with port stops in St. Martin, Puerto Rico, and Haiti. Boy, was I pumped! Our first day on the ship, we got ourselves settled in our beautiful room (with a balcony) and explored the ship. We sailed on Allure of the Seas, which for a while, was one of the largest cruise ships in the world. It was huge and had so much to offer! Throughout the cruise, we enjoyed the various entertainment--putt-putting, ziplining, shuffleboard, arcade games, jazz clubs, Latin dancing, karaoke, comedy shows, gambling (more on that later haha), and of course chilling in the pools and jacuzzi!
Our first night, we saw Mamma Mia! which in our humble opinion, was SO much better than the movie! The singing knocked Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried right out of the park! Throughout the week, we also watched a water acrobat show, an ice skating show, and another musical. They were all SO good! We also had fun watching several adult game shows.
We attended the Love and Marriage game show. They asked for any newlywed couples to perform a short skit and whichever skit was the best, that couple would participate. The task was to say the line, "Oh Tarzan, oh Tarzan, wherefore art thou Tarzan." Well, our skit was the crowd favorite as I leaned over the balcony rail searching for Tarzan only for Nick to come and scoop me in his arms. Unfortunately, due to our location in the balcony, they thought it would take too long for us to come down, so we weren't chosen. We had people come up to us throughout the week saying that we had totally gotten jipped and that they had voted for us haha
Oh, so my gambling story! On the fourth or fifth day, the ship gave us $10 of free credit at the casino. We decided to give it a go! On about our second spin of the slot machine, we won $20. I told Nick we should stop and take the money, but he said that we should keep going. Needless to say, we walked out with nothing :D Probably best anyway, so neither of us every think that we are good at gambling.
We enjoyed sleeping in and lounging by the pool. We purchased one of the drink packages for non-alcoholic beverages, so we got free refills on all sodas, as well as a smoothie or a virgin pina colada on the hour. I would be embarrassed to count how many pina coladas I drank :D They were SO good!
And let's not forget the food! We had wonderful experiences in the main dining room, as well as ordering room service breakfast and with speciality dining. In the main dining room, we had the same waiter almost every night. Every night, I would order shrimp cocktail for my appetizer. I just couldn't get enough of that stuff on our cruise. On the third night, he started bringing me a second after I finished the first :D We went to a steak house one night, an Italian restaurant one night, and our favorite, a sushi restaurant one night for dinner! We had SO much credit at the sushi restaurant, I think we ordered 5 or 6 sushi rolls, 2 or 3 appetizers, and 2 desserts! We were rolling out of there :D
We didn't take many pictures on the trip because we wanted to focus on being with each other. I know that may sound silly, but we really wanted to remember our trip not just from pictures, but from the feelings that we shared and the closeness that we experienced together by not being distracted by getting a good shot, documenting everything etc.
Most of our pictures were taken at port, when we got off and explored!
Our first stop was in St. Martin. We had arranged a Dolphin Encounter at this port. Ladies and gentleman, this was the absolute best! It has been top of my bucket list ever since I was a little girl to swim with dolphins. And my bucket list dream came true! We rode a speed boat from St. Martin to the British isle of Anguilla. We experienced some choppy seas, and I am so grateful I was wearing my Sea Bands!
Side note: these Sea Bands worked! On my first cruise, I got terribly seasick my first night. Obviously, I didn't want to be sea sick on our honeymoon. After a lot of research, we discovered these might be the best option. I was a total skeptic, but all of the reviews said that they had worked! I had them on the entire trip, except for one night: right before we ate at the sushi restaurant. We sat down, I looked out the window at the sea, and started getting queasy. I ran back down to our cabin to get them (while chewing some ginger gum) and no more queasy Kaylyn!
Okay, back to dolphins! After taking a boat to Anguilla, we started our encounter. We had about an hour of beach time, where we were able to swim and snorkel. Then, we were given lunch and then got to go out with the dolphins. Dolphins are such happy animals, and it was fun to see how each one had a different personality! Our dolphin was SO cute!
In the second port, Puerto Rico, we didn't really do a whole lot :D The truth is, we got into that port really early and we chose to sleep in :D We got off for a few hours and explored the market, the port, and the Paseo del Morro.
The third port, Labadee, Haiti, was a blast! We really didn't see much of Haiti, as the ship docked in the resort area owned by Royal Caribbean in Haiti. We spent a couple of hours on the beach and eating, and then went snorkeling in a coral reef!
Nick had been snorkeling several times, but I was a newb! We both had the BEST time though! We had bought waterproof cases for our phones so that we could take pictures around the pool and underwater and they worked great! 5/5 stars! We probably should have practiced with them a little more becuase most of our shots are out of focus haha But a camera could have never done what we saw justice! The reef was so close and so beautiful! We could see the coral and the fishes up close and really see the beautiful colors and intricacies of a reef environment. Nick and I held hands as we swam along, enjoying our experience.
Our honeymoon was a blast and definitely an experience that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Sometimes, when I'm at work, I'll experience cruise withdrawals. I'll just be standing there and all of a sudden my mind will be taken away to delicious food, someone making our bed for me, and lounging by the pool. We definitely plan and hope on doing a cruise again someday!
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