Kylee set up a cruise for us girls months ago and the time finally came! I am so grateful she put this together for us. My grandma Jardine, mom, Kylee and Jordan, Taliah, Charlotte, and I all went to Florida, we were just missing Madi while she stayed home and helped with my kids and cooked that little boy in her tummy.
We took the red eye out of Vegas and we were all soooooooo tired when we landed. Everyone crashed, but Kylee and Grandma. We boarded the cruise wearing matching shirts and all day it was so easy to find each other in our yellow. We got ice cream right away because they had the best ice milk (not ice cream). The weather on the cruise was great we were worried about thunderstorms but it didn't rain till we docked back in Florida at the end of our cruise.
On the ship we ate lots and had lots of ice cream and hot cocoa at night. They had amazing burgers and sandwiches on the ship and not to forget the amazing pizza we had every night after dinner when we watched the movies out on the deck on the big screen. For dinner we had pretty fancy food compared to what we all are used to. I had steak or prime rib every night for dinner. We all tried the chilled strawberry soup and it was really yummy! The desserts were amazing every night! We had dance parties a few nights at dinner and we sang and danced along having the best time. We watched karaoke, comedy, dance/singing and game shows. The game show was giant versions of Hasbro games and thought it was pretty funny. I beat everyone at mini golf on top of the ship, we also played volleyball. Grandma killed it on the dance floor on the deck where we also all laughed so hard at the hairy chest contest. I loved laying out and reading my book while some of us swam.
The first port was princess cays. We took another boat to get to the island. The water was a beautiful blue and the sand was the perfect white making for a perfect place to lay out. I laid out the whole time and did a little bit of snorkeling. I got my hair braided by the nicest lady. We went out in the ocean in a paddle boat and that absolutely kicked our buts, that was so dang hard we didn't know if we would make it back. The girls swam with sting rays and that was the highlight of their trip.
The next port was Freeport. We got right off the ship to the island. We landed on the industrial side of the island and took a cab to the shopping district. It was crazy as we squished in the van and drove on the left side of the road through the island. It is so fun seeing all the buildings in bright colors and colonial styles. Shopping was crazy all the ladies wanted you to shop with them and would yell at you to come over and yell at each other. We found some really cute souvenirs for the kids at home. We danced with a guy singing and playing instruments in the middle of the shopping square. Everyone loved comparing deals as we bargained with the stores. On the way home we were even more squished in the taxi van and had no air conditioning I think all of us were about to pass out! We did some more shopping before we got back on the ship.
When we docked back in Florida we had some time before we went to the airport. We went and had breakfast after getting the rental car. We drove to the NASA space center. We didn't have time to go in all day so we took pictures and went to the gift shop. On the way there we saw alligators in the waters on the side of the road and the lady at the shop said they have a huge one that lays out on the bridge to get to the parking lot all the time and that they have black panthers around too! Well we all were getting really into trying to find alligators so we went and did a tour on the river with a guide. We got on the boat and just cruised down the river. We went a few miles there and back and he said there was probably 20,000 alligators just in the section we went on! Poor grandma lost her cute hat to those alligators on the ride too. We saw alligators everywhere and it sure freaked me out. They don't feed them human food because that's when they get more dangerous he said. They eat mainly birds and fish. They were around cows too and will eat the baby calves. There are also a ton of snakes there too. eek eek eek! There are alligators in every water source in Florida that isn't contained. Just made it more clear in my mind Florida is not the place for me! After the boat ride we got back and each held an alligator. He was so heavy, all muscle and not slimy but a weird smooth skin. I felt pretty brave even though his mouth was taped shut.
After we headed to the airport and back to Vegas. We took off at sundown and literally chased the sun. We had the perfect sunset view for the first two hours of our flight. It was a beautiful ending to a great trip.
