Jason and I had a great "Babymoon" cruise last week! We wanted to have a last trip before the baby comes and get away, just the two of us. We decided that a cruise was the best way to go on a longer more relaxing trip that was still affordable. We chose a 7 day, 7 night cruise on the Carnival Magic and we had a great time!

We were supposed to leave from Galveston on Sunday around 4pm but the port was closed due to fog so the ship didn't leave until after 10pm. Meanwhile we had to stand in line outside in the cold for about 2 hours and then 2 more hours inside. It wasn't a great start to the trip but once it began we forgot all about it! 

 

Lots of waiting....

And another room waiting....

The biggest tragedy of all of this was that this was during the Super Bowl so we only saw parts of it. (Although since we were rooting for Denver, we didn't miss much!)

 

Our first and second days on the ship we spent exploring, laying around outside and of course, eating lots of food! We also did a round of mini golf and some arcade games! We also hit up a comedy show, magic show, and 70's musical to add some entertainment to our days.

 

 The atrium area where you can see up/down 4levels. 

 It was still chilly the first day as we left the US and headed to the Caribbean! 

 The pool/ theatre area where there were lots of events, movies, Olympics, and dance parties!

I gave Jason a good run for his money at golf!

Then our first stop was Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Honduras. It's an island off of Honduras so it wasn't a super cultural experience (very touristy) but it was a perfect calm day for us. 

 The water was beautiful and we enjoyed swimming, reading books and going on a nature walk! 

We got a super cute baby dress here too and a couple little souvenirs (obviously Jason's favorite part)

Then the next day we headed to Belize City, Belize. The water was too shallow for our cruise ship to dock so they send little boats to pick you up directly from the ship. We thought this was pretty fun and it was cool to see our ship from the middle of the ocean! 

In Belize, we did a shore excursion that took us to Mayan ruins which was really cool and it was really interesting to see so much of Belize on the hour bus ride there. belize is about the size of Massachusetts but only has a population of 350,000! Which boggles my mind. It is relatively poor overall so tourism is a huge boost to the country. We visited the Altun Ha Mayan ruins and took a jungle river cruise.
 

 We climbed to the top of this one!

 Our tour group

 At the top!

 (We were those little people on top above)

 Our tour guide, Gustavo

Then we headed on our river cruise to see lots of alligators, monkeys and iguanas. It was a lot of fun and again, a really cool way to see the country!

 Alligator!

 Another alligator!

Can you spot the giant iguana?

That night was one of the dressy nights at dinner so we had fun dressing up and enjoying our long dinners with our new friends. We were lucky to be seated with 2 young couples (including some newlyweds from Idaho!)

 My studly husband

 It's always fun to dress up! 

 Some of the fun food we enjoyed on the ship!

Danika and Andrew from Chicago and McKenna and Kyle from Declo, Idaho. 

  

 Jason and Drew are pretty cool. Drew is a comedian so we loved having dinner with him-he always kept us entertained and laughing!

 We loved hanging with these guys-so fun! We did some karaoke, arcade games, a little casino time (with the key grab machine, don't worry I only let Jason waste $3 here) and seeing some (not awesome) shows.

 Our last stop was Cozumel where we went on a Catamaran to snorkle and then to a private beach. It was seriously amazing. We loved snorkeling and got to see fish, coral and sting rays and it was so cool! We also went kayaking and Jason attempted to (being the key word) paddleboard- it's on his list to practice....

 Jason was trying to paddleboard here...better luck next time hun!

 24 weeks on the beach in Cozumel

After the beach we headed to town to shop and grab a bite. I enjoyed my prepackaged Coke and Cheetos since I wasn't allowed (by my doctor) to eat any local foods. And I didn't get sick at all so it was worth it!
 

We loved the ports but were definitely tired after 3 straight days! Our last day we wandered the ship, watched Olympics and enjoyed lots of pizza, ice cream, and napping.

 Some very fancy fruit loop French toast. Just one of Jason's entrees. :) He fully embraced the multiple entree-eat until you are sick concept :)

 We enjoyed our daily towel animals. 

 Beautiful sunset leaving Honduras I think?

 Did I mention Jason and I were ladder toss tournament champions? No big deal. 

We are just that cool!

On Sunday, we were supposed to arrive at 8am to port but were delayed outside the port due to fog! So we ended up spending the whole day on the ship and gained our lost time the Sunday before back. It was nice to get a little bonus time but it was hard to fill a whole day once you are packed up and it's cold again. We hung with our friends and kept ourselves busy but didn't get home until 10:30pm so we were tired 

but surprisingly rejuvenated for work again on Monday!

We had a great trip and were so grateful to  get to go but what's funny is it made us even more excited for oru baby girl to come! We feel like we are closing our chapter of us just us and starting a new one with our little one and just can't wait!

Cruise Stops

Now that you have seen HOW we traveled on the ship see WHERE we traveled!

Our first port was Messina, Sicily. We caught a bus with some other cruisers and headed to the nearby town of Taormina. Taormina is high in the hills of Sicily and has gorgeous views. There wasn't much to do there but it was pretty and cute. We ate yummy calzones and walked in lots of cute little shops. It was a great day!

The next stop was a big one: Athens, Greece! We were probably the most excited for this one!

On our way from the ship to the train station we made friends with some other cruisers and they turned out to be from Plano, Texas! We also met a very nice Greek man who showed us all around for a couple of hours! This made the day so much better and easier! After exploring some famous places along the way to the Acropolis we finally made it! 

The day we went to the Acropolis turned out to be National Monuments Day in Greece meaning that all monuments and museums are free but also that there were people everywhere! We waited in this massive pile of people for 10 minutes [it was going to be 3 hours] but then the doors opened! We piled in with hundreds of other people in the heat and climbed up to the Acropolis. The Acropolis is the ancient city center of Athens. It is mainly ruins now but you can see from what is left of the Parthenon what splendor it used to hold. 

 While we were hiking around the acropolis it started raining! So there were all these tourists running onto the monuments trying to find shelter...pretty sure that wasn't allowed! haha. Anyways, we were a little wet and cold but we finally made it down after trying not to slip ten times on the wet marble.

After the Acropolis we went to the new Acropolis museum and wandered around the city. Then we had the most amazing lunch:

It was seriously so good!

Anyways, Athens was great! Next was Turkey!

 

After Rome and Athens we were a little "ruins" out so we decided to just hang around the port city of Kusadasai, Turkey. We spent most of the day at the Grand Bazaar just shopping and we definitely got to work on our bargaining skills. We had another great doner kebab there and took a walk around Pigeon Island.  We also got some great Turkish delite, pottery and baklava!

 

 

Here is a great view of our ship from Pigeon Island:

Finally our last stop was Chania, Crete. This was one of my faovrite places. It was a beautiful tranquil island. We walked to the beach and just relaxed and it had the prettiest harbor area with restaurants and shops, it was a beautiful day and the perfect last stop on our cruise!

Cruise was awesome. Next stop: Spain!