Our Cruise Part 2: THE CRUISE!

I apologize ahead of time for the ridiculous amount of pictures and words in this post. It has taken me 4 days to write it all so I can imagine how long it will take to read it!

After hanging around New Orleans in the morning, we caught a cab to take us to the cruise ship. Once we got to the docks, we went through customs and checked in with the ship. We got these cool little "ship cards" which were like your lifeline on the ship. You used it like a credit card instead of cash on the ship, and you used it to sign in and out of the ship when we were at the different ports.

When we got on the ship, our rooms were not ready yet and our luggage hadn't been brought up, so we all headed to one of the free restaurants on board, Raffles. It is a buffet and where we ended up having breakfast almost every morning. Anyway, we ate some lunch and then explored the ship. We found the card room, the casino (which I only went into that one time because it was so smoky I got a migraine just walking by), the pool, the theater and all the restaurants. I loved being outside and smelling the ocean and feeling the breeze! Once we got in our rooms, we unpacked and Adam and I went up to the top for the sailing away party. Not only were we at the top, but we were at the very front! It was so cool to watch the city of New Orleans at night.

It was also Jeremiah's birthday, so we went to one of the restaurants for dinner (some of the restaurants had a cover charge). It was our first experience to try the whole "freestyle dining" thing on Norwegian Cruise Lines. It's where you get to eat as much as you want, like multiple appetizers, entrees, and desserts! Let's just say that the diet was out the window the minute I stepped on that ship! We went to the Italian restaurant and it was so yummy!

The next day was our first entire day at sea. It was also Adam's and my 8th wedding anniversary! We spent the day playing bingo (hey, we're Mormon so we couldn't do the casino or the pub crawl!), eating all the yummy food, checking out the art gallery and going out to dinner at the Asian restaurant. It was also super yummy, and the waitresses gave Adam and I a cake and sang "Let Me Call You Sweetheart". It was so cute! Afterwards, we went to one of the shows in the theater. It had this married couple that had been in Cirque du Soleil, where they did all these really cool stunts and danced using ribbons from the ceiling. We couldn't take pictures, or I totally would love to show you what I am talking about.

Happy Anniversary Adam!

I don't know what it is about my family and Adam, but whenever there is a cake in front of him and my family is around, Adam does this with the cake. Anything for a laugh, right?

Port #1: Costa Maya

 Our first port was really exciting for me. I wasn't sure what to expect. We stepped of the ship into a tourist town. All the ports had these, where there were lots of shops with people peddling their merchandise. I learned (not too well) how to haggle with them for cheaper prices and even got a cute dress for Olivia. There were tons of shops at Costa Maya and a pool with a bar, but Dad found a cheap taxi van to take all ten of us out of there to the real beach. Once we got there, we found a restaurant that served us on the beach. Adam and I shared some nachos that were delicious. We relaxed on the beach and found some women who gave us beachside massages for $10 for 30 minutes. It was so nice! I loved being able to just relax in the sun and listen to my iPod. After we found a shop to sell us some cheap soda (soda on the ship was super expensive and I didn't buy a soda pass), we headed back to the tourist town to get on the ship once again.

This was actually taken the night before, but the stewards would make us these cute little towel animals. This one is a little dog. Cute, huh?

This is the tourist town pool. You can see our cruise ship in the background too.

Here is the beach where we went to after the tourist town. The sand was soft and warm. So nice! The tables were only for those who ordered something, which we were totally okay with!

I loved the palm trees. I've only seen them in Florida since I've never been anywhere tropical before. See the massage tables on the right? Those are like the ones we used.

Here are our yummy nachos with lots of pico de gallo and onions and yumminess!

By the way, it's Coca Cola Light, not Diet Coke!

There is our ship, the Norwegian Spirit.

Ana Lee, Celeste, me, Mom and Kelli at dinner on the ship.

Port #2: Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala

The next day, our port was in Guatemala. I was a little nervous on this port because we heard there were some little wars going on in the country, but we figured the cruise line wouldn't dock us in a dangerous area. Kelli and Jeremiah went on an excursion, so they left the ship before the rest of us. Instead, we found a tour to take us up the Rio Dulce into a little town called Livingston. The river tour was beautiful and we got to stop at some other little places as well, including some natural hot springs. The tour guide was very nice and told us a lot about the area and the cultures

A little fishing village near the tourist village.

Adam and I on the tour boat. Don't you love the orange life vests?

I love all the vegetation. It was so beautiful! See the houses on the left?

Pelican Pier- it is actually called that! Pelicans from all around the area gather here. Our tour guide said that this isn't even a lot of pelicans, that more usually come.

This is an important part of the Guatemalen culture because it's the only place in the country where two religions are practiced together. One of those is voodoo and I can't remember the other. Sorry!

Some of the homes on the river were small huts and others were these beautiful tropical homes, like this one.

The tour guide took us to this cute little home where they sold homemade bowls, jewelry and other things. The children greeted us in these homemade canoes. They had no life jackets on and had to have been no more than maybe 7 years old! It made me so nervous! They had all these weird things in their canoes too, like a chicken (or was it a turkey?), a parrot and a crab. They sold some people on our boat some shells too.

This crab was white. It was so pretty but a little creepy looking too.

This is the view from our restaurant in Livingston. It was beautiful! The restaurant was part of a hotel and didn't have windows so you could feel the breeze. It was so amazing!

This is a view of the restaurant from the outside looking in.

Once we were done with lunch, we shopped a little. This is a view from the top of the hill in Livingston down to the bottom, where our tour boat was. The street is super narrow and cars and people had to share it.

This is inside the tourist village. It was all covered in a big warehouse that had air conditioning (hooray!) and some really cool things. We got the kids some handmade toys and they stamped our passports here for free. Other ports would charge you for this.

Another awesome towel animal. An elephant! Apparently I'm easy to please!

Port #3: Belize

Our third port was Belize. Dad and Kory and Ana Lee went on an excursion to see some ruins so we were without our official taxi barterer (Dad, not Kory!). We looked around the tourist village a little bit, and then the boys talked with some very aggressive taxi drivers outside the village gates. We ended up taking a taxi van from a guy who was a little easier to talk to and he took us on a tour of the area before we ended up at a beautiful beach with a water slide. Heaven!

A church in Belize.

This is what most of the housing looks like. Unemployement in Belize is super high. I don't remember the exact number, but it's safe to say that a lot of the population does not have a consistant job. Our taxi driver was very clear how grateful he was for his taxi job.

There were a couple of these checkpoints. Our driver said it was for our safety, but I was a little intimidated by the guns. Our driver had to show his credentials too, to show that he was a licensed guide.

At the beach, finally! You could walk through this carved out tree. Adam is so strong :)

(Insert Hallelujah chorus here)

That is Adam at the top of the water slide. I know it looks grey outside, but I swear it was blue and sunny with some clouds!

Once you walk past the beach a little there is the ocean with some little huts you can sit under. It was so pretty!

 

Here is a better view of the beach. It is manmade, but so worth it! I really want to go somewhere now with a natural beach. Anyone up for another vacation with me?

We celebrated New Years at the steak house. Jeremiah and Adam are toasting their shrimp cocktails.

Yummy desserts! Seriously, one of the best parts of the cruise was the unlimited food, more specifically the desserts! I tried creme brulee for the first time too. So good! I really did order a dessert (or two... or three...) every night!

Adam and I on New Years. I loved dressing up all fancy!

Port #4: Cozumel

Our last port was definitely our favorite! The weather was beautiful, the area was clean (yeah!) and there were the most beautiful beaches! We didn't get to actually go on said beaches, but that was because we went on an excursion to Tulum with an LDS tour guide. Tulum is a city of Mayan ruins and they were amazing and our tour guide was amazing. He taught us so much about Christ visiting the Americas, and even though the ruins we saw were not specifically Book of Mormon ruins, he did a great job showing us how they still proved that the Book of Mormon is true through the statues and beliefs of the people who used to live here. We had to take a ferry from Cozumel (which is an island- who knew?!) back to Playa del Carmen to take the tour guide's van to Tulum. So after Tulum, we went back to Cozumel and shopped a little before we had to get back on the ship.

Bryan, Adam and my Dad in Cozumel. Look how blue that water is! We seriously just wanted to jump in and swim right there.

I might get into some big trouble with my dad for posting this one :)

Adam and I in Cozumel

I think he fits right in with the locals... if we were in TEXAS!

Celeste and Kelli with their breakfast of champions, although you can see who has the bigger addiction! Just kidding, Kelli and I shared the big huge Coca Cola Light. We are both addicted equally!

Tulum!

Here is a view of most of Tulum. It is on the edge of the ocean and acted as a lighthouse for ships coming in. The big building the in the center/back is the temple.

A closer shot of the temple at Tulum. It was huge and had so many tiny steps to the top.

This is one of the four watchtowers. There is one at each corner of  Tulum, although this is the only one still standing like this. Back in Mayan times, these were painted bright blue!

See the window on the left? On each solstice, the sun would shine through the window and hit a certain spot on the far wall. This would signify four of their ceremonial days (each change of the season was one, and their fifth day was April 6. Weird, huh?).

Hello lizard! This little guy was just hanging out by our family in the shade. He was very calm, although I was afraid that he would charge me!

Here is a priest's house. They had the same design as a temple, including an altar.

Most of us with our tour guide. He is in the blue BYU hat. That is how we could spot him when we got off the ferry!

Here is the top of the temple. There are three spots at the top above the three doors. The first one on the left signifies Heavenly Father, the middle one is Jesus Christ (or the Descending God, the picture shows him upside down), and the third is empty, signifying the Holy Ghost.

This is the foundation of a priest's house. The house is gone, but the foundation is still there along with the tomb of the priest who lived there. They were buried in their own homes, and then when another priest moved in and died, their body was buried on top of the other priest's body. There could be multiple priests buried in one house!

This little temple is the most intact one in Tulum. You can see red handprints on the top that show "the laying on of hands" after Christ visited the Americas.

Another view of the same temple. It shows how temples were built then, with two levels. The lower level has two temples, one within the other. You can see on the top of the first level are three niches, and the middle one is showing the "descending God" once again. You can also see the red handprints a little easier on the top level.

Here is the corner of the smaller temple. Can you see the mask? Half of the face is on each side of the corner, the nose is on the corner and the mouth is on the bottom. This is their artwork that they carved into the buildings.

A close up of the "descending God" carving. They knew that he did not descend upside down, it was just their way of showing that he came down from the heavens.

The red hands again, but closer for you to see. It is amazing to see these hand prints and know that they are thousands of years old.

This is the inside of the lower level, where you can see some white handprints used as decoration.

See the whitecaps? That is where the reef is. But notice that in the center, there are no whitecaps, meaning that it is safe for boats to reach the shore here. Tulum was a lighthouse, and if you looked to the temple to reach the shore safely, you would be okay, but if you veered off course just a little, you would hit the reef and your ship would sink. I love the lesson that teaches us nowadays too. Isn't it so true?

A family picture at Tulum

Back on the ship:

After we got back from Tulum, we met up for the Chocoholic Buffet. And yes, it was as awesome as it sounds. Lots and lots of CHOCOLATE! And it was free! Even better. We had fun with our last moments of sanity without kids (okay, I missed them terribly at this point but I love sleeping through the night and not changing diapers!). Almost every night of the week we saw a performance in the theater too. Besides the Cirque du Soleil people, we saw a comedy troupe perform (they were hilarious and have spawned the likes of Tina Fey and Steve Martin called Second City Comedy), the cruise performers doing a Broadway night (like Wicked and Mamma Mia), and a ventriloquist who was super funny and even had Bryan come up and be part of his act. The ventriloquist also used my Mom and Dad as the basis for his act. He chose them randomly from the crowd and his puppet kept hitting on my mom. He had another elderly gymnast puppet who came out and was hitting on my dad while hating  my mom. It was so funny we were crying!

Love the welcome sign to the chocolate buffet. I loved it so much I wanted to eat it! I didn't, but I wanted to.

Fruit tarts, cakes, brownies, chocolate fountain, pies... they had it ALL!

Dad, mom and Kory at the Teppanyaki restaurant. We loved watching the chef make our food, throw shrimp in our mouths and flip and shake the salt and pepper. He was a really funny chef!

Ana Lee, Celeste, Bryan (I don't know why he is smiling like that) and me.

Adam, Jeremiah and Kelli.

See? Our chef was funny! He took a picture with each of us with his fork and spatula like this.

Myself, Celeste and Kelli with our birthday cake. We celebrated our birthday a couple of days early!

We loved our cruise! Thanks Mom and Dad! It was so much fun and we can't wait to go on another one (which won't be for a while but we can dream right?).