Cruisin' to Cozumel

Before we left Miami we decided we needed to take a cruise. It just seemed like good money sense to find a really good deal when we didn't need to pay for plane tickets :) We only had one week between getting back from girls camp and starting our 3 week road trip. (During that one week between we also had to pack up our apartment). We decided a four night cruise would be perfect, so we headed to Cozumel Mexico on Carnival Cruiseline.

Our room was pretty comfy, with a nice view- especially since we got it for a great deal!

There were some fun food options- this is the Mongolian Buffet.

Saying good-bye to Miami for a little bit

Aren't we cool...

There was a fun mini golf course on the very top of the boat. Even though it was really hot, the breeze was nice as we cruised the ocean.

Every night they turned down our beds and left us with a fun little towel creature.

 We stopped in Key West for half a day, and decided to do a kayak tour. It was very interesting, because the tour guide would pull out different sea creatures and let us touch/smell/hold them before we put them back down. Some of the animals I remember were: a sea cucumber, a jelly fish that grows upside down, and a conch. We also saw other animals that she didn't catch, including a small nurse shark and sponges.

The Kayaking Company was Lazy Dog- and she did bring her dog along! It was a fun excursion!

 

 Here's the conch. I almost dropped it when I was passing it because it's little probe thing came out and pushed my hand while I was trying to pass it. Not to worry though, it didn't fall and was safely put back in the water.

We also got our first outfit for the baby- to make sure we had something from Florida!

We boarded the ship and headed down to Cozumel. The water was so blue and clear as we pulled into port!! 

 

I decided to look into a shore excursion that wasn't with the cruise ship, to see how we liked it. I was a little nervous for it to all work out, but there were a lot of good reviews online for Eagle Ray Divers so I decided to try it out. We had to catch a taxi from the boat to this harbor, which was pretty easy. When we got there our tour guide Diana (who was also my email correspondent) met us when we got out of the taxi and got us ready for a great snorkel trip.

 

 Turns out it was only the two of us for the tour. We took the smaller boat with just me, Marc, Diana (tour guide), and the boat captain. It was delightful. These pictures are courtesy of Diana since we didn't have an underwater camera. 

The water was amazing- so clear we could see for a long ways. The coral was beautiful, and there was lots of exciting animal life. Here are a few pictures, though we also saw a large sea turtle, and a huge ray.

 The current was really strong, so Diana would jump out and see which way it was pulling and then the captain would line us up so that when we jumped out we just floated down the reef. It was like a moving picture show, although I guess we were the ones moving. At the end we would get in the boat and go to another starting point. We got to see 4 different sights in about 4 hours.

 

 Diana was really great to point out animal life, or we would have floated right over this ray. She would also tell us what all the animals and fish were that we were looking at when we came above water.

Then after a little shopping (where we got Marc's dad a late Father's Day present) we boarded the ship again and headed back to Miami.