\\NEW CRUISE TRADITION//

Cruisin' Time.

After our big weekend of wedding festivities, we were off to California for our Honeymoon Cruise! We drove to Las Vegas and stayed the night there, and then drove to Cali the next morning to board the ship.

 

We went on the Carnival Inspiration Cruise Ship, and our destinations were Ensanada and Catalina!

 

We had so much fun despite the weather. It was pretty overcast the whole time, and so we pretty much had to always have a light jacket on.

 There was ALWAYS something to be doing on the ship, and we were constantly laughing. But- our favorite was all of the YUMMY food! The chicken strips and ice cream were our favorites. We definitely ate way to much. The fancy drinks were one of my favorite parts. I always got the [virgin] Margarita, and Josh would get the [virgin] Pina~Colada. MmmmMmmm GOOD. We also loved coming back to the room to find cute animals made out of our towels. It was a different creature every night. The entertainment and shows were also really fun to attend.  I enjoyed when we got to dress up nice for dinner as well.

PORTS.

I NEEEED HIM.

The ports were a blast [even in the yucky weather]. This trip was definitely memorable. After this trip was over, Josh and I decided that we were going to try and make a little tradition for us. This new tradition is-- to go on a cruise every year. [granted we know that will get hard when we have kids..but shhhh. Let us dream. :)] So far- we have held true to our new tradition. Which leads me to......

CRUISE #2:

 For our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY [I know, I can't believe it's been a year either!] we booked our second cruise. We went with the same cruise line- Carnival...only this time on their "Paradise" cruise ship. And boy was it PARADISE! We were headed for the East Coast this time, and couldn't be more excited! The two ports this time were- The Grand Cayman Islands & Cozumel.

We were SO excited for this cruise. [Obvi.] Once again, all of the festivities that take place on the cruise ship did not fail us. We had so much fun laying out [the weather was INCREDIBLE this time around], joining in the dance parties on deck, going to the comedy shows, going to the dance productions, and more! The food also did not disappoint. We ate, and ate, and ate....and well...you get the idea. The food is GOOD. Free. Constantly changing. And always out. End of story.

 Our favorite spot on the cruise ship was at the very back and right against the railing. We would lay there for hours with our favorite drinks [same as the first cruise] and we were pretty sure we had died and gone to heaven. Drinking our yummy drinks, soaking up some Vit. D, not a worry in the world, not a thing in sight except the gorgeous big blue ocean, we were SO HAPPY. [ahhhh take me back!] Despite how much we were loving being on the cruise ship, and our "days at sea", we were so excited to get to our first port. 

THE GRAND CAYMAN ISLANDS.

This is a list of our shore excursions that we signed up for.
-Hell [yes, Hell.]
---we also stopped at this little shop in Tortuga for people to try the "rum cake!" 
-The Turtle Farm (my favorite)
- Stingray City (Josh's favorite)

HELL: This is a little town where there are rock formations that are believed to look like what "Hell" looks like. Hence the name. They had this little shop there called "Devils Hangout" where there was a little man dressed up in a devil costume. [he loves his job] When we asked the lady at the cash register if they took debit cards she replied, "the devil takes everything." haha We thought it was pretty great, and yes we got our passports stamped saying, "I've been to Hell and back". 

  
TORTUGA: This is where we stopped to try their famous Rum Cake. [Josh and I passed, and instead took the opportunity for some photo shoots!] I loved this little stop because I'm a huge pirates fan. So of course, the quote, "Why is the Rum always gone?!" was used frequently. 

THE TURTLE FARM: Okay. Be ready to die. This was so much fun. They had the cutest little turtles I ever did see. This was such a fun stop. We all got wrist bands that allowed us to hold the turtles, and we walked through this park of turtles that ranged from HUGE turtles to TINY turtles. They were so amazing, and I felt like I could've stayed there all day!

Josh showing how big they are by comparing to his hand!

There were cool lizards and iguanas everywhere!

He was totally posing.

STOP IT.

Just sssstop. THEY ARE DARLING!!!

I tried to take him home. :(

  
STINGRAY CITY: Okay, I wont lie...this part FREAKED me out. It was really fun, but would I do it again....??? Yes. [probably not.] For this one, we loaded a boat that drove us out to this sandbar out in the middle of no where. [what is a sandbar you ask? (don't worry, I didn't really know either) It is this shallow-ish area out in the middle of deep water. Its actually really cool. The sand is built up, so that when we were standing out in it, the water only came to like our waists. And the water was SO BLUE. Like, craaazy clear and the prettiest blue. We tried to take pictures of it-but nothing did it justice. Once we got out there you could see stingrays swimming around everywhere. I was panicking. [STEVE IRWIN ANYONE???] Josh, and our tour guide (some way chill Jamaican guy) assured me that I wasn't going to die. So, I got in the water...with a tight grip on Josh. Our tour guide [like a crazy man] swam and caught one of the stingrays. Then, they had each of the couples come up and KISS the stingray for 7 years of good luck. {I KNOW RIGHT?!} It was so gross. But was I going to pass up 7 years of good luck? No way. They took pictures of us kissing the stingray, but naturally they made you pay an arm and a leg for the picture, so we passed. Plus I'm sure I looked terrified in the picture anyway. After we kissed it, they had Josh and I hug, and they lifted the stingray onto my back/neck for a "massage". I WAS DYING. It was so gross, and did NOT feel like a massage. They thought it was hilarious at how scared I was. [FUNNY] After everyone had a turn getting kisses and massages, they brought out some food [raw nasty fish of sorts] to reward our stingray for doing a good job. This is where things got real bad. As SOON as he put some of that fish in the water and fed our stingray, I looked behind us and there was an ARMY of hungry stingrays coming our way. The next thing I knew, I was on Josh's shoulders. haha It freaked me out bad. There were huge ones [the females] and small ones [the males] and they would rub up on your legs almost like cats. I basically rode on Josh's back for the remainder of our time out there, and was ECSTATIC when we were back on the boat. Phew!

Trying to Capture the BLUE water.

I finally took the plunge into the water.. death trap.

Our tour guide.

Me petting the stingray. (its a good thing Josh didn't get my face in this picture. I was probably crying)

Josh was ALL about it.

He was loving this. Snorkeling around and trying to catch one for himself!

Our tour guide showing us that they trim their barb down so we can't get stung. He then told us that they grow back like fingernails though, so to be careful not to step on the stingrays and make them feel threatened...or they will use their barb. NOT OKAY.

 PORT #2:

COZUMEL.

We loved being in Cozumel!!! It was also so beautiful. We ended up renting a scooter so that we could drive all around the island and not feel tied down to an excursion group. I will admit, cruisin' around on a little scooter with all the crazy traffic in a little town that we had never been to was a little scary, but we had a blast! We would stop at little spots where we saw people swimming and we would bust out our snorkeling gear and go hope in for a few hours. Then we would load back up on our scooter and find our next stop. It was fun to sight see on the way. 

Cant forget my favorite towel creatures!!!

Overall....I would say this was our favorite cruise. [the amazing weather and gorgeous crystal clear blue water could've had something to do with it.] We loved being on the East Coast. We are definitely CRUISIN machines, and are excited to set sail again in the near future... we are already planning our next CRUISE!

xoxo, 
The Stewarts