New Year's 2000-2001 - A Caribbean Cruise

After the amazing success of last year's New Year's Trip To Disney, I decided I wanted to spend every New Year's in someplace warm. So in around July, I started looking for New Year's cruises and I invited everyone I knew to join me. Scott, Jay, and Mike took me up on it, and we reserved a suite and a mini-suite.

Of course, it was not without its faults. Scott and I broke up before the trip, so he opted to switch rooms with Jay. Then Mike cancelled out at the last minute. So in the end it was Scott, Jay, and me on our way to Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios.

To the left is a picture of Jay, me, and Scott getting ready to board. We were very happy because they said that they'd let Jay on even though he didn't have his passport (boy is That a story!). I'm the cute one in the middle, by the way. Notice my wonderful sunglasses. Once I got to Miami I thought I'd never take them off!

Of course, before we got to any ports of call, it was New Year's Eve! We all decided that we'd do the ultimate dress-up. I even did Carnival's Fancy Dress Contest. It was so much fun, even though the guys declined to watch the contest. By the way, the first thing I did when I got on the cruise ship was to make an appointment for hair and makeup on New Year's. I spent most of the day at the spa, first working out, then getting a massage. Then I spent a few hours in the hot tub with the oh-so-yummy "Victor from Venezuela" and finally I went to get my hair and makeup done. I got the guys dressed and made them get our picture done before anything wilted!

The dress is a Jessica McClintock, by the way. I went shopping with Jeannette a few weeks before the cruise specifically to get the new dress!
New Year's Day we were in Grand Cayman. I thought that I was going nuts buying all of these cruise-taken pictures, but I needed one that showed us in shorts on the first of January.
We went snorkeling in Grand Cayman. Scott and I took these pictures with underwater cameras. Here is a picture of our ship, taken from shore.
And here is our ship, taken from the water.
You may notice how BLUE everything is! The water really was crazy blue. The snorkeling trip that we went on was called the "reef and wreck" tour. We got to snorkel around a ship wreck and then around a coral reef. Here are some pics from the wreck.
Another from the wreck.
After the wreck site, we went to snorkel around a coral reef. This was the same reef where they filmed the scuba scene in The Firm. It's a shame that the fish all came out looking just blue, but some of the colors of the fish were outstanding! These fish were actually blue.
Same fish. Different angle.

Here are some more coral pictures. I've put space in between, so just keep scrolling.

For a while I went off on my own, well as on my own as I could get. During one of those times, I ended up swimming with fish! One of them came right up to me! (Unfortunately, I got another snorkeler in the picture)
Grand Cayman had just finished with Pirate Week. This was a replica of a pirate ship that had been destroyed several years ago. We thought it was ironic considering the ship that we came on! (And there it is in the background, too.)
You wouldn't believe how hard it was to get this picture! We were wearing life vests, so sinking into the water was harder than you'd think. In any case, this is me. Proof that I went snorkeling!
There's more! After Grand Cayman, we went to Jamaica, so click on "Next" to go to the next page of pics!