A Cruise

Last week, Bill and I took a vacation. I know it seems like we've been on vacation a lot lately, but I really needed to get away. And, this vacation helped me cross off another one of my Birthday Goals. In fact, I crossed off Number 1. That's right, we took a cruise. I love cruises and now that we are closer to the Caribbean, I knew it would be easier (and cheaper) to cruise more often. We got a good deal on a last-minute cruise and we got a good price on tickets to Miami. So, taking advantage of 2 work holidays last week, we departed on a 4-day cruise!

We took a Bahamas cruise but our goal this time was to spend less money. The last cruise we took was for our honeymoon and we went all out. We took extravagant (and super exciting) excursions at each stop and we bought a lot of souvenirs. This time, we wanted to take the cruise and save money by enjoying all the free/inclusive items. We decided not to take any excursions, except one...we wanted to go snorkeling. It was the cheapest excursion available and it was basically just the snorkeling equipment and a ride to the beach. We scheduled this trip for the last day of our cruise, when the ship was going to stop at a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines. We planned to spend the day at the beach and relax and snorkel all day long.

Because of that plan, we didn't even get off the ship at the first stop. We arrived in Freeport, Bahamas and we just relaxed on the ship. We slept in, ate a wonderful breakfast, sat by the pool, attended the various events on board, and basically relaxed. It was really nice. At our second stop, Nassau, Bahamas, we ventured off the boat for about one hour to do some shopping. (We just had to buy some souvenirs and gifts for our family and friends!) We walked around the town and made our purchases and then returned to the ship for more free food and fun!!!

The third day, we got up a little earlier (but not too early because we were on vacation) and got ready for our day at the beach. While we were still sleeping, the captain made an announcement that I couldn't really hear because I was sleeping...but I didn't really think anything of it. We were both very excited to spend the day at the beach and swim/snorkel in the beautiful ocean. We got our stuff together and headed for the breakfast buffet - which was delicious. We noticed that there were a lot more people out by the pool (which is odd when they could be at the beach) but we didn't think too much about it. After breakfast, we headed down to get on the tender. Now, if you don't know how this works, I better explain it. Sometimes, a cruise ship parks at the port and you walk right off the boat on to dry land. Other times, if there isn't a port or its not deep enough, the boat anchors offshore and they shuttle you to/from dry land in little boats called "tenders". We were ready for our ride on the tender but we got down to the departure point and all the doors were closed. We were confused and wandered around for a few minutes before going up to the reception desk to ask how to get off the boat.

At that point, it all clicked: the announcement the captain made, the fact that they revised the schedule of events for the day, all the people out by the pool, and the fact that the water seemed to be moving quickly (considering we were anchored, or so we thought). Yup, that's right, we were still moving. Apparently, the announcement the captain made was more important than we thought because what he had to say was that the weather and water was too rough for the tender boats so we weren't going to stop. Nope, we were just going to continue sailing around aimlessly on our way back to Miami the next day. Which meant that everyone had to STAY on the boat. It also meant no snorkeling or relaxing on the beach for us. It also meant that we went all the way to the Bahamas for 3 days and we never once saw or touched the sand and we never went swimming in the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean ocean. I was angry! I was upset that we were going to miss the only experience we really wanted in the Bahamas! I was also upset that they saved the private island until the last day. If we had one more day in port, after the private island day, then we could have paid a little extra to spend the day at the beach to make up for the disappointment.

But, we had fun anyway. I was disappointed and a little upset, but the cruise staff tried really hard to make our time "at sea" fun. We attended all the trivia sessions and even won a few prizes. We ate as much delicious (free) food as we could and then some. We relaxed on deck and in the hot tub. In the end, we had a wonderful cruise. I think we'll have to go back to the Bahamas some day so we can enjoy the sandy beaches, but we certainly enjoyed our vacation. Here are a few pictures as proof!

our ship - the Norwegian Sky

our room - with a cute towel animal
proof that we really visited the Bahamas!

Bill looking cool and having fun on deck

we even attended a demonstration for folding towel animals

just one of the delicious desserts we enjoyed

the sunsets were spectacular

I can now cross off the first item on my list of Birthday Goals (and I will use a Sharpie to cross it off!).