Caribbean Cruise.

Oh my gosh we had the BEST time on our cruise! It was seriously one of our top 3 favorite vacations ever! It was the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure.

Of course, leading up to the cruise we were both really anxious about leaving Mister for 10 days and saying goodbye was literally the WORST. But Charlie also had an amazing time with Nini and Papa. I honestly don't even think he missed us at all, which is good!!! I will do a separate post on his adventures while we were gone (including finally meeting his Gigi!)

Anyway, this was our 8th cruise together and our first time on Celebrity and we were VERY impressed. It was such a classy boat with AMAZING food and just a really nice atmosphere. The entertainment was actually really good too with a few comedians, a magician, a broadway singer (who was seriously incredible), and a few others that we didn't go to but we heard were very good haha.

The beautiful Celebrity Reflection

Getting on the boat is never fun, and we had just come from a redeye flight, so we were EXHAUSTED. The next two days were at sea, so that was nice because I think we took like 6 naps in 2 days haha! We also celebrated Landon's 30th birthday on our first day.

Our first port was Antigua, and it was probably our least favorite. We decided that we would just get off and explore but it ended up being a LLLOONNNGGG walk to the beach and kind of sketchy parts of town. Once we got to the beach it was really nice but the highlight of our day was definitely getting to Skype with Charlie!

The next day was Barbados and it was a really cool place. It was just super clean and organized with this really nice walkway along the town to get to the beach. The architecture of the buildings was really cool too.

After that was St. Lucia and our scuba diving day. I was soooo nervous (especially after I puked TWICE last time) but I'm happy to report I didn't puke and we had a blast. It was about a 35 minute boat ride to get to the base of The Pitons and oh man... they are BEAUTIFUL! Our first dive was called Superman's Flight because of the current. You basically can't stay in one spot or go backwards because the current is just pulling you along--which was kind of freaky for me but it was a cool experience. We saw a BARACUDA and it seriously was like 1 foot away from me. I thought it was going to eat me and was just screaming and flailing haha! I can't remember the name of our second dive but I saw like 4 lion fish, which was really cool. I also got stung by something on the heal of my foot, which wasn't really cool.

The next two days we were in Saint Maarten. The night before we got there, we had a note on our door inviting us to the helipad in the morning to watch the boat pull into port since it was our first time with Celebrity. We loved getting to be right there on the front of the boat as they docked. It was a neat experience!

they even rolled out a red carpet for us ;) 

We loved having two days in Saint Maarten because it gave us a lot of time to explore. We rented a car and drove around the whole island, which was SOOOO much fun. We got to see so much!

But it was really sad to see all the destruction from the hurricane. There would be entire beachfronts with amazing houses that were just completely destroyed and abandoned. It felt eerie--like a ghost town. It just made me really sad.

Anyway, our favorite beach was in Simpson Bay. We had SO much fun playing in the waves and it was just gorgeous.

While we were in Saint Maarten, Landon got lessons for kiteboarding the first day and then foil boarding the next day. I didn't get to see him kiteboarding because the instructor didn't have room for me in the boat, but he had sooo much fun! Most people don't know what foil boarding is, but basically there is like a mast/wing on the bottom of a board and so you like float above the water (you'll have to watch the video I made to really understand because I'm not explaining it well haha!) I actually got to go on the boat and it was really cool to watch him!

We had two more days at sea after all of our adventures, which was really nice because we had time to rest and take more naps. :) We seriously napped so much and it was amaze-balls.

And here are a few pictures of the inside of the boat :)

This was called the "Hideaway" and it was like a little treehouse. It was awesome.

The Reflection Theater 

The Opus Dining Room

We sat next to the cutest couple, Jody and Chris, who were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. They really are so sweet and we loved getting to know them. They live in Florida, so we are hoping to make a trip out there and maybe take Charlie to Disneyworld. :)

We loved our awesome servers, Christo and Ari :)

Getting off the boat was sad, but we were also SO excited to get home to see Mister. Like DYING to see him!!! Unfortunately our flight didn't leave until 8pm, but Jody and Chris are just so cute and they picked us up and took us around Fort Lauderdale for a bit to kill some time before dropping us off at the airport. Seriously, they are the best and it made the day SO much better! We loved walking around and got lunch at this amazing Mexican restaurant.

I loved getting to spend 10 straight days with my Landon Dean. Time just one-on-one with him is SOOO rare these days, so this vacation was like a dream come true!!!! I just love this boy of mine!!

And in case you wanted to see our trip in video form, here's a cute video I made with some highlights :)