Friday – Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Getting ready to board the plane…

Side view of the plane

Yikes!

Dining in Florida – nice resteraunt at the Marriot

Mmm…dinner

An uninvited guest arrives at dinner: Hello | Here’s a snack | Quit begging! | Sneaky… |
Ok, here’s more, but go away | No, now go away!

Saturday – Ft. Lauderdale, Florida – cruise starts
—

Sunday – Princess Cays, Bahamas

View of the beach

Another view of the beach

Yet another view of the beach (Hey, it was a nice beach!)

View of the ship

Someone’s running out of space on their camera already…

A picture of me…taking this picture

What…

Monday – At Sea

I can’t really remember if these were taken on Monday or not…so like uh…just pretend they did.

Me | Me in Skywalker’s

Tuesday – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Love that barbed wire along the beach…

Horseback riding: Picture 1 | Picture 2

Beach at the horse ranch

The two-minute Jamaican storm (yes, it literally lasted about two minutes and the sun was back out)

A couple of horseback videos: Video 1 – (2.86mb) | Video 2 – (2.93mb)

Wednesday – Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Short video from the balcony in the morning – (6.51mb)

On the way out to Stingray City

Ready to snorkel in the coral and feed some stingrays

Wait for a parking spot…and check out
a picture of the beautiful water and a tri-maran (sp?)

STINGRAY!

Cruising out to the stingrays video – (4.51mb)

Waiting for a parking spot video – (5.33mb)

Parking video…the stingrays are swimming – (3.36mb)

On the way back from snorkeling and the stingrays – (2.27mb)

Thursday – Cozumel, Mexico

Video of coming into port – (2.49mb)

Yep, the ship is still big…

Really big ship video – (2.76mb)

Other ships in port

More ships in port

Our ship (left) and a Carnival ship (right)…both really really big boats

Yep, they’re still big

A sea of ropes – the ships are held to port with, I’d say, 3″ ropes

The Carnival Miracle was the nicest Carnival ship I saw in any of the ports

You would think they were anxious to get going or something

Our excursion was a round-the-island dune buggy tour with four stops:

A snorkel excursion using an underwater camera – pictures need to be developed and then scanned. Sorry!

Then on the way to the second area, here are some pictures of the scenery on the side of the road: Passing by a couple of ships to the left which were seen earlier in this picture | waiting on the slowpoke | about time they sped up… | a moped?

From the road | Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3 | Picture 4 | Picture 5

Second stop – a scenic spot for picture taking:
Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3 | Picture 4 | Picture 5 – I like this one

Ready to get back on the road…

A couple of more pictures from the road: Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3 | Picture 4

Third stop – the private beach: Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3 – parked

Back on the road again…one the way to our last stop which ended up being the “PeePee Station” which, ironically, didn’t have a bathroom

Here is a video from Cozumel before the dune buggy ride: A hummingbird – (1.26mb)

Here are videos from Cozumel during the dune buggy ride: Video 1 – (3.68mb) | Video 2 – (0.31mb) | Video 3 – (1.42mb) | Video 4 – (1.51mb) | Video 5 – (0.31mb)

Leaving Cozumel water video – (1.98mb)

Friday – Day At Sea

Wake up and go to an art auction…why not. Here’s some neat art: Art 1 | Art 2 | Art 3

Looking out the window during a meal…I can’t get over the color of that water…

Some pictures of Skywalker’s Night Club during the day which is pretty much pitch black at night except for the flashy lighting effects in the video below: Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3

Skywalker’s from afar…

Yes, the ship had it’s own putt-putt golf course…and it actually got used too even though it sucked

My favorite two pictures on the ship: Picture 1
| Picture 2

Relaxed…after a few beers

Must have…more beer!

Hot tubs are cool

The balcony

Getting ready to go out

Ready…

…and coming back…

Someone saw me like this

and thought it would be funny if they did this

…nice
Video of riding up the conveyor to Skywalker’s Night Club…woohoo! – (8.44mb)

Friday – Depart from MBS Airport to Ft. Lauderdale

Luggage

8:30am…ready for takeoff

“There’s something on the wing…some…thing“

Clouds look weird from this point of view

Successful landing in Minneapolis, MN hub

“Hey, Chad, aren’t you glad we didn’t crash or something?”

This wing looks cooler than the one on the last plane…

Nice view from up here

Ft. Lauderdale beach…about to land

Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood airport – we didn’t die in a firey crash…hooray!

View from the hotel on Friday – look, real palm trees!

Saturday – Departure from Ft. Lauderdale

Luggage that the bus driver has to load and then haul to the ship. Sucks to be him.

Cool flower on the nature walk at the hotel

This fountain was on guarded, private property. Oops.

Palm trees are cool…

Ooo! A lizard!

…and another one!

That’s one huge friggin’ boat!

In the boat, on the way to the room.

“The room”

View from the balcony in the room (Ft. Lauderdale – docked)

Looking off to the side at other balconys

Looking up from our balcony to other balconys

“Hi, room service? Bring us some orange juice, a burger, french fries, and two and a half cookies…that’s right, two and a half please. Thank you!”

Sunday – Princess Cays, Bahamas

Mmm…breakfast

Load up the snorkel gear…

Taking a tender to the island – did I mention that’s one big friggin’ ship?

Tender arrives at Pricess Cays

Too much time on his hands…but it’s still pretty cool

I’ll say it again…that’s a big friggin’ ship!

View from Princess Cays beach

View of Princess Cays beach (only a small part of it)

Having fun yet?

Beach rating: 1 big toe up

Beach combing in this area landed us some coral

I have a hard time getting sick of palm trees

Palm trees…

Hey, don’t take my picture!

Britt got her hair done at Princess Cays – Before, During,
and After

Leaving Princess Cays – coastline

Blurry picture of the Atrium on the ship

Skywalker’s Night Club – on the ship. This place kicked ass – it was a great way to end the day.

Monday – At Sea

What to do today…watch a movie by the pool? 300 square foot “Movies Under the Stars” outdoor movie screen

Nah…I ended up drinking a lot and leaving the camera behind until later that night…

Unfortunately for me, the ship started floating sideways when I took this picture…

…then it decided to flip the other way…

…and then everybody got older

Where we dined the most – Coral Dining Room (if I remember right, that’s what it was called).

A live band we watched and then we watched a comedian perform after that.

Tuesday – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Coming up on the port at Ocho Rios

Touchdown!

A long walk down the pier

It looks like a storm brewing, but it only lasted two minutes and was sunny the rest of the day

You wouldn’t expect barbed wire or razor wire at a “beautiful tropical beach”…only in Jamaica mon!

Taking on Jamaica…IN A STEEL CAGE!!

*Whew!* Normal people…

Someone broke the bus – the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

Everybody in Jamaica is either drunk on Jamaican rum or high…they’re all driving on the wrong side of the road…jackasses.

I snapped the picture too late, but there was a McDonalds built into the side of a cube van – they called it McDonalds Mobile. Why they did this, I simply don’t know.

On the way to horseback riding

Moooooooo! Jamaican cattle! Beefy…

Uh…this is the way to the horses…right?

Getting ready to ride the horses

The noble steeds…

Buses with broken steering wheels, driving on the wrong side of the road…it would only make sense to have funny looking beer bottles too

Gas was $42.87 per liter. Of course the exchange rate is $1.00 American = $50.00 Jamacain.

Back to the ship yet?

Did I mention that’s one big friggin’ boat yet?

Nah, let’s go back to land and check out some of their private tennis courts…

Lucky guy…uh…or something

Bah, let’s go back to the boat

This rope is like 3″ in diameter

Say goodbye to Jamaica!

Sailing away from Jamaica – a view of the coastline

Part of our balcony…a bit wet from the 2 minute downpour

Wednesday – Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

A tender that is taking us ashore

Our cruise ship and their cruise ship.

Another Carnival cruise ship – side and front.

YAR! A pirate ship!

Went ashore, now a shot from another boat taking us out to Stingray City to swim in the coral and hang out with live stingrays in the ocean

Boat headed to Stingray City

She’s nervous about the stingrays

Tons of underwater pictures to come later when we went snorkeling in the coral area…now on to the stingrays!

Lots of people, but not really crowded…the water is beautiful!

Sure beats the Tittabawassee!

A stingray in about 6 feet of water

More stingrays…about to get out of the boat

This is how far away from land we are near the stingrays – I’d say at least a mile out.

On our way back to shore

Nice house, it’s listed under Re/Max

All of the houses are nearly fully rebuilt after the hurricanes did a lot of damage

Burger King with a playplace outside…with it being 85 degrees all day long, I wouldn’t let my kids play in there. They’d fry!

It just doesn’t seem right to call this a Mercedes

Wanna buy a Rolex?

A few ships

Neat landscape along the ocean

More neat landscape

These people must’ve just got back from Jamaica – they’re driving on the wrong side of the road too

Back on the boat, off to dinner, and some lady keeps following me

Who’s this dork?

Thursday – Cozumel, Mexico

Coming into port at Cozumel, Mexico

The coastline of Cozumel

Quite a few ships here from Carnival, and
two from Royal.

The nicest Carnival ship we saw on our trip – pretty impressive…so we parked next to it.

These ropes remind me of ghost ship or something…

Ok, last time…this is one big friggin’ boat!

Tourist attraction

A whole lotta boats

It ain’t easy filling those boots

Some neat little fountain thing we had to wait by for our tour guides – Picture 1 and Picture 2

A hummingbird stopped by to pay us a visit while waiting

Picture 2

Tons of pictures of Cozumel beaches – this was the most beautiful place we stopped at:
Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3 | Picture 4 | Picture 5

The dune buggies we drove around the island

Get outta my way, buttheads!

Cozumel private beach pictures:
Picture 1 | Picture 2 | Picture 3

The guide’s dune buggy, the suburbanites dune buggy, and our dune buggy (closest)

After drinking a coke or two, some saltwater, and spending a few hours on the road driving around the island, you had to stop here, which ironically, didn’t have a bathroom.

Beautiful sunset in Cozumel

Another picture of the sun setting

Friday – At Sea

Some pictures from around the ship:

The big movie screen by the pool

The theater aboard the ship

Buncha clowns learning to juggle in the atrium by the glass elevators

The ship flipped on it’s side again when I took the picture of the glass elevators…silly ship

Really cool light thing at the very top of the atrium

These are about 1/3rd of all of the pictures taken. There are many, many more pictures (and even some small video clips with sound) to post and will be posted sometime within the next week or two after I gather them from everyone’s cameras.