228 Days to Go!

I just logged into my Norwegian Cruise Lines account to make a payment and saw the big 228 Days to Go! countdown clock! Woo hoo! I can’t wait till our “big” honeymoon. At this point we are planning on a “big” and a “little” honeymoon because without the little I’ll be going back to work the Monday after we get married. No thanks! So we’ll be headed off somewhere for a couple of nights, like a bed and breakfast or something relaxing so we can chill out and enjoy being married 🙂 I’ll take Monday off then hopefully work at home for the rest of the week. We’ll see how that works out. Then less than a week later we’ll be flying off to Miami! I hope we can take a trip to the Everglades before getting on the Norwegian Pearl for another 7-day Western Caribbean cruise. The Pearl is one of NCL’s Jewel class ships and is bigger and a bit fancier than the Spirit. We actually saw the Pearl anchored next to us when we were in Belize last year! This year we have a balcony cabin right at the back of the ship (aft) so we can hear the wake and get a gorgeous unblocked view from our room. (I don’t think the balcony’s all that big for sitting but we’ll probably be out there a fair amount too!) Last year we saw lots of sea life from the sundeck on the Spirit so I’m hoping we’ll get some great views of animals in the distance from our balcony, too. Also, the Pearl has a fabulous thermal spa with a big hot spa pool and heated ceramic loungers and drinks you can sip while you do nothing so one of the very first things we do after boarding will be purchasing spa passes! And our stops this year include:

*Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas (NCL’s private island), where we plan to hike over to the lighthouse and the old helicopter pad and see the ruins left over from the days when it was a U.S. military installation. Hopefully we will also have plenty of time for snorkeling.

*Grand Cayman – This British territory is supposed to have some great snorkeling as well, especially with a large stingray population. This one will require some research.

*Ocho Rios, Jamaica – I think hiking the water fall here is a must!

*Our last stop is a return to Cozumel, Mexico which we also visited last year and loved. Cozumel is GREAT especially the little neighborhoods on the inside. It’s a nice place to just walk around once you get past the touristy areas (not that those aren’t a lot of fun – they are!). We loved cooking with Josefina in her home last year but this year I think we’ll just head to Money Bar (or another private beach bar) and do lots of snorkeling. That’s one thing I wish we did a bit more of last year, snorkel (although we did do some in the incredible reefs off Roatan).

WE CAN’T WAIT!