Our latest adventure took us on a Bahamas Cruise followed by
a short visit to Marco Island and then a week at my favourite place – Walt
Disney World!
22nd November
An early start in the office today as I had to complete the
forecast before heading off on our trip :(
Rob stayed at home to get the dog ready for the kennels and to sort out
some last minute bits and pieces. I managed to get everything done by 2 and
headed home.
We tidied the house (which seems odd but it is nice to come
home and not have to do any cleaning) and then did the packing. Shortly after 5
and we headed off for the airport.
We stopped along the way and grabbed a bite to eat. We
arrived at the Hilton Gatwick around 8pm and checked in before dropping our
bags in the room. Then we took the car to the long stay car park and took the
bus back. As we were a little bit later arriving we decided not to bother with
twilight check-in.
We had been upgraded to the executive floor so we popped in
for a quick drink before bed.
23rd November
Unfortunately when we woke up in the morning we discovered
that there was no hot water :( We called and were told that an engineer was
working on it but it was not fixed before we left. The front desk did adjust
our room cost to apologise for the problem but not the best start to a morning.
We took the monorail across to the terminal for our flight
with BA. We had checked in online but needed to drop off our bags. We were able
to print our own bag labels and the bags were gone in a few moments. Security
was fine and we were quickly through so we went to Frankie and Benny’s for
breakfast.
Not too long a wait before our gate was announced and
boarding started. We actually left a few minutes early I think. The flight was
fine – I watched Planes, Turbo and most of Monsters University :)
Immigration took a little while at the other end but I had
successfully retrieved the bags before Rob was done. Straight down to Avis to
pick up the car and had no wait. The guy was friendly – no hard sell and we
were on our way to Cape Canaveral.
About an hour later and we arrived at the Radisson. We
checked in and got a voucher for our transfer to the cruise terminal. We found
our room which was in a building quite far from the lobby and were immediately
puzzled by the Jacuzzi tub in the corner!
We were hungry and tired so we got some food from McDonalds
across the road and then went to bed. At this point we realised that we had
left our swimming costumes at home!
24th November
We woke up this morning and decided to pop to Ron Johns at
Cocoa beach to try and buy some swimming costumes. We had some time before our
transfer and it was only a short drive down the road.
We got there and were very puzzled by the apparent lack of
swimming costumes for me – there were a few on sale but very limited sizes and
colours. We did manage to get some shorts for Rob but I left with nothing.
Rob’s parent’s were joining us for the 2nd week so we asked them to
collect mine and bring them out.
Back to the hotel and we got a subway next door for a late
breakfast/early lunch. Then we parked the car in the cruise area and headed to
the lobby to catch our bus.
Whilst I had been researching our trip I had read many
horror stories about the massive lines that we would find on arrival at the
cruise terminal.....
We got to the terminal and the porters took our bags and we
headed across to the terminal. We walked in and there was no line at all for
check-in! We saw a lady who took a quick look at our passports, scanned our
cards and told us to head to a 2nd line to get our keys.
There were about 2 people in front of us at this point. We
had a photo taken and were given our sail and sign cards then we had to have
our photo taken in front of a picture of a boat.
Up a big escalator and we waited I think about 5 minutes before being allowed to board the ship.
I think our total time from arrival was 15 mins!
Once onboard we went to the Lido deck to get lunch and a
drink. Everyone had the same idea as it was packed! We found a table and got
some lunch and then a short while afterward headed down to our cabin.
We were in U22 – which had a picture window. The cabin was
much bigger than our first cruise experience – and the bathroom was much nicer
than the last time :)
We had a quick wander around and then went to the spa as
they were offering a tour of the facilities (and also a raffle)! Shortly
afterwards we had to go for our muster drill – this was held in the theatre and
we didn’t have to go outside as it had started to rain a little :(
After the drill we went back to the spa for the raffle but
we weren’t lucky :( We then found out about another raffle later in the day at
the art gallery so we decided to go there after we had left the port.
We headed up to the deck to watch the ship leave Cape
Canaveral. We were escorted out by the coastguard (who was visibly armed) which
seemed very odd to us! They did wave when they were finished escorting us out
though.
We went to the art gallery for the next raffle and we were
unsuccessful again :( We did get a free picture though to take away.
We stopped to buy the soda package at one of the bars and to
have a quick drink before dinner. It was a little bit rough on the way out and
it was quite funny to watch people wobbling their way around the ship.
We were starting to get tired again now so we went to the
main dining room for dinner before bed. The food was good – we were a little
bit surprised by the wait staff doing a conga as part of ‘showtime’!
Dinner finished and we went off to bed.
25th November
We docked in Freeport this morning and the weather was a
little overcast, we had breakfast in the main dining room. We had originally
planned to book an excursion but hadn’t been able to make up our mind what to
do. As it turned out several of them had been cancelled due to the weather.
We decided to go for a wander around Port Lucaya so we joined
the line for a ‘taxi’. We were squashed into a 12 seater van as part of a group
of 14 people...! The motto seemed to be add 2 more people than there are
actually seats!
We got part of the way along our trip and the van pulled
over and the driver swapped with another guy....we assume there was some
licensing issue that they were avoiding!
We arrived in Port Lucaya and paid for our return journey
and were issued a ticket. Return journeys were available from 12 – which means
this service should really be called a shuttle rather than a taxi!
We wandered across the road to the shops and took a look
around. Most of the stores were selling jewellery, watches etc.
The beach was a short walk away so we headed over to take a
look. The route to the beach was a pathway past what appeared to be a junk
yard! The beach itself was fine and we walked a little way along. It was quite
windy but not cold and if the weather had been better would have been quite
nice.
We walked a little further and were yelled at by some guy – we
eventually worked out that he was telling us the beach we were walking toward
was private. Why there wasn’t a sign informing people of this was beyond us!
Back to the shops and we found a boat which suggests that
the local sheriff was misappropriating funds!
We also found a telephone box on our travels...!
We took a
seat in a bar for a while and got something to drink. We were a little
gobsmacked when a woman and her daughter ordered tequila shots – for the
daughter who appeared to be about 13 years old!
We popped into the casino across the road for a quick look
around and then took the ‘taxi’ back to the boat!
We decided to have lunch at the Lido again – I think we
might have had burgers today. Once we were done we went to have a rest in our
cabin before the art auction later.
We fell asleep but luckily woke up in time for the art
auction. We headed up and handed in our raffle tickets.....guess if we won
anything?
There were a couple of pictures which we quite liked – one
of Mickey Mouse as a fireman which was quite big and probably way too
expensive.
There were quite a lot of items available for sale and the
auction went on for a couple of hours. It was quite interesting though and we
found out a little about some of the artists.
Most of the pictures did not appeal to us or were too
expensive but we did decide on impulse to buy the item at the link below:
We are still awaiting it’s arrival – having said that we
think that UPS attempted to deliver it today (Christmas Eve) whilst we were out
shopping!
Art auction over (and no we didn’t win any raffle prizes)
and we headed out on deck for a little bit. We had an appointment at the art
gallery to finalise our purchase so we went there before dinner. Tonight was
formal night on the cruise so we decided to skip the main dining room as we
couldn’t be bothered to dress up.
We were a little disappointed by the selection available at
the Lido – we eventually decided on pizza which was just ok :(
Another quiet night and we were off to bed.
Today we docked in Nassau, I had unfortunately heard nothing
good about this port and we debated booking an excursion but decided against
it.
We got off the ship and braved the many many people trying
to persuade us to rent a scooter. There had been quite heavy rain before we
arrived and several of the roads were slightly flooded. We took a wander around
some of the shops and then made our way toward the beach.
The beach was quite small but the sun appeared and it was
quite nice. We had passed a McDonalds on the way and headed back there to grab
a drink and borrow their wifi for a short time.
Worryingly there were 2 security guards in McDonalds –
reassuring in the sense that they were there but not great that they were
needed :(
We sat for a while to send a couple of emails and then
decided that we didn’t really need to see any more of Nassau. So we finished
our drinks and headed back to the ship.
We did pop into Senor Frogs for a quick look on our way back
and we stopped to look at some souvenirs but decided against any cheap tacky
t-shirts.
I have to say that we weren’t overly impressed by either of
the ports we visited. I’m sure the Bahamas are nice enough if you visit a
resort and stay there but if not you can find nicer beaches in Florida!
So, back to the ship and we had a little rest in our cabin.
We were planning on going to an art seminar in the afternoon but we were being
too lazy and so didn’t bother.
We headed out on deck to watch the ship leave the port, then
we went to the bar for a little while before dinner.
There was a singer/guitar
player called Chris Miller who was quite entertaining.
Rather than having a set dining time we were on ‘My Time
Dining’ – which means you can arrive during the opening hours (6 – 9.30) and be
seated as soon as an appropriate sized table is available. For some reason
though a large number of the guests decided to queue up before opening time –
at one point the line was all the way around the balcony level!
We eventually wandered up a little later when the line had
gone. Tonight’s ‘showtime’ was the wait staff performing Gangnam Style :) This
was so funny....!
27th November
Today was our ‘fun day at sea’.
We got up late and headed to the main dining room for
brunch, it was quite odd to have breakfast followed by dessert!
The rest of our day was spent being lazy – we watched a
couple of movies on the TV in our cabin and I think we played a game of mini
golf. Aside from that we didn’t do much else!
Back up to the Main Dining Room for dinner and ‘showtime’
tonight was the wait staff singing to us! We had a visit at our table from the Maître d' who was interested in how our
experience had been – we were glad to be able to tell him that the wait staff
had been one of the highlights of our cruise :)
We were also visited by a magician who did a card trick that
still has us confused after several weeks!
Back to the cabin to pack and then to bed!
28th November
Today was Thanksgiving and our day to disembark the ship. We
had chosen to self-debark which meant taking all of our bags off the ship on
our own – but which meant we could leave at about 8.30 and start our trip to
Marco Island.
We woke fairly early and sorted all of our stuff and then
waited for our deck to be called. It was a little later than scheduled but not
by much. We walked our bags off and were sent down in a lift – even though we
would have managed fine on the escalator.
We joined the immigration line and had all of our documents
ready – one guy actually thanked us for following the instructions!
There was a short wait before we saw an immigration officer –
he glanced at our passports and sent us on our way! Quite different to our
experience at the airports where we are normally asked questions about our
plans!
Outside the terminal and we went to find the bus back to the
Radisson – just as we arrived so did the bus! We handed over our voucher and
off we went – we were back at the hotel a few minutes later and set off to find
the car.
We loaded up the car with our luggage, set the sat nav and
off we went!
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