Cruising on the Celebrity Eclipse

The ice cream we couldn't leave alone!

The hills where we zip-lined!

On the shores of Roatan, Honduras

A good view of our ship

Loving the monkeys!

The view from where we started zip-lining! Awesome!

The temples in Costa Maya

Our table where we ate every night

The boys shopping in Cozumel

Look at our little rental car!

Katie taking it easy

Seeing the real pirates of the Carribean

The lawn on top of our ship

I mentioned earlier about our first cruise being cancelled - in a crazy way it was emotional to rebook an entirely new cruise right away! Our original one was down to the Mexican Riviera out of Long Beach, CA. Now, we were taking off out of Miami, FL on a different cruise line and to very different ports! But this ended up being our best vacation yet! We are SO glad now for the switch and can't wait to go again! We took a red eye flight out on Friday evening, November 26th. We slept okay - we landed in Ft. Lauderdale (because we switched last minute there were no flights into Miami) rented a car and drove to Miami. I didn't know how we'd like Florida but we were pleasantly surprised and loved it! It was warm and beautiful! We stopped at the beach to compare the Pacific to the Atlantic - Atlantic is much prettier and warmer! Then we headed off to get on our boat. The Eclipse was just put to sea last March - it is a beautiful ship! It just amazes me that these things even float - I tried to not think too much about that! We got on but couldn't check into our rooms so we headed to the next best thing - the buffet! Man, we couldn't believe all the food! It was so good! We settled in and enjoyed the first day and a half at sea. Although there were kid centers on this boat, it didn't have all the amenities that the Splendor did with the waterslides, etc. But it was nice to not have a ton of kids on board and we felt safe letting the kids wander and explore. Every night we'd have dinner in the dining room - we loved our servers, Rafael and Christina! The food was to die for! We all tried new things - I am so proud of the kids for that! We NEVER eat like that here - we miss that food! We even enjoyed a Sunday brunch to top all brunches! The ice sculptures were a nice touch!:)

Our first port was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. It was beautiful! So warm and humid. It felt so good to thaw! We had booked our shore excursions separate from the ships and we are so glad we did! Our first excursion was to swim with the stingrays, snorkel with the starfish, and relax the rest of the day at a resort. Our family was the only ones on our tour! And it was a large boat with 2 captains! Swimming with the sting rays was amazing! They are beautiful animals! Katie was a bit freaked out - they swim up right next to you and slide by - makes me shiver a bit just thinking about it! But we all felt them and kissed them! That brings you good luck! The water was kind of choppy but that didn't stop us from spending hours snorkeling and enjoying ourselves! They then took as back to shore and dropped us off at a resort that we enjoyed for the rest of the day!

On Tuesday, we arrived in Cozumel, Mexico. This was the first time any of us had stepped foot in Mexico so I was a bit nervous. I was even more nervous when we saw the long taxi line and decided to rent a car! Really? It ended up being a great thing - a small car but with American A/C! There's a difference, you know - Mexican A/C is when you roll down the window! It was a hot day so we loved it! Our first stop was to a resort that filled the bay with lots of inflatable toys to climb and jump off of! What a playland! We played all day on those, snorkeled, kayaked, and just enjoyed the sun. We then headed to the downtown area and did some shopping. Cozumel is known for its silver so I bought a bracelet and a pewter plate. The kids got some things too.

On Wednesday, we were still in Mexico but had gone south to Costa Maya. They had been hit by a hurricane in 2006 so it was obvious they were still rebuilding. But everything was new so that was nice. We had booked an excursion to visit some temple ruins inland about an hour. The other couple in our group happened to be from Tacoma, WA. What are the chances? Our driver was great - total local who entertained us with stories as we drove and even broke into song when he asked if we like Mexican music. He dropped us off at the ruins and set us up with a guide named Ezekiel who is of Mayan descent. He was amazing - he knew so much and spoke really good English that he said he taught himself through watching movies! We totally enjoyed seeing the corn temple, the sun temple, and the moon temple. They are newer ruins only discovered in the 1970's and opened about ten years ago to the public. One thing we won't forget is on the way to and from the temples, we had to cross through military drug check points. I was nervous but our driver knew them so we passed through easily. And when the A/C stopped working we filmed our driver getting out of the car and banging on something in the engine with a beer bottle and fixing it! How awesome is that? We were hot and tired so we headed back to the ship for a late lunch - what a great day!

Our last stop was in Roatan, Honduras. This was our favorite! It was the most beautiful and tropical and we just loved the people. We were also so excited for our excursion here! Zip-lining! We went with a group whose place was literally 100 feet from the cruise dock. We were a bit skeptical as we drove up to it, but soon found that we had picked the best! It's only a year old but the views were amazing! We went up most of the way in a Land Rover then had to hike the rest! I thought I was going to die in the humidity! We were completely sweaty at the top! Our guide was young - only about 15-16 - but he really knew what he was doing. The first jump was scary - and he told us to take a running leap because it was the longest of the 18 sections! Well, I was a bit scared and didn't leap and ended up only about 2/3 of the way across. But after that we all got the hang of it! We didn't want it to end! What an amazing experience! We all went upside down and loved it! After we finished we got to hold their pet monkeys! The kids loved that! Then our driver took us to a really nice resort for the day - we hired a boat to take us out to the most amazing snorkeling reef! There were so many fish - we loved it! We relaxed at the pool for the rest of the day and then our driver took us on a tour of the island - there are some really poor sections but the views were amazing - I would love a vacation home here.

We were then on the boat the rest of the time but enjoyed ourselves playing up on the 1/2 acre lawn on the top, swimming in the pools, and just relaxing! We also enjoyed the ice cream counter a bit to often! Twice a day they would put out new flavors of homemade ice cream that were so good! At the end of the cruise the ice cream lady said she was going to miss our family! That's pretty sad that she knew us out of 3000+ people!

We have mentioned this trip so many times since we got home - really had the time of our lives!