Sacayan Stories: Sailing Away: Part 1

Have you ever been on a cruise? How about a Caribbean cruise? My hubby and I had never been on a cruise of any kind. I had been saying that for our next big vacation I’d really like to go on a cruise. So when Michael got a surprise bonus last summer, we decided to book our “dream” cruise for our birthdays/anniversary in January. It was fitting to do something big this year because I was turning the big 3-0….. and it was our 7yr anniversary! Big things to celebrate!

So I did A LOT of research online about all of the different cruise lines and what ports were available and where each cruise went and the length of the cruises. There is a lot of details and decisions that go into a cruise! We are lucky being so close to the gulf there are many ports of call to choose from. And they are all within driving distance!

Once we decided what we wanted to do and booked the trip, we also had to book some babysitters! We reserved Krazy AK originally, and later found out that Grandma Kris was coming out for the week too! Kaydin was well taken care of and had lots of fun! =)

Since this was our first cruise(and who knows maybe our last) I wanted to go BIG! But not crazy big…lol.

< My biggest stipulation was that I wanted a room with a balcony – no if’s and’s or but’s. I didn’t want to feel claustrophobic in a closet sized room ~ I wanted to be able to walk outside and enjoy the view and the fresh ocean air whenever we wanted.

< Many websites said that for first time cruisers a 3-4 day cruise is best to start with. I said pshhhh…..we’re doing 7 nights! I want to get the most vacay for the $$$$. And I wanted to see more places.

We decided to go with Carnival Cruise Line – the boat was called the Carnival Legend. It left out of Tampa which is a 5 hour drive for us. Easy peasy.

Here is the itinerary:

Of the 6 full days we were onboard, 4 of them were at a destination.

7 day Exotic Western Caribbean Cruise:

Cayman Islands – yes please! Cozumel – double yes please! Belize – Eehhh….okay. Mahogany Bay – unsure.

Ok……Ok…….onto the good stuff! The pictures!

They took this picture as we boarded the ship – I look really prego in this pic!

Here is our room – it was much bigger than I expected!

Our marvelous balcony =)

The view from our balcony(still docked in Tampa) Our room was on deck 8 which was the highest level for staterooms. Not so great if you have a fear of heights!

Attending the Muster(safety) drill before we can set sail!

Finally heading out! And we’ve got someone on our tail!

Going under the bridge that separates the port of Tampa and open water. We just barely fit under it!

Waking up the first morning at sea. Simply magnificent.

That day we just wandered around and explored the ship. But of course we HAD to get a round of putt putt in!

This was at the very top/front of the ship and it was SOOOOO windy! It looks nice and pretty in these pics, but the ball would just start randomly rolling from the wind!

Tuesday we woke up in the Cayman Islands!

This is what we saw out our balcony:

Other cruise ships anchored nearby. Those small white boats alongside the black and red ship are called tender boats. They take passengers over to shore and back.

Shore!

In case you aren’t familiar, here is where the Cayman Islands are located.(This obviously wasn’t taken while there….we weren’t traveling 17 knots while anchored…lol)

We boarded the tender boat to go ashore…….

This was the first time we got a look at our boat without being on it!

We didn’t have anything planned for our day in Cayman. We were just figuring it out as we went. We walked around the shops and bought our shot glass(we’ve collected shot glasses everywhere we’ve travelled as a couple since we were dating).

Checking out some tide pools along this rocky shore

A scary looking body guard with his back-up dog..…yikes!

We ended up walking along the road that paralleled the water. We had no idea where we were going or where it would lead us to, but it felt like we walked 20 miles. We did find a BK along the way! What a view huh?

We did not eat at this BK…….but we did end up eating at KFC. =)

Eventually we came across a small sandy walkway with a beach access sign. Finally somewhere we could go down to the water!

This was not the most ideal beach – it was very rocky, there were bits of glass everywhere, and the water was chilly. But we toughed it out and waded into the water so we could say that we went in the water in the Cayman Islands!