Spring Break Cruise: The Dominican Republic (Puerto Plata) and St. Thomas

It's a rainy day in October as I'm typing up this post and it's making me long to go back on a cruise! I miss it!

One of our desserts

Yummy

Andrew's favorite--the soft serve!

Who am I kidding?

We all love the soft serve!

Exploring the library on ship

We got a couple of premium dining experiences with our fare.

This one was a Japanese one where they cook in front of you.

It was GREAT! Entertaining and delicious.

The obligatory Andrew-is-REALLY-tall pic

Fun group lunch

Vacations are the best!

We were on the ship for Easter.

The ship had a non-denomination meeting that

was open to anyone who wanted to come.

We joined in and enjoyed singing hymns with

fellow Christians from around the country.

We also reserved one of the conference rooms

and had a little Christmas devotional with our

friends. I didn't take any pics, but it was one 

of my favorite parts of the cruise, actually.

Easter treats

Interesting...

Cool carved watermelons

Easter bunny dessert

PUERTO PLATA,

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Angie and Chad's third daughter, Ember, is a former seminary student and good friend of mine. She is currently serving a mission. IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. It was CRAZY when we decided to do this cruise to think we'd be visiting the country where she was serving. Her mission president actually lets the missionaries visit with their families if they happen to be nearby on P-day. WHICH WE WERE. Unfortunately, she got transferred away from the area we were visiting just a couple of weeks before our visit. Darn! But Angie and Chad were able to meet her companion and pass some things off to be delivered to Ember.

Another day in paradise!

But first we have to get through all these people to get off the ship.

While we were in the DR, we went on a fun excursion to 

Damajagua, the Seven Waterfalls.

You go on a hike through the jungle and

then you get to jump into several waterfalls on 

your way back down. Since Andrew was still

recovering from his achilles surgery, he sat this 

one out, but the rest of us went and had a great time.

On the bus to the waterfalls.

Our guide spoke good English.

The one word that he had wrong was instead

of calling it a "life jacket", he kept calling it a 
"jack life". "Make sure you always wear your jack life."

It cracked us up.

Little roadside shops

You can kind of get a glimpse of the lush countryside.

They have paparazzi following you 

around taking pics. And their prices

weren't terribly expensive, so we 

bought the package.

The hike was pretty strenuous and mostly uphill.

They kept telling us it was only five more minutes

"Dominican Time".... Hmmmm....

Jumping in was fun!

And scary!

Always gotta plug my nose!

Once you're in the water,

it's pretty crowded.

People everywhere.

Hiking back to our bus

Besties!

We also got to tour a garden and learn

all about how cigars are made...

not really our thing

Oh, and we got to eat cocoa beans right

out of the pod. That was a new experience.

The port is cute and very touristy

The excursion was super fun, but I didn't realize it 

would pretty much take our whole time in port.

I was hoping to explore the city a bit, but we

just went back to the ship.

Andrew had a nice, relaxing day sleeping in.

He did get off the ship and walked around the

port a bit, but that was all.

A couple more dessert pics.

The four of us went to a comedy show.

It was great. We liked the guy.

And more dessert.

And more brown-footed boobies

We took a dance class together

Andrew got called up to be on one of the game shows.

He made it to finals!

I think he ended up taking second place.

And won a deck of cards.

Woo hoo?

ST THOMAS

Another BEAUTIFUL slice of paradise.

We decided not to book an excursion here,

but to just take a taxi to a beach.

Look at this place!

Are you serious right now?

It's a postcard!

We had read good things about Secret Harbour,

so that's where we decided to go.

It was FABULOUS and we loved it SO MUCH!

Care Bear and I got new snorkel masks that completely

cover your face. We didn't love them. It was somehow 

exhausting for my jaw muscles. I ended up switching 

back to my regular one.

The fish were cool.

But our favorite part was the sea turtles!

We saw several of them of all different sizes.

And they would let you swim really close to them.

It was so fun!

One of the highlights of the trip!

A big stingray came right into the shore

where we were hanging out.

I'm so happy these two could have this time together.

Especially since the Rosiers moved back to UT

just a few months later. :(

What a fantastic week! I usually ask everyone on the drive home what their favorite parts are or things that they'd change. But I can't find my lists if I did ask this time. Darn. But I do remember that all of us loved this spring break and we'd love to vacation with the Rosiers again. :)