More Cruise

Ok, so I started this post over a month ago so I figured I should finally finish it! Yikes! I'm so sad looking at all of these pictures of the hot weather and sandy beaches! Especially when our high today was in the minuses! Blah! Next time we will have to book one in February to escape this cold madness!

So, this is our first formal night of the cruise.

It was at this dinner that our captain informed us that one of the engines on the boat had died and we would not be able to continue on as far south as we had planned... So no St. Maarten and no St. Thomas! WHAT! It was a real disappoinment! We would be going to Samana, Dominican Republic and a private island owned by NCL. So we had to cancel both of our scuba diving excursions in St. Maarten, one of which was a shark dive that I was really looking forward to! Lame! We decided to try and make the best of it and find other diving excursions in Samana. But first, some formal pics:

Then the next day we arrived in Samana and found a place to go scuba diving for a fair price. Here we are coming off the tender boat to Samana:

Getting our dive equipment:

Going out to our dive site with our dive master:

Me diving:Mike diving:Mandy and Jason with a shell thingy:
Jason holding a starfish with a pokey thing on the bottom of it:
Really pokey thing:
Here fishy fishy:Very bubbly/silty group pic: Mike, Me, Mandy and Jason:Starfish:And me:

Our dive master didn't take us to very awesome places this time, but it was still fun and cool. I think he didn't know that we had been diving through caves and corridors before. We will have to let our next dive master know that we're ready to see sharks and caves and stuff!

Here we are making our way back to the ship:

Bye-bye Samana:

So then we had another relaxing day at sea, playing basketball and relaxing on the deck and taking pictures of my toes:

And more dinner pics:

The next day we went to NCL's private beach which was under construction. It wasn't too bad though. They had this HUGE blow-up waterslide that we got to go on and beach volleyball.

And there was eating and lounging of course!

Eating: Mmmm yummy pineapple!
And lounging:The Norwegian Sun:
Going back on the tender, boo!
The tender boats had these cool water shooters that cleaned off your feet before you went on the boat: Neato!
Our last dinner on the cruise. So sad! We decided to go to the sushi restaurant. It was sooo yummy and it was all you can eat! Let me tell you, we had ALL you can eat! And our last little towel animal- a cute little seal:
So, since we weren't able to go to the ports that we originally planned on, NCL compensated us with free drinks onboard (woohoo!) (sarcasm) and $160 credit on our account. They also are giving us 30% off our next NCL cruise. So we are in the process of finding another one. Probably in October sometime. Wanna go...? :)