The air is starting to get a chill to it.
I’m going from flip flops to boots, from shorts to sweat pants, from painted toes and shaved legs to not caring a dang bit.
And it makes me miss….our honeymoon….and the Bahamas.
We took a cruise with Royal Caribbean (highly recommended) to the Bahamas for our honeymoon. A 4 night trip which included Coco Cay (their personal island), Nassau, and a day at sea.
Our float was EARLY in the morning on Monday. Very, very early. Looking back I am so glad we had all of Sunday to get things unpacked a little at home and then packed again.
We arrived in Port Canaveral several hours before we could board the ship so we got a rental car and ate a late breakfast at a random but fabulous restaurant, the Big Biscuit. Those kinds of places are always the best.
I can’t wait to go back someday!
Then, we drove around and killed some time. Finally, we decided to return the car and head towards the ship. I was shocked at how long the lines were. Apparently it is tradition for Argentinian girls to head on a cruise for their 15th birthday. Like, over 300 girls. Who don’t speak English…..and have little to no supervision. I was already slightly annoyed.
After customs and checks and random conversations and being nosey wondering where all these people were from…we finally made it to our room!
This was our room…
It was tiny, but it was perfect for what we needed. (wink, wink)
Someday our children will be so grossed out by that. Ha!
This is us getting ready to leave from Port Canaveral in Florida.
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| I’m so lucky! |
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| Yup. We’re married. Flash that ring baby! |
Right after we boarded the ship and I changed clothes we immediately had to check everything out.
Everything!
We also realized that the ship had my very favorite Moscato….and with the beverage package we purchased I could have it free….all….day….long. I was super excited!
By the end of the week I actually started to despise it and my stomach started to rot, I think.
Top of the ship!
VERY windy that day.
A few of the pool deck…
A large movie screen that played stuff all day.
I know the littles would have loved it. Frozen was on practically every night!
Dinner our first evening was incredible. The menu changed each night but I always indulged in what I love….RED meat. I had the prime rib and my love had the salmon. It was delicious. They encourage you to get appetizers, salads, and even dessert because it’s technically already paid for!
At one point in the meal he said, “Shhhh….do you hear that?”
I was so confused. We were in a loud restaurant. There was a lot of things to hear!
To which he replied, “No phones….” 🙂
It truly was one of the best parts of the trip!
You always had the choice of a restaurant called “My Fair Lady” which was a sit down meal or a few other places which were quicker and more like cafeteria or deli style. They even had a little Starbuck/Ben and Jerry’s shop! Yummm
After dinner we did a little bit of people watching and then some gambling in the casino.
The next day….we started with some breakfast in bed.
A cup of delicious Starbucks that my sweets brought me.
Then….a trip to Coco Cay.
The first day out we were off the boat on our their private island, Coco Cay.
Of course it was a rainy morning and we had to take a little boat to reach the island.
When we arrived it REALLY started to rain and we debated for about an hour if we should head back to the ship.
We stuck it out and walked the entire island and eventually…the sun came out!
Our “excursion” we paid for was a pair of floating mats. It was delightful.
Michael doesn’t really know how to relax, but I think that even he enjoyed it.
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| We didn’t pay for this excursion, but it looked fun! |
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| Ahhhhh relaxation! |
While relaxing we did watch some hula and limbo contests.
Did a little bit of shopping for overpriced tourist trap crap.
Ya know, the things you have to take home to say you’ve been there?
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| Beautiful water. |
A picture of our ship from the island…
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| This is one of the little boats that would take you back and forth. |
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| When we do go on a cruise again I will remember to book the excursion of “luxury cabana” FO SHO. |
The little boat made me sick. Very ill.
So, this is the view from Mike behind the camera as we traveled back to the ship.
I was below deck about to vomit.
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| Coco Cay’s island |
That evening was our formal dinner.
This was our captain.
They had an evening parade of all the ship’s employees and the flag representing their native country.
Really neat to see there were so many people with us from all over the world.
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| The boys from the US represented us well by dancing to the “Cotton Eyed Joe” |
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| And we waited in a line to get our photo on the staircase! |
This was our favorite bartender, Ariel, otherwise known as ARod.
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| One of the lounges that had karaoke every night. Unfortunately I never got to sing…. |
They had a very cute and super cheesy “Honeymooners Meeting” so we could meet all the others on the ship that were also on their honeymoon.
They took our picture with a cake and we danced to some Michael Bolton song.
They also did a raffle for some champagne and we ate some of the cake.
Kind of cute.
Dinner that evening was duck for the man and some sort of red meat for me.
I can’t remember…
We also saw a comedy show that night.
The guy was super hilarious and very wrong.
There is always something to do on a cruise ship.
We also met back up with ARod and the other bartender at the bar we liked, Myra, to have a night cap.
The day we were in Nassau, Bahamas and decided to do the “See and Sea” Tour for our excursion choice. We would have loved to try Atlantis….but it was so freaking expensive. Definitely next time now that we know the price!
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| This was our Sea guide. He reminded me of a Jamaican Flava Flav. |
One of the pictures is Oprah’s house.
Every picture of a house is someone famous but I really can’t remember who.
Oprah has 2 houses in Nassau.
Who the hell needs two houses in Nassau?
Apparently Oprah does…
One house belonged to a prince with 7 wives.
Another house belonged to the owner of Heineken.
In the Bahamas the beer everyone drinks is called “Kalik”
We took a boat out to another boat where we climbed under for the “Sea” part of the tour.
This boat took us out to the coral reefs so we could see all kinds of sea life.
Very cool!
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| The Jamaican Flava Flav took our pic. |
Here’s a little bit of useless knowledge for you that we learned…
This is Atlantis.
That bridge thing was built way back and is now known as the Michael Jackson suite because that is where he always stayed.
Now you can stay in it for $25,000 a NIGHT with a minimum 4 NIGHT STAY!
Say whaaaaat???
And the kicker…..it’s booked for the next 5 years.
Who in their right mind would spend $100,000 to stay there? It can’t be that wonderful. I mean, come ON!
Then we traveled in a smelly van with half of our group with a crazy Bahamian driver around the city of Nassau. Now, don’t get me wrong I am totally glad he was driving and I wasn’t but there is a dang reason why every car in that city has a dent in it. Smallest streets ever + worst drivers = terribly damaged vehicles.
Another tidbit of random knowledge for you…..the top 2 industries for the Bahamas are tourism and banking. There are banks in every other shop there. Now that I have seen the place I think it is the last joint I would keep all my money. It’s obvious why people do….tax free….but I’m not sure I would spend more than some daylight on that island.
We saw the governor’s house, the straw market, the Queen’s staircase, the Bay St. (no…I didn’t get any diamonds)
Despite being offered peanuts (code word for drugs) and the mass amounts of children or people without shoots and little kids smoking cigarettes…the island is truly beautiful.
It’s certainly a different culture and a different way of life.
Thank goodness it takes all kinds to make up this world.
After our official tour we decided to branch off and head to this “fish market” everyone kept talking about. We knew it wasn’t safe to travel alone, but there were two other ladies in our group who were interested in going as well. We figured it would be okay if we traveled together.
We found a taxi driver who took us to the fish market. It was just loads of restaurants with conch and all kinds of fresh fish. Smelled delicious. We ate at Curly’s.
I tried conch. Figured I had to because the cab driver kept talking about it. Too chewy,. I also ate some fried shrimp and got the grouper sandwich. The grouper was heavenly.
The place was a little sketchy….especially since this area was clearly a natives hangout.
We ate our lunch and headed back to a location a little closer to the port,.
Before we loaded the ship we shopped around for a while at the straw market and other little shops. Found the Harley store where you can buy a shirt that says the Bahamas for $50 just because they can do that. The straw market was definitely overwhelming. Every person in there hounding you to buy their goods saying “Oh pretty little girl you need this….and that….”
It was so flippin hot this day we eventually headed back to the ship.
The alcohol was free and so was the food on the ship.
We needed some air conditioning!
We came back to this cute little guy….
We found a bar that had random trivia.
We sucked at the trivia and quit early.
Got ready for dinner that evening.
Delicious french onion soup for me and lamb for my guy.
We gambled very late that night.
They took my money….if only I knew when to quit.
The next morning we had the breakfast buffet. It was so delicious.
We grabbed our swimsuits then found the adult only pool…the Solarium.
Laid there for most of the day (our day at sea) and read.
We highly recommend that you never take a cruise without the 18+ pool.
It was so nice to swim, eat, and drink all day. I even slept for a while.
Then, we showered and purchased the pictures we wanted and shopped a little bit.
Gambled some more…
Arranged for our rental car the next day and changed our flights to get home a little earlier.
While on the computer there was an announcement that they were going to check out this “unidentifiable floating object”. I freaked a bit.
What if it was terrorists? Or pirates? Why were heading towards this thing?
It was only a bumper.
Panicked for no reason. Imagine that.
Saw a show that evening in their large theater and it had all kinds of bits from famous musicals including Hairspray and West Side Story. It was fun to sing along.
Best steak ever for dinner at the Chops Grille. We had lobster and dessert too
Again, heavenly.
Then, we decided to check out the “Quest” game show. If you ever take a quiz, we highly recommend it. It was a lot of fun. It involved both of us taking off some clothing at some point. A piece of mine was even held up by the cruise director., Loads of laughter.
Mike got up the next morning at sunrise for more pictures.
We were already back at port very early.
Quickly got off the ship and customs was seriously a joke. A few random questions and we were back in the USA kind of freaked by how easily it was to get back.
We rented a car then headed to the Kennedy Space Center. It was crazy packed so we ended up at the Orlando mall instead. Walked around shopped and killed some time. Ate at the Hooters for lunch and then sat in the airport for hours waiting for our flight.
My dad and Sandy were super sweet to pick us up late from the airport. Our flight was all screwy.
And they were even waiting to take our picture when we got home.,
It was so good to see both of them….and of course to be home.
It was a honeymoon I will never forget!
Can’t wait to go cruising again…
Full Pull Fortune 