My best friend of 20 years, Anne-Evan, and I went on a 3-night cruise to the Bahamas. I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I had planned but we had a great time and I’ll try to tell about our adventures here (at least some of them, what happens at sea stays at sea, it’s like Vegas that way).
Our trip started with a roadtrip from Opelika, AL to Orlando, FL. Bright and early Friday morning, we started out on our adventure. Ok, it wasn’t actually bright since we left around 3am. There aren’t many stories to share from the roadtrip. We just had a great time singing in the car and catching up on plenty of girl talk.
We boarded the ship around 1pm on Friday. It was overwhelming! We dropped our bags off in our stateroom, grabbed our itinerary for the day, and headed to a buffet lunch in the Windjammer. Lunch was amazing! All the food was amazing!
We attended the mandatory safety drill which was a pain in the ass. I had the brilliant idea of taking a picture of us in our life jackets and sending it to my mom with the message “Things are not going well!” But I had left my cell phone and my camera in our stateroom (missed opportunity).
After the safety drill, AE took a little nap while I headed up to the pool deck to check out the sail away party and call my mom. It was cool because my mom got to hear the horn blow that announced the beginning of our vacation! Soon after we set sail it was time to get ready for dinner.
Luckily AE felt much better after her little nap and we headed to a wonderful dinner. They said that they wanted us to feel at home in the dining room. Which is laughable because I am certainly not accustomed to being served gourmet food that I didn’t have to make. And if I didn’t like what was served, the waiter would bring me something else. And there was always decadent desserts to choose from and if you can’t make up your mind, they’ll bring you one of each.
After dinner, we went to the welcome show which featured a hilarious comedian. Then it was time to check out the clubs. We started out at Boleros, the salsa club, where we had our first festive beverage and toasted the beginning of a fabulous vacation! A second round of drinks, courtesy of a very friendly gentleman (too friendly for our tastes), and it was off to Voltage for the disco party. The disco party actually ended up being music through the decades. It’s always a good night when I get the opportunity to dance the Electric Slide. After all that dancing, it was time to hit the hot tub to relax before turning in for the night.
Saturday started with a wonderful breakfast. Then it was off the ship to see the sites of Nassau.
After touring Nassau, it was time to dress for dinner (formal night).
After dinner, we checked out the clubs and casino. Then it was time for the sail away party on the pool deck complete with a midnight buffet. A great night, not just the Electric Slide but also the Macarena and the Cha Cha Slide! We hit the hot tub after another night of dancing before heading off to bed.
Our first bedtime buddy
Sunday, we woke up in port at the private island of Coco Cay.
We started off with snorkeling, which is much harder than it looks! As soon as we both got the hang of it, we had a couple of close encounters with jelly fish. Luckily they weren’t too close. We swam with the fish for about an hour. After a little relaxing on the beach, we headed over to the huge barbecue for lunch. Then it was time for a little shopping and more relaxing.
We left CocoCay and headed back to the ship. It was time for some pool lounging!
Then it was time to dress for dinner again. Since this was our last night on the ship, we had to pack before enjoying our last night at sea. After packing we headed up to Voltage for an “adults only” game show.
The game show started out tame enough, sort of like “Let’s Make a Deal”.” There were teams and members had to bring up different items, a man’s shoe, a woman’s purse (empty), etc. Then it started heating up. A woman from each team had to show the host a thong. A swarm of women rushed to the stage and promptly turned around to pull up their skirts or pull down their pants. A man and woman from each team had to share a pair of pants and trade shirts while standing on the dance floor. The grand finale was that a man from each team had to come up on the dance floor wearing a bra (correctly), carrying a purse and wearing heels and lipstick. AE and I were just observers of the mayhem! Now one would think with all of this crazy stuff what were the prizes? Free cruises? Cash? Fancy electronics? Oh no, these people were going through complete humiliation to win Royal Caribbean backpacks, hats, water wallets, and lanyards!
Our second and last 
bedtime buddy
Monday, the fantasy vacation was coming to a quick end. We rose early for breakfast. Then it was time to line up to disembark the ship. Despite disembarkation being a long process, we made it to the car and hit the road much earlier than expected. Luckily I was able to avoid waiting 4+ hours for my originally scheduled flight, which included a layover in Atlanta, by checking in early and getting a spot on a nonstop flight leaving an hour and a half later. I did some shopping in the Orlando airport (Disney, Universal Studios, and Sea World stores).
I had both seats all to myself for the flight home (ahhh, heaven). So I asked for a blanket and curled up for a snooze on the way home.
