Cruise to the Bahamas! Days 1 & 2 At Sea

Hi, my name is Heather, and I'm a Cruiseophobe.

(Not a word? Oh) My 32nd birthday rolled around, and I'd never been on a cruise nor did I plan to go on one. Jacob, however, had different plans. He, having been on 3 and itching to go on another one, booked a cruise for us to go to the Bahamas in April. We had just finished visiting California and Pennsylvania/New York, so I thought we were set for awhile. But Jake loves to travel, and loves to have something to look forward to. His brain likes to occupy and entertain itself with dreams and actual plans of vacation. So I agreed to go, even though I was nervous and anxious about it. Would I just be sick the whole time? Would there be safe food for me to eat? Could we leave the girls that long? Would we just get bored? All the normal first time cruiser questions.

I got my new passport, we arranged for Granny Goose and Grandpa Yospe to stay with the girls for a whole week, I got my patches just in case of sea sickness, and we left poor little Cami with her freshly broken arm. But we didn't have to worry because we knew she was in great hands.

Our red eye flight left late Sunday night, April 12th, on which I slept the whole time, and flew into Orlando Airport. I'd never been there before, and it was fun to see all the Disney and Universal stores.

This was the first of many times that we said "Awww the girls would love this!"

 Oh ya know, just hangin out with my pal Snow White.

 After a breakfast at the food court Chick-fil-A at 6 am, we waited a few hours for our shuttle van to arrive. Did you know there's a whole hotel in the Orlando Airport?

Pretty cool. Finally, we were driven to the port to board the ship. Along the way, we got to see the Disney cruise ship. Maybe someday we'll have that magical experience as a family!

 Our cruise was with the Royal Caribbean: Enchantment of the Seas. The whole security/check-in/boarding process was quite involved. When we finally made it onto the ship, it was exciting to walk right out onto the deck and look out at the vast blue ocean. I love the ocean! And this guy.

 Perfection.

 And THEN came the inside of the ship. Hello fancy! For anyone who's been on a cruise, this is no big deal. But for a first-timer, it's pretty unreal. All of this lives on the ocean? Fancy elevators, gold staircases and a dozen floors.

 This is on the 4th deck in the Grand Lobby. Our room was down on the 2nd deck, which was just fine with me.

 I think I didn't get very many pictures on the first day we boarded, because when we embarked, I started to feel the rocking. I thought, ohh I should probably put the patch on, but I wanted to wait and see if I could do it without. So many people said that you can't even tell that you're on a ship.

I could tell. It was a rockin' and a rollin'. When we went to dinner that night, I felt so nauseous that I didn't even want to eat. We were in the fancy main dining room, meeting our table mates for the first time, so I didn't want to be rude. The menu was impressive, but nothing sounded good. I sucked it up and ordered a lime-infused fish soup, and some salmon I think. The food was delicious, but everyone agreed that the ship was definitely rocking. I left right before dessert was served, seeing how there wasn't any dessert for me anyhow, and went back to our room. I put the little patch behind my ear, and went straight to bed. Keep in mind, we had not really slept the night before, and had been going all day long. So I was pooped by 7. Jake went to the welcome show by himself that night and said it was a good one.

The next day, our full day at sea, I woke up feeling MUCH better, and the rocking had subsided. We enjoyed breakfast in the dining room, and then walked several laps around the ship. Then we explored a little more around the ship and put on our suits to go lay out on the deck.

I was wondering what we would do all day on a ship, but we found plenty of things to stay busy. By the time breakfast is over, there's only a few hours until lunch, and then dinner rolls around again! Nonstop eating! We even perused the marketplace buffet diner to catch midday snacks sometimes. We laid out on lawn chairs and relaxed, and then went into this area. The solarium is the adults only pool in a greenhouse type enclosure. The pool is salt water, which was a surprise when we got in to swim. But it's much quieter and calmer than the outside crazy loud party pool.

 We're kind of like old people...not much for the DJ/dancing/splashing pool area. :)

 We lucked out with gorgeous warm weather. It was really cool to look out and see nothing but ocean for as far as the eye could see!

Tuesday night was Formal Night on the ship, so we got all gussied up in our matching attire.

 Oh hello.

We sat down to dinner in the dining room, and this time I was able to be a bit more friendly and sociable. Our table mates were all nice- there was a young blonde dating couple who like to do adventurous things, and a trio of funny, loud black women who made funny faces and comments over the food. And then there was us.

 I was very impressed with the options that they had available for me every day. Our waiter would give us the menus, and then he was so nice to point out everything that I could eat. Each dish was labelled with symbols for gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, etc. I always had at least 2 appetizer and 2 entree options to choose from. And sometimes I ordered them all! :) (only once or twice) I had things like salads, grilled shrimp skewers, olives and prosciutto, fruit, soup, chicken, fish, potatoes and veggies, etc.

Sometimes I was disappointed when the food came, because the description had sounded so delicious and fancy. And then my plate would come and it was plain meat, a whole different side like a plain baked potato, and steamed broccoli or something. So I had to get used to not having the described dish with all the marinades and sauces and butter and any and all desserts. But I still felt pretty lucky. Not as lucky as this guy, though. He enjoyed those fancy desserts!

 His favorite dessert was a flourless chocolate cake, and he also enjoyed key lime pie, bread pudding, ice cream, etc. Jake's favorite meal that he had was leg of lamb. :)

After formal dinner, we went to a magic show in the theater. Then there was an introduction of the ship's crew in the grand lobby.

 There were crew members from like 200 different countries! They came out with flags and the announcer had certain countries do a dance while everyone cheered. It was really fun and lively!

 When we got back to our room, this cute little guy was waiting for us, wearing Jake's glasses.

 Had to snap one more pic of looking fancy before going to bed.

So glad the 2nd day was better than the first! And the next day we'd be stopping at Nassau, Bahamas!