It all started way back in July when Jennifer and Brett were hanging out with us on Garage Sale Day. Jennifer mentioned that after the SWE conference, her and Brett were thinking about taking a cruise to the Bahamas. Since they'd already be in Orlando, they could just leave right out of Cape Canaveral. Well la-de-da, I thought. About an hour after she said that, I inquired as to how much this cruise was going to set them back.
Less than $300 a person for 5 days, 4 nights.
"WE'RE IN!" I said (I guess I just sort of invited myself along, eh?).
From there, I started thinking that BOTH of my parents turned 60 this year. Wouldn't a trip to the Bahamas be a nice birthday present? Matt and I chatted about it. Called my mom to see if she was interested... and within a week, tickets were purchased, we were going on a CRUISE TO THE BAHAMAS!!!
After the busy, busy SWE conference (about 10 posts back now... I'm almost caught up, I swear it...) and a super fun day at Universal Studios, we met my folks at the Orlando airport. About an hour or so later, we were all the way over on the east coast and headed toward the ship.
We all settled into our rooms, got a cold drink, and headed up on the deck of the Monarch of the Seas (weird story, my very first cruise was on this very same ship! Crazy!).
It was pretty windy out on deck, but the fam had to see the ship leaving port. A few shots as we left Florida:
(Yes, we have this thing about pointing in photos - "Look excited and point!" Those are your instructions before we click the photo....)
I mentioned it was windy? Just check out Grandma C's hair - windy, windy, windy!
I gave up and tried to get the camera away from Matt...
Day 1 was spent on Royal Caribbean's very own island, Coco Cay. We took a little ferry boat from the cruise ship to the island:
Greenie photo:
Grandpa C doing what he does best, relaxing!
Grandma C smiling pretty:
View from the ferry boat back to our ship:
Once on the island, Mom and I visited a few of the local gift shops/shacks. Mom needed a big floppy hat and I needed a visor to keep the sun off my face. Matt, Dad, and Carter headed for the beach. Apparently all Carter needed was a twig to be happy:
We walked around the island a bit and crossed over this little waterway:
Here's Matt and Carter a few minutes before we went swimming:
Water was a little chilly, but once you were all-in, it wasn't so bad. Carter had BLAST splashing water all over Grandpa. I had fun spitting out salt water while I was holding Carter and getting splashed by Grandpa...Few more shots of the island:
We ate lunch at this little picnic table in the shade. Chose this photo because if you look right next to our table there are a couple of chickens. Carter thought they were oh-so-much-fun!
We then took the ferry boat back to the big ship:
Few shots as we left the bay:
A mermaid!
The Coco Cay welcome sign:
The Greenie boys then settled in for a little nap. I thought when I picked our cabin, I requested that the beds be pushed together. Come to find out, I didn't... Worked out perfectly, as Carter's pack-and-play fit right between us (which sorta drove us crazy, because if Carter got up before us, he usually would whack us right in the face trying to find us...Those interior rooms were PITCH BLACK and we slept like babies all through the night!)
While the boys slept, I walked around the ship and snapped a few photos. Here's the upper deck with the pools (which, I never realized this, were salt water! I always thought they had "regular" pool water...). On our last day (the "Fun Day at Sea"), Dad and I sat by the pool and drank down a bucket of Corona. Not a bad gig, that's for sure :)
View from the top, top deck looking back at Coco Cay:
The sun was starting to set - I love photos like this!
On the back of the ship was a rock climbing wall. Seriously? Who does rock climbing while on a cruise?!
The round upper deck thingy in the next shot was a bar that we hung out at one night. The floor was all weird and bouncy, but it was really fun drinking beer with my folks and Jennifer and Brett and enjoying the night sky!
And speaking of Jennifer and Brett... Here they are roughing it in the sun (note the cool drinks in hand...):
Finally, that sun set, here's a shot of me with Carter in a beautiful Caribbean sunset:
All of our dinners were of the formal, 4-course type (appetizer, soup/salad, main, and dessert). The waiter was nice enough to bring Carter a fruit bowl (in a "silver chalice" as we called it) to keep him occupied while the adults dined. Apparently, Carter had a different idea for how to behave at dinner. He picked up some BAD habits from somewhere, including chalice throwing, spoon throwing, and especially, bread/roll throwing. As his parent, it was quite embarrassing... The grandparents and Jennifer and Brett learned to be quick on their toes and to dodge flying utensils/food every night (apologies for that...again...). He'd never thrown things like this before at home or school, so who knows where he learned these tricks?!
Anyway, let me keep on. Here's a shot of Jennifer and Brett all gussied up for dinner:
Mom and Dad:
Best part of the dinners? 3 appetizers apiece. 3 desserts each. That's right, we ate a ton and as much as we wanted. Diet, schmiet! The Greenies, content:
The next day we docked in Nassau. Mom, Carter, and I took off to do some shopping in the local shops. Dad and Matt rented scooters and cruised around the island. Apparently the scooters were held together with duct-tape and zip-ties, but they ran ok. Both Matt and Dad said it was one of the most thrilling and scary adventures they'd ever had. Driving on the "wrong" side of the road on an island you'd never been to on a scooter that was going to fall to pieces any second... I don't see anything scary about that!?! So the photos that follow were taken by Matt during their adventures...Our ship, docked by 2 others (third is out of the photo frame, just trust me):
The coast:
A dead fish (?):
Dad - pointing at the dead fish (? I guess I don't see the attraction...???):
More pretty blue water pictures:
Apparently this gazebo was the most rickety gazebo either of them had ever seen. So, of course, they took a photo of it:
I love this next one with the sun sparkling off the water:
And one last beachy pic from Nassau:
And a few more dinner shots. Since we spent so much time eating, it's only fair that we balance the number of pretty blue water photos with meal photos, eh? Matt had an all-the-soda-you-can-drink pass, so he drank more Diet Coke than humanly possible - look, it's made his eyes bug out (I kid, I kid):
Awww, a cuddly shot of the grandparents:
Aww, three generations in one photo:
And finally, a parting shot of the crystal clear blue water:
Can I go back now?Hope you enjoyed the fun tales of the Greenies in the Bahamas! Thanks again to Jennifer and Brett for letting us tag along! And Happy Birthday again to my parents!
~kerrie
PS For the record - if you're considering taking a toddler on a cruise, I'd suggest waiting until your child is at least 4. We spent a LOT of time "dealing" with a crazy toddler and not as much time "relaxing" as we had hoped. Oh well, it was so worth it and we have memories to last us a lifetime!
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