We are Norwegians now!
(pictures to follow! the wife took the SD card with her)
The ship we were on was called Norwegian Sky, I couldn't believe how big it was! A man posted a video tour of the ship on youtube, it's almost 10 minutes long. If you are considering going on a cruise, I HIGHLY recommend reading as many reviews and as many "tip" guides as possible before booking a cruise and before deciding on excursions. It REALLY helped us a whole lot. What I like is that the excursions on the the Norwegian Cruise Line website are open for reviews! Read them!
Early in the morning we packed our things and headed to the international airport in Kansas City. When we bought our tickets, we actually saved a few hundred dollars by driving, even with gas and the hotel. We flew to Miami with a quick layover in Georgia. Our Miami hotel was a Courtyard Marriot on 39th & Collins. It's HIGHLY recommended, folks. Best hotel I've ever stayed in. It had a huge beautiful outdoor pool, hot tubs, a tiki bar, an inside bar, incredible staff, AMAZING beds, and Caraba's is very close to the pool.
We ate at Caraba's the night we were there and it was pretty good. I'm not really accustomed to that type of meal, I'm more of an Applebee's kinda girl. However, it was a wonderful experience. I had lobster mac & cheese. My mother will never believe that. When I was a kid we went to Red Lobster and I cried the whole time and wouldn't eat my dinner because of the poor little lobsters on display. If I could have rescued them I'm certain I would have tried.
We played in the pool, and then discovered the Boardwalk directly behind the hotel. It's a wooden walkway with stairs every so often going down to the beautiful Miami Beach. My camera died before I managed to get a picture. The waves were too strong to do much in the water but we held hands and walked down the beach. We found some coral and shells. Ashley was amazed that the water was warm.
I was very reluctant to leave Miami. We passed Miami Ink, got our hair cut, bought a "I was in Miami bitch" magnet. But we either walked or took a taxi, and in flip flops walking gets old real fast. The traffic was unbelievable. I thought Californians drove badly. This was a whole new level. People regularly cut each other off, especially the taxis. It was terrifying. There were Lamborghini's and Porsche's. If someone was in the right lane and a taxi was in the left but needed to turn right, they turned anyway. Terrifying.
FINALLY we boarded the ship! Rooms were ready way ahead of schedule but the bags took hours. We wandered around the ship and weren't really in the "RELAX" state of mind. I was bored for 2 days, I admit. Then I started to relax and enjoy just being off of work and laying in the sun with my wife. We got into the pool and the hot tub, but it was LOADED with chlorine so bad, it was hard to enjoy the water. It actually bleached the shirt I wore.
The first night we were hungry. All we had eaten that day was a pack of peanuts each. We tried to go through the buffet and it was a disaster. Since we were all on the boat at the same time, *everyone* tried to eat at the same time. We had a huge line. It would be smart to go make a reservation for the first night at least at one of the restaurants ($15 per person for Italian or French, or $30 per person at the steakhouse. This includes a 3 course meal for each person. We thought it was worth every penny.) The buffet left us grumpy and still hungry. But later on the ship had a huge embarkation celebration alongside the pool with free food. I want to say it was BBQ. They actually did this kind of thing a lot, they also had a taco bar.
We layed out in the sun a lot. It was so nice. On the very top deck (12) they have tons of chairs for sunbathing. Sometimes we just layed there and looked at the horizon. It was amazing. Luckily we bought sun block in Miami.
Freeport was our first stop. Someone said the beach was far from the port so we didn't bother to venture far. The taxis in the Bahamas aren't any better than the ones in Miami. We didn't have an excursion in Freeport. I wish we had done something more than walk around the straw market, but that's really all we did. We bought some things like a piece of brain coral. It's smaller than the one we found. We also bought a starfish, conch shell, Ashley bought bracelets. It was a disappointing port for us. If I could do it over I'd book a snorkeling excursion. We were going to, actually, but it ended very close to our All Aboard time and now that I think about it, it was probably just something you did until it was time to go back. This was my least favorite island. We caught a quick comedy show by Andrew Kennedy on the ship, it was okay but he is definitely not my new favorite comedian. We checked out the gift shop (AMAZING) and the casino. The casino was small but bigger than I expected, lots of different slots and table games. Ashley played roulette--we could actually gamble at this one. The gift shop had duty-free cigarettes and alcohol, awesome designer perfume, Swarovski jewelry, and lots of souvenir items. If they had Coach, I would have lost it. Just remember, you have to claim everything at customs. Keep your receipts.
Nassau was our second stop. We walked around for a while in the town, bad drivers were everywhere. There are no stop signs or traffic lights here, which may be the cause of the bad driving. It is definitely dependent on tourism. I was surprised, though, by how many huge brands have stores there. Gucci, Harley Davidson, Estee Lauder, etc. I suppose because anything you buy there is duty-free. This is also where the Atlantis Resort is. The resort itself is incredibly beautiful, and huge, and awe-inspiring. If you want to stay at Atlantis (come on, who doesn't?) after paying to GET there, your room can range between $260 and $900 a night, depending on how long you stay. But they have Spring and Fall specials--you know, when the weather isn't awesome. Our excursion there was a guided tour of the aquariums. The Dig is pretty cool, the thought put into it was awesome. The aquariums are very nice, but I think I've been spoiled--growing up next to the Henry Doorly Zoo has given me some seriously high standards. However, our tour guide did admit there were two more lagoons she didn't show us. We knew we'd never find them and it was starting to rain so we went back to the boat. As long as it's not rainy, if I could do it over I'd get either a beach pass or the Aquaventure excursion. The Atlantis beach is beautiful, and if it hadn't started raining I probably would have figured out how to sneak in. It's cleaner than the rest of the beaches there. The Aquaventure gives you access to the waterpark and the slides. It looks crazy cool, but I'm more of a beach girl. They had some game show type events on the ship, one was a Newly Wed or Not so Newly Wed kind of thing? It's where they ask different couples questions, with husbands and wives separated, and compare the answers. It was pretty funny. They also had Deal or no Deal for the first time, I wanted to see that one but we were exhausted.
Our last port was the Great Stirrup Cay. It's a private island that has been owned by the cruise line for around 40 years, or so I was told by the our tour guide. I haven't done any research on that so don't quote me. It is my favorite island. It's all excursions and beach. No port. The ship had to "drop anchor" and send us out in a tiny boat called a tender. When the ship was stationary in the water, it was the first time I really felt the ship moving. But the poor little tender, it rocked a lot more than the huge ship. We practically ran to the beach. The water was incredible. We got off the ship as soon as possible and got to the beach a little before 9am. It wasn't cold, but not hot yet either. I believe it was around 79 degrees Fahrenheit with a slight breeze.
The waves were so gentle you could barely feel them. The water was cool at first but fine once you got in. When we got to our knees there was a strip of rocks about the length of the beach but it ended once we got in up to our waists. We were able to go into the water above our shoulders and weren't disturbed by waves at all. It was beautiful. The sand was so soft and fine you couldn't feel the granules at all. In California it tends to be grainy. Even on Miami Beach it was coarser. The water was so clear we could see the bottom even where we couldn't touch it. I got to play in the water and sand for about 40 minutes, then we had to go to our excursion. Ashley agreed to renting snorkeling gear for $30 for each person to make me happy, we agreed to rent and run back to the water asap. Our excursion was an "Eco Boat Tour" that took you around for an hour and pulled out sea life for you to touch. They explained some facts about conchs, sea stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea biscuits, things like that. We also got to feed some big yellow fish, I think they were Yellowtails. Ashley filmed it. I wanted to go back to the beach so badly.. But then it rained. And it rained. And it poured. Right after we got off the boat it started. We tried to wait it out at a picnic table under a shelter area. The cruise line had set up a buffet there on the island so we ate, and waited, and gave up. And finally when it let up a little we made our way to the dock. It continued to rain while we on the tender, the seats were all wet but they packed the people in anyway. The rain whipped into the window and hurt our faces so we used our towels to cover our backpack and block our skin. It continued to rain until 5pm, when All Aboard was 5:30pm. I was very disappointed, but there's nothing we can do about the rain. After that we enjoyed our dinner and a show. We watched some sort of Vegas show, it was like honoring the past glory of Vegas and the older hotels and theaters that were tore down. It was a very good show. They did skits with different songs, impersonating the artists. There was Elvis, Sonny & Cher, Elton John, and many more. Elton John was my favorite. The singer had the big glasses and everything, he played the piano. I almost cried as he sang "Rocket Man," it was so good and beautiful. There was also an adults only comedy show later than night by Andrew Kennedy but we didn't go. They had different events and shows going on the whole time, it was very interesting. Lots of late night dance parties. There was a little something for everyone. There was even a "Friends of Dorothy" LGBT meeting time scheduled at the Atrium Bar every night, but only one other couple ever showed up. We saw three other lesbian couples but didn't talk to anyone.
ADVICE and conclusions:
(pictures to follow! the wife took the SD card with her)
The ship we were on was called Norwegian Sky, I couldn't believe how big it was! A man posted a video tour of the ship on youtube, it's almost 10 minutes long. If you are considering going on a cruise, I HIGHLY recommend reading as many reviews and as many "tip" guides as possible before booking a cruise and before deciding on excursions. It REALLY helped us a whole lot. What I like is that the excursions on the the Norwegian Cruise Line website are open for reviews! Read them!
The Journey
We were married on May 10th. At 7pm we began the journey to Kansas City. We stayed one night in the KC Ameristar Casino & Hotel. Since my wife works for the company in a delicate position, we were unable to gamble. We were exhausted anyway, it was a very long but beautiful day. I had 38 bobby pins keeping my hair up into an amazing up-do, for the first time ever. The hair stylist (Kaylee) at the Ulta in Council Bluffs is a sorceress, I'm sure of it.Early in the morning we packed our things and headed to the international airport in Kansas City. When we bought our tickets, we actually saved a few hundred dollars by driving, even with gas and the hotel. We flew to Miami with a quick layover in Georgia. Our Miami hotel was a Courtyard Marriot on 39th & Collins. It's HIGHLY recommended, folks. Best hotel I've ever stayed in. It had a huge beautiful outdoor pool, hot tubs, a tiki bar, an inside bar, incredible staff, AMAZING beds, and Caraba's is very close to the pool.
We ate at Caraba's the night we were there and it was pretty good. I'm not really accustomed to that type of meal, I'm more of an Applebee's kinda girl. However, it was a wonderful experience. I had lobster mac & cheese. My mother will never believe that. When I was a kid we went to Red Lobster and I cried the whole time and wouldn't eat my dinner because of the poor little lobsters on display. If I could have rescued them I'm certain I would have tried.
We played in the pool, and then discovered the Boardwalk directly behind the hotel. It's a wooden walkway with stairs every so often going down to the beautiful Miami Beach. My camera died before I managed to get a picture. The waves were too strong to do much in the water but we held hands and walked down the beach. We found some coral and shells. Ashley was amazed that the water was warm.
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| Our treasures from Miami Beach |
The Cruise
We went through customs before boarding the ship. It was a nightmare to get through. Worse than an airport. After you get off the shuttle before customs, they take your bags on board the ship for you. I assume it's so they can put them through an x-ray device. You can hold onto your carry-on sized bags but they too will be examined before being let onto the ship. It's the same drill as an airport: shoes off, no metal, nothing in your pockets. I was surprised they let me keep my jewelry on (same as the airport, they said people "lose" those kind of things. I would start screaming, so I'm glad I got to keep them.) We had to sign a paper saying we hadn't vomited or had diarrhea in the last 48 hours, which made me chuckle. Who is really going to admit to that anyway?FINALLY we boarded the ship! Rooms were ready way ahead of schedule but the bags took hours. We wandered around the ship and weren't really in the "RELAX" state of mind. I was bored for 2 days, I admit. Then I started to relax and enjoy just being off of work and laying in the sun with my wife. We got into the pool and the hot tub, but it was LOADED with chlorine so bad, it was hard to enjoy the water. It actually bleached the shirt I wore.
The first night we were hungry. All we had eaten that day was a pack of peanuts each. We tried to go through the buffet and it was a disaster. Since we were all on the boat at the same time, *everyone* tried to eat at the same time. We had a huge line. It would be smart to go make a reservation for the first night at least at one of the restaurants ($15 per person for Italian or French, or $30 per person at the steakhouse. This includes a 3 course meal for each person. We thought it was worth every penny.) The buffet left us grumpy and still hungry. But later on the ship had a huge embarkation celebration alongside the pool with free food. I want to say it was BBQ. They actually did this kind of thing a lot, they also had a taco bar.
We layed out in the sun a lot. It was so nice. On the very top deck (12) they have tons of chairs for sunbathing. Sometimes we just layed there and looked at the horizon. It was amazing. Luckily we bought sun block in Miami.
Freeport was our first stop. Someone said the beach was far from the port so we didn't bother to venture far. The taxis in the Bahamas aren't any better than the ones in Miami. We didn't have an excursion in Freeport. I wish we had done something more than walk around the straw market, but that's really all we did. We bought some things like a piece of brain coral. It's smaller than the one we found. We also bought a starfish, conch shell, Ashley bought bracelets. It was a disappointing port for us. If I could do it over I'd book a snorkeling excursion. We were going to, actually, but it ended very close to our All Aboard time and now that I think about it, it was probably just something you did until it was time to go back. This was my least favorite island. We caught a quick comedy show by Andrew Kennedy on the ship, it was okay but he is definitely not my new favorite comedian. We checked out the gift shop (AMAZING) and the casino. The casino was small but bigger than I expected, lots of different slots and table games. Ashley played roulette--we could actually gamble at this one. The gift shop had duty-free cigarettes and alcohol, awesome designer perfume, Swarovski jewelry, and lots of souvenir items. If they had Coach, I would have lost it. Just remember, you have to claim everything at customs. Keep your receipts.
Nassau was our second stop. We walked around for a while in the town, bad drivers were everywhere. There are no stop signs or traffic lights here, which may be the cause of the bad driving. It is definitely dependent on tourism. I was surprised, though, by how many huge brands have stores there. Gucci, Harley Davidson, Estee Lauder, etc. I suppose because anything you buy there is duty-free. This is also where the Atlantis Resort is. The resort itself is incredibly beautiful, and huge, and awe-inspiring. If you want to stay at Atlantis (come on, who doesn't?) after paying to GET there, your room can range between $260 and $900 a night, depending on how long you stay. But they have Spring and Fall specials--you know, when the weather isn't awesome. Our excursion there was a guided tour of the aquariums. The Dig is pretty cool, the thought put into it was awesome. The aquariums are very nice, but I think I've been spoiled--growing up next to the Henry Doorly Zoo has given me some seriously high standards. However, our tour guide did admit there were two more lagoons she didn't show us. We knew we'd never find them and it was starting to rain so we went back to the boat. As long as it's not rainy, if I could do it over I'd get either a beach pass or the Aquaventure excursion. The Atlantis beach is beautiful, and if it hadn't started raining I probably would have figured out how to sneak in. It's cleaner than the rest of the beaches there. The Aquaventure gives you access to the waterpark and the slides. It looks crazy cool, but I'm more of a beach girl. They had some game show type events on the ship, one was a Newly Wed or Not so Newly Wed kind of thing? It's where they ask different couples questions, with husbands and wives separated, and compare the answers. It was pretty funny. They also had Deal or no Deal for the first time, I wanted to see that one but we were exhausted.
Our last port was the Great Stirrup Cay. It's a private island that has been owned by the cruise line for around 40 years, or so I was told by the our tour guide. I haven't done any research on that so don't quote me. It is my favorite island. It's all excursions and beach. No port. The ship had to "drop anchor" and send us out in a tiny boat called a tender. When the ship was stationary in the water, it was the first time I really felt the ship moving. But the poor little tender, it rocked a lot more than the huge ship. We practically ran to the beach. The water was incredible. We got off the ship as soon as possible and got to the beach a little before 9am. It wasn't cold, but not hot yet either. I believe it was around 79 degrees Fahrenheit with a slight breeze.
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| The Great Stirrup Cay. You can even see those nasty rain clouds. |
ADVICE and conclusions:
- Take a digital watch or buy one in the gift shop, even if it's just a cheap one. Your cellphone will let you down. Call and ask guest services what time it is every morning and make sure your watch is correct.
- Keep receipts, or write down what you spend on each item. Customs will want to know.
- Don't be afraid to ask people to take your picture! They will!
- Plan an excursion for the Grand Island (Freeport).
- If you have kids, get the Aquaventure pass for Atlantis on Nassau. If you don't, Beach Pass!
- No excursions are necessary at the Great Stirrup Cay unless you are REALLY set on a certain one, like swimming with dolphins and stingrays. The beach is perfect.
- Make a reservation for a restaurant for the first night as soon as you board the ship. On Sky I think you do this on Deck 6, but you can call also.
- Take a lanyard with a plastic tag for your boarding pass and drivers license. This way you don't need a purse when you're going to the buffet, gift shop, pool, bar, etc. The only things you can use cash for on the ship is drinks (sometimes) and the casino.
- Take LOTS of small bills for the port straw markets and taxis. The Bahamian people have their own currency, and have limited amounts of change in US dollars. Take lots of $1 bills and $5 bills. Seriously, take like $100 in ones. It'll be worth the hassle. Unless you're going to gamble a lot, don't bother with $50 bills or greater.
- Go to the shows and have a good time!! You've already payed for it!
- Always save room for dessert. Cause it's amazing. Also eat fruits, they usually have fresh fruit out for every meal at the buffet. Vitamin C is important.
- Use hand sanitizer!!!! They provide you with free hand sanitizer almost everywhere, use it. They will spray your hands with it in a spray bottle, there will be hands-free sanitizer stands before the buffet and casino and gift shop and theater... almost everywhere. It's for YOUR benefit! Wash your hands often. Drink lots of water, it's unlimited at the buffet. Use antibacterial soap. All this will keep you healthy.
