The Bannons: Birthday Cruise

The day after my birthday party with friends, Richard, my parents, and I took a red eye to Miami and the celebrations continued! We stayed 1 night in downtown Miami, 6 nights out to sea in the Caribbean stopping off at Key West, Cayman Islands (where the highlight of our trip was swimming with sting rays-amazing experience! we were so preoccupied we didn't think about taking pictures) and Jamaica (climbing the dunn's river falls was definitely a little scary, but so glad we did it), and then Richard and I stayed an extra night at Miami Beach and got the opportunity to visit the Everglades Tour the next day, which was a really awesome experience seeing the gators and crocodiles, I highly recommend it, it was unreal. I think I got sang to about 4 times throughout the week Happy Birthday by different waiters, it was pretty funny and entertaining! We had a wonderful, sunny, and very relaxing vacation filled with a lot of laying out in the sun, reading, admiring the beautiful peaceful views from the ship, taking naps, eating delicious meals, unlimited ice cream soft serve and watching performances on the ship and enjoying being in paradise. Was so nice to have the opportunity to get away, see some places of the world for the first time, and take a much needed break from working in the office!

touring breaker's hotel in palm beach, florida

we had coffee and fruit smoothies outside here on the patio of this cute and fancy cafe/gift shop in the hotel

breaker's hotel

the elaborate entrance to the hotel

viceroy hotel. view of the pool where we stayed night 1 in downtown miami. amazing discount thanks to expedia!

view from the hotel pool

awesome balcony/view of the city

night before my birthday at a fun authentic cuban seafood restaurant in downtown miami

delicious fresh oysters

cheers!

authentic cuban dish the 4 of us split-variety of seafood

pre-birthday dessert

our ship

departing miami

just hanging out

birthday dinner!

birthday cocktails

first stop: key west

exploring key west

beach at key west

paradise!

stopped at a cute little tiki bar to take a break from the heat

richard's bucket of beer to cool him off. it was SO hot in key west!

relaxation to the fullest! my drink to the left: first time trying the caipirinha (cuban mojito)- very refreshing

we took a tour of the grounds and of the inside ernst hemingway's house. also saw a cat with 6 toes (among the MANY that still live there and the vet visits them weekly)

key west

view of key west as the ship was departing

dinner on the ship

our own version of happy hour. we pulled our resources together: appetizers from the ship, and wine and beer that we were allowed to bring on board at check in. we did this almost every night before dinner to watch the sunset

this view from the ship never got old!

happy hour and watching the sunset before dinner

formal night

second stop: cayman islands. cruising thru the canal by boat on our way to snorkel and swim with the sting rays

cayman islands

ship departing from cayman islands

more happy hour and sunset watching!

third stop: jamaica

viewpoint of the port from a cliff in jamaica

beach at the entrance of the dunn's river falls in jamaica

the entrance to the dunn's river falls

climbing the dunn's river falls

we made it! The rocks were really slippery and the water was fast flowing! We were lucky that we didn't fall or slip (unfortunately we saw a few slip along the way and one girl sprained her ankle)