Cruise to the Bahamas

Jon and I have been married for a little over 11 years, and sadly enough, we have NEVER been on a trip away without kids. Yes, pathetic! We were able to go away for a couple of nights when Jon finished medical school and Beth watched the kids, but we took Kate with us. She was about 4 months and was a perfect angel, but still, we had never been away.

So, for our anniversary, birthdays and Christmas this year, we decided to finally take a little trip together. My sister, Becky and my parents (with the help of my other siblings as well) were so, so incredible to watch the kids. Becky slept at our house and got them up and ready each day! The kids had a great time and we are so grateful for the love and care they were given while we were gone. (Surprisingly Jack seemed to have the hardest time....he was a little naughty and refused to go to school on Monday).

We left on Thursday night and took a red-eye flight to Miami. We slept on and off a little bit, but it's impossible for me to actually fall asleep sitting up. We got there and walked outside to find this:
Beautiful blue skies!!! Ahhhh!! It was great. We waited for a bus from the cruise ship that came to pick us up. We got to the dock, boarded and ate our first meal! About 4:30 p.m., they did their mandatory drill of knowing how to gather at the life boats and then we set sail about 5:00 p.m.

Jon with Miami in the background

Jeannette with Miami in the background.

We had delicious dinners each night - we ended up with our own table - and our waiters were really great. They called us "J&J" because they were "M&M." Eating dinner was one of our favorite parts. They would bring bread, then appetizers, then the meal and then dessert. It was so fun to have a fancy dinner each night and not have to clean it up or cut anyone else's food.

On Saturday morning, we arrived CocoCay. It was windy and cloudy, but we exercised, ate breakfast and then got ready to get off the boat. When we tried to find where to get off, we asked someone where to go, and the said "We're moving." Oh...apparently, a storm was coming in, so they continued on to Nassau, Bahamas. We watched movies (thankfully we had taken our portable DVD with cables to connect it to the TV in our room), played games, ate and took a nap.

On Saturday night, we arrived at Nassau and at dinner, they told us we could get off the boat if we wanted to. We decided to do it, so we got off. We took a cab to the Atlantis Resort (which is like a Vegas casino/resort) and walked through their aquarium.

On Sunday, we decided to get off the boat again. It was a little cloudy, but very windy and cold. We walked into a few shops and found little souveniors for the kids (you know..."if you're good while we're gone, we'll bring you back a surprise"). Nassau is a very old, poor city and most everything was closed because of it being Sunday and because of the cold weather. We attempted to go to the beach, but the wind was blowing so hard that we decided it wouldn't be worth all the sand that we'd get in our eyes.

We did see some locals carving things out of wood. They were fast and amazing and this guy on his cell phone made us laugh.

This picture does show how blue and beautiful the water is and the size of the ship!!

Sunday night's dinner included entertainment by our waiters. It was Italian night, so they all sang a song in Italian. (Our waiters where Marwin - the 2nd one from the left - he's from India... and the one on the far right - Mervin. He's from the Phillipines).

Another "treat" was to have someone come and make the beds in the morning and then while we were at dinner, tidy up the room and leave towels in the shapes of elephants and swans.

The last night on the boat was really wavy and choppy. It kept me up for most of the night, so we were definitely ready to get off the boat, step back onto American soil and go home to the kids. We missed them, but had a fabulous time together!!