• April 13, 2016

    • Cruising to Mexico

    Just a little over a month ago from today, I found myself on the most epic of girl’s weekends: cruising a la Carnival to Cozumel Mexico to celebrate my bestie’s bachelorette weekend.

    All of the gals flew into Houston and we drove just 45 minutes away to the port of Galveston to board our ship.
    I always forget how easy it is for us Houstonians to hop on a cruise!

    Nora was getting hitched, and since we all considered ourselves “grown ups” we thought, why not go on a “grown up” vacation/bachelorette party?
    While maybe we felt like grown ups, we sure acted like we were still in college!
    And it was absolutely wonderful.
    The welcome drinks upon arriving the ship certainly helped with that too. 😉

    We did a long weekend cruise. Two full days at sea, one day in Mexico, and four nights on board the Carnival Triumph.

    The majority of our days at sea were spent lounging around, sipping on cocktails, reading our books and chatting away.

    I was overly excited to break out my summer favorites early this year! In case you’re interested, my cover up and swimsuit are both from L Space. I couldn’t decide half the time if I wanted to keep my cover up on (or lay out in my suit) because both were just as cute!
    My pool day must haves:

     

    Cruising essentials, of course.

    Ironically, I was the only one that didn’t get burned during our trip. SPF, you guys!

    And the most important cruising essentials when on a bachelorette party: flower crowns, blinged out straws and flamingo cup holders.

    This is our second bachelorette party to use these guys. Amazon has a dozen for only $9!

    What, you don’t bring these tchotchkes along when you cruise too!?

    We all stayed out until the sun went down, but unlike our college selves, we most certainly did NOT stay out until the sun came up.
    We went to our oh-so-delicious dinners each night, and then we’d all vote unanimously that it was time for bed as soon as dinner was over.
    Totally fine with missing out on the cruise club-scene.

    And when you’re a “grown-up” you find yourself waking up at 6:30 AM because your biological clock does not understand that you are in fact, on a cruise!

    It was a perfectly great excuse to get up and play with my camera while the rest of the boat was sleeping.

    Otherwise, I would have never known that magical cruise fairies left towel animals on all of the beach chairs at night, now would I?

     

    Have you ever seen a cruise ship so empty?

    It was fun to sit up there and sip my coffee in solitude, watching the sunrise.

    As this was my first ever cruise, I really had no idea what to expect. Sure, I’d heard all about the endless amount of food on cruise ships … but seeing it was something else entirely.

    Unlimited salsa you guys!

    And tacos!

    And if you were like us (and did the drink package) … unlimited pina coladas!

    On our second fun day at sea, we decided that we found the perfect spot for sunning aboard the entire ship.

    I just did a bit of googling, and now I’m feeling really smart because I can safely say that this above picture was taken on the “port” side of the ship. I guess I should have known this? Because it did actually dock at the port both times ….

    Hey, it was my first cruise! And it didn’t come with a handbook.

    Anyway, we loved this spot because we were far from the music, the bars, and the noise of the pool party scene. That was a whole lot of fun on the first day.

    But then on the last day, we realized we were in our late 20s and all we wanted to do was read our books and lay out in peace.
    Still with pina coladas in hand, naturally.

     

    Photo with the bride! And doing what we do best, sharing each other’s clothes. Isn’t she looking fab-u-lous in my pretty cover up?

    I packed this black Free People dress to wear as a dress during the trip, but I found it made for such a fun cover up too.

    Even when the wind started to blow!

     

     

    On our last night of the trip, we all dressed up in time to catch the sunset before dinner.

    So without further ado, let me share an outfit with ya! 😉

    Because, as we all know, this is mostly a fashion blog after all.

     

    I paired my favorite pink silk skirt (only $116!) with a white tasseled open back crop top & statement earrings for dinner that evening.

    Little did I know that my outfit would be matching the sunset behind me!

    PS: Love this girl with all my <3 <3 <3!

    Since this photo was taken, she has become a Mrs! I’d say we sent her off very well. 🙂

    It’s funny to believe what was once a group of six girls living in Knoxville, Tennessee, shouting “Go Vols!” every chance we got, is now scattered all over the country. Atlanta, Kansas City, Memphis, Nashville, South Bend, Indiana, and Houston is where we all call home. Never dreamed we would all end up so far away!
    It definitely makes special trips like these so much more wonderful!
    While I feel like I just wrote a novel, there’s still so much more from our trip to share! Our day in Cozumel is coming to the blog later this week. Our excursion was absolutely perfect for a bachelorette party too!
    Stay tuned!
    And as always, thanks for stopping by the blog!
    —
    alice