Caribbean Dream & Caribbean Nightmare

Many British people dream, in their life time about visiting Australia or America as they would like to try out new cultures and find out what the other side of the world has on offer. For my 18th birthday I was lucky enough to visit America and the Caribbean as my parents treated my brother and I by taking us on holiday.

First off we had a 15 hour journey to Cape Canaveral, Orlando where we would be sailing the Caribbean for 7 days on the Royal Caribbean's MS Freedom of the Seas cruise ship, before returning back to America to finish our holiday. On arrival the ship was enormous and it made me wonder how it managed to stay afloat. However, when my family and I went inside it was even more luxurious and grand. The middle of the ship had its own promenade with shops, restaurants, bars, Ben and Jerry's ice cream parlour, cupcake making shop and many more. It also had a casino, theatre, club, ice rink, climbing wall, FlowRider, mini-golf, adult pool with saunas, H20 pool zone for children, baby creche, child/teen club, spa and entertainment is on daily. The ship has multiple restaurants from Chop's Grille, Giovanni's Table, WindJammer, Johnny Rockets, Sabor Taqueria, Sorrento's Pizza and the Main Dining Room where most people dine at night. Rooms come fully equipped with en-suite bathrooms with a shower, TV, telephone, safe, couch, a desk and guests can pay to use the ships WiFi. Each room gives the choice to order room service as it is available 24/7 so eating breakfast in bed or lunch on the balcony is an option.

Day 2 - Cococay

Most of my first day on the ship I caught up on sleep from my jet lag and looked around the ship to get my bearings of where everything was, so when I woke up the next day I couldn't wait to get my day started. My family and I where taking a tender over to a small island called Cococay. The tender only took minutes to arrive and when I stepped off onto the island it was just how I imagined a Caribbean island should be. It had white sand, crystal aquatic sea, palm trees swaying in the light wind with their coconuts hanging to them, colourful beach huts and water sports galore. The Island also had treasure hunts taking place, inflatable slides in the sea and shops. We found a spot on the beach near the water sports and sunbathed and swam until 2pm, this was when the staff from the ship started serving a BBQ for lunch to everyone.

After finishing we went back to sunbathing for a couple of hours, however, a tropical storm started and we packed up to wait on a tender back to the ship. This was one of the funniest moments I have had on a holiday as British people were dancing and enjoying themselves getting cooled by the rain whereas the Americans where trying to hide under any objects they could find.

Day 4- Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

On day four the cruise stopped in St Thomas and my family and I booked our first excursion which was BOSS underwater scooters. The BOSS scooters are motorised by a small fan and designed for exploring the Caribbean seabed in a safe, fun way. Each scooter has a helmet attached to it which traps oxygen so that meant we wouldn't need oxygen tanks.

We left the cruise ship with a group and found our excursion boat. Once on board we were introduced to Michael, Casey and Rick who would be taking us on our excursion and scuba-diving alongside our BOSS scooters. When the boat started to move Michael gave us a life jacket, safety briefing and taught everyone some hand gestures that they used underwater, as we wouldn't be able to talk to them. The boat headed just around the bay then came to a stop in a little secluded area and the group was split into 3 for using the BOSS scooters as there wasn't enough for everyone. My group was last so Michael told us we could go snorkelling and showed us where the snorkels and flippers were kept. However, I couldn't find flippers that would fit my feet and nobody could go snorkelling without wearing them so my mum and I stayed on board the boat and laughed at my brother (Mark) and dad.

Finally it was our turn to go into the sea and for our excursion to actually begin. Mark and I's scooters were beside each other so we swam over to them and Rick was waiting to give us instructions on how to use the controls and get into them, by diving under water and back up into the helmet. Rick told us we would be going 5 metres below sea level and when the group was all down we would be put in a line and be racing with another person around the boat. I was racing Mark and at the end we would join back up with our parents to get an underwater family photo.

Once I was on my scooter and 5 metres below on the sea bed I was moved into the line beside Mark and the race began. Mark was beating me and I was just about to have the chance to take over him going around the back of the boat when all of a sudden my controls got jammed to the right... I was heading straight towards the huge anchor and couldn't do anything about it. Just then Casey who had been swimming along beside me, without my knowledge pushed my scooter to the side and I just missed the boat and anchor. However, the events weren't over as I was now at the back of the group and my controls got struck to the left taking me away from the group and into darkness. I didn't know what to do and I was starting to panic as all I was thinking was a shark could easily appear. A few minutes later the scooter hit the rocks and I knew I hadn't travelled far from the boat.

After about what felt like 20 minutes but was probably only 5 Rick found me and instead of helping he just signalled in a angry manner for me to turn and head back to the group then left... great I was still stuck and alone once again. Eventually however, Rick did return and pulled me back towards the group and I returned to my family who were looking worried while waiting to take the group pictures.

Day 5- Philipsburg, St Maarten

The next day the cruise ship arrived in St Maarten. My mum, Mark and I were travelling from there by boat to Anguilla for a dolphin swimming excursion as part of my 18th birthday present, while my dad sunbathed. The boat trip took around 1 hour and was pretty choppy as we were travelling from the Caribbean Sea and into the Atlantic Ocean. When we arrived the group I was with and myself all climbed onto a bus for a 3 minute journey to the beach where we would be swimming with the dolphins. The excursion organisers 'Dolphin Discovery' gave everyone a life jacket and split us into two groups, mine going first.

Everyone climbed down the stairs leading us onto a platform in the sea and we met a dolphin training expert who introduced us to the dolphin I would be swimming with called Gaya. First of all the trainer showed us how to use a stick drum mallet by tapping it on the water once to get Gaya's attention. This made Gaya come to us and the group were taught different things e.g. getting Gaya to kiss us and high-five us. I was then chosen out of the group to demonstrate how to use the boogie board with Gaya so I had to swim out further into the choppy sea with the boogie board and drum mallet. Once I had swam out a certain length I realised there was a hula hoop secured to the sea bed so I wrapped my foot around the top of it to keep me steady, climbed on the boogie board and tapped on the water once. Without even knowing Gaya was behind me all of a sudden he just started to push me on the board back towards shore.

I was then asked to go out again without the board as this time I was going to be getting a ride along the water while holding onto Gaya's fin. However, when I tapped on the water he didn't appear and when I turned to look for him he was playing with another female dolphin Jaya. I had to wait for Jaya to disappear before I could get Gaya's attention again and for him to perform the water ride. When our group had finished we had time to sunbath on the beach while we waited on the other group. Everyone then headed back to the bus as we were being taken to a small cafe next to the port to have food before going back to St Maarten. Finally when we arrived back on St Maarten we met up with my dad at the port who was watching the world cup which was being played on a big TV screen beside the ship.

Day 7- 18th Birthday (At Sea)

It was the last day on-board the ship before it docked into Cape Canaveral, Orlando and it was my 18th birthday. I woke to my family surrounding me with presents that they had brought all the way from home and Mark had let me pick a Michael Kors watch I wanted the night before. Once I opened my presents it was time for a pancake filled breakfast before sunbathing all day. When dinner came my family and I went to the main dining room where I was surprised by birthday cake for and all the waiters/waitresses singing. However, the funniest part was when the cake came out, as we had a prince sitting at the table beside us with his family whose birthday it was as well (no i'm not lying) and he thought it was for him. There was too much cake for my family to eat so as we where disembarking the next day we decided to gave some to him, his family and our waiters.

Hi everyone, I'm sorry that this blog is very long but I hope you enjoyed it . However, it is part 1 of 3 blogs so stay tuned for the next one. This will be out soon as you will not want to miss it as it features an exciting excursion that takes place when I leave the ship. X