Shawn, Bonnie & Ava: 9/1/09

Wow...one week goes by too quickly, kind of makes us sad :( Anyway, it was the most beautiful vacation we have ever been on, so amazing to see the different islands and how people live.
We got to our first stop which was San Juan Puerto Rico. It was pretty late when we checked into our hotel, and we were both hungry so we decided to get some food. So we wandered around the city for a bit before we found something we are used to..Subway, it was so good to have some comfort food!! The next day we still had time to wander around, but it was just way too hot and humid to do anything, we were so uncomfortable, so we checked out as late as we could, then checked into the ship as early as we could. We went on Carnival Victory and visited 7 islands within the time we were on the cruise, every morning we woke up to a new island. The ship would sail at night, and let me tell you, it is possible to feel "tipsy" without drinking!! As soon as the ship would leave port you could totally feel how choppy the waves were, we would be walking down a hallway, or just anywhere on the ship trying to keep our balance, it was so funny to watch all the people around us!

The second island we visited was St. Thomas, the city itself seemed really poor, but the surroundings were beautiful. We booked our first shore excursion for that island to do some snorkeling at Christmas Cove. At the time we were both kind of nervous cause it's kind of scary going into unknown territory, but the water was clear blue and you could see everything before jumping in. We did have a waterproof video camera, but as soon as we put it in the water it didn't work. Later that night we noticed the battery acid was eating through the camera itself. It would have been so nice to record what we saw, we were out for almost an hour. We were able to see stingrays, a baracuda, coral, and schools of fish, at some points the fish were swimming with us!

The third island was Dominica, and that island to me was the best!! Waking up that morning to see all plants, trees, birds, and of course the ocean was what I'd been looking forward to, it was so relaxing. Anyway, we did another excursion which was called "Dominica's favorites" we had a tour guide take us in a van around the island and told us a lot about the way they live, how things are done and what they do to keep the island so beautiful. We walked a couple trails in the rainforest to get to the waterfalls, the first ones we saw were too high and too far for us to get too, but they were breathtaking! Shawn played in the water for a bit while I was of course taking all the pics. After that stop we drove some more and learned a lot about where we were going which was the Emerald Pool. Again it was another trail, it took about 10 min to get to the pool, once we got there everyone was jumping in and having fun. The water was so cold to where I didn't want to get in, but I decided to try and only made it half way.

The fourth island was Barbados. Another excursion was booked and it was for the Wrecked Pirate Ship snorkeling adventure. There was a boat that took us out to the pirate ship, it wasn't too far from the beach, but we were in a pretty deep spot. They roped off the area for us to snorkel, we could only stay so close to the boat which was horrible. As we all got in the water I felt as if we were on the movie Titanic. We were all so close trying to move around, so we were kicking, and splashing, I bet we looked like dorks. We saw a relative to the sword fish, it was a lot smaller and less intimidating, the nose is like rubber, if you touch the nose it would just bend. After snorkeling we went to the beach to play, then back on the boat to dance and have fun!!

The fifth island was St. Lucia, that was our "relax" day, we had nothing planned except to walk around and get a feel for the island. As soon as we got off the ship we were surrounded by tour guides and taxi driver asking what we want to do, and where we want to go...it was crazy. They were giving us prices at $80 per person and they couldn't bring you back, we were not ok with that at all, so we kept turning everyone away. The last guy we talked to said he could take us on a short tour for only $30 round trip for the both of us together, of course we took it!! He took us to the main school, told us some interesting stories of how education started, then he took us to the first prison, Shawn was very interested in that. It was a nice day to learn and relax!

The 6th island was Antigua. Yes it was more snorkeing...at this time we were experts!! We went out on a catamaran to our destination, we were dropped off in the middle of the ocean, no surrounding beaches or anything...it made me worry just a bit. As we all got our gear on to head out in the water the captain just so happened to mention that it is jelly fish season and that we should watch for them and shoo them away with our hands. Ok, WHAT.....yeah it did not fly with a lot of people on board, they went out and were back on the boat within minutes. So many people were so mad because that wasn't mentioned in our excursion. Well, Shawn and I thought it wouldn't be too bad to get out and try it, so before we jumped in I could already see the jellies right by the ladder, I was already freaked. So we get in and start swimming, I thought it was fun for the first 10 minutes or so until I got stung all over on my legs even up to the inner thigh, it scared me so bad that I started kicking them out of my way and made a mad dash for the boat. I was not happy... but Shawn stayed in and swam out further only to find out there were schools of jellies off to his left and right, he didn't get stung so he enjoyed it!

The last island was St. Kitts.....wow..... This island was so gorgeous as soon as we got off the boat, the people really kept it clean and a little more modern. Our last excursion was Beach Extravaganza, and it was the best by far!!! Our driver took us to an area where we could get pics, there was so much water everywhere. We saw the Atlantic ocean and caribbean ocean seperated by a little mountain, it was actually pretty cool to see. After that we went to the beach, grabbed a drink, layed out, and played in the water. The water was so clear and beautiful, which made it easy for Shawn and I to collect seashells, we could see them through the water so we could just go down and grab it not being afraid of what else would be under there.