Honeymooners!

When we got to our hotel room it was beautifully decorated thanks to Ally, Cesar (and my mother) with tea lights, rose pedals, sparkling cider and tons of snacks. It was awesome and so nice of them!

We left the next morning to make the first leg of our long drive to Vegas. We stayed in the stratosphere then finished our drive the next day to Long Beach. The drive wasn’t too bad because it was just the beginning of all our driving. Get got to the Cruise Terminal and checked in, went through security and boarded the ship. We easily found our room and dropped all our stuff off before we ate lunch. The first exposure to the cruise ship food was amazing. I was like… there is so much food! All you can eat ice cream? Room service? Haha it was great. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the ship trying to figure out where everything is. We put on our swim suits and tested out the pool, hot tub and water slide all which were fabulous then went to dinner that night which was an experience. They brought us right to our table and within seconds our waiter was there filling our water glasses, placing our napkins on our laps, giving us bread to start and handing us menus. At first I wasn’t sure what to do. I think I just froze because that’s never happened to me before haha I looked at the menu and still didn’t know what to do! They had wonderful options and you could order as many starters, entrees or desserts as you wanted. This was new to me. I don’t remember what I ordered but there’s no doubt in my mind that it was delicious. Dessert. Shut the front door. Warm melting chocolate cake with ice cream will forever be a favorite on that ship. Mmm. This is also when the ship left the dock and it started rocking. I was hoping it wouldn’t make me sick and it didn’t but it did take some getting used to!

We got up the next morning ate breakfast and went to the gym (Who does that on a cruise?! Yes, we do) and we made port in Catalina. Well kinda, they don’t have a port big enough for the ship so we took these mini tender boats to shore. We explored the part of the island we were at and made our way to a cool looking building. It’s called the casino and they were doing a tour for $5. We had no idea what it was so we thought why not! This building is called the Casino because of the entertainment value it used to have. It’s an old building owned by the Wrigley family (the field and the gum). It has a gorgeous old theater, a soda bar and a beautiful ballroom upstairs. It is a gorgeous old building with a lot of the things inside original from the 50’s or 60’s. We went up to the balcony that gave us a beautiful view of the island. For 5 bucks we were pretty impressed and surprised what we stumbled upon. After that we went back down to the beach set out our towels and relaxed. The weather was beautiful! 80’s and warm with a wonderful breeze to cool you down. After relaxing, getting some sun and playing in the water we got ourselves some yummy ice cream and made our way back to the tenders. It was funny because on the first tender to Catalina we sat next to this couple who instantly knew we were newlyweds and LDS. I was like how do they know!? Haha I guess the modest swimsuit tipped them off? He was a bishop too so maybe he can just sense it. I don’t know but they were great and we rode back the ship with them too. That night for dinner was the fancy night. We dressed up and were pampered and probably ate too much. There was everything from steak, prime rib, ribs, lobster I could go on and on. They had something to satisfy everyone. Then the coolest thing happened- our waiters and servers started dancing for us! It was so great and entertaining. The next night they dance to Low by Flo rida – hilarious! Oh and our rooms were serviced at least twice a day. Once in the morning to make our bed and give us new towels and then again while we went to dinner to turn down our bed, make a wonderful towel animal and put chocolates on our bed. Seriously 5 star service.

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast and went to the gym cause we are awesome! Then got ready and playing a round of put put. Last time I really slaughtered Dan but he was so determined to win that he did just by a couple strokes. I let him win. Okay not really. But it was so fun! We relaxed until lunch then went to port which was Ensenada Mexico! We took a bus into town and it was just what I was expecting. My first stop? Starbucks! I love their non-coffee vanilla bean creams! A little taste of home! The saddest part was when with little Mexican boy came up to us waiting for us to buy any of the toys, candy or gum he was carrying. The locals from the bus company warned us that sometimes these kids get enough money that they don’t go to school and end up doing that their whole life. It was so sad, he was only like 4 and us being white Americans we were obviously a good target. We just said no thank you and tried to not let it jerk our heart strings! As we walked down the streets of Ensenada there were tons of typical Mexican shops which I love looking through. Everyone knew we were honeymooners and we were basically attacked from that and again that fact that we were white Americans. I've never been pulled in so many directions ever. We knew it was coming though and just enjoyed looking. The best part was when we got down closer to all the bars and pubs with loud music playing. Every bar had a representative that was trying to show you why their place was better that the others. This man stepped in front of us with him arm wide out so we couldn’t pass. I got a little mad at that when we were continually saying no thank you as he explained their amazing drink specials. You should have seen the look on his face when I said “Sorry we don’t drink” he stumbled around to find something to say and he was shouting virgin margaritas as we finally got by. He probably thought we were crazy haha who comes to Mexico and doesn’t drink? We do :)

 Also, this is probably my favorite picture from the entire trip.

Oh and at one point I completely slipped in a puddle of water. That’s embarrassing. We went back to the ship and I think this is when we accidently passed out until right before dinner. I don’t even remember falling asleep but when we woke up it was time to be at dinner. My eyes were still shut walking into the dining hall haha oops! We went to dinner which was without fail amazing. Then we went to the love and marriage show which was the thing where you ask couples questions an see if their answers are the same. Dan was bound and determined to get us up there because they look for the newest married, oldest married and a couple in between but luckily there was a couple married for 3 days and we were 4. Phew got out of that one! It was a hilarious show though! My favorite were the couple married 50 years they were so honest I almost cried laughing. It was a great show. Then they were having a huge deck party on the upper deck by the pool so we went over there to check it out. Got Dan to do some line dancing song with me and it was way fun! The best part of probably the entire trip was what came next. They split us into two teams and made these two huge conga lines on the deck and as we went around we tried to persuade more people to join our line then the team with the most people at the end wins. Well as we were going around the ship this man who was probably the drunkest man I have EVER seen decided to join in behind Dan. He was so hammered. Eyes half open but the happiest man on the boat. Dan started hysterically laughing and when I looked back this guy was almost groping him. Rubbing his shoulders and giving him a massage, squeezing his waist. It was the funniest thing. The man was also telling Dan to switch spots with him so he could be behind me. Thank goodness I have a husband that loves me haha it was great. They also had cool ice sculptures and fruit sculptures there. We were tired somehow and went back to our cabin. Another nice thing is that every day they had different movies playing so I got to re watch some of Hunger Games and This Means War.

The next day we didn't have a port to stop at, it was our day at sea. I think we slept in, ate breakfast and went to the gym. Then put our swim suits on and relaxed in the sun. We had lunch on the deck then I had Dan go down the water slide again and take a picture J He’s awesome.

We got ready for dinner and had an incredible meal then attended one of the many shows the cruise has to offer all week. We went to a comedy show by Ed Regine. Oh my gosh, it was so funny. Dan thought it was hilarious and I thought watching him laugh was hilarious! It was a win-win. Then we went to the singing and dancing crew performance called Shout! Which was a show about music and dance through the ages. The singers were amazing! They really did a great job. But the dancing... eh I wasn't impressed. At all. No matter what level of dance experience you should know that in a passé your shin doesn't go to your knee (unless it’s choreographed that way) Well it wasn't choreographed that way and I was really disappointed by the dancing. The show over all was good though! We went back to our cabin and went to bed early in preparation for an early departure the next morning.

We get up and get ready, pack the rest of our stuff up. Dans goes to get breakfast and comes back empty handed. It turned out he accidently set the alarm for mountain time instead of Californian time so we were up and hour early and breakfast hadn’t even started yet. Opps. But actually it was nice because we were all packed and we went upstairs and enjoyed breakfast. Our floor was first to be called to depart and was actually called 30 min early but because we were ready to go we were off in a flash. We had a loooonnnngggg drive that day so the sooner the better. 

We got back to the car and started our drive from Long Beach CA to Broomfield CO. We were driving from 7:30am to 11:15pm straight (with a time change) the first leg I ‘slept’ while he drove, but really I was listening to him sing country with half a mouth of sun flower seed. I. Love. Him. then I drove and he couldn’t sleep so we started doing the ‘Would you rather…” thing. It was pretty funny. The drive between St. George and Grand Junction were some of the prettiest sights I’ve ever seen! Gorgeous! Then it rained like crazy and we learned how much fun hydroplaning is. Then for the last leg I tried my darnest to stay awake but it didn’t happen. I was out until we were just outside Broomfield. Dan had enough caffine that day he was pretty awake anyways. We got to Colorado safely and I was out like a light. So gone that I didn’t notice Dan getting up a couple times because he couldn’t sleep. Too much caffine.

And that pretty much concluded our honeymoon trip! Seriously a cruise was the best idea we ever had. It was incredible and I’d do it again!