Back Home After Cruise Vacation (or, Time Sure Flies When You're Having Rum!)

My husband and I just got home from a wonderful vacation.  We escaped well below freezing PA temperatures to board Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas for an almost-2-week long Caribbean cruise.  Can you say REEEELAXING?!  Ohmyword... we had such a good time.  Just what the doctor ordered!

The ship sailed from Baltimore, which was a new departure port for us.  It was very convenient, though, (only a 6 hour drive)... plus my sister only lives about 30 minutes from the port.  So we went early and spent the pre-cruise weekend with her (VERY nice!), and then she took us to the port on embarkation day and picked us up when we returned.  So easy breezy!  AND, we took my mom along with us, so while we were on the cruise, she had a wonderful 2 week vacation with her (firstborn!) daughter.  Oh yeah, I LOVE a good plan!

Our itinerary:

























So if you've ever been on a cruise, you know that one of the beauties of a cruise vacation is that there's something for everyone; and the delicious choice to be as *busy* or as *lazy* as you want to be.  The typical order of MY day was sleep in a little... eat (a lot)... nap a little... read a lot... play a lot...  then eat again.  LOL!  We made some new friends -- and actually ran into some OLD FRIENDS, Stanley and Rochelle, who had moved from PA to Georgia several years ago!!!  (Crazeee small world, huh?!)  The cruise was 13 stress-free days without alarm clocks, schedules, "to-do" lists,  laundry, cooking, cleaning or telephones a'ringing... just total pampering and "down time" -- and lots and lots of laughing.

Part of this blog post was actually even written in Tortola, sitting in a tiki hut on the beach (yes, with free wi-fi!), live Caribbean music playing behind me, a cold drink in hand...and my li'l Dell netbook.  My boy was off exploring the cove with his metal detector... and came back smiling with a pocket full o' finds. 

Now, how about some pics?!   OK, first, a few photos of the ship:

Top deck:














Pool deck:












Centrum/atrium area:

The beautiful Orpheum Theater (we spent many happy hours here!)












The lovely "My Fair Lady" dining room:
(We spent many happy hours HERE, too!)

(Above photo is from Cruise News Daily; more photos and information on the ship can be found there.)

Now for some "off-ship" photos... 
A charming Starbucks in San Juan, PR.  (I got free wifi and a yummy coffee drink there!)


















 Sailing away from Puerto Rico:














Tortola:














Samana, Dominican Republic:














St. Thomas:














St. Maarten:














Festive Caribbean art for sale:














I always LOVELOVELOVE coming back to the cabin after dinner to find our room (magically) tidied up, the bed turned down, and a towel critter waiting for us!  Sooooo stinkin' CUTE!

And my favorite!  How cute is THAT BAT?!! 



















We had dinner one evening at Chops Grille, the ship's specialty restaurant.  *DELICIOUS*!

We watched the sun set during dinner.  (Very romantic!)

We missed family and friends back home, and the kitties, of course. We did receive some very welcome texts and e-mails from home... so we knew all was well. But I'm telllin' ya'... if not for those adorable furkids waiting at home for us, we probably coulda stayed on that ship forever!

So, yep, we had a wonderful time, and came home relaxed, recharged and ready for "real life" again.  The main problem with reality, though, as my friend Perry says, is that it's "so... real" !!!  Yeah, he's sure spot-on there!  Vacation is undeniably much more *fun*... but alas, it doesn't pay the bills (or feed the kitties!)



Top photo credit: Enchantment of the Seas.  Other ship photo credits: here, and here.