honeymoon photos

if you want to know more about what we did and where we went on our honeymoon; you can click on the category ‘honeymoon’ on the left panel to see posts that were written while on the ship.

enjoy the photos everyone!

-simple

today we had no islands to visit, no streets to walk, no beaches to lie on, and no restaurants to find. it was us, the boat and the 3000 other passengers aboard. we picked out a couple of things to do from the daily list and made our way through the day.

our first stop was the afternoon trivia. we played and did much better than we have in the past. i think we had 22 out of a possible 27! …though still not good enough for first place and a royal caribbean keychain.
next on our list was a napkin folding seminar! we were joined by the lovely ‘pippa’ (one of our cruise director staff) and a waiter from the dining room. we practiced folding napkins into fans, bishob hats, boots, florida lillies, and birds of paradise. as lame as it sounds, it was pretty fun to be able to fold them. maybe we can bring our new talent back home and impress some of our dinner guests.

tonight was our second formal night and since we had to get ready for that and attend the ice show tonight, we headed back to the room early. kristen wore a very nice glittery gold dress that was dazzling and i wore my suit. here is a shot of kris putting on her shoes… and a shot of us at the rink

we headed down to the ice skating rink and found some seats. the ice show was alright; there was some pretty good skating, but there was also some pretty lame skating. it was entertaining and once finished, we headed over to the dining room for dinner.

being the last formal night, tonight was lobster night. yep… once on every cruise they serve lobster and it is usually my favorite. while it was extremely tasty, it wasn’t the best i’ve ever had. kristen had a prime rib that seemed pretty good, she wasn’t really into the lobster. here’s a picture of my food

if you haven’t figured out… we’re running out of photo opportunities =D

so, after dinner, we headed back to the schooner bar (our favorite) for another round of trivia. we didn’t play as well this round… but were stuck working with some old couple from new jersey. oh-well. tomorrow is our last chance to win a keychain… fingers crossed!

after our uneventful round of trivia, we opted to skip the show (another that sounds ‘awesome’) and head back to the room for a bit of relaxation. tonight was the gala buffet and we had some time to kill before the viewing and eating.

we started out by making our way down to the dining room. there was an enormous line so we took a quick peek and headed back to the promenade for the ‘island parade’ … which was… interesting. when it finished, we hurried down to the first floor of the dining room for the opening of the chef’s gala buffet. there were some pretty awesome ice sculptures, and some incredible looking food. kris and i both grabbed a plate and grabbed a couple things. we were both still pretty full after dinner to have yet another buffet.

instead of sitting in the dining room to eat, we rushed past the endless lines of people and back to our room; i snagged some silverware off a nearby table. we sat out on our veranda and had our food. yum! so now we are going to get some sleep; we’ve got another big day tomorrow filled with eating and lounging! i’m tired; goodnight.

-simple

kris and i arrived at the port in puerto rico very early this morning (after we went to bed) and could see the lights of the city from our veranda. We woke up early this morning to the sounds of announcements over the pa system. It seems that once during every cruise (i remember this from our past cruises) Homeland Security comes aboard to check citizenship and stuff… just to be sure. So, at 8am kris and i put on some clothes and wandered downstairs to the lower decks, we turned toward the dining room (where the checking was taking place) to see a giant line that stretched the length of the ship and back! we hopped in the back of the line and waited. Every few steps forward, some old guy behind us would ram into our heels with a wheelchair he was pushing. Luckily it was empty so it didn’t really hurt, it was just sort of obnoxious. Not only that, he wouldn’t let go of the fact that yes the line was long, and yes, people were cutting in line… apparently this was going to cause the end of the world… “Those damn kids are buckin’ the line again! It’s just not fair, how can they do somethin’ like that!?” I wanted to turn around and ‘politely’ tell him to let it go… i didn’t. Thankfully, the line was moving pretty quickly and we only ended up waiting for about 15 minutes. Once the security guards verified that kris and i were actually who we claimed to be, we headed up to the windjammer buffet for breakfast.

After breakfast, kris and i gathered our things (passports and camera) and headed to deck 1 to the gangplank. We hopped off the ship into more hot and humid weather; it was another beautiful day in the caribbean! Our morning on the island started well with a quick stop at a local Starbucks! I got my regular iced double tall, soy latte; and kristen had some ice water.

We headed out and realized we left the map of the city on the boat, but an information center was nearby.
The streets were very small. Cars zoomed by us as we walked in a single file line along the sidewalk! Blue brick lay on the streets in ‘old town’ and led up to the cathedrals and statues. We followed the map working to translate the spanish names and words. It was easy to follow the street signs and noticing that all the things we wanted to see were clearly marked in purple on the map, it wasn’t too bad finding our way around. We walked up the streets and down the streets taking loads and loads of pictures. The colors of the buildings were all different and made for some really good contrast. Here is a shot were there are six or so houses in a row and all of them are different.

One of our favorite sights in the city was the fort. There is a very large wall, that runs along the coast, and acted as a fort in old times. The wall is about 2 and a half stories high and 18 feet thick! On the other side of the wall was a cemetery that (we assume) held the dead from past battles. Beyond that was the Atlantic coast. There were several places to look out over the water and up towards the fort and a lighthouse. There was a giant field leading up to the fort that was filled with children flying kites. Here is a shot of kris hiding in one of the holes in the side of the giant wall.

After our adventure at the fort, we headed toward the ‘parque de los palomas’; the park of the pigeons. We bought a bag of birdseed for a dollar and started spreading it around. There were pigeons all over the place, gobbling up the corn and seed that several kids were tossing about. kris took a video of me feeding them, i’ll be sure to post it when we get back to our house in tennessee.

It was time for some lunch. We walked through the tight streets stopping at each restaurant to check out the menu and found one that we liked. It was a cool, modern restaurant that seemed to have an ‘underwater’ theme. The lights were shaped like jellyfish and the walls were painted a light blue color. kristen had a toasty chicken and mozzarella and i had a shrimp salad sandwich. The food was great and for a very reasonable price!
After our lunch, we walked around a bit more then back to the ship. Since most people were out still, there was not a lot happening on the ship; so kris took a nap while i sat out on the veranda smoking a cigar and sipping some wine. Eventually, kris woke up and we watched as we sailed away from Puerto Rico. We got some great pictures of the front side of the fort we visited out on the peninsula.

Next we wandered out to the pool to catch some ‘pool-side olympics.’ They ended up starting late and we lost interest pretty quickly, so we grabbed a self-serve, soft-serve ice cream cone on the way back to the room to dress for dinner.

Tonight was semi-formal night and kris wore a fancy little brown cocktail dress which she looked absolutely stunning in (as usual) and i wore a nice shirt and tie. We ate a pretty good meal and headed over to our theater for the show. Tonight was a Beatles tribute band. Cool, i guess, i’m just not really into the beatles. Oh-well. kristen says that ‘Rain’ was better anyway.

So now we are back at the room. I think i’ll order some room service (cookies) and maybe kris and i will sit on the veranda for a bit before ‘bed.’ … followed by sleep. =)

Goodnight to you all! Keep an eye out for kristen’s post tomorrow evening after our greatly anticipated say at Labadee, Haiti!

-simple

After lunch we headed back to our room to relax before porting at St. Thomas at 1pm. Glancing out at our veranda we noticed a couple more small islands and sure enough…

LAND HO! It was St. Thomas (which made perfect sense since we were scheduled to dock within 30 minutes). We got excited looking at all the resorts, hotels and small houses along the beach and up on the hills. We took several pictures of them and the approaching island to document our first port as a married couple. (yes, cheesy, i know.)

We stepped out into the blistering hot sun and felt a nice breeze that mitigated (that word is for you, cj) it’s blaze. We were just a 5 minute taxi ride from downtown where all the shopping and dining happened. One of the funniest things was how many taxis there were. As soon as we stepped off of the taxi, there were more taxis there asking us if they could take us to the beach, on a tour of the island or back to our ship. I laughed and said, “we just got here, why does everyone want to get us away so badly!?”

We walked up and down the streets looking into shops and checking out the scenery. Since this was our first stop in the caribbean, it was a nice sight to see the tropical plants and animals, and feel the humid, tropical air. The buildings downtown were very old and had a sort of english theme to them (which makes sense because the island used to be owned by great britain.

Once we were finished looking (and not buying) we grabbed a taxi (more like a really fast and dangerous trolley) and headed over to the Mariott (a resort on the island) for some beach time. The ride over was insane. We passed cars and other taxis, no joke, with mere centimeters to spare, the speed limit was 10 mph, and our driver held at an even 50! Luckily we made it safe and kris and i were able to enjoy some nice sun, sand and warm saltwater.

After a while, we went back to the ship to shower off and dress for dinner. Dinner wasn’t too impressive. There just weren’t too many options that kris and i could really get into. i had some veal pasta dish and kris had some fish (snapper).

the fun really began once dinner was over. we had some time to spare (about an hour and fifteen minutes) and instead of doing what most newlyweds would, kris and i headed to the casino. i had been wanting to try my luck at the poker table and decided that tonight was the night. We went down and there was another guy waiting for the table to open (there needs to be at least two players). I sat down and bought $100 dollars in chips (don’t worry mom). In no time at all, the table filled up and i was playing the cards against seven other players, yikes! I kept my cool and played how i always have and after about 45 minutes of up and down i left. But the best part is that i walked away from that table with two hundred thirty-four dollars!!! It was nerve wracking at times with my stack fluctuating so much, but i was getting some good cards and playing those guys pretty well. Kris was so proud of me she kissed me in front of all of them! She was excited that i made up for a lot of the drinks we’ve had on board so far. here’s a shot of me with my winnings!

So now we are back in the room and about to head to the top deck to say farewell to St. Thomas. After our pool-side party, we will go back down to the ‘Palace’ to watch the newlywed game show. (no we’re not participating… even though i know we’d win). After our show we’ll come back to the room for ‘bedtime’ …
So, goodnight to you all. Tomorrow we will stop at St. Maarten for another day filled with shopping and beaches! Look for a post on Kristen’s webpage tomorrow night!

-simple

Today was day two of our honeymoon cruise to the caribbean, and let me tell you… it was as exciting as ever! It was filled with eating, gambling, eating, gambling and eating! woo-hoo!

We started out this morning waking up around 9am and dressing for our ’90 degree’ weather. Shorts, a shirt and flip flops would surely suffice. We headed up to the buffet for breakfast and we enjoyed a hearty morning meal (you should know that i never eat breakfast, so anything is a large breakfast to me. After we enjoyed our fair share and then some, kris and i headed out to the pool for some lounging in the sun. Much to our surprise, though, the wind was fierce and gave us a bit of a chill. Luckily the sun was hot so the wind did a nice job leveling the playing field.

After a nice sunbath, kris and i went downstairs to try out luck in the bingo. We found out the hard way that playing against 200 people isn’t as easy as playing against 50… oh-well. After 35 bucks down the drain for a bingo card, we decided that we’d try again at the end of the week for the 100,000 dollar prize.

At the end of bingo we were told to head over to the art auction for some free champagne and a free $95 piece of art. Well… the line was 100 yards long, so we opted out and headed to lunch. Meal number two was pretty good, we had some pasta with bread, salad, pizza and some pastries to top it all off. yum!

Once we were finished we headed up to “dizzy’s jazz lounge” to play some ‘name that tune.’ Out of 20 questions, kris and i got 8 correct! We didn’t feel too bad since most of the songs were well out of our era.
We decided to play some games that required less thinking and more.. losing, apparently. So we headed to the casino to try our luck, yeah, we don’t have any. Six bucks straight down the drain! I lost my 3 dollars straight up, without winning a single pull; but luckily, kristen’s first time at the slots wasn’t all lost. She won a couple pulls … though, still ending in despair. Here is a shot of kris playin’ the slots!

Since we weren’t winning any money, we decided to head up and eat some more, of course. We perused the cafe and grabbed some ice cream and cookies to hold us over before dinner. You can see kristen here stuffing her face with her food… this is how we’ve been all day.

After our snack we headed back to the room to ‘relax.’ Kristen sat out in the sun on our beautiful veranda and i watched some baseball on tv. We napped and at 5 we got ready for our first formal night on the cruise. I must say, aren’t we quite the dashing couple?

Before we left for dinner we found out that we were granted our table for two! We were so excited to be able to share an intimate dinner together; and not only were we alone, we were next to a window with a great view of… the water! But really, it was nice to be next to a window. Our new table and a few other new ones around us seemed to disrupt our wait staff and they seemed a bit frazzled at times due to the larger amount of people they needed to serve. Hopefully they will be more on top of things tomorrow… no worries though, the food is still awesome!

Once dinner had finished kris and i headed back up to the jazz lounge for some piano and drinks. We grabbed a free glass of champagne on the way up.

Our show started at 9pm tonight and was a ‘through the decades’ music show… this seems to be a regular show on most cruises. The singing was great, and the dancers were good; it was some solid entertainment before our ‘honeymooners only party.’

After the show we went to the ‘chamber,’ a small club with a king arthur theme. Our activities leader passed out lots of champaign (kris and i had 2 glasses each) and we munched on chocolate cookies, strawberries and some white sponge cake. They drew a raffle for some great prizes and kris and my luck continued.

So we headed back to our room since the party was winding down and ordered some cheese and cookies to our room.

We are nearly zonked and ready for bed. Kris is falling asleep right now, and i think i may join her. Tomorrow is another day at sea, and we plan to have as many exciting activities to attend if not more than today. Look for a post on kristen’s blog tomorrow as we are switching days. Good night to all of you!

-simple

i was looking through our itinerary and checking us in online and went to put in her expiration date and noticed this daunting problem. quickly, i called the cruise company to see if there was anything we could do and sure enough, there was! the nice lady told us that even though we are cruising out of the country, the caribbean is still considered a domestic cruise and we didn’t necessarily need a passport. we did, however, need her original birth certificate and some photo id, so we promptly called new mother-in-law to have her overnight it to us in tn. with lots of calling back and forth, we had my mom run over, pick it up and put it in the mail. it arrived this morning and i feel much more calm and comfortable. *whew!!

so, we’ve got a lot of packing to do and preparing for our 9 day cruise so… see ya!

-simple

p.s. … brett, i’ll be thinking of you when i am stuffing my face with unlimited gourmet foods! =D