Carnival Destiny 2007 (Port: Barbados)

Our next stop on the cruise was Barbados. We got up pretty early that morning, had breakfast and headed out to meet our tour guides. We took a five-star catamaran trip out to snorkel and swim with the turtles.

The morning started off pretty hazy and it showered periodically through the day, but overall the trip was sooo fun. The biggest disappointment was the lack of wildlife. They (fish and turtles) had all made a break for it when Hurricane Dean swept through. So, our underwater pics are a little bare. Also, the first snorkeling stop was too much for me. I'm hardly a fish when it comes to water. In fact, it takes me literally twenty minutes to calm myself in the water before I'll even put a mask on and put my face in. It is a long story, I'll spare you. When we stopped at this particular location I was disappointed to find that the water was over 33 ft deep, dark, cloudy and VERY choppy. I was in for about five minutes when someone had to be rescued. Not exactly reassuring. After that, I tried to stay close to the group, but ran into the problem of people accidentally kicking me in the belly. They were having too much fun trying to see something. Who could blame them? :) I gave up and got back on the boat where I felt more comfortable.

Later, we went to a more shallow and calm area where I lounged in the water and we took a walk on the beach. When we returned to the catamaran they served us an AWESOME lunch of flying fish, corn salad, scalloped potatoes and curried chicken. YUMMMM!

On the way back to the ship, the guides pointed out a few areas of interest on the coast including the fancy pants resort where Tiger Woods recently wed. The funny thing about Barbados is that all beaches are public. So, the driver told us we could go hang out in front of the resort area, but as along as we didn't walk on their path or sit in their chairs, there was nothing they could do. Personally, if I were paying 3K per night to stay there, I might get a little annoyed in a booze cruise pulled up with a bunch of drunk morons yelling and screaming. Additionally, if I owned a home on the beach, I'm not sure I'd like it either.

Barbados is the home of Malibu rum and they had tours available; however, given my current condition, we opted out.

It was a beautiful day and the best part is we met a couple from Stafford on that trip. We ran into them several times on the cruise and exchanged information. For those of you that don't know our area, that is about an hour drive from us. They also have small children, one is a little older than Sydney. We hope to get together with them soon. We understand the hubby will be leaving for Iraq in October. He is expected to be gone for a year. My heart goes out to them as I have been there before. At least in my case, I didn't have children.

Well, take a look at our Barbados photos below:

(BTW: The boats in the background are not ours. I cannot believe we failed to take a photo of our catamaran, but we did. Oh well!)

Above is the one turtle that stuck around for snacks! Guess the storm wasn't worth the travel for him. :)

I look at these photos and am amazed at how beautiful it is and it is hard to believe that I was just there. We are so fortunate to have had this experience.

Next stop: ST. LUCIA