Random Pictures and stories

 We were so lucky to have gorgeous weather for the entire trip.  Not blazing hot, but warm enough to swim.   It was partly cloudy on some days, which was a blessing because we surely did not want to get a sunburn!  We went through a lot of sunscreen, but came home nicely tanned and not burned......our goal!

Doing pool aerobics..... a lot of fun!

The Atlantis Hotel in Nassau.   The area that connects the two halves of the hotel is a suite that was first used by Michael Jackson.  The boat driver also pointed out homes owned by Tiger Woods and other celebrities.

Always a beautiful breeze at Blue Lagoon.

Blue Lagoon

When we first got onto the ship, we had lunch at the grill beside the pool.  Delicious hamburger!  And I had no idea wonderful meals I would eat in the days ahead!

We loved the balcony!

It was so nice to be able to open the window and smell the sea air.

This was a very interesting art installation we had to go through to get to our restaurant.   We called it "The Scary Forest".

Another piece of art just randomly displayed....a boat made out of pearls.

Some huge butterfly wings waiting for a photo opportunity.  I noticed only women posed with the wings........apparently men aren't delicate enough to be a butterfly!

Our cozy corner.....I'm glad I never go anywhere without books.

I met this guy on the ship.....but he seemed a bit wooden.

On the last night of the cruise, we finally made it down to the Grand Plaza to sit with a drink and listen to some music.  There's a dance floor, and a few people were up dancing.   Unbelievably, they begain playing our wedding song, "Wonderful Tonight".   Tag asked me to dance, and as we stood up, we heard a big cheer.   I turned around and there is a bride and groom on the dance floor - it was their wedding dance!  Oops!  We sat down quickly and enjoyed watching this young couple perform their wedding dance.   And reminised about our wedding 16 years ago.

Beautiful sunset on the last night of the cruise.

This was an unexpected adventure that turned out to be absolutely awesome!  I can see why people on the cruise would tell us they were on their 5th, 10th, 20th cruise.  I imagine it can be quite addicting!

Excursions

 Part of the fun of being on a cruise is going off the ship on excursions.   Our first stop was Nassau, Bahamas.   We chose an excursion to The Blue Lagoon, which included a dolphin encounter.  We got onto a ferry and were transported over to the Island, where there were lots of lounge chairs, a small restaurant and places you could rent water toys.

They also had blow-up slides and rock-climbing walls for the kids, and kayaks and paddleboards to use.

As they say, this picture does not do justice to the aquamarine blue of the water.   It was pretty exciting to actual swim in the ocean water in April!  We've never done that in New England!

We swam around, and Tag got to do one of his favorite things....nap!

The highlight of the excursion ws the dolphin enounter.   We stood on a platform about waist deep, and our dolphin (named Sean, which is pretty funny as that's the name of our future son-in-law!) swam up close so we could pet him.  Then each person could get a hug and kiss from the dolphin.  When the dolphin kissed my cheek, Tag joked, "Hey! That's my wife you're kissing!"  and the dolphin turned and gave him a raspberry!   Tag thought that was hilarious! 

Finally we each got to "dance" with the dolphin, while he opened his mouth to sing!!  As you can see, it was very funny!!

Our second time off the Ship was at Grand Cayman Island.   This was a "tender" day, meaning we didn't have to be on an excursion, but could just take the tender to the shore for the day.   I was somehow under the impression that the beach was right there when you got off the ship, so we dressed in bathing suits and brought our towels for a beach day.

When we got ashore, we were in the little village area, and found out you needed to take a shuttle to the public beach.  And that the shuttle was $6 per person, each way.  And tht we had only brought $20 with us, because we didn't want to be walking around with a lot of cash in a strange country.   Luckily, the shuttle drives are willing to barter, so we were able to get a ride for $5 apiece each way.

Again, the water was gorgeous, the weather was sunny and we enjoyed swimming in the ocean.

Our third time off the ship was in Cozumel, Mexico.  We docked and went into Cozumel from the ship.  The first thing we see:

We were then taken in a nice coach bus to the Playa Mia Beach Resort and water park.  I think this was my favorite excursion.  The beach was absolutely beautiful.   We got there just as they opened so got beach chairs and umbrella right at the water.  

This excursion included a buffet lunch and unlimited drinks.  I sucked down a bunch of Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris.  I don't think they had much liquor in them because I didn't get tipsy!

It was the second-to-last day on the cruise, and it was a great day of swimming, playing, eating, drinking and relaxing.

When we got back from the bus there was this really cool Cozumel sign with our Cruise ship right behind it.  Perfect photo op.....except for the guy peaking out through the "O". 

We always get earrings for me when we go on a trip. And we also like to collect refrigerator magnets.  At one of the little kiosks, we found a magnet and bought it.  When I inquired if he had any earrings, he said he did not but escorted us over to his friend's store.  Such service!  LOL

I chose a pair of earrings, which the store owner said were 60 dollars. Tag very honestly told him we only had $26.  The guy counters with 40. "We really only have $26 dollars on us".   He comes back with $30!   Finally he gave in and let us buy the earrings for $26.   He must have thought we were pretty good negotiators.....when really we just didn't bring a lot of cash with us!

And we were serenaded on the way back to the ship.

Our final excursion was after we got off the ship in Fort Lauderdale. The ship docks at 7am....you need to be off the ship by 9am.  And our plane was leaving at 4:30pm.  The cruiseline people are no dummies...they know a lot of people are in the same predicament.  So they offer an excursion that takes us from the pier, to the Everglades, and then brings us to the airport!  Perfect!

We were greeted at the entrance by some peacocks!

Our Air boat was piloted by Crocodile Dundee...."We gonna find us some critters!"

We saw quite a few alligators, all in the water.  The boat driver had names for some of them!

Tag liked it when the guy went really fast.   The guy says, "I like to go back and forth....driving in a straight line is boooooooring!"

At the end was a short show with an alligator handler doing things like putting his jaw in the alligator's mouth!

That pretty much sums up our cruise experience.   I do have a bunch of randoms pictures that I'll post tomorrow.

Cruise Entertainment

The Entertainment and Activities staff were absolutely outstanding!  They worked hard at keeping us amused and entertained all day long.   Starting during the day by the pool, they had all kinds of games including volleyball, cornhole, golf chip shot, ping pong, bingo, question of the day, etc.  They also did water aerobics every day which was a lot of fun.  On the last day they had a contest for the Activities Team Staff which was pretty hilarious because the loser in each round got shoved into the pool fully clothed.

Almost any time throughout the day there were activities all over the ship.  They offered drawing classes (which we participated in) as well as an Art Auction and informational classes on fine art. 

I came very close to buying this piece of art.  I loved it, but finally decided I just wouldn't have a place to put it.

 

There was almost always a Trivia Contest going on in the Club. Tag and I participated in some of those, and even made some friends we teamed up with to try and win.   We met these friends during the Music Trivia Contest.   Tag was anxious to participate in that one, figuring he had a good chance of winning.   They announced at the beginning that the highest score ever made was 29/30.  As the questions were asked, we were making comments about how easy the answers were.   The ladies behind us heard, and we began a gentle trash-talk with them about who would win!  At the end, Tag missed ONE question!  (A question he says he will never forget!)    The ladies behind us missed two questions, but knew the answer to the one Tag had missed.  So if we had teamed up, we would have beat the record for a perfect score!  We teamed up in other Trivia contests, but never came close to winning.

They also did a bunch of game shows in the Club.

They were mostly one side of the room versus the other.

 

This game was fashioned after the show "Minute to Win It".   Good ideas for our next game night!

They also played a great game named "Yes or No".   The staff member put guests under the spotlight and had 3 minutes to interview them, asking questions to try and get them to say either word "yes" or "no". Very funny and the staff member was pretty good at it!

The highlight of every evening was a show in the The Theater.   These productions were phenomenal, and amazing in that some of the shows were done by the same group of singers and dancers and they literally never stopped moving for one second while on stage.  The amount of lyrics and choreography they had to learn was just astounding!

The show the first night was "Colors of Life".  It was a story of someone with no color in their life.  A new color was added with each song until the stage was a rainbow of colors. Every dance production show included some amazing aerial acrobatics.

The second night we were delighted to see a show by Tommy Green Jr.  He turned out to be our favorite act on the cruise....we saw him 3 times!  His first show was on the main stage in the Theater.   He sang, told hilarious stories (reminded me of Don White in that respect) and generally horsed around.

He told some great stories about his Grandpa, and at the end his Grandpa came on the big screen to sing us a song, give us a toast and wish us a happy cruise!

We saw Tommy again late night in the Eden Lounge.  They did an acoustic spotlight every night and when we saw he would be playing we went to see him again.  I got a chance to chat with him after the show and tell him how wonderful he was....he gave me a big hug!

And finally, we saw him again in the Grand Plaza on the last night.  He was asked at the last minute to team up with the evening's performer, Danny......I think because he was so popular!  BTW - Tommy was one of the staff members conscripted at the last minute to partipate in the pool contest on the last day.  A really good sport!

One evening, after the main show in the Theater, they put on a show in The Club.  Lots of 60's, 70's and 80's music!  And including dancing and aerial acrobatics!

The next night in the Theater was a magic show featuring "Magical Bones".   

For his grand finale, he was tied up, put into a box, they stuck sticks into the box in every direction, and when he came out he was not only in one piece, he had on different clothes!

This little group played in Eden one night......sorry to say I don't know what their names were!

The next night in the Theater was a song, dance, aerial acrobatic play called, "A Hot Summer's Night Dream".....a loose interpretation of the Shakespeare play.

Another favorite act  at the Theater was the Soulwaves....an R and B group that was very good.  We went to see them again at the Grand Plaza on a different night.  We met one of the singers, whose name is Seven (not Five, not Six....Seven) in the elevator before the show.  He wasn't dressed for the show, and we didn't know who he was.   He has a tattoo on the front of his neck that says, "Be Happy".   When I commented on it, he said it's his affirmation every morning when he looks in the mirror!  We knew it was him when we saw him on the stage because of the half-blond, half-black hair!

Another fantastic show in the Club.

The final night's show was called Kaleidoscope.  Beautiful show with dancing and amazing vocals.

In the very center of the ship was the Grand Plaza.  They had music and dancing there every night.   We saw a few musical acts there.

                                                  

At a certain point every night, the bartenders would put on a display of juggling.  On the night I finally was in a good spot to video it, they put on a wonderful display.....except for the end!  Ugh! Unfortunately, Blogger isn't allowing me to post it because it's too long....so I'll post it directly to facebook.

We really enjoyed our Tour Director, Lewis.  He was British and hysterically funny.  He introduced all the shows, and made himself available all over the ship when needed.   He was the one running the poolside contest for staff, and they dragged him into the pool at the end.   

He also decided to try his hand at the Bartender show!

So much music, dancing, singing and fun!  It really was a great part of the cruise.  Tag especially enjoyed every minute of it!

Tomorrow I'll tell you about our excursions.