Epic Caribbean Vacation of Awesomeness, Part 1

I had the opportunity to knock out another item on my bucket list, spend some quality time with my family, get my ocean fix, and get out of Cache Valley during the winter time. I went on a Caribbean cruise with some of my favorite people and had a wonderful time. I'll break it down into days so I can remember and it won't be so overwhelming.

I'm calling it the Epic Caribbean Vacation of Awesomeness because I am a nerd and I can reuse my acronym ECV of A from my Epic Canadian Vacation of Awesomeness (haters gonna hate). To continue with my nerdy vacation traditions, the toe polish color was La Paz-Itively Hot and Smoochie with gold sparkles. The color changed mid-trip with a visit to the ship's spa. The song was a little difficult to narrow down, but I got it down to two. The vacation deserves two theme songs. One night before we left, I was driving home from work and "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles came on my iPod. Fitting, no? The other song is "Brighter Than the Sun" by Colbie Caillat. I had to get a little metaphorical for this one. It's more about my love for vacations/the beach/ocean than it is my love for a particular guy. The song makes me happy and it's catchy and also fitting with the sunshine theme. Now, whenever I hear either of those two songs, I'm taken back to my beach chair on the pool deck.

Mom, dad, Craig, Jessie, and I flew out of Salt Lake on January 27. We left Cache Valley at 4:30 a.m. It was a long day of travel. We had a layover in Houston and a few little mishaps along the way, but we ended up where we needed to be when we needed to be there. We had hoped to spend a little time maybe seeing some of the sights in Miami, but due to waiting for an hour at the airport for the hotel shuttle, we saw the Miami sunset from the curb at the airport. We got checked into the hotel, ate dinner at Denny's (I had Moons over My Hammy in Miami!) and crashed for the night. We ate breakfast the next morning and took a shuttle to the Port of Miami where we boarded the Epic. We met up with Larren and Amberly in line. Craig, Jessie, and I shared a cabin so we were buddies for most of the trip. Our cabin was small and we had to use one of the bunk beds, but it got the job done. Mom and dad had a balcony cabin across the hall as did Larren and Amberly. We didn't spend too much time in the room and we all spent time on the balconies in the other cabins.

Mom and Jessie headed to the ship.

My roommates.

Mom and dad boarding the ship. How cute is the look on my dad's face? He'd die if he knew I posted it, but I had to.

First impression. This is gonna be Epic!

Our little cabin. There were two beds that pulled down from the ceiling. Luckily, we just needed one.

There is a shower behind that red curtain, known as the curtain of shame. The bathroom is right across. The room was small, but it was very nice for what we paid.

We were all a little shocked as we got on the ship. It is HUGE. There are identical cruise ships from Royal Caribbean that are the largest cruise ships in the world. The Norwegian Epic is #3. There were approximately 4200 passengers on the ship with 2000 crew. We ate lunch on the pool deck, went to the mandatory safety training, and then we had the sail away party on the pool deck.

Look at that monster!

The bridge room.

The obligatory toe/ocean/beach chair shot.

The pilot boat leading us out of the port.

Nothing like an ocean sunset!

We started the cruise off with a bang and went to see Blue Man Group that night. It was a great show! They were hilarious and communicated so well without saying a word. I'm amazed at their talent for being able to perform such an intricate show on a moving ship. We enjoyed the show a lot. We ate dinner after the show and Jessie, Craig, and I found a hot tub where we finished out the evening.

The fam and a Blue Man.