Day 4- Aruba

Our first port was Aruba- One Happy Island. :)


This was the first thing we saw when we got off the boat. It was the banana tour bus- isn't it funny?! We decided not to take a tour on Aruba but we were bombarded as we walked into town with tour guides trying to get us to buy a tour with them. One guys asked us like three times and each time after he asked he would realize he had already asked us. After the 3rd time he started laughing and said he was going to take us on a tour even if it was for free! We didn't get to take him up on it but we had fun anyway. The people here were really friendly and the colors were fantastic- it truly was "One Happy Island"!


Aruba was quite the funky little town. It was filled with mostly expensive name brand stores- who woulda thunk? The big thing in Aruba was the jewelry. They made a big to-do on the ship about the great places to shop. Shawn bought me a gorgeous set of Tanzanite Jewelry. We decided to go with the Tanzanite because it is only found in one mine on the planet and apparently in the next 15-20 years the mine will be stripped. We figured why not make an investment that will go up in value! :) It was funny when we were buying the set the guy that was selling it to us was from India (now imagine the accent) and he was very adament about making sure I knew that with the jewelry I was also getting a "Vedy nice Bocks". Like I really care about the box! lol You probably had to be there to appreciate all of the humor but we have had miles of laughs from it! :) Also, as I mentioned before they give you all of these VIP coupons on the ship for "free stuff" in the ports. One of the "free" items was from the EFFY store that we bought the jewelry so Shawn told the salesman we didn't bring our VIP coupon but would he give it to us anyway? The guy was nice because we had just bought some jewelry and said that he would and he brings over this HIDEOUS watch to me. He of course makes sure to point out that it is a "Vedy nice fashion wotch with genuine leather band". It was hard not to laugh out loud right there but we controlled ourselves. We found that ALL of the things the ship pushes on you to go get that are "free" are really just junky items that the stores use to get you in their doors. Diamond's International gave the worst of all- gold painted charm bracelets that looked like they came out of a gumball machine!

We also bought some t-shirts for the kids and my dad (who was so AWESOME to come and stay with my kids while we were gone!) We only spent a half a day here, which wasn't nearly long enough for me. I would have loved to have time to go sit on the beach- it is GORGEOUS here! Also very hot and humid, but its easy to overlook if you are on a beach. :)




We passed this little sandbar as we came into port.


We just thought this was a funny little dingy.


When we returned to the ship they were having a tropical fruit feast. The chef's had made all of these crazy fruit animals and displays. It didn't take long for it to get devoured! Sadly we didn't actually get any of it, by the time we went back it had been demolished by the old folks-lol.