Epic Caribbean Vacation of Awesomeness, Part 3

Day 4 brought us to sunny St. Maarten! Philipsburg, St. Maarten to be exact. We got our first sighting of land after being at sea for 3 days and it did our hearts good. We went out on the balcony of mom's and dad's cabin to watch as the ship pulled in. I gained a deep respect for our captain at the gentle way he maneuvered that monster of a ship.

Land ho!

This is the Disney ship that stalked us for most of our cruise.

This is my Caribbean boyfriend's yacht. Pictures of my actual boyfriend yet to come!

This is the cruise ship port at Philipsburg. There are plenty of places to spend money there!

That is Fort Amsterdam up on the hill.

We decided to do an excursion together as a family and St. Maarten was the lucky location to receive all Kingsfords in one location. We went to the Tiki Hut Snorkel Park. We got on the ferry boat and were shuttled over to the actual park. It was not at all what I was expecting and we were frankly disappointed. They didn't have enough equipment and gave us poor instruction. It wasn't a total bust because we did see plenty of cool fish and they had a wrecked helicopter. I think Larren saw a barracuda which was kind of cool.

Larren and Amberly on the boat ride to the snorkel park.

Mom and dad headed to the snorkel park.

Me and Jessie. I have no idea what I'm looking at. Probably my boyfriend's yacht.

Craig

I would have taken more pictures of the snorkel park adventure, but I got a little woozy from the boat ride over. Stupid motion sickness! We all wanted to see more of St. Maarten so we opted to leave earlier than we originally expected. Mom, dad, and I went back to the ship and the others terrorized Philipsburg. Mom and I cleaned up, rested a little bit, ate lunch, and hit the stores. As far as purchases, I bought a cute little pearl pendant and we hit up Mr. Tablecloth for some linens. It was a very random store, but it had fun things you wouldn't see in the US like embroidered handkerchiefs.

The Epic next to one of the Celebrity cruise ships. The Epic is on the right.

Steel drum band! This band played Dynamite by Taio Cruz and I couldn't not dance. My apologies to the people of Philipsburg.

Sailboats on that gorgeous water!

This is a row of hotels right on the beach.

Not a bad view, eh?

Farewell St. Maarten!

I decided to give the comedy group another try that night and fulfill the requirement of a fruity drink. This is my Bahama Mama. The comedy group was better the second time!

Our little elephant friend!