Several friends of ours had mentioned that instead of paying $40 to do the “official” tour of Atlantis, we could grab a taxi for $10 and go. So this is what we did. Our first cab driver stuffed about 10 of us into a minivan to head over. A very loud and fun gentleman, he clearly enjoyed talking about the Bahamas and the tourist aspect. Just about everyone we spoke to in the Bahamas were very proud of their home.

After a short drive, we arrived at Atlantis and began looking around. Many of the shops within the Hotel were very high end and we walked through the casino admiring sculptures and marble. We managed a peek at part of the aquarium that Atlantis is famous for including the biggest flipping Manta Ray I’ve ever seen. From side to side it was a great deal wider than I am tall. We decided that we would wonder around outside Atlantis and check out the waterpark, lazy river, and official aquarium tour. That idea quickly came to a screeching halt when we found out they wanted $110 a person to go into the water park. Um…how about a big FU there?

So after 90 minutes or so at Atlantis, we decided to head back to the downtown area. Once again we had another loud, outgoing taxi driver and we learned about some of the local areas such as the Fish Fry…which is a congregation of restaurants, the The Straw Market which is full of knockoff goods and locally produced touristy stuff, and of course many financial and diamond shops. The traffic in Nassau is very congested but people seemed to be friendly enough driving around. After poking our heads into a few shops, we picked a local restaurant to have lunch at where I sampled a delicious local soup!

Eventually we headed back to the ship where he had decided to partake in some of the activities on board in the evening. Our first event was the stand up comedian on board. He started off relatively slow and his material was weak…until he started to look for interaction from the audience. The best bits of his show were taking comments from the audience and running with them.

After the show, we had dinner and then spent the evening out by the pool and top deck of the ship before calling it a night.

Pulling up to Coco Cay, even though this was a private/commercialized island owned by Royal Caribbean it was still very cute. A number of small shacks dotted a portion of the dock that were sort of an open air market to sell all kinds of knick knacks. Hammocks were strong between trees, and there were a number of beaches and activities to choose from.

We headed to the closest beach and Trish grabbed a cold beverage and I jumped in the water. It was very clear and there were small jellyfish and numerous fish swimming around. What did surprise me was that the sand in the water was very rough, not like the sand you experience in the water in Clearwater. Eventually I grabbed a raft and spent some time pushing Trish around and just talking. I would say it was one of the best conversations we have ever had and that communication alone made the trip well worth it.

After floating around on the raft, we explored the market for a bit, took silly pictures, and took a nap in a hammock. We eventually grabbed lunch and then went looking for the nature trail and instead found the Iguanas. Most of the iguanas were not that large but one was a freaking monster…probably as long as I was tall…and he looked pissed off. I couldn’t find any small children to push over to him which was disappointing. =) Shortly after that we stopped at a Tiki Bar for a little bit and made our way back to the ship in a light rain to prepare for the Formal Dinner.

The Formal Dinner affair was very nice and we were fortunate to have a good waiter and assistant waiter. At our table was a coupe from Houston, TX, two females who were friends from Birmingham, AL, and a couple from Augusta, GA. The couple from Augusta was great with the Boyfriend looking like Lil’ John…down to the dreads and gold fronts…dude dressed like a total pimp and we had a great time the rest of the Cruise running into each other.

After dinner we took a walk down to the Casino to play a few slots and Roulette. I lost $17. I was unfortunately unable to play my beloved black jack on the trip but maybe next time. We ended up walking around the upper deck and the pool of the ship a bit more and sat up top and watched the ocean and talked about life, the Universe, and everything. Eventually it was bedtime as in the morning, we were waking up to hit the Bahamas!

The weeks leading up to the cruise were exciting…in a bad way. Each of us had some issues come up that could have prevented us from going and quite frankly the only reason I made the cruise was because Trish put it on her card and let me pay her back. Trish had more serious issues to deal with than I and I cannot thank her enough for deciding to go on the cruise due to the fun we ended up having.

The cruise we decided to take was 4 nights/5 days to the Bahamas out of Port Canaveral on Royal Caribbean. Trish had found a GREAT deal on the cruise and as luck would have it…we were bumped UP to a nicer room than what we were originally supposed to have. The trip down was uneventful apart from having the top down on the convertible and the trunk lid up as someone, *cough*Trish*cough* needed to bring a suitcase. I didn’t think anything would fall out as it was fairly secure but I kept an eye out regardless.

Never having been on a cruise ship before, I wasn’t prepared for the enormous size of it. We aren’t talking aircraft carrier big but Jesus Christo…it was not small. I believe the ship held a little over 1200 passengers with a crew of almost 900. Upon receiving our boarding passes, we hopped on board!

My first thought upon seeing our room was, “Wow this is small” and my second thought was, “This is a larger room upgrade…how small are the smalls?”. My friend Tracy had been on this same cruise the week before and warned me about the size of the showers so that wasn’t much of a surprise…for the rest of you however, let me assure you there is no way to have sexy time in a Cruise Line shower unless you are in the Presidential Suite. I’d also like to point out this wasn’t because I tried, it is mainly because when in the shower the front of me pretty much touched one side of the shower and my butt touched the other side.

The ship was scheduled to depart about 4PM and as we had arrived a few hours early for good parking, this allowed us a little bit of time to get some food and to take a tour of the spa and fitness room. We were also introduced to the voice of Jimmy, our Cruise Director, who sounded like a gay, black dude, with something in his mouth speaking waaaaaay too fast. The gay and black part was later confirmed visually but I could not understand a damn thing the man said over the intercom the entire cruise.

Before officially leaving, the entire ship had to partake in an annoying safety drill which involved getting life jackets out of your room and assembling at a specific point where apparently we were supposed to jump overboard in case of an emergency or man the lifeboats or something. In all seriousness, I understood the point of the drill so I’m not really bitching. That being said, if we hit an iceberg, or were torpedoed, or rammed by the Nautilus, there is no way people would be calm and remember what the heck to do. Our Captain made an announcement where it became apparent she was a woman which elicited groans from the men. Just for the record, she was a hell of a lot better Ship Captain than any female Airline Pilot I’ve ever had.

And with that…we were off! Being located near the aft of the ship (the rear…I’m so nautical) I expected the noise from the engines to be much louder than the were. Honestly the very low rumble they made ended up being quite comfortable and made dosing off easy. Also I was interested in experiencing how much movement you would feel in the Ocean. The answer, for me, was zero. I know we weren’t hitting massive storms or anything and the swells were minimal, but I barely felt any movement the entire trip. I was amazed at the number of people I saw with the patches behind their ears to prevent motion sickness.

Our first itinerary was to travel overnight to the private island of Coco Cay. We decided to skip the main dining room on the first night and instead opted for the buffet. I’ll say this, the food on the ship was consistently good all week long. I avoided the temptation of gorging myself and ate 5 or 6 times per day a fair amount. Great food and always something different!

After exploring the ship and checking out the different venues: pool deck, casino, rock climbing wall, basketball court, theatre, etc. just to see what was around. We retired for the evening for the day that was to come!

For those who don’t know, Trish is a wonderful girl…hell she’s only the 4th person who has made it more than a year with me…that is saying something. Pertinent to some of my posts is that in some ways we are very similar. She has done everything on her own and has a great career. She is smart and funny and stubborn as hell. She also has a tough time depending on others. I’m sure anyone who knows me can recognize that I’m dealing with someone very similar to myself and when you add both of us being a little (haha) emotional…well sometimes we get upset over things we shouldn’t.

I know I’ve been guilty of this and my blog is from my perspective…so guess who gets to be right? Haha. Seriously though, she is an absolutely wonderful girl and since we have worked on our communication a bit, I’ve been very happy. I’m luck to have her in my life there is no doubt. =)