Throwback Thursday, Part 4

Yesterday, my dad, brother and I went to go get our passports renewed for our summer vacation to Europe.  While waiting to be called I reminisced about the last vacation I took out of the country and realized that would be the perfect memory to "throwback" to.

Last January, before all of their unfortunate mishaps started occurring, TJ's family and I booked a week-long cruise with Carnival Cruise-line. Our destinations: Cozumel, Belize, Mahogany Bay, and Costa Maya.

It was the first cruise I had ever been on and I was amazed by how grand the ship was... Everything about it screamed "bigger is better."

The LidoDeck, complete with a billion chairs, a big pool, and a gigantic TV screen.

Of course, one of the Lido Deck's main attractions was the humongous water slide, enjoyed by both children and adults.

We ate dinner every night at 8p.m. in the Crimson Restaurant and I would be lying if I didn't say that the food got better and better every night. The best part? It was free! Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and miscellaneous snacks are all included in the price of the cruise. Even the room service is free! (Sodas and alcoholic beverages are not, unfortunately)

At dinner the first night, everyone was on their best behavior. After all, we had another 6 days to unleash our inner hooligans. 

Which we did.

Our first stop was in Cozumel, where we spent the day at a beach-side resort. We enjoyed their "all you can drink" special, laid out in the sand, and frolicked in the warm ocean water.

Michelle, Andrew, Maria

Me and the girls

Maria, Michelle

Before long, it was finally time to make our way back to the ship. Fueled by our exciting first day and influenced by our foreign surroundings, we decided that we couldn't possibly leave without bringing back a souvenir. We headed to the little gift shops where we each purchased a giant sombrero.

As we headed back to the ship adorned in our new accessories, we came up with a brilliant idea...

We would wear our sombreros to dinner!

Obviously, we got one or two stares during dinner. Everyone around us clearly thought we were crazy, but we didn't care. We were festive and loving every minute of it.

The next day, we once again bit the Carnival Dream adieu and headed out to enjoy all that Belize had to offer. Unfortunately, once we arrived we realized that, unless you had an excursion lined up, there wasn't much to do. Therefore, the group quickly left Belize and headed back to the ship where we started  a tradition that would ultimately carry on throughout the remainder of the cruise.
We called it Wine:Thirty. The idea was that we all got together on the balcony connecting our rooms and drank wine in our bathrobes... lots of it.

Maria, Hannah, Kyle, Me, TJ

Eric, Maria

Andrew,Tyler

Me, TJ

Before dinner, we decided that we wanted to dress up for dinner again, but needed to come up with something even bigger and better. And so, mask night was born.

We all crammed into one room and proceeded to put our put our arts and crafts skills to good use.

Eric

Andrew, Michelle

Let's just say we got even more looks this time. We still didn't care.

We finished our dinner and made our way back to the rooms for a wardrobe change. There was nothing more on our minds than dancing the night away.
Which we definitely did.

We started off with a few martini's and well, you'll see.

It would appear that TJ and I had a few too many. We probably looked ridiculous, but it was totally worth it.

Eventually I found my way to the dance floor with the other ladies.

Michelle, Me, Jen, Maria

While TJ proceeded to dance like no one was watching.
Too bad the camera was.

TJ

On day 3 we found ourselves in Mahogany Bay.

TJ, Me

The scenery was absolutely stunning and the water was the clearest blue I have ever seen before.

While the boys opted to lay out and catch some sun..

The girls decided to get a little wet. The water was the perfect temperature for a swim and none of us could pass up the opportunity.

A few individuals in our group were even lucky enough to play with some dolphins. Sadly, I was not one of them. :(

Me

But I will say that Mahogany Bay was by far the most fun we had out of all of our ports.

All too soon it was time to head back to the ship. We wasted a few hours lounging by the pool, taking a nap or two, and attended Wine:Thirty.

Then, it was time for dinner. By now everyone in the dining hall expected us to turn up in ridiculous outfits and waited with baited breath to see what we would do next. We definitely didn't disappoint. In fact, we received a round of applause from the entire room of people.

Rather than get dressed up for dinner, we headed to the Crimson Restaurant straight from Wine:Thirty, bathrobes and all.
The only problem? We were so drunk and giddy that nobody remembered to bring a camera, but to give you an idea...

Eric, Maria

Hannah

Brian

Eric

We weren't exactly looking our best that night. Especially given that our bathrobes were bright white with a number of wine, food, and other miscellaneous stains.

After dinner, we weren't ready to stop partying, so we didn't. We made our way to the piano bar and had the time of our lives.

The next day we had the pleasure of walking around Costa Maya, our last port of the vacation.
We spent the day walking, shopping, swimming and trying the native food.

Andrew, Maria

Me, TJ

Sadly, because it was the last port and we needed to start heading home, we had to get back to the ship pretty early and didn't get a chance to take many pictures of our time in Costa Maya...

We spent the rest of the day running around the ship until it was once again time for dinner. As it was captain's night and we had to get dolled up, we needed to think outside the box.
We had to think on it for awhile, but we finally came up with the perfect plan: sunglasses.

Suits, ties, and sunglasses in hand, we proceeded to make our way to dinner.

The effects of Wine:Thirty ultimately prevented us from taking any group pictures, but we managed to get a couple. Literally.

Brendan, Kyle

Eric

You can rest assured that the idea was a hit. There were whispers of "aww" and "how cute" as we walked through the restaurant to our seats.

Once dinner was over, we didn't waste any time making our way back to the piano bar.

Hannah, Eric, Michelle, Brian

Eric, Brian, Me, TJ

The last day was a "Day at Sea" which pretty much meant that we had to find something to do on the ship to occupy our time. We partook in a number of activities, munched on a bunch of snacks, and relaxed for awhile by the pool. Overall we had a very mellow day.

We were even mellow at dinner where we decided to simply wear our clothes inside out. We knew we should have gone out with a bang, but packing for home really put a damper on our moods.

I was sad to leave, but extremely grateful for the memories.
I can't wait to do it again.

Carnival Dream, I hope to see you again soon!