Our Caribbean Vacation - Part Two...

Day two - I awoke at 7am to the captain's voice over the loud speaker letting all of us, who were so soundly asleep, know that we have arrived at our first destination, port of call, whatever you want to call it. Ben was barely conscious at that time of day and really had no clue what was going on as I was trying to wake him, with enough time to get ready to meet our friends for breakfast at 8:30am. I really don't remember how or why we all agreed on that time, but needless to say not one of us made it to breakfast together that morning. We're all the same... night dwelling, morning dislikers, who run on our own time, which is always slightly a little off from everyone else's, so I really don't know how 8:30am was even an option. :) Once I was up I unfortunately couldn't go back to sleep. I actually started to get really seasick. I was fine while the ship was moving forward and actually traveling, but once it was anchored I started to have issues. The motion of the ship changed from side to side (which was fine) to up and down, which my head didn't like at all. After dragging Ben out of bed and upstairs for some breakfast and one little cup of coffee we finally were able to get off the ship. It took a little while since we were just parked in the middle of the ocean, you had to ride a little boat from the cruise ship to their private island because the water was too shallow. But once we where there it was a lot of fun... after Ben stopped being grumpy that is!

Yes, Ben was really, really grumpy for most of the morning. He had only one little, tiny cup of coffee and after seeing the island he was even grumpier. Coco Cay, the private island, is really hard to describe... it had a strange theme park, summer camp vibe to it, since everything there was put there by the cruise company. They charged you for everything and you still had to follow kind of a schedule as to when you could eat, when you had to be back and according to Ben when you could have any fun. Basically you where placed in this beautiful tropical setting and then the cruise line totally cheapened it... if that makes any sense at all. Ben was thoroughly convinced that he was walking around in Monkey Island looking for a Starbuckaneer's. :) (Sorry if you haven't played the game then it makes absolutely no sense. Basically in the game you're this pirate who's trying to stop this Australian guy from making the Caribbean into a giant tourist trap and in it there are knock offs of Starbucks, Planet Hollywood etc... all over the place.)

So the island ended up being totally different than either of us had expected, poor Ben was going from place to place trying to find a cup of coffee and around his third try the guy at the bar said that there was absolutely no coffee on the whole entire island. That really made his day, did I mention that it had rained that morning and it was now cloudy and slightly cold?! I had to drag him around just so we could see more of the place and while doing so we actually ran into everyone else. We had planned to go snorkeling, and were all signed up and ready to get our gear, but then everybody else bailed at the last minute and even though Ben still wanted to go, he gave in and returned his stuff too. We should have just gone without them... I wonder how many times that actually happens to Ben at work? :) So Ben sat with his big grumpy face on the beach while everyone else was playing in the sand enjoying themselves.

The day did get better though and the sun did finally come out, plus Ben was able to use Angelina's snorkel gear for a little bit, which put him in a much better mood. After that we ate some lunch where we ran into Ruth and Chris, who had just gotten there because they had slept in... I'm sure Ben wishes he would have done that! And then after lunch we went around exploring the island, which actually turned out to be pretty cool place after all.

On the little boat to the little private island. The only picture of our cruise ship too.

It had just stopped raining and was super windy, hence all the hair in my face!

The beach where everyone else got to go snorkeling, but poor Ben.

Mr. Grumpy Face sitting on the beach all by himself

Starting to finally have some fun hanging out with Steve and Sean from work.

Making a sand couch

This is on the other side of the island away from all of the cruise stuff

Walking along the nature trail trying to find lizards

One end of the trail, I wish we would have found this area at the beginning of our day, it finally felt like a tropical island!

Ben wanted to stay here for the rest of the day... can you blame him?

Walking back to the other side of the island since it was time to get back on the ship... now that it was finally super sunny and warm and Ben was in a better mood.