Bahamas Cruise: The Bad...Weather :(

The next morning I was woken up with the boat really moving. Oh no! Was my first thought.
I knew what was coming but I didn't really want to accept my fate until the captain came on over the intercom system and told me he hated me personally and wanted to make me miserable for the next whole day. I'm pretty sure he actually said my name.

Ok, he didn't say that, but he did say that the wind was too strong and that made it too dangerous to use the tender boats to get to the private island. Therefore, we would be spending the......DAY AT SEA.      

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I cried.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was. Oh boy and was that a windy day at sea. The boat was rocking, we went to the bow of the boat and you literally had to pull yourself along with the railing the wind was so strong.

After breakfast I went back to bed and slept and slept. Now I was wishing I was on a different boat because ours just wasn't very equipped for a day at sea. They did show the movie "Gravity" in the theater but I had already seen it. There just wasn't a whole lot to do. Especially now that everyone was on the ship.

Here is a picture of the middle of our ship.

Shane slept the whole afternoon while I spent the day in my swimming suit lounging by the very crowded pool with everyone else.
 

The entire day was incredibly rocky. I can't believe I didn't see anyone who was sea sick. I can't believe I didn't get sick. But it didn't bother me too much. You just couldn't walk a straight line to save your life.

That night dinner was very good but I don't remember what it was called. It was some kind of beef strips with mashed potatoes. We also had asparagus with every meal. I love it, but it must have been in season or something.

I spent some more time out in the sun on the deck that evening. I have to admit, it's very relaxing.

We could see Miami as we headed past on our way to Key West. I kept wishing we could just go dock for the night and stop the rocking.

The sunset was beautiful though. The only pictures we took that day. :(

Since we had missed our day to play in the ocean, and we had come so far and hadn't even touched the water yet, I booked a snorkel excursion at the only coral reef in the United States with a catamaran ride for when we were at Key West. It kind of put a kink in our plans for the day but I was determined. And it made me just slightly less grouchy about our day at sea. Shane didn't want to do it because snorkeling doesn't work with glasses and he can't see without them. So it kind of defeats the point.

So, Thursday morning we awoke and got ready for the day. We had to get in line to go through immigration now that we were back in the states but luckily I had booked an excursion so that gave us priority. 

We had an hour and a half to explore Key West before I needed to be back at the dock to catch the catamaran, so we were rushing. 

We walked down to the southern most point in the U. passing a lighthouse and the Hemingway House on the way.

There was this crazy looking tree along the way.

Key West has chickens everywhere. It's against the law to harass or kill them so they are just....everywhere. They deport chickens by the thousands every year. It's crazy.
 

After that, we headed back down Duval Street, decided not to have a cheeseburger in paradise and had some yummy key lime pie at the key lime pie factory.

I bought myself some new flip flops.
 

We also found some star fish for the kids (their only request) and then headed back to the dock.
 

I found the lady holding the sign for my excursion and was so excited to finally get in the ocean. Only she told me it was cancelled. Still too windy and the visibility at the reef was really poor. 

I could have punched her. I knew it wasn't her fault, I just hated that the weather could have such an effect on my plans.
 

I had had it! I marched Shane and I to a bike rental place and rented us two bikes and I told Shane we were going to find a beach whether he wanted to or not.
 

We did find one. It was about 15' of public beach sandwiched between two private beaches.

I hopped in the water and tried to enjoy it. The water was warm but the sand in the Keys is really coarse and covered in nasty seaweed. It was windy, but at this point I didn't care.
 

We rode our bikes around Key West some more which I really liked. We saw a random iguana and we were able to see just about anything we would want to see with very little effort . Even better, we didn't have to fight for parking spots. We found another tiny beach next to a boat ramp where we stopped for a few more minutes.

Sorry, I had to.
 

We returned our bikes and headed back to the ship for dinner and we were off, back to Miami.
 

It was another rocky evening at sea.
 

The next morning we were back in Miami bright and early. We took our time getting off the ship and we took more pictures of the empty ship, then we were officially done with our cruise.

The pool deck:

The rock climbing wall (couldn't play on it because of my foot):

The theater:

We shot a couple hoops before getting off:

We waited a good chunk of time in the 50 degree Miami Airport for our flight home. I was glad I had decided to wear my jeans and sweater. I put on my jacket and was still cold. Why? Why are airports always so cold????

 

We finally made it home to our sleeping family.
 

Get this, I never needed any motion sickness medicine even with the really rough seas. Until....we got home! Man, everything was spinning and rocking! After two days it was making me sick so I took some Dramamine. It helped. Three weeks later I have a little vertigo now and then, especially if it's noisy. Good grief! 

Even with the really disappointing parts, I am so glad we went. It was a true vacation (something I feel like us moms don't get much) and it felt SO good. Will I go on a cruise again? I can't say. But not any time soon. It was so nice to not have to worry about all the details of our vacation like where we would eat, where we would stay, what we would do every day.  And spending time with just Shane was so nice too.

I think a cruise would make a really fun "girls only" trip or something like that. With my luck with weather and boats... I might just stick to dry land. Remember last spring break where we drove 700 miles south for it to be colder than it was at home? ARGH!!!! Maybe I need to plan a trip north over spring break  next year. It might just throw Mother Nature off a bit.  Sigh.

Bahamas Cruise: The Good

So, last fall, I was toying with the idea of going on a cruise. Just Shane and I.  His parents are in Utah for their mission and had a few weeks off in the spring so I jumped on that opportunity faster than fast. We were also considering an all inclusive resort in Mexico or a trip to Hawaii, but some how or another, cruise was the winner. Hawaii is just so pricey and Shane has no interest (crazy!). And Mexico has never sounded all that great to me. So I guess that is why.

In November the price of airline tickets finally went down to a reasonable price and after a bit of research we found a cruise that fit our dates and preference, so we booked it.  Even though I do not like boats, I was really excited. 

If you are a regular to my blog you probably know how much I detest the cold. The promise of this cruise got me through winter with flying colors. Granted, it wasn't a very cold winter but just knowing that I was going to be somewhere warm in April... It was all I needed.

So you can imagine how I felt when Ezra broke his leg two weeks before our cruise. We had purchased travel insurance, but finding the perfect time to go later when there was someone to watch the kids seemed difficult and unlikely. And if there was ever a time when I felt like running away, it was now. 

So, after we got the good news at Ezra's appointment and Shane's parents hadn't run away screaming (bless their hearts), I packed our bags and made Shane drive us to the airport. 

Was I worried? Sure, but to be honest, I was equally as worried about leaving them when all limbs were in tact. Especially since before the accident, they had talked about going up to the camp to sled/4-wheel while we were away. I honestly imagined something like what happened to Ezra happening while we were away and that would have been worse. I was just as worried about something happening to Shane and I too. Deep down, I knew it would all be fine. And it was.

So, anyway, we had a red eye flight to Atlanta where we were packed into a plane like sardines. I have never been in such a tight flight. My knees were touching the seat in front of me when I was sitting up as straight as I could. I tried my best to sleep but it just wasn't happening, so I checked the guy in front of me for lice (not really) and enjoyed my tea and crumpets (aka ginger ale and biscotti). 

After a little layover in Atlanta we made it down to Miami in the roomiest flight I think I've ever been on. We had the exit row and I sprawled out and slept like a champ!... for all 40 minutes.

Once we got to Miami, we had a day to play before we boarded our ship so we rented a car and headed for the Keys. Oh Florida Keys! They haunt me so. I needed to go there, so I'm glad we did. But it's just such a strange place.

There is just this two lane highway and so much traffic, it takes forever to get to anything interesting and the upper keys are just so junky unless you get onto a nice private club or beach... then it's nice. (I think I've mentioned that before)

We were stuck behind this lovely for quite a while. The front wheel, I swear, was going to fall off.

We did make it to my old digs at the Boy Scout camp. It sure had changed a lot. I didn't want to see much other than the grounds.  We went out on the dock and were able to see two dolphin just playing in the water right next to us. It was really cool! But they were too fast to get a picture of them.

The dolphin were there.... I promise!
 

We drove a little further to some of the bridges that really begin after lower Matecumbe Key where the camp is.
 

The wind was strong which was great because when the wind dies down in May, everything stinks and the water isn't nearly as pretty... It was a gorgeous green!
 

We didn't drive far before heading back north because we didn't want to get stuck in weekend traffic from Key West. Next we headed for Miami Beach.
 

We were able to see some of the ships in port which included Norwegian's Epic. Epic is the third largest cruise ship in the world. I didn't take a picture though. (To say I was a picture taking failure on this trip is a big understatement. Thus, lots of words)

I was excited to get to the beach. I love the beach! Especially when it's warm and it was so warm. Only the closer we got to the beach the more we realized that Miami Beach on a Sunday afternoon during spring break was not a great idea.
 

We looked for parking for...ever. There was nothing. And crazy drivers were abundant. We decided to get out of there before we ended up with a dent in our rental car. I was disappointed but ok because I knew I would have more opportunities to play on the beach soon enough.
 

At this point I was exhausted. We were toying with the idea of going to the Everglades. But we decided to go check into our hotel first. The biggest problem there is that the hotel room had a bed and it was calling my name. 

We decided to skip the Everglades which I think we are both regretting a little, but my stars we were tired. That red eye flight mixed with two weeks of sleeping on the living room floor next to Ezra was killing me. So we watched trashy cable T.V., ate a late dinner at IHOP and called it a night.

The next morning we returned the car and got a ride to the port from the rental car company. Renting the car turned out great, we were able to see things on our own and it cost only a little more than a taxi to the port and back would have been. 

We were one of the first people to get on our ship. It was nice to explore before there were a lot of people there.
 

The ship we were on was the Majesty of the Seas with Royal Caribbean. This is one of the oldest and smallest cruise ships out there. We picked it for a few reasons, despite being old and small, it had a lot of good reviews and was renovated not too long ago. Also, since we were leaving our kids in the dust I wasn't wanting to surround myself with a ship full of other people's kids so we avoided Disney which is all about families/kids, and Carnival, which was cheaper. And I was right, there were hardly any kids on our ship, but the ones that were there had it made. They had all the kid stuff to themselves.  But most importantly, I picked it because we would be at a port every single day. This was the biggest draw for me. I wasn't there for the boat so much as where the boat was taking me.  It seemed like so many of the choices had at least one day at sea which just sounded awful to me.
 

So anyway, there is a reason why I'm telling you all this, I promise! 

After a quick lunch at the buffet, we were able to go to our stateroom. I really liked our room. It was big and we had a nice big window that I would sit in and watch the waves go by, and it was quiet. I knew we would probably be spending more time in our room than most people would so I was glad that it was so pleasant. Nothing extravagant, but I was prepared for a shoe box and I was pleasantly surprised. A balcony would have been lovely but they were few and far between on our ship so they cost twice as much. We couldn't bring ourselves to pay the extra.

 

Anyway, by late afternoon we were on our way. Shane and I both went and got massages at the spa that were heavenly.
 

We had a nice dinner in the dining room and we headed out to sea. We spent the evening out on the deck just relaxing. It really was so nice to just sit and no one asked me to get them something... not once. I love my kids and I love helping them (most of the time) but WOW... I needed that. I could have slept out there it was so lovely. 

The next morning we arrived at Nassau, Bahamas. I had read not to expect much from this stop but I had no idea.
 

I wanted to go check out Atlantis which is this giant resort just a mile or so from the port. so, we caught a cab and headed over. The only problem was that unless you are a guest you have to pay way too much to get anywhere worth seeing. So, there was a public beach nearby and I was ready with my swimsuit so we started walking to the beach but then it started pouring rain. So we headed back. Argh!

So, that was a bust. We took a taxi back to the port to do some souvenir shopping at the Straw Market while it rained. They have a giant building filled with a bunch of individually run booths that all sell the same 100 things. It was crazy! But we managed to use up all the money we had brought off the boat with us.

We went over to Senior Frogs. Apparently I was good to drink at the age of 9.
 

Then, as we were walking around down town, one of my brand new flip flops broke! I couldn't even keep it on. That would have been fine if we were on some pristine Caribbean beach, but we were walking down some pretty nasty dirty roads. I was a little grouchy.

So we headed back to the ship to eat and get some shoes and some more money for a few more fun things to bring home to the kids. The rain had stopped and now it was a billion degrees outside but I didn't mind.

So, Nassau wasn't anything too special but I wasn't disappointed because I wasn't expecting much out of it. I was a little bummed about missing out on the beach...again. But ok with it because the next day was our day on the private island. If I had a do over, I would have spent some money on a shore excursion that takes you to Paradise Bay from Nassau. They have all the beachy stuff and you can  pay to swim with dolphins, etc. I just didn't want to spend the money when we were going to the beach the next day.
 

We decided to go swimming on the boat that afternoon because it was so warm. We had the pool and hot tub to ourselves. It was great! I finally got to use one of my four swim suits (yes, four). Shane got a little sun burn (he rarely burns) and I didn't even have a tan line ( I almost always burn) something was out of line in the universe.

That evening we enjoyed watching karaoke. Drunk people are so entertaining. Then they had a few game shows that were interesting too. We watched a few minutes of one of the musical type shows and that was enough. I wouldn't have minded it too much but it was not Shane's thing.
 

I think we had pizza late in the evening every night.
 

Oh and if you think I liked not having to wait on anyone, you have to know how absolutely great it was have all our food prepared for us, and also the fact that I didn't have to make any decisions about dinner at all other than to eat or not to eat. I hate deciding what is for dinner. Hate it!

Well, the next day on the private island was to be the highlight of the cruise for me. Crystal clear warm water, a white sandy beach, some snorkeling, a BBQ, a small hike around the island. It's what I dreamed of all those freezing cold nights in December and January. It really was all I wanted. 

More about that in my next post. This one is dangerously long already.