Southern Caribbean Cruise 2009

I'm sold! I absolutely love going on cruises. Last February, I was able to join the Oroville Cruisers for there week long excursion to the Southern Caribbean - Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and St. John. Each island was better than the last, in my opinion, as each one was more green and lush. It beat sticking around enduring the long cold winter in Boston. I think there around 35 of us, which made it all the more fun. We sailed on the Royal Caribbean.

We rented jeeps while on Aruba and traveled the island seeing different sights....

Urrr....lovely. Just how I thought Aruba would be....all cactus! There is quite a bit of cactus on the island and it does get windy there, but the beaches are great, and in the end that's what counts! We went straight through the middle of the island to the arches. Which is something I guess is well known for that area???
The next stop was Curacao - an island close to Aruba. We didn't really do much there. Just some shopping. :) The island is part of the Netherlands...hence the bright colors!
The next three islands were the best. They were the U.S. Virgin islands and I loved how lush the islands were. Our next stop was St. Maarten where we all rented ski-doos (sp?) and road them around the island to a fabulous snorkeling spot.
Mom and dad at the ski-do place ready to go.
This is where we snorkeled. Saw amazing colorful fish...oh, and the riding the ski-do was a blast! I only threw my roommate off once, but we were definately the wild ones of the group. So much fun!
We only stayed on St. Thomas long enough to take the ferry over to St. John, which was by far my favorite island. You only have to look at the picture above to see why. Trunk Bay is considered on the of the top 10 beaches in the world by National Geographic. The water is so clear, sand very fine, the exotic fish, lush surroundings and perfect weather make me agree! We spent the afternoon at this beach just chillin' and getting burned! Oh...and sidenote...the drive on the wrong side of the road there with the steering wheel still on the left side...scary!

Visiting all the islands was wonderful, but life on the ship was great, too. There were shows/parties every night, kareoke (new favorite), putt putt, basketball court, games, and being with everyone I grew up with made it a wonderful experience.

My roommate Kathy (who flew off the ski-do) and me all dressed up for the formal dinner.

Some of the group doing 60's trivia before the party on the promenade.

Woot woot! The party!
Hmm.....for some reason, everyone really liked the Indian. :)
Valentine's Day occurred while we were on the cruise and then men always do something really cute. This year they decorated the four tables our group had with candy and little gifts. Someone in the group also heart attacked everyone's cabin doors. In return, then women gave all the men hat's that said, "I'm Loved".

All in all, a great trip! Can't wait for the next one.