Food, Freckles, Fun

I spent last weekend in the islands, The Bahama Islands, to be precise. Two of my best friends from college and I went on a three day cruise out of Orlando. It's what I wanted to do for my 30th birthday, but it got delayed a little due to scheduling.

I took an early afternoon flight out of Phoenix and arrived in Orlando late. (Thanks, four hour flight plus a three hour time difference.) It took my forever to get to the hotel due to trouble finding the shuttle, but I made it. Being greeted by these two was spectacular. It was late, but we proceeded to girl talk late into the night/early morning. I laughed so hard I spit the water I was drinking all over myself. These two are some of the few that really understand me and know me enough to get me to my silly state.

We departed for the ship mid-morning. Uber and Lyft are the way to go. My friend gets credit for reservations, but we had nice cars and nice drivers and the price was very reasonable!

We got to the ship in time for lunch and then toured the boat. This boat wasn't as nice as the last one (no sauna or steam room), but it worked. We weren't on the boat that much anyway.

Food on the boat is pretty spectacular. There are options of the main dining room or the buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We went with the main dining room for all three meals, but dinner was definitely the best. You can pick your appetizer, entree, and dessert each night, but here's a sampling of what I had:

Calamari

Spectacular salmon

Tasty duck

Roasted lamb

And plenty of snacks spread throughout

I climbed the rock wall the first morning. It took me three tries since I am pretty weak because of my hand stuff, but I did it!

Then we got off the boat and went for a walk in Nassau, Bahamas. We wanted to see Atlantis resort, but underestimated the distance and exertion of the walk. When we got there, it cost an arm and a leg to see anything. Oh well. We still had the experience.

The next day was all day at CoCo Cay, Royal Caribbean's private island. It was paradise! I waded, went for a walk, and just laid on the beach since being wet is not really my thing. I had some time to actually rest and think, which was awesome.

I wore sunscreen and reapplied, but I still got a little sunburned. I also got a lot more freckles. Oh well, a minor sunburn is a small price to pay for all the fun we had. And I like my freckles.

The most trouble we got into was stamping our own passports. We really didn't get into trouble, either. We just used the stamp sitting on the desk in the empty room and didn't tell on ourselves when the clerk came back.

I had so much fun, and though life has hit me square in the face now that I'm back on land, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I am so thankful for the time I spent and so thankful for friends who agreed to go with me. We dubbed this vacation the start of our cruise club, so hopefully they'll be a next time.