Rachel's Life In Provo.: diet coke, stingrays, and beach towels.

Cruising is great. This past week confirmed it. There is nothing like leaving cold, snowy Utah in the morning wearing Uggs and arriving in sunny, warm Florida and changing into flip flops. Boarding the boat was a sintch and before we knew it we were disembarking from Miami and on our way to the Caribbean.

Price, Todd, and I shared a room and we had our own balcony! It was so nice to be able to go out there and watch us arrive at and leave our destinations. It was one of Todd's favorite things. He was out there all the time.

Dinner was by far one of my favorite parts of the cruise. I loved knowing that whatever we did during the day, we all had to be back on the ship and eating dinner together at 8:30. Our waitors were so great and funny. The food was deeeelicious and by the end of the trip, we were all ordering three appetizers, two entrees, and three desserts...don't judge us...it's all included!

Our first stop was a place/country/city/weird village/beach town/tourist trap called Costa Maya. Basically it is a city that Royal Caribbean created. But instead of owning up to it as their private island they called it a historical Mayan village, which it is clearly not. We ended up rented a golf cart and driving over to the beach area. Despite the random Mexican culture we had fun laying on the beach, snorkeling, and drinking pina coladas.

Wednesday we arrived in Belize. Very different from Costa Maya (thank goodness). We rode with a group of people on a bus to the jungle part of Belize. The boys zip-lined (I couldn't do it because of my ankle) and then we tubed on a river through these amazing caves! It was beautiful. Dion, our cave guide was hilarious. He had dreads and talked like a Jamaican. He made nicknames for all of us and was always making us laugh. Dion also made sure I was always doing okay, because of my ankle, and let me walk as slow as I needed.

Cozumel, Mexico was our stop after Belize. This was my favorite place we went to. I decided I love Mexico and everything about it. Especially when Todd and my Dad would chat away in Spanish with the locals. We started out by renting scooters and driving around the coast of Cozumel. We stopped at a beach for Diet Cokes (obviously) and the Price and Todd decided to go parasailing! They had a blast and Todd took lots of great pictures from up above! We got to pet a huge lizard animal and a little monkey climbed all over my back! So cute!! Then we drove back to the city, bartered for some good stuff, and ate yummy Mexican food for lunch.

Our last destination of the cruise was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. What a gorgeous place! We went on a boat ride to the middle of the ocean to a four feet deep sandbar. It was called Stingray City and we got to play with the stingrays! They were like cats! We pet them, held them, and even got to give them a little smooch! The boat took us to two more places in the ocean to snorkle. We were loving it. Then we got back to town and Todd and I went around to shop for the last couple of hours before the cruise was about to leave. We got some great souvenirs for our friends and family. That day was our six month anniversary of dating (!) and Todd bought me the prettiest little earings. He's the best.

The last day on the cruise was our day at sea traveling back to Miami. Unforchantly it was pretty stormy and windy all day so we spend most of our time inside walking around the ship. We took advantage of the buffets and free food, drank lots of diet coke, gambled in the casino, played air hockey, took naps, and ate our last dinner in the dining room. We were sad to say goodbye to our awesome waitors.

Throughout the week our stateroom attendent, Anthony, made up our room twice a day, everyday. We became good friends with Anthony and loved talking and laughing with him in the hallway. At night he would leave towel animal creations waiting for us in our room! We loved seeing what they were every night!