Crusin The Bahamas
- Mar 2, 2015
- 7 min read
September 2014
I never really thought much about cruises, but they were always there in the back of my mind. A cruise ship holiday was never near the top of my list, but it should have been!
Camp was coming to an end and all international staff were going crazy trying to make traveling plans, booking accommodation before prices when up – Which is not a good thing when you’re a traveler with limited money, you have to make each dollar stretch as far as it can. Camp was a different story tho, if you wanted to make a bet you were betting with Pepsi cans. Yes camp currency was Pepsi. Daniel came up with this idea that we go on a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas at first I was like yeah nah, but when we discussed it further and came to the conclusion that it would be around $65 a night including meals, this was a no brainer situation! I was saving money and going to the Bahamas YES PLEASE. We manage to convince six others making it two cabins of four.
The night before the cruise we all flew into Florida – excepted for Chanika who was meeting us on the ship. We reunited with each other at the airport since we had been exploring other parts of America for the past 6 days, and I hadn’t seen their faces in which felt like forever! Since I had spent the past 4 months seeing them every single day to not seeing them at all. The airport hotel that we had booked was super great the beds felt like clouds AND THEY HAD FREE COOKIES 24/7 which tasted like heaven. Plus there were always cute boys in the swimming pool so I was not complaining. The following day we all piled into a shuttle and we were off, not knowing what to expect but ready to have a fantastic time.
That first step onto the cruise ship was so over whelming this ship was so big and so aesthetically pleasing. We had a couple of hours to waste while our baggage was taken to our rooms and our rooms set up. We decided to hit the buffet. We hit that buffet hard, going from camp style food buffets that are the same every week for 4 months make you forget what real people food taste like. It was the last time we were able to use the Internet for the next 5 days so we updated Facebook ovbs! Telling all of our friends and family about the next adventure we were about to have, also to make sure our mums didn’t go crazy trying to contact us when we weren’t able to reply. But like how am I suppose to keep my celebrity status on the Kim K game if I wasn’t able to have internet! The Carnival Liberty set sail and we were off. There was a setting sail party starting on the main decks with line dancing, games and people already hitting up the bars. I don’t know what it is about line dancing but Americans go crazy for it. Because line dancing was done like twice a day I have now become a pro at The Wobble and I have defiantly downloaded it and is on my phone, whenever that baby comes on you better watch out I’m about to break out into dance.
Our first full day on the cruise was a ship day. Schedules were left on our beds. It was jam packed with activities it’s a bummer I couldn’t be in two places at once! There was an endless party happening on the main decks with the swimming pool open and the water slide running. We spent most of the day relaxing on the top deck, playing mini putt or in the conference rooms listening how to get the best deals and what to do on the islands so we could make a game plan. The nights were very busy scheduled our dinner had been set for the early seating at 6pm. Dinners were one of my favourite times on board, firstly the eight of us were sat on a ten person table and guess who filled the last two seat, the only other couple from New Zealand – yeah I was hoping it was someone famous too. It was official we were the international table 8 Kiwis, 1 Aussie and 1 Irishman and to make it even better our phenomenal (I don’t use that word lightly he was so fantastic I wanted to bring him home) waiter German from Peru, had me in stitches and tears every night with his jokes and banter. I had turned 20 a few days prior to coming onto the ship so German insist that the whole dinning hall sing me happy birthday, he lit a candle and stuck it into a small bowl of butter and conducted the room. I felt like Barbie at the end of Toy Story with her cheeks burning from all the smiling. Stuff like this happened every night like being made to try crocodile and rabbit, drawing faces on balloons and basically pick on who ever wasn’t paying attention during meal ordering. 7pm was time to hit the theater where the crew put on amazing productions. Still a little cut buy the big globe statue that they had in one performance NZ was cut out – yeah we all noticed. 8:30 was comedy hour and once again my sides hurt from so much laughter. After we headed over to the nightclub followed by the casino. The boys played blackjack and us girls were more interested in playing the quarter machine, in particular Chanika since she was trying to collect quarters from each state of America. Everybody walked away with money earned, it may have not have been much but it paid for that extra cocktail on the islands. By the early am we would be walking the open decks eating pizza and ice cream before heading to bed.
Sleeping really wasn’t hard on the ship I hardly felt it rock and I was on the top bunk. Plus they folded fresh towels into animals and left them on you bed with the following days schedules and chocolate. It was pretty great.
Day 3: Half Moon Cay. Half Moon Cay is privately owned Island by Carnival Cruises; so only two people lived on this Island. They were there to look after the horses – what a sweet job if you were into horses. We opted for a beach day and oh my! That was the most beautiful beach I had been too white sand and crystal clear water. It was like those photos you see in magazines. It was paradise. After losing “I’m the dad” Conor and finding him hours later, we went to the special lunch the cruise had prepared for us. We did a bit more exploring but then it was time to hop back to the ship. As lovely as this island was I didn’t want to be stuck here. It was naptime followed by our fantastic nightly routine.
Day 4: Nassau. Nassau was also a very pretty island but this day we had designated it for bartering the best deals on that straw hat in the markets and island exploration followed by one of the coolest bars I have been too, Señor Frogs. The celling was decorated with bottom half of manikins in swim suits making it look like we were under the ocean, also signs with funny saying for example ‘ Dear police officer, I swear I’m not drunk I’m just walking like captain Jack Sparrow’ and ‘I used to be undeceive but now I’m not sure’. And would you know it more line dancing. Happy days. Early in the AM of the night a striking storm hit. The sky was like a deep blue, purple and black burse and ever so often a lighting bolt would light up the sky breaking it up from the ocean. Hundreds of white birds flew in circles and it was just the most peaceful thing to watch I could have sat there for hours.
Day 5: Freeport. Our appointed cruise parents (Kiwi couple that sat at dinner with us) told us that there wasn’t much to do on Freeport unless you did an excursion, we took that advice and booked for $20 a private beach with many beach activities and an open bar for another $20, which most people went for. We had a fun day lapping up the sun and testing out all the drinks on the menu. In the last 20 minutes before moving off the beach to catch the bus back to the boat, the weather started brewing up another beautiful storm of rich blues and greys and then it started to pour down, it was a great way to cool down our sunburnt bodies. Back on the ship we dried off and got ready for dinner. Some of us didn’t make it after test tasting far to many drinks at the beach. This was our last night and we had to be off the ship early in the morning the following day. We gathered on the top deck and lay on the deck chairs watching Spiderman on the big screen while drinking the champagne Daniel and Ronan had won at the art exhibition. It was a great way to spend our last night all together. Before foolishly leaving packing my over flowing bag to the last minute, so the cruise staff could collect it and take it off the ship for me.
We got off the ship, caught our shuttle to the airport and all said our goodbyes until the next time we saw one another. It was a great trip with a great bunch of people. It was basically like being on The Suite Life On Deck well without the school and unfortunately no Dylan and Cole Sprouse.
Who is ready for round two?!
-L
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