Anniversary Cruise

This year is our 7 year anniversary. To celebrate, we decided to take a cruise to the Bahamas. This was our first cruise, so we did not know what to expect. That's why we decided to choose this particular cruise - it was only a 3 night trip - so that we could figure out firsthand whether or not we were "cruisers" or not.


The ship, Sovereign of the Seas, departed from Port Canaveral on Friday. We were both very excited on our drive down there. After getting through immigration, we went to our room to unload our bags. We ended up with an upgrade to a cabin in the aft on the starboard side (that's all the nautical terms that I can remember). We liked the view from our room! After the mandatory lifejacket drill, we went to dinner. That night, we ended up partaking of a few adult beverages, learned how to salsa dance (hips don't lie), watched a couple of shows (including dueling pianos - they were very good), and then hit the dance floor with the young crowd (no, I did not break out the "sprinkler"). It was a late night (or early morning).

The next day, we made landfall at Nassau, Bahamas. We strolled through the straw market (like Saturday market, except crammed into a much smaller space), walked around the courthouse area, and then took a cab to a beach near the Atlantis hotel. We were both amazed by the color of the water - I thought that the blue water was as pretty as Cancun (oh wait, it’s the same ocean). We splashed in the water and then made our way to the Atlantis Hotel. One of my co-workers recommended that we go there, and it certainly did not disappoint.

We saw their underwater predator tank, which was filled with giant fish, nurse sharks, hammerhead sharks, and stingrays. We were able to walk through the predator tank, thanks to a tunnel that runs right through it. Aside from the giant predator tank, the resort had a huge lagoon, swimming pools, and a casino. We also saw the stingray feeding, which was a bit on the wildside. The trainer would grab a huge piece of fish and then handfeed the stingray.

The stingray would show it's appreciation by flapping it's giant fins on the water, splashing water all over the place. The trainer wore mesh gloves - he had a new pair, but showed us that the stingrays had already bitten through parts of it. After Atlantis, we went back to the ship to shower and prep for the Captain's Gala dinner. KC-Star looked fabulous in her evening gown. After the dinner and pictures, we attended a few more shows, danced, ate dessert at midnight, and danced some more.

On Sunday morning, the ship moored offshore of CocoCay. We were supposed to go onshore, but they cancelled the tender trips after 10 am due to rough seas. We were actually on a Tender ready to go to shore, when it absolutely started pouring. KC-Star and I were disappointed that we couldn't go ashore, but not after we found out that 1) they evacuated CocoCay at noon and 2) one of the tenders took 1 1/2 hours to get to the ship - the sea was so rough that it took 6-7 tries to finally get safely docked to the ship. After lunch, we spent the afternoon drinking, lounging, and napping (just me - I needed to recharge from the two late nights). KC-Star drank champagne and attended an auction while I napped. That night, we saw a couple of shows, the dueling pianos, and danced into the early hours of the morning.

The cruise ended on Monday, much to our disappointment. Since we still had most of the day to ourselves (and since we needed to get our legs back once we were on land), we decided to take a trip to Disneyworld. We spent half a day there, stopped at McCormick and Schmidt's for our official anniversary dinner, and then drove back home, exhausted but absolutely thrilled with our little vacation.