That first night we experienced the dining room for the first time and met our servers, Erhan and Trady. Not really sure what to order Erhan recommended some meals for us, and they were fabulous. We decided from that moment on to trust the guy. When we would order something that he didn't think we'd like, he'd tell us honestly, and recommend something else. He never failed us. Even when Jeremy thought about ordering a cheese plate for dessert, Erhan told him it was "weak" and to definitely try the sampler plate instead. He brought out the cheese plate later and boy were we glad we listened to him. He was a lot of fun to talk with each night too. He was from Turkey and just incredibly friendly. After dinner we went to our first show. We arrived in the auditorium a little early and spent the time watching music videos from the early 90's. That was entertainment in and of itself. When the comedy show finally started were glad we waited. I was laughing so hard my cheeks hurt. The show didn't last very long, which was fine because there was still more entertainment that night. We went up to the pool deck and watched "McFarland" poolside. Talk about relaxing. The stars were sparkling above us, the boat was just gently swaying, there was a light breeze, and I was there with my husband and friends. Amazing night.
The next day Jeremy and I woke up...late...but decided to go for a run up on the deck anyway. Well, that wasn't happening. It was pouring rain and the deck was super slippery so we went to the gym instead. I think I spent more time talking with the other passengers than working out, but I suppose it was better than nothing. After we got dressed we met up with Kristen and Derek to hang out while we waited for our ship to make port in Nassau. Since it was raining we couldn't spend much time up on deck, so instead we picked up some playing cards and found a quiet table to play pinochle and Shanghai. That morning reminded me so much of the hours spent on the houseboat. We had nowhere to go except where we were. We munched on yummy snacks and just played cards. Jeremy commented that he's almost never seen me more relaxed, and I really was.
We were supposed to go on an excursion around noon to a great beach. When we found our excursion crew they warned us that the weather might not cooperate, but we'd try it anyway. We hopped aboard our little boat but only made it five minutes out of the harbor before we had to turn around, it was just too rainy.
Not to be stopped from our beach day we wandered through Nassau until we found Junkanoo beach. We stayed only long enough to realize that it was filled with junk and we weren't swimming in that water. Our next plan was to wander through town a bit and find a way to get to Paradise Island. Atlantis supposedly had some fabulous beaches and that was our new destination. We took a water taxi out to the island, tipped our "guide" for all of the celebrity gossip he shared about the island, and wandered off into the city. We walked for a long time and with each step we grew a little more skeptical about ever finding a beach. Finally we found one that was worth swimming in. The rain finally stopped and we had about two and a half hours to enjoy the beach. Jeremy and I had taken our goggles and we swam a little in the waves just enjoying our freedom. I never thought my husband would actually swim "laps" with me in the ocean, and I admit I was really happy to have him there. Since there was no sun to speak of I was a little chilly and decided to lounge in the sand for awhile while Jeremy floated in the waves looking for seashells for the girls.
Too soon it was time to get back to the boat. But this time we weren't fools, we found a taxi that took us right to the port, no more walking for us! Kristen's wish was to have her passport stamped. When we walked though security she asked about that and learned that we needed to take our passports to the small building next door. Well, our formal dinner was coming up in about an hour and we were leaving the port soon too. All four of us ran back to our rooms, grabbed our passports, and ran down the docks to get them stamped. I'm glad she's just a touch crazy because I was happy to have that stamp too.
That night was formal night on the ship. I blow dried my hair for the only time on the entire vacation and put on my little cocktail dress that I've only been able to wear one other time, and met my handsome husband for dinner. We were absolutely starving. We hadn't had anything to eat since lunch and went through three bread baskets waiting for our meals. We were finally fed, full, and happy and walked around a bit wondering if we should have the ship photographer take our picture. We decided against the bill and took our own. The ship's photographer couldn't have captured all of this personality at all!
We ditched our ball gowns for our swimming suits and went to find a hot tub to hang out in. We chatted with some of the other passengers and I found myself reliving my days as a swimmer, one of the girls was just getting ready to head to college to swim. She made me really miss it. Once we were feeling thoroughly cooked we started walking back to our rooms only to find that we had walked into a huge deck party. There was music blasting, a buffet line with tons of food, and people everywhere. We piled our plates up high and found a ping pong table in the corner. We had a hard time playing really competitively because of the slope of the ship, but that didn't stop the boys from goofing off. Jeremy hit one serve so hard that it sprung up through a crack in the ceiling. The ceiling was made of canvas that had been stretched across the playing area, so we were able to push it enough to cause the ball to pop out. I still think we were pretty lucky to get that ball back. When we were wrapping up a nine-year-old kid came and asked to play with us. He had no idea what he was doing and trying to keep score on a make believe game was surprisingly hard. I think we played five rounds with the kid before finding a way to excuse ourselves. It was 12:30 and I was exhausted!
Our excursion the next day started early. After staying up late so many days in a row I was beginning to feel a little groggy but I was determined to do everything anyway. I was so happy to walk outside that morning and see sunshine! I was finally able to enjoy the crystal blue Caribbean waters I've dreamed about and feel the sunshine warming me up from the inside. We docked at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean private island. I want a private Caribbean island!
We were scheduled for a kayak tour first thing and as we walked to the other side of the island to get our kayaks I loved how peaceful the island was and how much color there was everywhere. The kayaking trip was awesome! The water was super shallow for about five miles from the shore so we could see everything. We saw starfish, stingrays, sharks, conch, and lots of fish. I really didn't want to return the kayaks because of how awesome it was. The only reason I didn't mind returning the kayak was because we had access to some snorkel gear and I wanted to see all of those ocean animals from in the water.
We decided to take our snorkeling equipment back to the other side of the island where it was a little bit quieter to see if we could find those sharks we had seen earlier. It took us awhile to find a premier viewing spot and we kicked for a long time over the sea grass not really seeing much. We found a sea cucumber, a sea urchin, and a jellyfish but we were going for big game! Finally we worked our way to the kayaking spot and immediately found the stingrays we were looking for. Some of them were nice and let us follow them for a bit, while some of them took off as fast as they could. Our adventures weren't without their set backs though. Kristen was stung by a jellyfish on her leg, and Jeremy was stung a couple times by something else. I wasn't eager to swim back over that sea grass again so we walked back to the ship. It was a pretty amazing day on a Caribbean island, I was just disappointed we only had one day of sunshine to enjoy.
Back at the ship we ate with Erhan one last time then went to the Broadway show in the theater. We were all so worn out we had a hard time staying awake through the whole production. The irony is that once it was done none of us wanted to go to bed since it was our last night on board. We pulled out the playing cards again and settled down with our last daiquiris of the trip. We played until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I didn't want the trip to end, but I guess that has to happen to all fun times.
The next morning the whole ship was up early to prepare for disembarkment. We had one last excursion planned and met a shuttle getting off the bus to take us there. We shared the shuttle with the passengers who were going to tour the Kennedy Space Center. We all wanted to stop and visit there but decided to wait until we could take our kids. After we dropped off the space tourist we went to our airboat tour. The airboat was pretty much how I pictured it to be, but we had sweet headphones to wear so we could talk above the noise. As our captain took us out on the St. James' river we saw so many alligators. They were in the water, warming on the bank, and crawling down the bank to get away from us. One alligator misjudged our speed and I'm pretty sure we ran over the guy. Luckily there's nothing on the bottom of the boats that will harm them, but I still think he had a nice headache after we passed by. Back at the dock we were able to hold some young alligators. They were each about three years old, and I was shocked by how soft their skin was! I couldn't stop petting them...it was a little ridiculous.
Our last night of adventure before we headed home to reality was a Blue Man Group concert. We had third row seats and fully anticipated getting splashed by something. We came prepared with our own rain ponchos but ultimately didn't need them as the venue provided them for us. It was a little ominous seeing everyone on the first four rows covered in plastic. I had no idea what to expect, but the show was fabulous. There was a lot more humor in it than I thought there would be. They also really involved the audience. Even before the performance started they had the audience chanting, cheering, and making noise. They came out into the audience at least four times and kept choosing volunteers. For one of their main acts they chose a woman who was obviously terrified to be up on stage. I didn't think she'd even make it down the aisle without collapsing from stage fright. To my surprise the lady was a hoot! She really stepped up to her role and did a great job until she had fake vomit shooting out of her vest. She almost lost it. And I am slightly disgusted to say that was what we were hit with the most. Not the pretty paint, but the vomit. Ew! I preferred the giant white balls falling from the ceiling and the toilet paper attack.
The rest of that night and the next morning is a bit of a blur. I know a cruise is supposed to be relaxing but I feel like it's going to take a long time to recover. Jeremy and I were both totally exhausted. But at least we were exhausted from a good time.
