Until now, we have not cruised out of Miami, this will be our first. We’ll be going on Majesty of the Seas and stopping at Coco Cay, Bahamas and Nassau, Bahamas. We invited a few folks-Carl & Val and Bob & Dionne and kids and our kids for their first cruise, 12 total-to join us for a 3 day weekend birthday cruise, I’m turning 40.
We were supposed to be in Miami for dinner and spend the next morning roaming South Beach. Have I mentioned I don’t care for Delta airlines? Well, this was the last straw for me and Delta Airlines developing a decent relationship. We are supposed to leave Tulsa at 3:30. It’s after 5:00 and they finally start rerouting us. We end up in Atlanta for the night with no luggage and no dinner. This is a less than satisfactory way to start my birthday party!
We finally get to Miami in time to go from the airport to the ship. Ugh! We met this really cute young couple in Tulsa that was doing the exact same trip. We ended up sharing a cab with them to the ship. She was so disappointed, she had bought a cute dress to wear to board the ship and ended up wearing the same clothes to board that she wore the day before.
When we get to the cruise terminal, we spent forever in line behind a group of people. I think it might have been a man with his wife, mother and several extended family members that spoke heavily accented English. Once we get on the ship, there were several of this persuasion on board and, I’m guessing, their customs are different from ours in the US, because they were some of the rudest people I’ve ever met. I don’t really consider myself racist, but this was out of hand! We couldn’t get off the elevator because they were getting on and blocking the doors. I had one of the women take a ladle from my hand at the buffet, while I was using it! I’m sure it’s a cultural thing, but I wasn’t dealing well with it. Hopefully, if I visit their country, I don’t come across as rude to them.
Okay, rant over, for now…we’re on-board, let’s have some fun! We head to the pool deck and see this wonderful little older woman having a great time, all by herself, dancing around in these wild sunglasses! I just want to have that much fun at that age!
The first stop is Royal Caribbean’s private island, Coco Cay. In the last several years, most, if not all, of the cruise lines have developed their own islands in the Bahamas. We’ve read about the island and we are super excited to spend the day here. There were lots of things to do and it was perfect water!
When we get up that first day, it is cloudy and looks like it could just pour down rain. We got on the tender boat. These islands have shallow waters around them and corral so most islands must be tendered to in smaller boats, similar to ferries that only carry people. While we’re getting on the tender it starts to rain a little harder. We get to the island, get off the tender and it stops raining. Great! Carl has researched and said we should go to the far end of the island, a short walk, and it will be less crowded. So we start to walk, it starts raining, we duck inside a beverage stand, it stops, we walk some more, it starts raining again…you get the point. We duck in another beverage stand and it just begins to pour down rain, thundering and lightening. Doesn’t really look like it’s going to let up this time. Next thing we know, a big crash of lightening and our daughter and son get zapped! They were leaning against a cooler in a beverage shelter and get a jolt. Lightening had struck the island! WOW! The crew starts clearing the island and we’re herded back to the tender boats.
While we’re in the shelter, in line for the tender, lightening strikes and thunder claps loudly. We’re from Oklahoma, it’s nothing to us, we have storms like that all the time. I guess wherever these other folks are from, it’s not the case. There was a boy about 14 years old, maybe, that actually screamed and broke into loud wailing. The women were right behind him, crying loudly and getting out of control. This is nuts, it’s just rain, people! They push and shove their way onto the tender. It’s a rough ride back to the ship, but not a long one, thankfully.
Since we’re back on the ship, we head to Johnny Rockets, the hamburger place and get burgers (bunless for me) and shakes. The Captain decides we are going to leave and go to Nassau early, since we didn’t get to stay on the island. We’ve never gotten to spend the night in a port before, this will be interesting.
We arrive in Nassau right about 6:00. We eat our dinner in the MDR (Main Dining Room) and disembark afterward to see the sites. Carl and Val have been here before and stayed at Atlantis, so Carl gets us a cab and we go to Atlantis. If you pay for the excursion to Atlantis for the day through the ship, it’s about $150 per person and we weren’t interested in spending $750.00 for the five of us (daughter, son and soon to be son-in-law.) We get there and find that it’s open and we walk through the aquarium, without paying for anything, we really never even saw where to pay and it wasn’t crowded, I think they were about to close. We wandered the grounds, which were very nicely manicured. It was quite nice. However, I would have felt a little ripped off if I’d paid the $750.00! Just when we’re deciding to head back for a cab, it starts raining again…good timing!
When we get back on board, we find out that Russell, our daughter’s boyfriend, has proposed to her. I’m excited. He’s a good guy. I think they’re a little young, but maybe I just don’t want to be old enough to have a son-in-law! We knew he was going to propose on the trip and had helped arrange some of it for him. We were happy for them.
We head to bed to rest up for our excursion the next day. Our room was in the hall that led to the disco…never crossed my mind how loud and busy it would be at night! Needless to say, we didn’t get a whole lot of sleep that night. Note to self for future cruises, look at everything on the deck to see what’s all around and plan accordingly!
The next day we have a private excursion booked with Captain Randy and his first mate, Travis. Randy was not an extremely pleasant guy, we began to refer to him (not to his face) as Captain Cranky Pants. He had a nice boat and took us to a great snorkeling spot, but he was not exactly the life of the party. We had a great time snorkeling. Those of us that snorkeled. You see, Bob & Dionne’s kids had gone to Senior Frog’s the night before and over indulged. They kept the head on Randy’s boat quite busy! The rest of us had a great time!
After our boat ride with Captain Cranky Pants, we took a cab to Paradise Beach. I really think the water in the Bahamas is beautiful, very blue and clear, quite delightful!
I didn’t really think it through, the weekend cruise thing, I thought it would be a fun getaway. What I was forgetting is the logistics of it-getting there, getting on board, disembarking, customs, airports, etc. I don’t think I will ever take a shorter than seven day cruise again. Oh, and I’ll NEVER fly Delta again either.
The Travels and Tales of TLC 