For our 2-year wedding anniversary slash Lucas'
graduation we decided to go on a cruise! Neither of us has ever been on a
cruise and therefore we were very excited. We are very fortunate to know
someone that works for JetBlue (Sam) and so we got standby tickets for a
reasonable price to Fort Lauderdale where the cruise ship would set sail. I
have never been to Florida and so we decided to go a day early and spend a
night in Miami. On May 13th we took a red eye flight to Fort Lauderdale Florida
where we picked up our rental car and drove to Miami.
May14, 2014
We had slept on an airplane all night, which left
us a little tired, but there was no time wasted, we went to our hotel in Miami,
changed and headed for the beach. The hotel we stayed at, Catalina Hotel
provided complimentary bikes! The bikes were beach cruisers and so cute! The
hotel was across the street from the beach, and included free bikes...what more
could you ask for! The hotel was an older hotel that they redid to make it more
modern. It was a nice hotel but you get what you pay for. Our one night stay
was only $85 (which is a steal) but our room was the size of a walk in closet.
The room was big enough for a bed with walking space on each side. Our bathroom
was smaller then I could ever imagine, if you were sitting on the toilet and
extended your leg, your leg would be in the shower. We weren't in Miami for
sleeping though so it was perfect!
Our hotel was in the middle of everything with a Walgreens
a block down (where we got sunscreen), shopping and of course a McDonalds! We
got our breakfast at McDonalds then rode the bikes to the beach. I have never been
in the Atlantic Ocean and boy was it the best thing I have ever experienced!!
There were waves like California (you have to have waves) but it was actually
warm. I wish I could go swim in the Atlantic Ocean more often, its a lot more
enjoyable then the Pacific Ocean because its warm.
The Miami Heat are in the playoffs against the Brooklyn Nets and lucky
for us they had a home game in Miami while we were there. We had contemplated
going to an NBA game while in Miami and we knew they would be in Miami but we
weren't sure if it would be worth the money. Nosebleed tickets were going for
$115 a ticket because it was a playoff game. After thinking about it more we
realized we would never be in Miami during a playoff game again and so we
decided to splurge and go for it. The game was AMAZING! We were in the
nosebleeds but people were cheering and standing the whole time. We were down
with only a few minutes left but we had some clutch shots and pulled away with
a victory. It was Round 2 Game 3 of the playoffs. We were section 311, row 12.
After the game there was a sea of people wearing white shirts (white out which
we didn't get the memo) and chanting "Lets Go Heat".
May 15, 2014
May 15th we woke up and walked to McDonalds for a harty breakfast before going to driving to the airport in fort lauderdale to drop off the rental car. At the rental car place we ran into an older couple that was going on the same cruise as us! They were nice enough to offer to split a taxi so we could all save some money. They had been on multiple cruises and looked like the typical retired couple that lives in Florida, tan and wealthy. Once on the ship we got our stuff to our room and started to explore. We participated in a cruise scavenger hunt that had us running around the whole ship and getting stamps from each location. The ship is huge! It's bigger then I could ever imagine! After the scavenger hunt we handed out stamped piece of paper in for a raffle...and I won!! I won out of the whole ship, but of course I won a free spot in the slot tournament. We also had a drill and learned how to put on lifejackets in case of an emergency.
May 16, 2014
On May 16th we slept in and rolled out of bed to eat the breakfast buffet. Lucas was going to play in a golf tournament and I was going to go to a "detox for health" class held in the gym but sadly Lucas had to join me because it was raining and the golf tournament was canceled. The class was actually very very interesting. Here is one of the interesting things we took note of:
1 pack of brown sugar takes 1 hour to digest
1 pack of sugar takes 2 hours to digest
1 pack of artificial sugar takes 6-8 weeks to digest
After the detox class we headed to the casino for my free slot tournament. It's not gambling if your not spending money, right? Well, being from Vegas and never gambling or playing slots it's fitting that the first time I gamble is on a cruise ship. Anyway, apparently I am lucky because I got 4th on the whole cruise ship and went to the final round! I sadly lost the final round and came in 3rd place overall. After the slot tournament we headed over to the "adults basketball best of ten". Lucas is such a good basketball player and he won! He was given ten basketballs and the person that made the most free throw shots won. I recorded the whole thing and was counting while he shot and he made 7 out of the 10 shots tried. The only thing is that Lucas thought he only made 6 and he corrected the cruise attendant in charge and in turn lost...but he really won!!
At night we went to one of the dinning rooms and enjoyed a sit down dinner then headed to an early showing of a comedy show starring Alfred and Seymour. It was a good show actually, they were funny and energetic. At 7:15 we went to the balloon drop party. It was surprisingly exciting waiting for the balloons to drop and trying to pick them up after. At 9:30 we went to play a game of "Majority Rules Challenge". For the game they paired us into teams and then asked us questions. You would answer the question in a way that you think the majority of the people would answer the question. Then points would be awarded to those that answered the question the same as the majority. It was a really fun game and made you think.
May 17, 2014
On May 17th we docked at Turks and the adventures started! We didn't book any tours or excursions because we figured we could get better prices while on the island rather then booking online (and boy was Lucas right!). Online an "Island Vespa Tour" was $146 per person. When we got on the island we ran into this guy on the side of the street (sounds creepy but it wasn't) and he rented a vespa to us for about $30 for the whole day!! We didn't have a formal tour like the online rental was but we had a map and had the freedom to see and do whatever we wanted. The island isn't very big so we pretty much rode around the whole island twice and still had time to site see and relax. The island is approximately 7 miles lone and 1.5 miles wide. We saw the lighthouse, drove down historic downtown and just explored the town. I like seeing how other cultures live and while driving around one of the neighborhoods we saw people marching and a marching band playing following behind a hearse. Even though it was clearly a funeral the band was playing upbeat, dancing type music and celebrating the life of the person, it was a neat sight to see! After sight seeing we headed back to the cruise ship for an early dinner snack then had a nice sit down dinner.
May 18, 2014 ~ Basketball Competition
On Sunday May 18th we went to an interdenominational church service at 9:15am. The pastor spoke about moses and other prophets in the bible. I can't even remember what was said or taught but I just remember it was a different experience but good. It was nice to see people come together to be uplifted and think of Christ while on vacation. At 10am they had a morning trivia challenge in the same location as church so we hung around to watch. My mind was blown...I don't know anything about trivia. We started to play but were failing so badly that we cut out early to get a snack before going to the Basketball shoot-out at 10:45am. After the basketball shoot-out we just laid by the pool and relaxed before going to a late lunch. They had a watch event and Lucas wanted a watch so we went and looked at watches. The watches were pretty nice and a good price so we got hime one! It was a nice day of relaxing and just being with each other, a good last full day of vacation!
