Ainsley decided she wanted to go on a cruise for her trip, so we did our research, found the best bang for our buck, and chose a 7 day cruise in October (which happened to fall on a four day weekend). Our itinerary was Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel. On October 6th, with passports in hand, we boarded the Carnival Freedom. At first, Ainsley was pretty overwhelmed by the size of the ship, but once we got situated the good times began.
There were a few hiccups along the way, like the giant hurricane (Michael) that parked itself right in our path and kept us sailing in circles in the Yucatan Peninsula long enough that we didn't have time to go to Honduras. And the stand up paddle board excursion that was cancelled in Cozumel due to high winds. But, the saved cash from our cancelled excursions (Cozumel and Honduras) gave us some money to spend on board the ship, and we made the best of a situation that was pretty much a bummer.
Even though our plans didn't turn out quite as expected we still enjoyed a week of fun and zero responsibility. We swam in the Caribbean Sea, made some awesome new friends who are from Arizona, played a lot of shuffle board, attended a variety of shows, danced a lot, laughed a lot, soaked up the sun, ate good food, and enjoyed a fantastic mom/daughter trip before Ainsley heads off to college next year.
