Cruises are my favorite type of vacation, and I have my parents to thank for taking me on many over the course of twenty five years of summer vacations. I understand that there are people who don't like them, but I absolutely love them and would recommend them to those who haven't tried it. It's such a good way to see multiple places with food, hotel, and transportation included. As I got older, I fell in love with the whole 'lifestyle' aspect of cruises as well. If you've ever seen an episode of MTV's "The Real World", that's the best example I can give in a nutshell. When you're on a boat with the same group of people (thousands) for 7, 14, or more days, friendships happen faster and you become like a little family all there to have a good time. I love meeting new people from different parts of the U.S. and world, who I wouldn't get to meet otherwise. The cruise staff are from different countries all over the world so you get to add those to the list of new friends too. Getting your food served to you every night is a nice change from the stresses of dinner preparations at home too. And on the nightlife side, it's so nice not to have to find a ride or call a cab home from the bars because all you have to do is take an elevator to your room! Basically, try it. Come with an open mind to new experiences and new people and I promise you'll have fun.
After my time here, I like to refer to it as "Grand T(w)urk". We had an absolute blast on this island. We didn't schedule any excursions or tours, and just planned to spend the day on the beach. We ended up at Margaritaville and this was the best decision ever. As seen in the pic, they sold refillable frozen drinks in mini blenders that you carry around. We stumbled into the pool where the DJ had the crowd jammin and met some new folks from our ship and the other ship that was docked at the same time. Basically it was a drunken blur of wild pool dancing, splashing, and debauchery. The best kinds of times, right?
My mom booked a tour through Seavis Tours on this island. We took a bus from the cruise port to the beach headquarters and then got on a speedboat with our assigned group. The boat took us to another private island where we had a delicious lunch of real caribbean cuisine, beach time, and snorkeling around an old destroyed dock. On the way back, the speedboat took us to a sandbar where we all hoped off and were able to hold starfish literally bigger than my face. The drivers offered us some caribbean rum and rum cake with fresh pineapple while we swam in the beautiful caribbean waters. Besides the sunburn, it was such an awesome experience!
Before this trip, I never new this was more than the name of the blue stuff they put in my favorite bar drink. We took an island tour that took us through the history of Curacao and to the distillery where the drink is actually manufactured. We got to try some free samples of all the flavors (and colors). This was the first time I experienced a port that lasted until 11pm so it was kinda cool being able to go back on the boat for dinner, then back off for a little bit at night. We stayed in the little downtown area next to the ship and I ordered a blue drink to be able to say I had blue curacao at a bar in Curacao!
Since we had already been to this island some years ago, we didn't book a tour and instead just spent time on the beach. The waters here are such an unmatched bright ocean blue. What I remembered from my first time here was how strong the sun was. Since it is so close to the equator, you can tan/burn within minutes...so be sure not to forget the sunscreen! The photo shows the reflection of the Aruba waters off the balcony of our room on the ship.
Overall, another great vacation for the books. Fun in the sun, on a "fun ship", good family time, new facebook friends, and of course a grrreat tan!
xo, N.
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