Hi friends! I’m back for my second and final Carnival cruise vacation recap. If you missed the first recap (How to Eat Healthy on a Cruise), please check that out first!
This post shares some tips for how to stay active on a cruise, as well as some of our adventures while on board/in the ports!
1) Utilize the outdoor track!
Carnival ships have a fun outdoor track on the upper deck (and some of them have outdoor gyms, too – sadly ours didn’t) – take advantage of the opportunity to run in a totally unique setting while at sea!
Matt and I got in three 2 mile (20 lap) runs while on the boat. It was fun to check out the views while we ran.
We mostly slept in and got in workouts in the late morning or early evening, but on our last morning on the ship, the day we arrived back in Miami, we got in an early run and had the whole upper deck to ourselves. So pretty up there in the early hours!
We also took a few walks up there – either in the morning with coffee or in the afternoons on the days at sea when we wanted to move around a bit.
2) Take advantage of the classes/equipment at the ship’s gym.
I took two classes in the gym – an early morning 30 minute abs class that was free, and a 50 minute yoga class that had a $12 fee. They offered spinning for $12 too; I tried to sign up for the last day at sea but by the time I got around to it, it was booked. Oh well! There was also a boot camp I was interested in but it was $35, which seemed way too pricey for a 1 hour class. Not sure why it was so much more expensive!
In addition to the classes, Matt and I ended a couple of our runs at the gym to do some weights/HIIT workouts. The gym definitely got really crowded during peak hours, though, so consider going at random times or for the classes. 🙂
3) Explore the ports on foot!
Matt, Melli, Mortiz, and I had a lot of fun exploring San Juan, Puerto Rico on foot. Some of you may remember that Matt and I visited San Juan back in 2011 for my spring break from grad school, so we enjoyed showing Melli and Moritz around.
We walked nonstop for about 4 hours – we must have covered miles! There was so much to see. 🙂
The historic forts in San Juan are so cool! Loved seeing them again. We couldn’t get inside them since it was a public holiday, but we were able to walk all the grounds, which was just as cool.
On the following day, we enjoyed exploring the rugged beach in Grand Turk on foot for awhile before settling down closer to the ship. There were hundreds of beautiful shells washed up on the beach!
Grand Turk was one of my favorite stops – so beautiful and the water was perfect. I spent hours swimming – I think I was a fish in a former life because I love the water so much. 🙂
4) Choose active excursions!
On New Years’ Eve day in St. Thomas, we did a “hike, snorkel, and kayak” trip that was wonderful. What a beautiful island!
I forgot my waterproof camera and was worried about getting my normal one wet, so unfortunately I don’t have any action shots, but it was an awesome day.
We kayaked for about 40 minutes to a nice spot to snorkel, then took a walk around a pretty island before kayaking back. Our shoulders/arms were feeling it!
5) Act like a kid again!
I had no shame about hitting the water slide multiple times:
And Matt and I played mini golf, too. 🙂
6) Make a pact to only take the stairs on the ship.
Melli and Moritz told us they had made a pact to only take the stairs the whole time on the ship, unless they had their luggage with them, so we copied their idea and did the same! This actually ended up being a serious workout given how many floors there were on the ship (12+) and the fact that we were all over the place every day. Whew!
7) When all else fails, hit an evening dance party on the ship!
There was always something going on on the cruise ship, and nearly every night had some kind of live music or dance-able party. That counts as exercise, too! 🙂 We hit up the New Year’s Eve celebration with Melli and Mortiz, which was a blast!
If you’ve cruised before, how did you stay active while on board?
This post was created as part of my collaboration with Carnival. As always, all of the opinions, thoughts, and ideas in this post are my own.
