Bride-to-be Blogger Kathleen: Our Honeymoon!

Just-married Kathleen and Christian on their honeymoon!

What do most people envision their honeymoon to be like? I am sure a lot of people picture white sandy beaches, crystal blue waters, frozen tropical drinks, screaming six-year-olds and airborne Spiderman boogie boards … Wait, what? Real romantic, right?

Imagine how you would feel after you’ve arrived in paradise only to find out that there were almost 200 kids checked into your hotel for the entire duration of your honeymoon. I guess that is the risk you take when you book your honeymoon at a place that isn’t adults only. We learned the hard way—and also that the week of July 4th is a popular time for family vacations in the Cayman Islands. Epic romantic honeymoon fail.

The upside to our not-so-romantic honeymoon was that the beaches in Grand Cayman are absolutely beautiful. We spent the majority of our time sitting on the beach, having the waitress bring us our frozen beverages instead of standing in line behind a crowd of those six-year-olds who were ordering their 10th virgin strawberry daiquiri. (A small strategy to avoid the frustrations of being hit in the back of the head with Nurf footballs, and yes, that really did happen). I would imagine that if the resort we stayed at had a second pool bar or second pool in general, we might not have had the same experience. But the thing is, you can sit poolside just about anywhere—you can’t always sit on white sandy beaches looking out over pretty blue water watching the sun set, so that’s what we wanted to do.

We really didn’t do too much while we were on our honeymoon, because we just wanted to relax. We decided that we would just figure things out when we felt like it. We took a day and drove up the coast, visited the turtle farm and the place they lovingly refer to as “Hell,” went reef fishing, went on a pirate ship booze cruse and even did a little bit of snorkeling. I’m not a big fan of the water, so for me to agree to swim out in the open water (granted, only a few yards away from the shore) was a major accomplishment. I still don’t see what the big attraction is—I mean, if I want to look at fish, I can just look in a fish tank—but I know it meant a lot to Christian that I actually snorkeled. Will I do it again? Nope. No pretty blue fish is worth me losing an arm.

At the end of the day, we had fun just spending time together. I am glad we decided to take a honeymoon right after the wedding because it gave us time to chill out and recoup. I had suggested we just take our yearly south Jersey shore vacation right after the wedding, but I’m glad Christian talked me out of it. With that said, would we return to the Cayman Islands? Most likely not. It is pretty expensive and for us, not a honeymoon destination … unless you are into Scuba Diving.

Anyone else have to deal with something unexpected on their honeymoon they kinda wish they didn’t?

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