Cruisin!

For our graduation present Rory and I went with his parents and brother, Hunter, on a cruise! It was so much fun! It was my first experience on a cruise and I loved every minute of it! Thankfully I did not get sick. Luckily our rough day was on the 5th day of the cruise so as we were rockin' and rollin' I may have looked a little drunk, but I felt great! :) We had great weather the whole time. While we were at sea it did get a little cold and very windy outside so we tried to stay sheltered most of the time or we wore jackets.

Our cruise went out of New Orleans the Sunday morning after New Years. So we spent New Year's Eve in New Orleans. We actually decided to venture down to Bourbon street around 11 at night. That was quite an experience to say the least. We went about 2 blocks and then decided we were done. We walked back to the trolley stop and returned to our hotel to watch the fireworks at midnight. If you look closely you can see the Bourbon street sign in between the red traffic lights.On New Year's morning we went to a little cafe place and got beignets for breakfast. They were amazing! While we were in Louisiana we also visited some plantations. This picture was taken at Oak Alley Plantation. I think it's obvious where this plantation gets its name. :)
We also took a tour inside the Nottoway Plantation. It was pretty neat to see it and hear stories about the family and how it was built. This picture was taken after our tour as the sun was setting.
Rory and I got on the ship around around noon and walked around exploring. We mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the day. We ate at their Tepanyaki grill that night. It was really good food and they had the most amazing coconut ice cream! Monday we spent out at sea on our way to our first stop at Costa Maya.

Costa Maya, Mexico was a nice relaxing day. We just stayed at the beach right off the port and did a little sun bathing and a little shopping. There were dolphins right there you could swim with so we watched as people swam with them and did tricks and things. There were a lot of great shops and we found some cool things. We bought a neat mask made out of Lapiz Lazuli. We stayed on shore until early afternoon and then went back to get lunch on the ship.
Wednesday we stopped in Belize, Honduras. I was excited for our excursion here. We went to see the ruins of Lamani. This is the largest temple that has been uncovered at these ruins. It was really tall and we got to climb it! I was nervous the whole way up and the whole way back down!
They had a rope you could hold onto for the steepest stairs! I was especially grateful for this on the way down.
This picture was taken from the top. We're about 3/4ths of the way up. Crazy!


Here we are at the top! It was a long way down! I tried not to look straight down too much... But don't worry, we made it down safe and sound!
Now, buying excursions on your own and not through the ship is great. It's much cheaper and you can choose what you want. The downside is that if you do not make it back to the ship before the departure time then you're in big trouble. Our trip to the ruins was about an hour bus ride and then about 45 or 50 minutes on a boat up the river. So the boat trip back should be quicker because we are now going down stream to the ocean. Well here we are being towed by a smaller boat because we have run out of gas. Lucky for us we have some extra time before we have to get back to our ship so we're not too worried about it. Another boat has been sent out to give us more gas. However, another couple on our excursion had to be there an hour earlier than us for a different cruise line. Needless to say they were more than a little worried. By the time we made it to the bus they had no time to spare. Our bus driver put the pedal to the metal and he got them back at the exact time they needed to get to their ship. They booked it back and I'm pretty sure they made it alright. What an experience!Cruise experience to be continued....