Carribbean Cruise 2017

At the end of July, we took a cruise to the Western Caribbean. The boys loved our cruise last year, and when we couldn't make our trip to Vermont work out, we decided to take another cruise. This year, we were on the Carnival Breeze, which was a much nicer ship.

We arrived Galveston with plenty of time before embarkation, so we stopped in at our favorite coffee shop and bookstore, and purchased taffy at LaKing's before having lunch.

 Pizza snack on board the ship

Some views as we left Galveston

Sea Day 1 -- on our balcony

The boys weren't very interested in the kids club this year, but there was plenty for them to do on the ship. We played ship-wide Clue and collected clues nearly every day of the cruise!

Virgin strawberry pina coladas

The bow 

Formal dinner night

Towel animals on Sea Day 2

We played lots and lots of shuffleboard -- Gene and Henry even competed in a ship-wide contest and came in third!

After two days at sea, we arrived at Montego Bay, Jamaica.

We opted for a short snorkeling shore excursion that didn't leave til 1pm, so we had all morning on board the ship. 

Gene had been snorkeling before, but it was a first for the boys and me. It took Will and me some time to figure out how to use the snorkels, but once we were in the water, we had a blast floating over the coral reef and looking at fish. It was one of our favorite adventures!

After snorkeling, our shore excursion included a quick stop at Margaritaville, which was only fun because of the water toys. 

Our second stop was in Grand Cayman, where we visited a turtle farm.

Green sea turtles

 

Kemp's ridley

The boys went snorkeling again, this time with sea turtles!

We also saw lots of lizards and birds.

View of Grand Cayman

It happened to be my birthday and the boys chipped in to buy me some Jamaican coffee! Yum-o!

It was also the second formal night of the cruise. 

 Birthday cake!

A gorgeous sunset 

Our last stop was Cozumel. We visited Chankanaab, where we touched dolphins and swam, but unfortunately, it was a rainy day and that curtailed our outdoor activities.

The last sea day was full of putt-putt 

and fun at the water park.

And then, before we knew it, we were back in Galveston! We watched the dolphins play behind a shrimp boat. 

Rainbows

While I will always prefer mountains to the beach, the boys had a blast on the cruise and we're so lucky we were able to fit in a second vacation this summer!