Caribbean Cruise

This past month, 4Life (the company Daniel works for) did a cruise for distributors from the company that met certain qualifications. Daniel was a host and I was able to go as his wife! I was stoked. Last year I went on my very first cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. It was during Spring Break and I went with teachers that I work with at Draper Elementary. It was a fun cruise, and a good one for a first cruise. (tons of pictures of it are posted on Facebook). For Daniel's work cruise, The Great Escape, we were going to the Western Caribbean. We flew to Miami Saturday morning (3/19) and spent the night there. The next morning we took a bus to Ft. Lauderdale. We got on board our ship and found our room. Our room was awesome! Let’s just say that last year if my boat would have been the Titanic, I would have gone down with the ship. This year, I would’ve been on those life boats. I felt like royalty when I saw my room! It was huge and it had its own private balcony.

We left from Ft. Lauderdale Sunday afternoon/evening. We go to Key West Monday morning. We had the whole day to ourselves-no 4life activities were planned. We thought about Parasailing or spending the day at the beach. I’ve always been a bit gun shy about parasailing after watching America’s Funniest Home Videos. I’ve seen way too many people eat it in the sand while trying to become airborn, or unpleasantly land in the water. So rather than facing those fears, we decided to rent some bikes and ride around the island. We found a place with darling cruisers! They were bright green-Key Lime bike rentals was the name. Yeah, it took me almost the whole day before I put 2 and 2 together! (Key Lime Green since Key West is famous for its Key Lime Pie)


We had such a fun time! We saw the historic Harry Truman Little White House. It was a house that initially served as the command headquarters of the naval station during the Spanish War, WWI and WWII.

We also saw Blue Heaven, the restaurant the inspired Jimmy Buffett’s song Blue Heaven Rendezvous.

We saw Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home.

Lighthouse of Key West and really cool Banyan trees.


We also visited the Southernmost Point of Continental US (there was a huge line to take your picture with the monument, so we just sat off to the side and waited for people to clear out and then snap a shot ☺)


We even ate some DELICIOUS Key Lime Pie from Kermits.


Tuesday night was the Formal Night. It was fun getting all dressed up.



Wednesday we were at Grand Cayman Islands to swim with Sting Rays at Sting Ray City. We took a catamaran out to a sand bar in the ocean where for some reason, Sting Rays come. The water on the way to the sand bar was amazingly blue! I had Chelsea do my toes before we left with blue polish from her glitter toe kit. The water matched my toes it was that blue. Like going through blue kool-aide to quote a friend’s dad.

When we got to Sting Ray City, we dropped our anchor and then a ladder that you climbed down into the water/jumped into the water. It was nerve racking at first to see these big dark objects swimming under your feet or knocking into you, but after petting a Sting Ray I soon wanted to pet another one. So the search was on to find the Sting Rays that would swim with me or let me pet them. Such fun!




Thursday we “hiked” the waterfalls of Dunn River Falls. We were given cute shoes to wear to hike the falls-blue jelly shoes! They took me back to my childhood days of pink jelly shoes. I quickly devised a plan to keep them. (not to worry, I got to keep them without scheming) The falls were fun to walk up. We held hands with others to help us with our balance.


There was a small natural water slide and a pool we fell into.


We ate lunch at a beautiful plantation that overlooked the ocean. Yummy food and a delicious view!

Every night we came back from dinner to find a towel animal on our bed. I think my favorite one was the monkey.





Oh and did I mention the food was heaven? You get a menu each night that is different. There are some things that are on every menu though. One of them is the Chocolate Melting Cake. And yes, I got that every night. I LOVE it! I also had fries everyday too! You really could eat every minute of the cruise if you wanted to.

It was a great experience for me to meet Daniel’s co-workers and chat with distributors. Most of the distributors were from Spanish speaking countries. One couple at our table was from Mexico and only spoke Spanish. I was the only one, besides the kids, who didn’t speak Spanish. But through Daniel’s translations and others, I was able to be a part of the conversation. It really was neat to meet the people who make 4Life what it is-corporate and distributors. I sure hope I get to go on another rewards trip!