The Cruise - Part 2

So the whole reason for our cruise was to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

On July 14, the big day, we found these balloons outside our cabin.

We were in St. Maarten that day.

We had not gotten each other gifts for our anniversary. But be found out that the big thing in the Caribbean is shopping for diamonds. So Greg took me shopping for a new ring. It took three stores but we finally found the perfect ring. I knew it was the right one because it made me cry. We also got Greg a new watch.

At dinner that night they brought us a yummy chocolate covered cake and sang to us.

This was after dinner and dessert. We took a couple bites and took the rest back to our cabin. We snacked on that for the rest of the week.

It was a great day and a great way to celebrate 20 wonderful years with my best friend.

The Cruise - Part 1

Ok, time for some cruise photos.

Here is our ship, The Emerald Princess.

Oh how I loved this boat. This was our first cruise, so I don't know how other ships or cruiselines compare, but we loved Princess. Our cabin was small (especially the bathroom), but we didn't spend much time in there anyway. The food was amazing. And it was a calmer crowd than some cruiselines. There were nearly 3500 passengers on board, but as long as you avoided the main pools (we went to the adults only pools) and the buffet at meal times, you never felt crowded.

We were loving this vacation from the beginning. Here we are as we set sail from Ft. Laurderdale.Our first port was Princess Cays (Princess's private island). We did a snorkeling excursion. That was fun, but the water was so salty it burned your eyes and gagged you if you got any any your mouth. I know the ocean is supposed to be salty, but this was REALLY salty! For this port only the ship was anchored and we were boated to the island.

There were two formal nights. Here we are at dinner for the first one.

We had "anytime dining" which means we didn't have a set time and table for dinner. The first night we ate at a table for two, but for the rest of the cruise we we shared a table. We got to meet lots of interesting people. Sorry, but I did not take pictures of the food. But it was always beautifully presented and delicious.


One of my favorite place on the ship was the International Cafe.

Yeah, you could get yummy treats anytime you wanted!

And one of our favorite activites for the week was ballroom dance classes. Sorry, no pics. We were both dancing! We learned the some very basic steps for the Merengue, Cha Cha, Rhumba, Waltz, and Tango. So much fun!

That's enough for today. More to come!

Hello from St. Thomas

We are in St. Thomas today so my iPhone works and I can send you all an update.

Some of you noticed my blog was down. My gmail/google account was hacked or something so it was locked up until I fixed it today.

Our cruise has been amazing. We will NOT wait 20 years to go again. We've been eating and dancing and shopping (new diamond ring!) and eating some more and having the time of our lives.

We are going to enjoy our last three days and then it's back to reality. And our boys. We do miss them.

Robin