Honeymoon Part 3: Antigua, Barbados, & Bumming Around The Ship

So here's the last blog for our honeymoon, going back a bit to some ports we visited earlier in the cruise. We'll start with Antigua. Now, we did something reeeeally cool, really exciting, exhilarating really. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take the camera with us. Our morning started with a drive across the island to go ZIP-LINING!

Behold, the course!

The very tiiiiired newlyweds before getting suited up for the course. 

There were about 8 ziplines, each with a tree-mounted landing spot. We were at the front of the group. Brady took to the course like a duck to water. Me, however? Not so much. I was apparently positioned to be verrry aerodynamic and I didn't just zip, I went wailing down those lines. Literally. We were supposed to use one gloved hand as a brake, but that didn't work very well for me, especially when I ripped a hole in the fingers of my glove. At that point, I just took off, held on tight, and screamed. My landings were interesting as I was coming in full-speed. I slammed into one tree...think George of the Jungle, I nearly took off my feet on one of the landing platforms, and I almost kicked one of the guides off the landing platform. 

I will say, I had a heck of a time on the actual zipping part, but the landings were skeeeeery. Ahh, so I finally land on the final platform and thought I was done. I survived. My legs were killing me from the straps, my arms were mush from having to pull myself up the wire when I stopped short on the first line, but I had done something I've been wanting to do. I was done, riiiiight? No. We had to get ourselves down by vertical decent.

Allow me to explain this concept. You're standing on basically a treehouse platform with nothing around you. You're 50 feet off the ground. There's a rope from the ground to the tree branches above your head. The guide connects your snaps to a snap lock on the vertical rope. She then tells you to step off the platform...onto nothing. Air. 50+ feet of AIR. 

Brady, of course, was brave and was on steady ground before I knew it. My turn. The guide tells me to take a step. 

Me: "It'll catch me?"

Guide: "Yes. Just step."

Me: "Do I have to control my speed?"

Guide: "No."

Me: "I won't fall?"

Guide: "No."

Me: "You're sure it'll catch me?"

Guide: "Yes."

Me: "If I step out?"

Guide: "Yes. Step."

I whimpered quietly to myself, closed my eyes and stepped. 

So, now I'm done, riiiight? No. The guide at the bottom unhooks me and tells us we now have to hike up about a thousand of the steepest stairs we've ever seen to get back to base camp. Keep in mind, cruise ships serve buffets. Lots and lots of buffets. Ice cream, cheeseburgers, pizza...oh lordy, the pizza. Not exactly training food for such a physically demanding hike, but we made it. Overall zip-lining was terrifying and so very fun.

We got dropped back off at the port, where we browsed some shops, then got back aboard to have a much more relaxing night on the ship. I believe that was the night I felt it was necessary to have an umbrella drink. 

See? Much happier. Here we're in Club Fusion.

It was a free blackjack tournament night out by the pool, which we participated in multiple times. Unfortunately, the dealer was meeeean. No one could beat the house that night!

Our favorite island of all was Barbados by far. I had researched activities that were recommended. We really just wanted to do a beach day and the same thing kept coming up as being highly recommended: The Crane. It's actually a resort on its way to a 6 diamond status (they're doing a lot of construction to expand the hotel). They offer a day pass that is refundable for use in the restaurant. In exchange, you get access to their private

 beach. 

As soon as we stepped out to the balcony on the cliff overlooking the beach, we knew we had made a very good choice. This is taken from the restaurant...we ate lunch right along the balcony.

There was a path alongside the cliff that we climbed out onto to take a look at the view.

Our beach for the day. It was overcast for the most part, but it was perfect. We got to play in the waves, waiting for the big ones and laughing when we barely jumped above them.

Standing on top of the cliff...It looks like we're at the edge of the world :)

On our walk down to the beach.

After our full day of relaxation at the Crane, we headed back to the ship so we'll end with a beauty shot of our ship...and the Carnival ship that was following us everywhere in the background.

We had such a great time on the cruise and knowing that we both love to travel, it'll definitely be the first of many trips together as a married couple.