Cruisin'

We started 2014 off by checking something off our bucket list! We went on a cruise!!! We went to the Western Caribbean and made stops in The Cayman Islands, Cozumel Mexico, Belize, and Honduras.

We flew to Miami, FL January 11th at 6 in the morning.

We get there and get to the place where all the shuttles come to pick up people and start looking for our shuttle.... a little back story. When we booked our hotel/motel we read that it had a shuttle from the airport and to the port of Miami. We also knew that this wasn't going to be that nice of a place. We just needed it for one night and basically booked it because it had a shuttle to the port.

Well we come to find out that they don't have either shuttle anymore so we luckily had been talking to a guy who ran a bus company and he said he could take us to the motel for $30 of course. We were just grateful to find someone to take us. Before we got off the bus at "Motel Blu" the bus driver says "don't go out after dark" and boy was he right! It was SO ghetto! We didn't feel safe going out in the daylight.

 The lady....ok girl, she was probably like 17 year old, checking us in was talking on her cellphone the whole time to a friend while she checked us in. We were pretty frustrated and basically scared at this point. We finally get checked in and head to our room. We start walking down the line of doors and totally skip over our door because the room number "207" was written in pencil on the door :) I have a video but it won't upload.

The room to say the least was disgusting!!! Stains on the floor, dirty sheets, duck taped on basically everything, we didn't have a fire alarm just wires hanging down, the bathroom window wouldn't lock, and it smelled old, musky, and smokey. I won't go on about it but I think you get the idea that is was gross! We didn't sleep in the sheets because they were so gross we just laid our beach towels on the bed and slept on them. The air conditioner did work though so there was an up side :)

We needed to eat and go to a grocery store to grab something for breakfast because the motel only had coffee and donuts and the next day was Sunday and we didn't want to fast :) Just down the street was a Wendy's so we hurry over there and come to find out our motel is right by a gentlemen's club :/ yeah....

We quickly ate and ran over to the grocery store close by. By the time we came out of the store it was starting to get dark and we were pretty nervous about being out there. We did make one more stop at a gas station to grab some air freshener to hopefully help our room. Moral of the story, just spend the extra money and get a better place to stay, or at least call and make sure they have what you need :) lesson learned!

We watched some TV and then tried to sleep. It was a long night...we got up and ate our small breakfast, got ready for church, and called a cab.

bad picture, sorry!

It was such a beautiful day so we decided to wait for our cab outside. Soon this tan camry pulls up and a man gets out and asks us if we are going to "12th street." We say yes and he helps us load our stuff in the trunk. We were expecting a traditional "yellow cab" to come but after we got talking to "Ronny" we come to find our his cab was in the shop and he couldn't just not work and lose money that day so he just used his personal car.

  

Turns our Ronny works for Melaleuca as a business builder. Small world! He was so nice and gave us a break when we told him the wrong address to the church. Apparently, street and avenue are two different streets in Florida. So we told him street when it was suppose to be avenue. Our cab ride should have been like $50 because we got lost but he did it for $26.

We get to the church and really it looks nothing like your "traditional church" but we were so happy to be there and to feel safe for the first time in Florida :)

It turned our to be a Spanish/English ward. So some talks were in English and some in Spanish. Same thing with the songs. So I got a translator. Also they get a lot of visitors because they are the church right by the port so they have a room pretty much set aside for peoples luggage :) 

Church was awesome and we even met a few people who were going on the same cruise. After we ate our lunchables :) haha, we hadn't had those in so long but it got us by...we called Ronny to come pick us up.

We drive to port and the boats are HUGE!!! My brother, sister in law and Steve's parents had told us how GINORMOUS they were but nothing really prepares you for the amazing seen!

Yay! on the boat!!!

Beautiful!!! We explore the ship and had to eat some pizza

Our room! 

I would just mute your sound :)

Went to our safety briefing... 

...and then went to the front of the boat to see us take off. It took like an hour and a half before we actually went but it was fun to just sit and watch the other boats go and watch the sunset.

Just saw this fun pirate looking ship as we were hanging out.

These boats are amazing and can turn on a dime.

Goodbye Florida, Hello ocean!