Cruisin’ – Carnival Freedom

At the beginning of February, cute husband & I went on a 6 day cruise sans kids. It was AH-mazing! For those that want the gritty details – we left from Ft. Lauderdale FL, and sailed on the Carnival Freedom. Yes, we liked the cruise line & the ship (although the ship’s decorations were Vegas-y and slightly made my head spin). Would definitely sail with them again.

Camera gear – I took both the 5D Mark II & the 7D (for video – we put together a sweet little mini-golf video that I’ll share as soon as its ready). I also took the 17-40mm f/4, the 50mm 1.4, and the 100mm 2.8 macro.

Mostly, we spent 6 days relaxing, sight-seeing, EATING, and doing  whatever we wanted, when we wanted. Oh to not have your schedule ruled by naptime. Such bliss. Anyway, I thought I’d share a lot some of photos from our adventure.

Chilaxin’ on the deck.

Leaving Ft. Lauderdale

 

First stop: Key West, FL. We got off the ship and rented cruiser bikes to tour the island. Yes, we stopped at the kiosk right off the ship. Yes, it was probably more expensive ($20 for a day rental) than if we had walked a couple of blocks first. BUT the lady we rented from was so NICE. We were able to give her back the bikes so we could go have lunch, and then come back and get them again. Plus, her map of the island was super awesome. No regrets.

The island itself is not very big – something like a 10mile radius and there is a bike path around the circumference. So, we spent the morning crusing around on our bikes. Went back to the ship for lunch, changed into our swimsuits and then rode down to swim at the beach. Finished off with some Key Lime Pie (yum!).

Sam snapped this on his phone (you can see my cute cruiser bike):

While I got this:

We passed this random Garden Center, and decided to stop and take a look around. It was gorgeous!! I’m so ready to shoot a wedding there. Anyone want to fly me to Key West?

Heading back to the ship for lunch:

I hadn’t had fish & chips this good since we were in New Zealand. Brought back so many memories. Yum!

Sunset as we were leaving Key West

Next stop was Grand Cayman. Probably my least favorite, only because we didn’t get to see much of the actually town itself. Right off the docks are always a mess of stores and duty- free shops. Since we have zero interest in shopping, that’s not that exciting. We boarded a bus which took us out to a Catamaran, which then took us to Stingray City & snorkeling. Both were VERY fun. I had never been snorkeling before, and found it quite relaxing – once I got used to breathing slowly and not hyperventilating. 🙂 That’s about all we saw of the island though – by the time we got back we needed to get back on the ship.

We only brought Sam’s cell phone, since I didn’t want to risk my big camera. Totally could have brought the big one though and left it on our boat. Would’ve been safe. Oh well.

Bought these from the official photographer on the boat: Back rub from the stingray – we also got to feed them.

Supposedly a kiss from a stingray brings 7 years good luck.

Awesome towel folding by our housekeeping staff:

 

Pulling into Jamaica – Sam checking it out from the balcony (SO worth the extra $$ to have a balcony)

See? Room service breakfast eaten on our private balcony = awesomeness!

We booked an excursion through a company outside the cruise line, and ended up with a private car and a driver. Holy. Awesome. Damian is the coolest Jamaican ever and we seriously had a blast while we drove the 40 minutes up to H’evans Scent.

Our zip line adventure – According to our guide, we picked the more adventurous excursion. This was not your relaxing, fly through the trees kind of zipline.

 

Next, we headed to Dunn’s River Falls. We were told it was a “must” while we were in Ochos Rios. Pretty cool Falls. Turns out, we are not really ones to follow the rules and walking up the falls in a line while holding hands just didn’t seem all the great. Plus, we hadn’t brought our swim suits (not exactly our brightest moment). We debated forever, and then decided we just had to. About 1/4 of the way up we totally just ditched our guide and branched out on our own. As long as you don’t mind getting yelled at (Hey!! Are you guys with me? Get back in line! Who? Us? Nope. We’re not. ha ha ha) its WAY better.

Checking out the place to decide – the Jamaicans are very pushy friendly and practically grab your camera to take your photo for a tip.

We had one last day on the ship to play before reaching port at like 5am on Saturday morning. We treated ourselves to a Steak House dinner that night (cost extra, but worth it!), and watched the amazing on-board Jump, Jive, & Wail entertainment show. Man, those people can DANCE.

 

The End.