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Published: December 12th 2008
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These are some of my best memories of my honeymoon, where we went on a seven night cruise in the caribbean. It is also a reflection about how I felt about the cruise and some tips that may help if you are planning to go on one.
Once we landed in New Orleans I finally felt more comfortable with flying on a plane, but now I was in a new city and home was all the way across the country. The man who drove us to our hotel was very friendly and as we drove he talked about some of the good places to visit in New Orleans. When we arrived at the hotel I grew nervous once again, the hotel was still suffering from the damage of hurricane Katrina. Even though it had been over a year since then some of the buildings and sidewalks, in the middle of downtown, had not been rebuilt yet. Before the cabdriver left he warned us to not walk around alone at night because it could be dangerous. Later we found that the people living in New Orleans were actually very friendly and there was no need to be scared, but it is
always safe to explore a new place in groups.
For the first two nights we would be at sea, which gave us plenty of time to explore the Grandeur of the Seas. The ship is one of the smallest that the Royal Caribbean owned, but that was just fine with me. Smaller ship meant less people running around and there was still plenty of things to do. There was a casino, night club, movie theatre, plenty of bars, and two pools. One thing I can definitely say about cruises is that you will never go hungry. First you had the main dining hall which was open for breakfast and lunch daily at certain times. Here we would also have our big dinners like formal night and the farewell dinner for example. They would serve some of the most exquisite full course meals and they even had things that I liked, which was amazing because I am so picky about food. It also gave me an opportunity to try duck and escargot, everything was delicious even the ice cream was freshly made before dinner, and they never served the same thing. If you could not make the time to eat
in the dining hall they had a buffet that was open till 10:00 p.m. and you could get burgers, fries, or pizza twenty four seven. With all of the food I could eat and as much as I wanted, I should have gone to the gym more often.
We had three stops on the cruise George Town, Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, and Cozumel, mexico. George town was a great turist town full of places to shop and a beautiful seven mile long beach full of white sand. We walked down the beach to a spot where we could swim and on the way we saw many of the local fish jumping and crabs crawling. It felt like the perfect beach paradise, was a great way to get some sun and it was only eight dollars for the four of us to take a cab back to the pier. The next day in Costa Maya we had planned to spend a couple hundred dollars to go swim with the dolphins, and we had another excursion to go on in Cozumel so we trying to save some money. Unfortunately we could not make it to Costa Maya because the weather was bad. To try to raise everyones spirits, the captain of the boat decided to go to Cozumel early and lets us go out and explore the night life as long as we were back on the boat by 6:00 a.m.
After going out on the town in Cozumel we returned to the ship around 2:00 a.m. and went to bed anxiously awaiting our excursion planned for the next morning. We woke up feeling excited but a little hung over, which was horrible because we had to take a ride on a ferry for forty five minutes to Playa del Carman. There was a lot of people on the ferry that morning and some of them were so ill that I had a hard time not getting sick myself. Once we arrived a tour guide took us to the bus and we were of to see the Mayan Ruins. On the way the guide informed us about the Mayan culture and talked about Playa del Carmen. This town was beautiful and so natural, it was full of life and culture. I loved it there, the ruins were so majestic and filled with stories of the past. After exploring and snapping photos we left and went to Xel-Ha park, (pronounced shea ha), which was my favorite place that we experienced. Xel-Ha is filled with caves, coves, and lagoons which are filled by the Caribbean sea and underwater rivers. Here we could have unlimited drinks and as much fresh mexican food that we could eat. For a ten dollar deposit we were able to snorkel for as long as we could in a beautiful lagoon that was filled with brightly colored tropical fish and some very small sharks. Xel-Ha is very environmentally friendly, you can't even bring your own sunscreen in the park instead they hold it for you and give you biodegradable sunscreen. This park is a sacred place to the Mayans and I am so thankful that I could visit such a beautiful place, I hope that someday I can go there again.
I recommend that everyone should go on a cruise at least once in there lives because it is a great way to experience new places and cultures. There are many different cruise lines that you can choose from, I chose to go with the royal caribbean because I liked there itinerary. Also because it was so easy to plan from there website, http://www.royalcaribbean.com. Here you can plan your excursions online before your trip, which I recommend because they fill up fast once you arrive on the ship. Or you can look up local businesses to go threw because the royal caribbean sends you a itinerary that tells you when you will be arriving at your destinations. I met quite a few people who planned their excursions outside of the cruise line to save some money. Another tip is be safe, there has been some cases of food poisoning on cruise ships, but nothing like that happened on the ship I was on. Just follow the rule if it looks bad don't eat it and make sure your food is fresh and have fun. Its also a good idea to not walk around the edge of the ship late at night or after a few drinks because even though there are rails you could still fall off and get lost at sea. So be careful on all of your adventures, have lots of fun and make beautiful memories. I had one of the best experiences of my life going on a cruise and I enjoyed sharing it with you, I hope that some of this information can be useful if you are planning a cruise.
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