Cruise Post # 3

 Wednesday January 22 was an at sea day, so we slept in and went to the main dining room for breakfast. We like to be served in style for breakfast at least once every cruise. 

The very first cruise that we went on, the ship's photographers took photos on formal night, which were actually printed and available for purchase. We bought a couple prints and they reeled me in with a scrapbook package. Of course, everything is digitized now. I have not seen any scrapbooks on a cruise ship again -until this time. They had a BOGO deal on exclusive kits that was too good for me to pass up. That was my splurge of the trip.   

Then the Schwartz' and us went to a Massage Taster at the Spa. I hadn't believed they were giving free massages, but the Lapps had gone the first day and verified that in exchange for listening to their 5 minute sales pitch, you get a free 5 minute shoulder massage. Richard was told -like always- that he's extremely tight; his massage therapist said "let me fix that for you" and gave him a special price on a 90 minute massage. That was his splurge of the trip. Best massage ever! I -on the other hand- wasn't fortunate enough to get any deals. 

In the afternoon we went to the ice skating show in Studio B. I'm always amazed at the things they can do on a moving ship! I mean sometimes those girls' heads were mere inches from the ice. One wrong move and it's concussion time. 

When they came out in these costumes, it was hilarious. They were actually skating around while seated on stools. Those canes and mustaches were too much. 

Next we played mini golf. 

Martha & I won, with a tie.

And then while we were all together, we checked off something on Martha's bucket list- we toasted our trip with pina coladas.

And then Titus & Richard decided to go down the water slides. This is something I have done on every cruise ship with a water slide that I've been on, but after my alarming experience nearly getting stuck THREE TIMES in the blue slide last year, I just couldn't drum up the courage to do it this time. They had a splashing good time though.  

It was Mexican night in the main dining room, so Richard & I skipped it and went to the Windjammer buffet instead. He had to eat hurriedly because his massage was scheduled for 6pm. Unfortunately we missed out on the chef's parade in the main dining room that night. It's not like we've never seen it before, but it is fun watching friends see it for the first time. We always had such beautiful sunsets while we were dining. 

We went to the juggling show after dinner. Not the best juggler we've ever seen, but still interesting. The best part was when he picked a lady from the front row to juggle with him -he threw a pin to her and she threw it back- she only told him afterwards that she is legally blind! 

You know we had to get our bedtime snack. It was a busy day, but we checked a lot of boxes. 

Thursday, January 23 we were in Nassau, Bahamas. We had been to all these ports before, so we had the luxury of taking our time. Titus' & Levis had booked an excursion so they had to be off the ship by a certain time. We slept in and got to experience the Windjammer when it wasn't so crowded. 

Made to order omelet station

The port has changed drastically since the last time we were there -a $300 million upgrade last year. And we were on only one of 4 ships vomiting tourists onto the pier that day, so Richard & I did not tarry around the souvenir shops. I really wanted to see the Queen's Staircase so we walked around a bit till we found it. 

The Queen‘s Staircase is a 66–step walkway carved out of solid limestone rock by 600 slaves between 1793 and 1794 to provide an escape route from the fort above. It is a renowned landmark of Nassau- named after Queen Victoria- and situated at the Fort Fincastle near Bennet‘s Hill.

We were sweating till we got there, but it was so nice & cool down at the bottom. 

At the end of the 18th century, The Bahamas was a target of European invaders seeking control of the Caribbean. The British, already having colonized the country, built several forts, including Fort Fincastle, in order to protect against an attack. To reach Fort Fincastle, located at the top of Bennet’s Hill (the highest point in Nassau), a passage was needed in case of emergency. This led to the construction of the staircase in the late 1700s.

We walked around the fort but did not pay the couple dollars admission for a tour. 

There was a Museum of Slavery & Emancipation that I was hoping to see, but between my phone not wanting to connect to data in the Bahamas (for using Google Maps to navigate), my lack of time to research where it is beforehand, and the heat, I gave that up. We walked through beautiful Parliament Square on our way back to the ship.

The palm nuts were ripening

After just 2 hours on land, we decided to head back to the ship instead of trying to find the beach. The ship's pool is not crowded on port days so we had our choice of deck chairs and hot tubs. Soaking up that vitamin D while we can! 

Our towel art of the day was a stingray 👍

We went up on the peek-a-boo bridge to watch the crew preparing to sail. Gangway was supposed to go up at 2:30, but we didn't actually sail until 3:30. I discovered I had really good wifi there, so I connected and caught up on messages while I could. 

It was Mediterranean night in the main dining room; not my favorite cuisine. 

I learned something new from our server- horseradish loses it's flavor when it's cooked. I wasn't sure about horseradish potatoes, but she was right- I couldn't even taste it. Who knew?

Richard's braised lamb was the best he ever had. 

We went to the comedy show that evening. I can't remember this guy's name, but Dry Bar Comedy is usually clean. He started off slow and got funnier as he went. 

The farewell encore by the drama team

We tried to go in the lounge on deck 14 to hang out, but they had one of their silent dance disco parties going on, so we went on deck 11. The captain had made an announcement that it's going to get rough and anyone prone to seasickness should go ahead and take meds. That would be me. 🖐The upper decks were roped off and those windows behind us were all closed, with the wind whistling by. 

This was a first- there were pouches of seasick bags by the stairs on every deck that evening!  

Thanks to my meclizine, I was steady as a rock. I ate pizza along with everyone else. 

When we went to bed, I couldn't sleep right away because the ship was rocking & rolling worse than we've ever experienced. Martha was bummed the next morning that she slept through it. 😄

Friday, January 24 - when we woke up we were docked back in Port Canaveral. Titus' disembarked early because they had an earlier flight back home, to catch some of the ADC conference. We took our time eating breakfast and hung out in the library until 9:15am when they "kicked us off" the ship. It was unusually cold for FL- they got snow for the first time in a very long time while we were gone, so we didn't want to wait outside any longer than we had to. Glad for winter coats! 

We didn't have any issues with our shuttle this time- shout out to Cruise Control Transportation. We had 5 hours till our flight and couldn't even check in yet. The time went fast though, between sharing photos, journaling and reading. We were very happy to get seats altogether; we had a direct flight so in 2 hours we were back in the Midwest.  

Richard was a gentleman- he shuttled out to get the freezing cold van while the rest of us waiting inside the warm terminal. We were home by 9:15pm. Too tired to unpack, but the kids had the house nice & clean. The next day I had a bad case of mal de debarquement syndrome- my brain just could not adapt to being back on solid ground! Even with meds, I was dizzy. Half of us got it, the other half did not. 

It was another successful trip and we already look forward to our next cruise! We may or may not have hooked someone else on cruising... LOL