Okay, I lied in my last post. Day two was not in Barbados. It was…

Day Two – At Sea!

I forgot that our first full day on the ship was our “day at sea” – as we cruised all the way down to the southern-most point of our trip. We got up early on Monday to ensure we’d get good seats at the pool. There were 3,100 passengers on the ship, and what looked to be about 200 pool chairs, and I wasn’t messing around with having to spend my first full-day in the sun indoors – horrors!

We actually (thought we) slept in, and headed out to the pool deck around 7:30am to throw our towels on two pool loungers before we made our way to breakfast. Imagine my surprise that there were seriously like ten other people awake at the pool and buffet. I couldn’t believe it! It just goes to show how quickly your mindset and frame of reference changes with your lifestyle. I realized then that most people had gotten onto the boat that Sunday, and gotten their vacation started with lots of frozen drinks! How quickly I forget…

So while the rest of the boat slept it off, Casey and I enjoyed a peaceful breakfast and got the best seats at the pool – score! Around 11am the top deck got insaaaanely crowded, with people actually taking regular chairs out of the dining rooms to sit in on the open deck – so uncomfortable! I was happy to have our prime seats, and guarded them like a hawk all day long.

One of the fun features on the boat was the “Movies Under the Stars” program – a gigantic movie screen over the top-deck pool that played all sorts of movies all day long. Even though I brought lots of books to read, I am embarrassed to admit I ended up watching Christina Aguilera in Concert, as well as Baby Mama (shame). After a loooong day of movies, naps, reading, and buffet gluttony, we got all snazzed up for our first formal night in the dining room! I neglected to take a picture, but I promise we looked nice:)

Day Three – Barbados!

We started each day with a trip to the Horizon Breakfast Buffet. On day one I surveyed the food scene, tried a couple of gross goey egg dishes and such, and settled into a normal, consistent breakfast. Every morning I had a large bowl of watermelon, cantaloupe, and prunes – covered in plain yogurt and a small box of All Bran. Sound gross, but it was the best I could do given the many greasy and fried options. I also discovered that I really like prunes. Casey claims I was the only person on the boat under age 70 who ate these. Humph.

We disembarked from the ship, and headed to meet our shore excursion group for our first fabulous adventure – snorkeling with sea turtles! I snapped a picture of the lovely Caribbean Princess once we got off the ship…

We took an open-air bus to our catamaran…

…, and enjoyed a 40 minute boat ride to the first snorkeling site. When we got there, we were outfitted with highly fashionable “aqua lungs” and proceeded to jump into the turtle-filled waters….

It was awesome. The guides had some turtle food to keep our shelled friends interested and close-by. Some were big, some were babies, and they were all so beautiful to see and experience in such close proximity. After a while, we got back on board the catamaran to sail to snorkel site #2 – a shipwreck! This site had a ton of fish – it actually kind of freaked me out from the surface. But I jumped in and just moved around slowly, so that none of them decided to bite my toes or anything.

Once the snorkeling was over, we stopped at the beach of a famous 5-diamond resort – where Tiger Woods had been married (which they told us no less than ten times). Casey and I swam probably 100 yards to shore, took a quick walk, and swam back. We then enjoyed the 40 minute boat ride back, sunning ourselves on the top of the catamaran while the rest of our tour-mates guzzled rum punch and did embarrassing bathing suit dancing. Horrifying.

When the tour was over, we decided to grab a quick lunch and walk around the port of Bridgetown. This turned out to be a less-than-stellar idea. Barbados from the water and boat – thumbs up. Town of Bridgetown – thumbs down. It took about two minutes of walking around for Casey to be offered ganja, and only a few more to feel very out of place and unsafe. And for some reason every store sold socks (and not much else), which I found very strange. Barbados must have a very large sock industry. I did, however, enjoy that KFC had delivery cars…

On our walk back, we stopped at a cool fish market that had some gigantic fish being cleaned and prepped. Gross, but interesting to see.

We headed back to the ship around 3, and spent the rest of the day doing (what else) – laying at the pool, followed by lots of gluttony and eating. Notice a theme here? Here are a few more pictures from lovely Barbados!