I don't think I need to tell you that a cruise ship off the coast of Grand Cayman is a great place to be in February, especially when you live in the Midwest. Luckily that's where my girlfriend and I sailed off to a few months ago. Best of all, and contrary to my usual luck with Mr. Murphy's Law, we even managed to skip out on a giant snowstorm back home - score!

This happened to be my first time on a cruise and I have to recommend the whole cruising thing to those who haven't had the opportunity to vacation on a floating palace. Seriously, it's kind of ridiculous what they put onboard these days. Our ship, the Norwegian Pearl, had a four-lane bowling alley, 14 restaurants, and a two-story tall video wall with a Nintendo Wii hooked up to it. Needless to say, it was a very fun vacation, the food was great, and I ate way too much of it.

The goal is for this to not end up as your souvenir, k?

Nintendo Wii wall on the NCL Pearl

Sunset over the Caribbean

Aside from the laundry list of things to do on the ship, half the reason to go on a cruise is all the places you visit. Our itinerary took us from Miami to Cozumel and the Cayman Islands. Thanks to the tips and reviews from the many people who frequent the Cruise Critic forums, we found great excursions for the day in both ports.

In order to take photos in all the warm tropical waters, my nice (but very hydrophobic) digital camera was not the best option. Leave it to Kodak to save me a lot of hassle here. Instead of having to buy an expensive waterproof case for my camera, we just picked up two Kodak Sport Single Use cameras that are designed for underwater use. They worked out great and took some wonderful photos - the rest of the images in this blog were taken with those Kodak Sport cameras.

Cozumel was our first port and we docked early in the morning, had a quick breakfast, and then headed into town. Following some quick shopping and a short cab ride we arrived at Playa Uvas. They offered a great little package where we were able to go snorkeling, take a guided clear kayak tour, and have lunch and drinks before we left later in the afternoon.

Looking out on the water at Playa Uvas

Some sort of old fence we saw while snorkeling

Mexican Piranhas, a.k.a Bermuda Chubs

In the Caymans, we had an even better time with a group of people we met on the ship. Stingray City is a very shallow sandbar in the waters of Grand Cayman where a ton of stingrays have grown accustomed to humans. We all took a boat excursion together through Native Way and got to swim and snorkel with the stingrays. They've got a very slimy feel to them and it is indeed a little creepy to have a bunch of them swimming around you since they're rather touchy-feely creatures, but it was an awesome experience. After the stingrays we went snorkeling a little ways away, had a delicious Caribbean lunch, and headed back to the ship even tanner.

Stingray City from the boat

These three rays really seemed to love our group

You have to love the warm Caribbean water

Snorkeling in the Caymans

Rum Point Beach

Hopefully these photos have shown you some of the great things you can do with a Kodak underwater camera. I had never used one before and was very pleased with all the great things I was able to capture with the two disposables we took along on the cruise. That said, I thought it would be great tidbit of information to share with the world on here. As always, thanks for reading and safe travels!

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