Welcome to ssryan.com
Welcome to ssryan.com
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Royal Caribbean Cruise to the Bahamas Day 1 – Miami, Florida Welcome to Miami (sorry folks, no Will Smith!) :o( The flight from Toledo was very different than flights from Detroit. The airport was very small, and we arrived very early. Jen and Steve dropped us off… we really should have went with them for breakfast. We ended up sleeping at the airport instead! :o) We arrived in Miami about an hour late, and caught the shuttle to our luxurious Days Inn hotel!! The ONLY nice thing about this place was the free shuttle to the port of Miami. The lobby was stinky and the workers were rude.. and the bathroom hadn’t been cleaned! YUCK!! Lucky we only had to stay one night!! :o) We walked about a mile looking for a decent place to eat dinner and finally found a pizza hut! YUMMY!!! I went to sleep really early (7:30 or 8:00) Shaun stayed up watching TV until midnight. We checked out at 11 a.m., but had to wait in the stinky lobby for 2 hours to catch the only shuttle for the Port of Miami! (now we know why free things, aren’t always that great of a deal!) The driver was really horrible, but luckily we made it to the ship in one piece. The driver (who was a big jerk) said.. "Thanks for the tip" because we didn’t give him one! Uhhh sorry.. he sucked and so did his hotel, and I don’t tip for the fun of it!! So needless to say the first day wasn’t very exciting, but at least we got a good sleep and we made it to the ship on time! :o)
Day 2 – The Majesty of the Seas WOW!!!!!!!!!! I don’t think we were quite prepared for how huge the ship would be! There was so much to explore!! The first thing we checked out after boarding the ship was our room. (Very clean and no odor! Haha) We looked at the ‘compass’, a daily ship guide, to find out what exciting events would be taking place on our first evening.. then we went in search of our first meal. MMMM It was just a lunch buffet, but it was great! TONS of food and desserts. We went back to our room, very stuffed from lunch and Ronald, our "room guy" brought us our luggage. He seems very nice, and he’s from Jamaica. Next we had to go to the deck for the ‘save yourself from drowning class’ … BORING, but necessary, I guess. We then relaxed on the pool deck and waited to set sail! The ship moved much faster than either of us expected, it was really fun waving to people on shore and in other boats. We hung out on deck for a while, and then returned to our room to prepare for our first dinner. By that time, I was feeling a bit of motion sickness. :oP The dinner was very nice, like eating at an upscale restaurant.. many courses and always room for dessert! We shared our table with a couple and a family, everyone was very nice! After dinner we went back to the room, so that I could get some rest. I considered getting some motion sickness medication, but the pills costs 7.50.. and since we were a bit poor this trip, I wanted to spend the money on more important things, like alcohol! (I guess I didn’t feel THAT bad, huh??)! Hahaa We went to the evening show, had some laughs… after that I felt pretty good. I thought that the ship wasn’t moving as much, but a trip to the top deck proved me wrong. I guess I was just used to the motion now!! YAAHOOOOOO We had some hot cocoa and fruit punch and sat by the window looking out at the deep dark sky, unable to tell when the sky met the ocean because of the complete blackness. The only thing we could see were stars and the white caps of the waves that the ship was creating. The sound of the waves crashing is so soothing. So now, as I sit here in our small inside stateroom writing this.. Shaun is at the cinema seeing Jurassic Park 3 (whoopeee) I told him to wake me when he is done, maybe I’ll be ready for the midnight buffet? The cruise director said that the average person gains 3 pounds per day on a cruise!! WOW! I guess I can see why though, they feed you constantly! :o) **Well, when Shaun returned from the movie, I was fast asleep, and uninterested in the midnight buffet… funny how relaxing and sitting around can make you so sleepy! Haha
Day 3- Nassau, Bahamas… or as we like to say, Nassuck MY balls! Haha :o) quote for the day, NO HAIR BRAIDS PLEASE!!!! Ok, first things first… FOOD! (as always on a cruise) Shaun and I are not the type of people who ever eat breakfast.. but how can we pass up all the great food?? After eating, we went to check out the sights of the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau. It is a very tacky touristy little town, people trying to sell you anything possible.. hounding, hounding, HOUNDING! I was offered hair braids only about 50 times! We got through (ALMOST) without buying anything.. we did get suckered into some bracelets (the guy said, these are free, as he was putting them on us… then he said, but if you want to give a small donation that would be great!) So, we gave him 5 bucks for two crappy bracelets. OH well, we learned! We went for a walk in search of a nice beach.. but all we found was a rocky sort of beach. We continued to walk around for a while, found nothing exciting, so back to the ship we go! I think the main attraction there is the shopping, which really didn’t interest either of us. Oh well, back to the ship for more food! Hahaa We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the ship, did some deck reading in the sun. Later that day, Shaun got a headache (lack of caffeine, I say!) so we rested in our room for a bit, and watched a movie called Rock Star. We ate dinner in the casual area because it was formal night, and we didn’t feel like being formal. We played the slot machines for about an hour with 5 bucks, and also went to the theatre to see the ‘not so newlywed game’ which was a lot of fun.. some really good laughs! Back to the room for an early crash night! I was sleeping by 11 p.m. and Shaun read some of his book before calling it a night. Seriously, all of this eating and relaxing can really make a 24 year old feel 75! Hahaa
Day 4 - Coco Cay We woke up at about 8:45, went for breakfast, then made our way to board the tender (is it called a tender?? ... it's like a ferry) over to the island of Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean's private island! My, what beautiful beaches they have. Our first trip to the island it was sprinkling a bit, so we walked around, put our feet in the water (it was cooollld!), took some photo's and laid in a hammock for two (how cozy!)! After a while, we decided to go snorkeling, so back to the ship for our gear!! We had to rent life vests ( a requirement, I guess) then we were off! We saw a lot of fish, people kept saying that they were seeing sting rays and lobsters, but we didn't see any of that. I was a little uneasy about the whole swimming in the ocean with ferocious sharks and jelly fish thing. I tend to be terrified when I can't touch the bottom, and it was my first time snorkeling in the ocean! Luckily, I did not get attacked by a shark, though I think I was attacked by a jelly fish on my knee! hahaa The ferry ride home was wet and chilly, I was glad to take a nice warm shower, we were salty too! YUM! For the first time on the cruise, we actually experienced the feelings of hunger. It was 4 p.m. and we had only eaten one meal, so we went to the Windjammer Cafe for a snack. Next event for the day was the Men's belly flop contest on the pool deck. This evening I got some really nice sunset pictures. We lounged around on deck for a little while before it was time for dinner. After dinner, we tried our luck on the slot machines.. we didn't have much luck using only 5 bucks, but it was fun anyway.
Day 5 - Key West We slept in until 10:45 today, quite late for us on this trip! We got to the windjammer cafe just in time for the end of breakfast. (Whew!) Then out to explore Key West! Key West is a very relaxed island, there are a ton of shops and bars. We walked all over the island. At least 7 miles today, I'd say. We visited the cemetery, there were a a lot of really cool headstones. We tried to find public beach access, but were unable to. Oh well, the water wasn't nearly as beautiful as the Bahamian waters of Nassau and Coco Cay. We enjoyed walking around Key West for about 3 hours, it was a breezy and sunny day. We returned to the ship to have our last lunch on board, then went to the deck to lay in the sun and open air! We both got a hint of red on our faces, but nothing too serious. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon away! We returned to the deck at about 5:30 to watch the sunset.. it was pretty, but it didn't set into the ocean like I had wanted it to. We had a pina Colada, which was tasty, then we went to look at the sunset party, which is held every evening at the pier in Key West. The ship honked it's very huge horn right in our ears (my fault for standing right in front!) and we started to depart. After departure, we rushed down to our room to collect the waiters tip envelopes and made our way to the last main meal on board. It was great! Shaun and I both had Indian vegetable curry. YUMMY! After dinner we got a free shot (of alcohol) for being on our honeymoon (our table told the guy, so he gave us one for free) We even got to keep the little glass, very nice! We were so full after dinner that we had to rest, came around again at 8:30 for the farewell show. It was very funny, there was a famous comedian, some singing and dancing, lot's of wonderful shows to end a wonderful trip! We went up on deck for one last look overboard at the white caps our ship was creating, the fresh air blowing through our hair... what a great feeling! Now it's back to our room to pack our bags and put them outside the door and prepare for an early morning departure. Oh yes, almost forgot! We ordered room service (we had too, it had been 4 hours since dinner, and it's something that we always wanted to try.. but were always too poor... this was included! haha) I had some fruit, Shaun had a burger and a salad. We set our wake up call for 7:45, and went to sleep at 11:30! (Hey, it's really hard to relax in the sun!!)
Day 6 - Miami - Cincinnati - Toledo - home! MAN! Waking up at the crack of dawn sucks anytime, but much much more on the last day of a cruise! YAAWWWWNN! We got up, left the ship, found our luggage, went through customs, which was very easy coming off of a ship. Now off to find a way to the airport! We found a bus going our way, but we were supposed to have gotten a voucher from the pursers desk (20 bucks for both) but we didn't have one.... sooo the guy charged us only 5 bucks each! WOOWOO What a deal! See, sometimes it pays to wait until the last minute. The ride to the airport was about 15 minutes. Upon arrival, we decided to try getting an earlier flight, since it was only 9 a.m. and our flight wasn't due for departure until 3:45. We are on standby for the 11:10 a.m. flight, and if we make the connection in Cincinnati we will arrive in Toledo at 3:45 - woohoo! I hope it works out. That is the last bit I had written in the journal.. If I remember correctly, it did not work out how we had hoped, but we still made it home earlier than we were supposed to. After thoughts.... 9/30/02 We had a great time on the cruise, it was probably the most relaxing vacation we've ever taken, and we really needed it! We will definitely go on another cruise in the near future!!
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