Hey y’all! Happy new year! 2023 was a pretty big travel year, and it’s looking like 2024 may have some of the same. To start off though, I’ll recap my last trip of the year.
My new gig has some silly (annoying) vacation policies, and sometimes annoying vacation policies force you to take vacations! None of my PTO rolls over at the new year, so it was basically use it or lose it. Sean wanted to do a “relaxing” vacation, and I’m not very good at those, so we decided to take a cruise. We’ve been talking about trying a cruise for a while, and it seemed like a good mix of relaxation and activity for the both of us.
We set off for the Caribbean from Orlando, and our flight there included a really gorgeous sunset with a view of Mt. Rainier and a lovely moonrise. It was pretty funny to see the rollercoasters and Ferris wheels lit up as we landed, too.
We were jet lagged and poorly planned for our one full day in Orlando, so we meandered the Universal City Walk, which is basically just an outdoor mall. I just couldn’t stomach the $160 price tag to actually get into the park! I admired from the gates, we ate lots of chocolate, and then we saw Godzilla Minus One (we recommend!) because we got our parking reimbursed if we saw a matinee movie. Pretty silly rule.
We finished our night with some mini margaritas that were way too sweet and some chicken in a pineapple that was just the right amount of sweet but ended up being way too much food. We packed up leftovers and ended up using them as our go-to emergency food on the cruise, hahaha.
The next morning, we packed up and headed to the cruise terminal. We were handed some welcome items by hospitality as we entered our room, but we were shocked to discover they were not standard issue! My mom had ordered chocolate-covered strawberries and a bottle of champagne for us! I didn’t even know you could do that, but she worked for Holland America Line for 14 years, so she knows the ins and outs of the trade! Thanks, Mama!
Our first night on the boat was super rocky. The weather forecast wasn’t awesome, and I was worried we wouldn’t even make it to some of our ports. People were puking in all the public restrooms, and the poor hospitality team was constantly running around with their carpet clean-up kits. Eesh. I witnessed an awkward conversation between a man in my hallway and a hospitality crew member that went something like this:
Man: “Hi, I’m so sorry. I just wanted to tell you that I threw up down that little hallway over there.”
Crew member: “Someone threw up?”
Man: “Yes, I threw up. Just down that hallway over there.”
Crew member: “Oh, you saw someone throw up?”
Man: “No. It was me. I threw up.”
It was equal parts sad and hilarious, hahahahaha.
I didn’t have any nausea issues on my last cruise twelve years ago, but I also didn’t used to get carsick while reading, so I took a Dramamine first thing every day and that seemed to do the trick! Thank goodness. A few times we braved the outdoors for some fun in the wind.
Our first night of dinner was honestly kind of scary because of how much the boat was rocking. We were on the third deck, and at one point, water came up and sloshed on the whole surface of the windows on the port side. Everybody laughed, but I was like, “Is that okay???”
Surprisingly, we were able to port on Day 2 in Nassau, Bahama’s capital. We skipped through the trinket markets and made our way to the colorful buildings in the town.
I was CRACKING UP at this “umbrella street.” You know those cute streets where they string up a bunch of colorful umbrellas and it’s meant to be very picturesque? Well, turns out tropical winds don’t mix well with umbrellas. They were literally hanging in tatters!
Too funny. The puppy thought so, too.
We continued wandering for a while until we found a rum distillery and decided to crash a tour. Not sure if we were allowed to be there or not, but we got free pina colada samples! The tour was also pretty mind-bending for me, because it was here that I learned Nassau was founded nearly 200 years earlier than Seattle.
After our tour, we explored the National Gallery of the Bahamas. I wasn’t super excited about visiting a museum in the Caribbean, but the weather was still pretty crappy, and Sean was the instigator. I’m glad he pushed for it in the end, because it was really beautiful!
We were some of the only ones there, and reading the art descriptions taught us more about the Bahamas and Nassau. I was fascinated to see many pictures of sponge farming and harvesting!
There were also lots and lots of paintings that looked like they were made by a child but had in fact been painted by a 91 year old American man. He wrote “USA Boy” on most of his works, haha. Quite strange.
I was also a big fan of this mythical crustacean woman out front.
There was a darling “art park” surrounding the museum that we explored next. Nearly every tree had a conch shell placed at its trunk – a very fun sight!
We then spent a fair bit of time struggling to find both food and shelter as the rain picked up and our stomachs grumbled.
We made our way to the beach, and just as we sat down at a small beach bar, the rains and winds began whipping again. It was a really on-or-off situation with the weather.
We had some chicken wings, crab cakes, and conch fritters (didn’t know conch was something you could eat!) and some cocktails while the rain whipped under our cover and drenched everything. The bartenders had to sweep the water off the bar using the menus.
We were pretty beat by this point, and the weather wasn’t looking to improve, so we made our way back to the boat a little bit early. (Peep the rainbow!)
Sean made fun of me because I wanted to “touch the water,” but then it attacked me, so I was being uber cautious, haha.
We saw a couple other pretty buildings, and I was bummed to find that the National Library was closed, but I do appreciate the colorful paint!
Dinner on the boat was “Caribbean night,” and there was a fun dance party at 8 o’clock where everybody spun their napkins over their heads and the crew started a conga line. I was also obsessed with the plantain that came with my pork chop.
We spent some time on the deck after dinner and got another beautiful view of the moon.
Day 3 was a Sea Day, and honestly, we struggled to stay occupied! I kept scratching my head, trying to remember why my last cruise was so fun, but then I realized two things:
- I hadn’t traveled at all before my last cruise, so it was comparatively exciting and action-packed.
- Most of my time on the last cruise was just spent hanging out with my sister, doing trivia, and playing ping-pong.
Once Sean and I realized we were not a dynamic trivia duo, we gave up on that boat activity. It was also another rainy day, so it wasn’t super easy to spend time sunbathing or hanging out in the pool. In the early evening, we took a walk around the pool deck and were treated to a rainbow and a beautiful sunset, so that was a nice break from the darkness!
It was Formal Night at dinner, so we got all dressed up, and I made sure to request the same waiters we had on Night 2 – Singgih and Anam. They were just so sweet, and Singgih kept calling us “sweet family,” and he called Sean “King Seen.” It was adorable. We also got placed at a window table next to this scary Vivaldi portrait, so that was a plus.
That night, we saw an ice skating show (a lot of fun!) and the main performer, Bobby Brooks Wilson. He’s singer Jackie Wilson’s son, and he got his start performing with Bruno Mars’ family in Hawaii when Bruno was tiny. What a wild story! He did a bunch of covers and personas, and we had a lot of laughs to some good music.
There was an art gallery set up on the third deck of the boat with rotating pieces throughout the week, and I was obsessed with this artist Godard – I thought all of his stuff was hilarious and whimsical. I mean, look at these lemons!!!
Day 4 was another “beach day,” at Labadee, Haiti, a private beach town owed by Royal Caribbean. Pretty silly. We had a loud man at breakfast tell us it wasn’t worth our time, and rain was POURING against the windows, but I didn’t want to stay on the boat for another day! Sean was a trooper for me.
As we deboarded, we were nearly blown off the dock, and we were soaked through in about thirty seconds. I was honestly having a great time.
Lol….
We walked along the beaches while Sean complained like an old man and I frolicked like a calf let outside for the first time all winter.
There was a splash park that a couple kids were running through, and a dad jokingly yelled, “Don’t do that! You’ll get all wet!” Ha. Ha.
The rain eventually let up, and we were able to enjoy some music and dance performances.
We finally found a beach where the water was calm, and the weather really was mostly fine by this time. When I walked in, I was shocked at how warm the water was! We decided we’d camp out here, and we laughed at the fact that we had four more hours to spend here. Sean went off in search of beach towels, and I lay down on a lounge chair while I watched people swim and snorkel.
Imagine my utter shock and surprise not ten minutes later when the lifeguard blew his whistle and told everybody to come out of the water. When someone finally asked why, he said we had to get back on the boat! It was leaving early due to weather worries!!! Ugh! I finally get a fun day and it’s smashed to bits just like that! I reeeeallly struggled with the idea of getting in to swim if even for ten seconds, but I hate being reprimanded, and I didn’t want to get yelled at by the lifeguard.
It honestly felt like a weird joke, but everybody really was getting out of the water and making their way to the dock. I was super at a loss of what to do because Sean still hadn’t returned from his towel expedition, and we didn’t have service to contact each other. I waited another ten minutes before deciding I just had to head to the boat and hope to see him. I was so relieved when I found him, two towels stuffed inside his jacket, completely oblivious as to the turn of events. My sweet, sweet doofus.
Back on the boat, I was pretty upset that we sat at the port for another two hours before taking off. I could have swam!!!!! I was honestly pretty pissed, lol. We just sat sadly at some windows on the pool deck and watched as the local employees moved all the floating docks closer to shore and ran around on their jet skis.
Once I (mostly) got over my pouting, we tried a little bit of indoor archery, and then Sean decided he wanted to try the surfing simulator. He had to boogie board for about twenty seconds, and then they let him go straight to standing. After his turn, he was handed a coveted blue bracelet that deemed him a certified standing surfer, and a stranger waiting in line high-fived him and said, ‘You’re the man!” It was adorable.
Entertainment for the night was a comedy juggler – quite fun and cute – and at dinner, I got the courage to try the escargot appetizer. I psyched myself up by telling my brain it was just a “land muscle,” which is basically true, and then it was fine. It was cooked and served in a ridiculous amount of butter, though. This is what the dish looked like after I’d already finished the snails:
I managed to get a good look at the dining room on our way out and appreciate the Titanic-like atmosphere. So pretty and grand!
I was going to try to squeeze this whole cruise into one post, but I’m just incapable of brevity, so let’s call it here. More to come soon!
Best regards and Happy New Year!
Lizzy-way