Brown-eyed Bride turned Wife and Mom!: Honeymoon!

Honeymoon Highlights :

I finally feel "above water" enough to write a post about our honeymoon. We decided to be cost effective and take our first ever cruise together for our honeymoon. There were defintely high and low points, but mostly high. The cruise line was Carnival and I believe the ship was the Freedom. It's been 2 months so I don't remember every detail. The ship took us to Key West, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica.

The first mistake we made was booking a cruise that left the day after our wedding. To get to Ft. Lauderdale without paying an arm and a leg we had to take the first flight out of Columbus, which happened to be at 5:00 AM. The night of our wedding we didn't get home until after midnight and we had to be up at 3:30 to get to the airport on time. I was so tired when the alarm went off. So tired, in fact, that I forgot all of my "hanging clothes" hanging up in a bag at the house. This bag contained several cute dresses and tops I had bought specifically for the cruise. Needless to say I still haven't worn the dresses. Maybe on the next cruise! Ha!

We finally get to the port around 11:00. We have to go through many lines and then sit and wait for what seemed like hours in this big room with all these people until they were ready for us to board.

This picture was taken out of bordem while we were waiting. The hat I am wearing has our names and wedding date, courtesy of my Mom!

It was pouring rain in Ft. Lauderdale. These next 2 pictures were taken inside the cruise ship at a table where we were watching everyone board and waiting for our rooms to be ready. This is also where we got our first meal in basically what I call a cafeteria. We were not impressed with the food at all. Hence Cafeteria!

First day with wedding bands!

The first night is a blur. I think we were so tired we went to sleep after dinner.

When we woke up we were in Key West!

Beautiful!

We got off the ship walked around for awhile and decided to find a place to eat for lunch. This was an open air restaurant and sat on a pier. We shared fish tacos! Delicious!

These are pictures of the cruise ship before we got back on after Key West.

This next group of pictures are from our 2 days at sea on the way to the Cayman Islands. We laid out on the top deck a lot. We also had a balcony, which was very nice to sit on. It was so peaceful!

The Cayman Islands were wonderful. The only way to get to the Cayman Islands from the cruise ship was to take a pontoon boat.

This was a cruise ship parked next to us when we woke up in the Cayman Islands.

The best part of the cruise was going to the Cayman Islands. It was so beautiful! We both said we could live there. The only bad thing was the entire island's electricity was down. Of course I didn't bring anything but a credit card, which we couldn't use because the credit card machines were down. All I wanted was a bottle of water and I couldn't buy one without cash. Oh well, you live and you learn!

This was the only port where we bought an excursion. I told Rob since day 1 of planning a honeymoon all I wanted to do was swim with a dolphin. So that is the excursion we bought. It included a turtle farm tour too.

This is a picture of Queen Elizabeth outside the turtle farm.

Gigantic Turtles!

Little Turtles

After the turtle farm we walked across the street for the dolphin swim. We weren't allowed to take cameras with us once the excursion started but I took a couple before. So sweet!

The dolphin swim was the neatest thing I have ever done. The trainer took a group of 10 of us out into the pool that you see in the picture above. Our dolphin was named Darwin. It was rescued a shark attack. It had several scars to prove it. We all got to kiss, rub, and shake hands with Darwin several times. We also swam out to him twice- once where he pulled us back by us holding on to its fins and another time we held on to a boogie board and he came up underneath our foot and pushed us back. There was a photographer taking pictures the entire time. I was so excited until after it was over. We go to leave and realize they are taking advantage of everyone big time. To get one picture by yourself was $25. To get a CD with all the pictures was $100. This made Rob so mad because we already spent a good amount for the excursion. I wanted to pay the $100 and he didn't so we ended up getting 2 pictures of me for $35. To get a picture of Rob would have been an additional $25. I know we sound cheap and its vacation but I think it was just the principle of the fact that they were taking advantage of us. Now I cant even find the CD with the 2 pictures of me swimming with Darwin :(! Geez!

For those of you that have been on a cruise ship before know that each night the staff makes an animal out of the towels. We took a picture of each one. Very Cute!

They had an arcade that we played in with arcade games and air hockey.

Another "low" of the ship was there weren't any shows. This picture was taken during the one "show" we attended (if you want to call it that). It was a trivia game where the MC put girls on one side and boys on another. They each had to answer questions as a team. Not much of a show if you ask me.

The other funny part that I wouldn't necessarily call a low was the decor on the ship. This picture is to show how flashy and 1960's it was.

After another day at sea we arrived in Jamaica. We decided not to get off the ship because it was a hassle getting on and off, we had to be back on by 2:30, and we didn't know if there would be anything to do. So we had a fun day on the ship laying in the sun, reading, and relaxing.