Caribbean Cruise!

For our 1 year anniversary Doug and I decided to explore the Caribbean! We went on a one week cruise hitting the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten, and oh my gosh, what a great time we had. I love going to new places, and now that I am married Doug gets to be dragged along! Although I don't think he was complaining too much spending his days in the beautiful clear blue seas in Nassau!



We flew into Florida a day early and stayed a hotel that night. We had a great romantic dinner next to a beautiful pool and had a great night. The next morning we could see our cruise ship out our window and just got so excited. When we got into our room on the ship we couldn't have been more surprised. We opted for the cheap room, but cheap room we did not get. We had an awesome huge room with a full window, a couch, and a big bed. We were so excited! There is not much about the cruise that we didn't love. It was SO relaxing. We had a couple days where we were at sea and "chillin" was the name of the game. We ate WAY too much, but the food was absolutely wonderful. All you could eat of the best food - steak, shrimp cocktail, and the best desserts. And heaven knows we made way too many stops at the self-serve frozen yogurt/ice cream station. We loved going to the shows at night to see all of the dancing and singing performances. It was just all around a great time.

When we stopped at the Bahamas we had an amazing time. We walked through the port area and about 1/2 mile away from the cruise ships to a secluded beach. We were the only ones who found the beach so we got the entire place to ourselves. We swam in the most clear, warm, deep blue water I had ever seen with a picturesque lighthouse in the background. I felt like I was in a fairytale or something! On our way back to the ship we stopped at a flea market and got a few souvenirs. We love Nassau!




St. Thomas was where we did our favorite shore excursion. We went parasailing! It was seriously the funnest thing we have ever done. It was the most liberating feeling to be torn off the boat and thrown high into the air. We were flying 400 feet in the air - so high that from St. Thomas we could see Puerto Rico! This was so fun and I can't wait to do it again sometime.













St. Maarten was our favorite island to visit. It was absolutely beautiful. The island was so clean with an old-time feeling filled with cobblestone roads and a gorgeous beach. Unlike our shopping experience in St. Thomas (too many jewelry stores and getting yelled at by a local selling t-shirts!) we had a great time shopping in St. Maarten. We found the cutest little store on the beach selling all types of souvenirs, and we bought almost the whole store! After perusing the town we started with the water! We rented jet skis and cruised around the whole bay. It was crazy how big the waves got the further from the shore we got and it started to get a little bit scary! The water was so salty and burned my eyes a bit, but jet skiing in the ocean was just a blast!