Bahama Mama

If you can't guess from the title, the above photo, or my last post (read here), I was on a cruise in the Bahamas this past weekend. I really like cruising, maybe it's the 70 year old in me. Or perhaps just the Floridian. Either way, I had a ton-o-fun. Cory and I were joining four Florida friends for the weekend and good times were had by all.

We boarded on Friday and Cory and I checked out our room (after downing a frozen rum drink first, of course). It was a cozy fit, but clean and comfortable. Cory's only experience cruising has been on Celebrity and they're known for larger cabins, so he was a bit surprised by the smaller cabins of Royal Caribbean. Still, everything fit and we had all the space we really needed.

On Saturday we hung around the pool for a while before disembarking for Nassau. With no real plans, we ended up pulled by throngs of people and music to Senor Frogs. Things got silly there.




Cory and our friend Dan decided it would be a good idea to jump over the bar's railing and into the water below. I think it was the buckets of beer.


The rest of us left the bar and walked to the Hilton next door, where we found the boys swimming to shore on the hotel's beach. It was a nice spot, so we all stayed and swam for a while.



Back on the boat, there was plenty of eating and drinking, followed by more eating and drinking. I didn't get any photos, but we did return to the cabin that evening to find this flying ninja monkey hanging from the ceiling:

The next day was private island day, and we boarded a very slow moving ferry to get to Coco Cay. We spent a few hours on the beach, me reading in a chair, Wittney and Dan playing in a volleyball tournament, and Cory almost drowning trying to swim out to a barge in the middle of the ocean. Usual beach stuff. We still have no idea how Cory scraped his head during his swim.



When we got back on the boat we went up to the boat's 360 degree bar, called the Viking Lounge, to watch the sunset. It was a bit cloudy so it wasn't the most magnificent view, but we did have some fun drinks. Though, I must say my dirty martini was a lot more masculine than Cory's mudslide or Phil's strawberry daiquiri.



We got our last photo during dinner. After that, there was a lot more toasting of drinks and a lot less taking of photos. We did spend some hours in the casino, even though I kept insisting Cory stop playing. He ended up doing pretty well at roulette, but we won't tell him I said that.

All in all, it was a fun cruise, though I'm not sure Royal Caribbean is my favorite cruiseline. But for a quick Memorial Day trip, the spring break-like vibe was just what we were looking for. How about you all, what sort of cruise style do you prefer?