Royal Caribbean Cruise to Grand Cayman and Jamaica

The past few months have been a little rough, exhausting, and a lot...  Back in November I saw a Black Friday deal for a Royal Caribbean  cruise and within minutes it was a done deal! 

Mike and I just got back from a few days in the Caribbean. 🔆

The CRUISE itself: 

I've been on a Celebrity Cruise, Viking Cruise, Norwegian Cruise and now Royal Caribbean. 
(I've also been on a Chinese river cruise and Icebreaker cruise to Antarctica, but I don't count either of those as "official.")  I think  Royal Caribbean has been my favorite of the cruises. 

I don't remember Celebrity well enough- I think I liked it, but that was 20 years ago so I'm not an expert on it by any means.  Viking was okay... again, geared towards older crowd 65+ which had its pros and cons. Norwegian was decent, but some of the shows were a little raunchy and I didn't care for that aspect of it. 

Independence of the seas is the ship from RC we just came off of and I enjoyed the amenities on board.  They had a flowrider which we didn't do, but we did do the water slide, rock climbing, shuffle board, putt putt, escape room, basketball, pools, and ice skating. 

About our destinations... 

Grand Cayman: 

We chose the excursion which included a visit to Stingray City.

Stingray City is a series of shallow sandbars found in Grand Cayman. It's a tourist attraction where you will see many stingrays and visitors can pet and interact with them. These stingrays are still in their natural habitat which is nice! The guides are very hands on and ensured both the humans and stingrays were comfortable during the encounter. 

Our next stop was Dolphin Discovery. I am always wary about place like this, but this place has claimed to have high standards for animal welfare and are internationally certified for their marine mammal care.  I did ask one of the staff members about the dolphins - if I understood correctly, it sounds like some of the dolphins were rescues while others at the facility were born there. 

Just so everyone knows- I HATE any form of mistreatment to any animal and only want the best for them... so the jury is still out on this excursion. I know people will debate back and forth about whether or not the dolphins are happy in captivity.  The dolphins are super sweet and smart.. and the dolphins that were rescued got used to humans and can't be released back in the wild. I can go back and forth all day on the subject so my only advice is do your research and ask questions before booking any kind of animal excursion. 

Jamaica:

Mike and I were in Jamaica a few years ago with the Viking cruise and had a horrible excursion. It was very upsetting- so much so that I didn't want to even claim Jamaica as a "been to"country... thankfully, we got a RE-DO and it was so much better this time around!!

Dunn's River Falls

"Dunn’s River Falls is an astounding flowing falls that extends across more than 183 metres or 960 feet and is one of the most well-loved travel destinations on the island and a ‘must-do’ bucket list item." Dunn's River is one of the few rivers that actually flows directly into the Caribbean Sea. The Falls is natural and every crevice and natural pool of water was created by the flow of the water's current. Climbing up the falls is a popular activity for locals and tourists. I might have slipped a couple times, but no worries! We made it!

Blue Hole is a series of natural pools made out of limestone. Travelers visit Blue Hole to swim in the pools, cliff dive, rope swing, and more. We did many jumps, tried out the rope swing, and had an enjoyable time. There were guides with us every step of the way ensuring our safety

All in all, it was a nice relaxing get away! Now I'm just waiting for my next 3 trips :) 

New Hampshire and Vermont

(cont.)

Day 5: We drove to Gorham, New Hampshire and climbed up Mt Washington auto road with our rental car. Phew!  It was 7.6 mile journey that gains over 4,000′ in elevation! At the top, there’s a visitor center, cafeteria, gift shop, and museum. 

It cost $45 per car to go up and an additional $20 per added person so $65 total which seems slightly steep. (pun intended.)

At 6,288 feet, the summit is the highest point in the northeast. On April 12th of 1934, a wind speed of 231 miles per hour was recorded on the summit, and this remains the highest wind speed ever recorded by man.

Side note: originally Mike and I were going to rent a Polaris slingshot to go up the auto road. I think we would have froze to death!!  One thing I did not account for this trip is that 68° in Ohio is very different from 68° in the northeast. Plus, the summit was even colder! 

Day 6 We drove Kancamagus Highway and stopped at Sabbaday falls. The leaves were changing colors which made for a beautiful backdrop. The hike to the falls was easy (15 minutes maybe) and also very beautiful. Definitely recommend!

Afterwards, we drove to flume gorge. This was one of the highlights from the trip!!  I felt like I was walking in a fairytale. From their website, “The Flume is a natural gorge extending 800 feet at the base of Mount Liberty. The walls of Conway granite rise to a height of 70 to 90 feet and are 12 to 20 feet apart.” we spent over an hour here hiking and looking around… This was a 2 mile hike with a lot of stairs and uphill, but so worth it!! 

Shout out to Indian Head resort!! We loved this hotel- they even offered pedal boats and had a cool lookout tower! 

Overall, I loved New Hampshire and it was my favorite state from this trip! We had good timing as far as the leaves changing color and we really enjoyed the flume gorge!! 

Day 7: On our last day we drove to Stowe, Vermont. We stopped by Moss Glen Falls which is the tallest waterfall in the state with a drop of 85 feet. This was another short and easy hike!

We then went to the village at Spruce Peak which was pretty vacant. There’s a little village that has a hotel, shops, restaurants, and is basically a ski lovers resort in the winter time. 

We drove through Smugglers Notch state park and there is one part of the road that is really cool. It’s a very windy road and people pull over to get out and hike. There are so many huge rocks which are perfect for climbing. 

Our last stop was the Gold Brook Covered Bridge. It was built in 1844 and has since been added to the national register of historic places. 

There were more hikes and more scenic drives (another auto road) we could have done. Unfortunately by this point in the trip we were kind of done. We were pleased with the foliage, the scenic drives, and the hikes we had already accomplished and were ready to relax.

We flew out of Burlington the following day and unfortunately it took us 12 hours to get home. (I hate airports!!) 

12 more states to go!! 

Maine

Just got back from a week long trip in the northeast! I was finally able to check off Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  (The only northeastern state I’m missing now is New Jersey which will be taken care of next year!)

We spent the most time in Maine so here is a recap of days 1-4:

Day 1: We arrived mid afternoon in Portland, Maine. The weather was cloudy and a little misty so we checked out the Portland Head Light before going to the hotel. Fort Williams Park offers trails and views which was a nice stop along the way. 

Fun fact: In 1776 soldiers were posted at Portland Head to warn citizens of coming British attacks. 

Day 2: We drove a few hours to check out Baxter State Park.  One of my new favorite trails happens to be at this park: Kidney pond!  I loved this trail because we could climb on rocks and on balance beams aka logs. :)  

We also hiked Daicey Pond, a little bit of Cranberry Pond. 

Baxter park was a little out of the way and the weather was a little cloudy, but I’m still glad we included it. There are over 215 miles of trails, more than 50 lakes and ponds, and so much more. 

Day 3 We drove a few more hours to head to Acadia. The only thing we had planned was to do an afternoon bike ride along the carriage roads. The carriage roads are super nice because no cars are allowed- just hikers and bikers. We rented e-bikes from Fat Tire and had such a great time. We did what they call the trifecta trail around some of the ponds. Jordan pond was my favorite - it was so pretty. 

I loved renting the bikes because you didn’t have to worry about finding places to park, didn’t have to worry about being run over by cars- it was perfect!

Day 4 We spent another day exploring Acadia, but this time it was by car. I was a little disappointed in signage around the park - it was confusing to get around at times. Another downside was that it was crowded so it was hard to find parking at some of the trails… Apparently everyone had the same idea about coming to Acadia in the fall. :)

Shout out to Bar Harbor Motel for being an awesome place to stay ! Highly recommend this hotel - it was close to Acadia and offered a bunch of amenities!  

Girls Trip pt 3: Ocean City & Boonsboro

....continuation...

On Saturday, after we left Delaware, we headed to Ocean City and stopped at Ponzetti's restaurant. They have INSANELY good pizza and I was quite happy with this pick! 

Of course it was still raining after lunch and this was supposed to be our other beach day.  Thankfully, we were still able to do the Banana boat in the rain. It's basically water tubing, but on a banana boat! THIS WAS MY FAVORITE THING!!!

We had so much fun on the banana boat! Lots of laughs!!

Since it was raining we mostly had our eyes closed which made it even more challenging to stay on the banana. I fell off once, but got back on and continued for the full 20 minutes. I LOVE water tubing so I was very happy that this had similar vibes!  Definitely recommend!

In the evening we walked around Ocean City boardwalk which I think was a lot bigger and better than Rehoboth. They also had a lot of kiddie/carnival type rides so of course we had to do something!

The Tilt-A-Whirl!

 

This brought back memories from my childhood! 

We were spinning so fast- this was my first time doing one since I was a child and I didn't know if my motion sickness would have an impact... I DID feel a little sick afterwards, but it was still SO FUN! We ended up doing it twice. LOL 

Overall, I think Ocean City would be better in good weather, but we made the best of it and this became my favorite day of the trip (Yummy pizza + banana boat + tilt-a-whirl!)

Ocean City

SUNDAY:  We left Ocean City and made our way to Boonsboro, MD. Of course the non-beach day (the day we decided to go to the caverns) turned out to be a beautiful day weather wise. GO FIGURE!
Crystal Grottoes Caverns is a natural phenomenon that has more formations per square foot than any cave known to man. Our guide, Dakota, was wonderful! We had a great tour which was around 45 min in length.

Inside the caverns

Inside the caverns

And that's a wrap on our Maryland/Delaware trip! Overall, the drives to and from weren't terrible. (around 8 hours one way.)  The weather could have been better, but we still had fun and I definitely enjoyed their company!