You're leavin' on the Fun Ship! We hope that you'll be back again...

Hi everyone!
 
Sorry for the delay in posting – I’ve been exhausted since getting back into Pittsburgh!
 
So time for a quick cruise recap: We set sail aboard the Carnival Freedom on Sunday the 8th from Ft Lauderdale. We had to be at PIT before 6 am for our flight at 7, so we left Butler (my parents’ house) around 4:45. Yes, AM. Ouch. It was ok, though, because we were excited. Once we got our bags checked and we found our gate, we ate breakfast at the airport McDonald’s (hey, it’s vacation!). I had a sausage McGriddle breakfast meal with a LARGE coffee. It was awesome. I love me some McGriddles. Our layover was in Charlotte and we had a couple hours to wait, so I tried my first-ever Jamba Juice for lunch. I got a pomegranate one – Pomegranate Passion? Whatever it was, it was fantabulous and I feel like maybe it helped offset the McGriddle a bit. J
 
We landed in Ft Lauderdale right on time and joined in the chaos of other cruise participants struggling to find their luggage and their cruise representatives. We were on board our ship with plenty of time to spare. We hit up the first buffet we could find (it was like 2:30 or 3 by this time) and settled in for Sail Away.
 
We took a gazillion pictures, but unless I can figure out how to easily post all of them on here, Facebook will have to do. Some culinary highlights include duck (not a big fan), chateaubriand (it was good, but oh my goodness, they practically gave me an entire cow!), and the ever-popular WARM CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE!!! This might be my most favorite dessert in the entire world – it even surpasses Parisian desserts. It’s served in a ramekin and it’s like delicious chocolate cake on the outside, dusted with powdered sugar, and warm, decadent, rich chocolate pudding on the inside. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
 
Adventure highlights include getting trashed off just a few sips of a Cuban mojito in Key West, forcing my mom to kayak in Key West, mistaking a flipflop for a wishbone (don’t ask – it goes along with the Cuban mojito), holding a 2-year-old turtle in Grand Cayman, seeing 500-lb turtles, going to Hell (a real town in Grand Cayman. I sent a postcard to work: “Wish you were here!”), swimming with, kissing, and holding stingrays in the Caymans, spotting dolphins racing our cruise ship, climbing Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios Jamaica, and doing a 1-mile non-competitive walk for breast cancer awareness on-board.
 
So I’m back and I still feel like I’m on the boat. Seriously, I’m sea-sick on land. It’s not as much fun as it sounds. I felt so awful I almost left work early yesterday and I totally skipped the gym in favor of going to bed early. And today I barely got out of bed at all. I don’t know what’s up with me – my stomach has been hurting me a lot, like it’s sore. It was even happening on the ship, but it didn’t start until after I was dunked in the falls in Jamaica. That night, I was almost doubled over in pain. And I’m completely wiped-out, exhausted. I know that it’s normal to be tired after a vacation, but if this doesn’t stop by the weekend, I might MedExpress myself again.
 
While I was on the ship, I had a lot of time to think and I had come up with all these great ideas for myself. It’s funny how those ideas just disappeared as soon as I hit work yesterday. I have no idea what I was planning for myself, but I remember that it seemed adventurous, exciting, and fun. Figures that I’d forget whatever it was.
 
Plans for tonight include hopefully going to the gym unless I feel like I’ll puke everywhere and returning my redbox movie. I watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist last night. It was cute and I like anything with Michael Cera. Thank goodness for redbox free movie Mondays!
 
As our captain, Carlo, said when signing off everyday, “Arrivederci and ciao!”