Just Cruisin'

A little over a week ago, Phil and I got home from a cruise to the Bahamas! Neither of us had ever been on a cruise before and we had a blast. I am now in LOVE with cruises. We went with Phil’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law. It was a fun couples trip.

Waiting at the airport for our redeye flight Sunday night.

Despite our jetlag and lack of sleep, we were ready to party! Oh speaking of lack of sleep...Phil made a new friend on the plane with whom he talked to all night (is that the correct use of whom? I never know). Needless to say, Phil didn't get any sleep. Phil is really good at talking to anyone in any situation! This guy was actually a UVU student going home to Burmuda for the summer. To paint a picture, he was covered with tatoos and piercings. However, Phil did have a chance to briefly talk about the church so that was nice. We boarded the ship at about noon on Monday. The first thing we did was EAT and explore the ship until we could check into our rooms.

I have to put in a plug for Fernando. Fernando was our housekeeper and boy was he a good one! He came twice a day and I have to say he was quite the organizer and very artistic. The very first night I got ready for dinner and I left my hair and make-up stuff all over the desk. We got back to our room that night and my clutter had turned into this...

Fernando was also very good at making towel animals. We had a dog one night and what we think was Yoda the next. We didn't take a picture of Yoda because we weren't actually sure if it was Yoda. Here is our dog. We named him Fernando!

Once we could check into our rooms, we changed into swimming suits and hit the pool for some sun as the boat left Miami.

I think Jim’s favorite part of the whole trip was the soft served Ice Cream. He couldn’t get enough of it. I was pretty disappointed because the only flavors they had were vanilla and strawberry. No CHOCOLATE!!!

On Tuesday morning, we woke up at the Grand Bahama Island. We spent the day window shopping through the little stores and laying on the beach. We had so much fun in the amazing water and on the beach making sand sculptures. The boys made a woman and the girls made a sea turtle. It was fun watching people walk down the beach and stop to stare at our creations. I have to admit though, the woman was more popular than our turtle. A big group of 10 people even asked Margo to take their picture with it. It was a fun day!

Meals at the end of the night were always fun and the food was amazing. We also enjoyed shows every night. We saw a magic comedy show, a "Dancing with the Stars" competition, "On Broadway," and the closing night show. All of it was so fun.

The next day we landed at the Great Stirrup Cay. This is the cruise lines private island and it was probably my favorite island. We snorkled and had a blast. We saw a few note worthy things...several sting rays, squid, and a BARRACUDA!!! Like one of these things...

It was really cool. Snorkling was so fun. I love the sensation salt water gives you of just floating at the top of the water. The cruise line had fun music playing the whole day and they fed us a yummy BBQ buffet lunch on the island. Margo also rented this floating island thing, which was fun to have.

Our final destination was the beautiful island of Nassau. Our excursion that day was the amazing Atlantis resort. It is a beautiful hotel/aquarium/waterpark. We enjoyed a fun day of looking at all the fish and playing on the slides. They have two sweet slides that shoot you through a shark tank. It was an incredible trip!

Just an interesting fact about this hotel...this arch contains two suits that each cost $25,000/night with a four night minumum. Some serious celebrities have stayed there like Michael Jackson, Beyonce, and Tiger Woods! Thats a lot of money to drop for four nights!