Cruisin'

Zach and I had a wonderful time on our cruise. We drove to Orlando, spending 2 nights and 1 full day with my grandmother Marna and her husband Dan in a retirement community. We experienced the retired life of riding our bikes to the pool, playing on the putting green, and shuffle board court. It was a nice way to start our vacation.

On Monday morning, we headed to the ship. Once on board, we began eating and didn't stop until we got off the ship on Friday. There was always food around. A typical day included about 4 meals. The best thing I ate on the ship was strawberry pavlova (meringue, whipped cream, and a reduced sugary strawberry sauce with fresh strawberries on top). It was heavenly. I also had french fries and bacon every day which made me a happy sailor.

Our first stop was Coco Cay which is a little island owned by Royal Caribbean. The day was partly cloudy which made the day perfect when the sun was out and okay when the clouds were covering. We rented snorkeling gear and wet suits and spent a lot of time out in the water. We saw starfish, coral, and lots of fish. Some fish were so close we were able to touch them. Towards the end of the day, we attempted geocaching and failed:( Our GPS was only accurate up to 15 feet which was just not accurate enough.

The next stop was at Nassau. The day was packed with activity. We started out very early on Segways. Our tour guide was incredible and we had a lot of fun. I will post a very funny video in the next week of Zach on a Segway. Here is a photo that will have to do for now.

Following the Segway tour, we very quickly went through a few rows of the straw market. It was a bit crazy and we didn't really see anything of interest to us. We quickly headed to the ship for lunch and then it was off to go snorkeling. We went out on a catamaran to a coral reef. This water was much clearer than at Coco Cay, but also much colder. We were only able to last about 45 minutes in the water. We got to see a lot of beautiful coral, fish, starfish, and even a lobster (pictures on stuck on my camera right now). Zach was shivering the whole time. Even though it was cold, it was well worth it.

The last day was spent on the cruise ship all day. We had a sit down leisurely breakfast, participated/watched several game shows, Zach did a wine tasting, I watched a demonstration on towel folding, etc. We kept ourselves entertained.

A dog that our stateroom attendent made.

My creation after watching the demonstration.

We returned to Orlando the next day and spent a little more time retired before heading home on Saturday.