Best Vacation of my life

Just preparing for the cruise was like a rollercoaster. By the time the day rolled around I was definitely ready to "get out there."

Only as I was greatly enjoying time onboard the ship becoming attatched, I was crushed to learn that the following year she would be heading to Europe.

In August 2007 I kept getting a nudge from my feelings that I had to do something to take care of myself. For years all I did was take care of other people, mainly my three children. Several months prior, my counselor and my life coach kept telling me I had to do something for myself because I deserved it. It even got to the point I was told to stop doing things for others.

Well, I did.

I had looked into places I could go to nearby but nothing appealed to me. I had thought about a vacation with my kids but school had just begun and the two youngest were still too young to be able to enjoy anything like Walt Disney World.

So then I got the idea to look at cruises. I mean many of them were always advertising low prices for a cruise that lasted a couple of days so why not?
The only catch was If I went by myself I was going to be penalized. So I looked into how much it would cost if I took a friend with me. It was about the price I would pay if I went by myself.

A few days later I approached my best friend's wife asking if she would like to go on a cruise and if so, when. Well she was a little taken back for a short time and then got excited about it. We came up with the week before Christmas as our cruise date.

I had went to Travelocity.com and looked at the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line which seemed very appealing to me. Everytime I visited the website I got more and more excited.

Wait a minute though. What about how we're going to get down to Port Canaveral? We looked into flights which were just about as much as the cruise itself. In fact, I even looked at how much it would cost to add another person to the cruise without the flights. Much cheaper. Still, how were we going to get down there?

I talked to my best friend's wife Janice again this time asking if it would be okay if Mike went with us IF he was willing to drive us to Port Canaveral. I explained it was going to be Much cheaper if we had a driver take us to Port Canaveral than to fly.

Another few days and everyone in the party agreed that we would take the cruise but drive down to Florida.

Janice had a request though. We had to be in a room a good ways above the water line. No problem for me!

I wanted to have an oceanview stateroom if at all possible.

The most exciting part had to be booking the vacation. The hardest part was waiting four months!

Since it was the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line I had picked, I also had the option of two different cruise ships. For some reason the ship Sovereign of the Seas kept snatching my attention so I picked it. I really hoped this was a good pick. Otherwise I'd have two friends casting me overboard.

After debating how long we wanted to cruise it was obvious to me that a mere 3 day cruise wasn't enough. The four day cruise was the plan.

I chose the Oceanview Stateroom 8088. It had a blocked view but for a good reason-the lifeboats. Not a big deal to me at least I knew where they are located.

While I had the money I decided to buy us gift certificates to redeem later on closer to our cruise date towards our onboard credit. (This is a Great Idea that I Highly recommend doing)

Whenever I had the chance I would visit the official Royal Caribbean website to learn as much as I could about cruising.

I did learn I would have to have a Passport (which I'd never had). Janice took me to the post office a few days after I booked the cruise to be on the safe side. I only had to wait about three weeks before It came in. Still, I had to wait.

I was excited that I would finally get to travel abroad. This was a dream come true.

I ordered us tickets to go to the Pirates of Nassau museum in the Bahamas. For some reason Mike, Janice and their sons have this fascination with Pirates anyways so why not?

A few weeks later I decided to do some deeper research. I had went ahead and paid for the travel insurance if for some reason we couldn't make the cruise or lost something while traveling.

Most of the reviews were before Sovereign had been taken out of commission for renovations so I just ignored those. I found a few complaints here and there but most of them I noticed that the staff of Sovereign quickly remedied. I also noticed most were people who had rooms below the main deck near the water line.

I never once seen a review in which the staff had been rude, obnoxious or down right hateful either.

That put my mind to ease and got me really excited.

Next was finalizing arrangements for my children. Wasn't a problem for my oldest and youngest as they were taken care of right away. My middle child gave me concerns for awhile. A former neighbor who had a few months before agreed to care for him was preparing to move out of state the week before my trip. Just two weeks before the cruise the arrangements were settled for him so I was back on the excitement train.

The closer it got to December 17th the more excited I got. I really got excited when Royal Caribbean finally mailed me the itinerary booklet along with our luggage tags. I then called the gift certificate line to get our onboard credits finalized and to make sure we could use them on pretty much everthing the cruise had.
It was time to determine when we were leaving Tennessee for Florida and what route we were taking.

As we were finalizing our plans, I also made sure all of our information that I had stored online through Royal Caribbean's website on my account was correct and then get our SeaPass information printed out. (Very nice feature that saves a lot of time!)

Mike decided we would still go to church, me spend time with my oldest kids and then send them to their arranged places. I would come to their house just before midnight and we would leave. It was going to be a 10 hour trip with all three of us rotating driving.

A little after midnight we headed out.

The week before our cruise a really nasty storm had come through mid Florida and behind it was some nice cool weather. Monday morning when we arrived it was nice and chilly. How nice of mother nature.

We arrived a few hours early though we still drove by the port. There she was The Sovereign of the Seas sitting there waiting for us to board. She was very beautiful.

I did get a lump in my throat for awhile just thinking about the fact I would not be anywhere near land a few times during the cruise. I kept reminding myself I was going to be on a floating hotel. I also thought back to the movie Titanic which didn't help a bit. Granted Technology has changed as has the size of the ships.

Just for a little while we stopped over at Cocoa Beach. There was a nice cool breeze added to the cool air in the 50's. Wasn't a surpise we didn't see anyone in their bathingsuits out in the ocean water.

It got a little chilly for us Tennesseans so we chose to head back to the port.

When we got closer to Sovereign, my jaw about hit the ground about how big she truly was and all the people scrambling around young and old. I figured with the security check process and the cruise check in it would be quite awhile before getting to board. A few deep breaths and some quick meditating should help me stay patient, for awhile.

Parking and dropping our luggage off took maybe 7-10 minutes. That amazed me at the efficientcy of the Royal Caribbean service already.

Getting back in line to park for the week took a mere 5 minutes. Grabbing our carry on bags, standing in the security line, cruise check in, and boarding the ship: 30 minutes. No joke. Less than 1 hour for everything. Only issue that concerned me was listening to people in line for the cruise check in talk about that so very famous Norovirus. You see, while waiting in line we received a paper with a few questions asking if we had been ill in the past few days. If so we had to see the medical personel who would check us out before deciding if we can board.
I'm sure there would be people that would blatantly ignore that paper who really had been sick just so they wouldn't miss out and waste money a paid for cruise trip. I hadn't been sick nor did I want to be. Positive thoughts please.

Once the kind lady who checked us in gave us our SeaPass Cards we flew past the refreshments table too excited to wait anylonger to board the ship. Mike affectionately named his card SeaBass.

Only drawback once we checked in was that everyone already onboard was attempting to use the elevators. Everyone. Instead of waiting in line Mike decided he was going to use the stairs. It was only four flights we had to take anyways.

We actually got to deck 8 just as our luggage was being brought up. Pretty good if you ask me.

A little shell shock when we finally seen our room. It was tiny yet cute. We were very close friends so it didn't bother us a bit.

I picked the bed underneath the oceanview window, Janice picked the other one while Mike ended up on the top bunk. This was going to be an interesting vacation.

So far the staff of Royal Caribbean were awesome. They were always pleasant. I wondered what kind of intense training these people had to go through to be like this?

Once we got settled in it was time to go exploring. Staff informed us lunch was being served. Woohoo! We were very, very hungry.

I decided to try the oriental line. They offered chopsticks to eat with. I figured since Mike and Janice had been to China they could show me how to use them. When their efforts failed one of the staff members obviously from the orient attempted to show me. After some time he began laughing while doing his best to hold my hands and directing my fingers into the correct position. I weakly got it down pat. I still had issues every once in awhile though. Food would slip out of the chopsticks or the food would go flying.

It was time for a drink to help break the ice.

I caught out of the corner of my eye a staff member walking around with drinks yet he was so far away I got impatient. I walked outside to the poolside bar and ordered something I have no idea what in the world I was getting myself into. I just liked it because it was blue.

Figures I get back to the table and Janice has already gotten a drink from the guy walking around. By the time I sit down I already have a buzz just from sipping my drink from the bar to the table.

Okay. Having a little too much fun already. And the ship hasn't left the port yet?

I decide it's time for me to walk around and get some fresh air. After all I have to learn where everything is at.

A while later we decide to head back to our room in preparation for the ship heading out to sea which includes a nice long session of safety lessons requiring us to wear those lovely life vests.

The total amount of people on the ship was going to be divided into two and placed in two separate areas for the drill. By the time we got there everyone else somehow made it to the drill area before we did. Guess most of them had cruised before or someone had told them about it ahead of time.

We stood in a nice organized line for I am guessing 15 minutes as we listened to the captain and staff go over the drill routine. The only part I enjoyed was hearing the nice big horn from the smoke stacks. I got a sudden flashback of the Love Boat right at that moment.

Getting out of that lounge area was worse than standing in line going through security and then checking in. By the time we reached our room all of us were quite exhausted.

When the announcement came over the intercom that the ship was preparing to head out we grabbed our cameras and out to the back of the ship. (No, I don't remember the correct names of the parts of Sovereign)

It was breezy and cold although I was still enjoying watching us on the ship leaving the port with the sunset behind us.

We stayed a few minutes overlooking the pool & bar area watching the other cruisers dancing to the music. It got a little chilly so we went back to our room for awhile.

Then it hit me there will be NO land around us until the morning! Later I turned my cell phone on for some reason. On the screen it said Out to Sea (well, duh). Surprisingly my phone worked but I never used it. A former neighbor of mine called my phone a few times. I just let it go to voice mail.

A few hours later we decided to go to see the comedian Steve Smith. Oh, was he hilarious. I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time. And thanks to Steve, Mike got hooked on saying CocoCay (Steve's version is Coke Okay). Mine was Coco Loco.

By the time we arrived at Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean's very own island, that is all Mike could say. All I could say was Coco Loco. And two Coco Loco's is what I had to drink!

CocoCay1

Mike, Janice and I decided we wanted to go walking on the island trails. They were very interesting!


CocoCay?

After going through the trails we found a really good spot to rest on the island.

Enjoying the hammock	My most favorite photo I took
Sorry Mike, no hammock for you!	Going back towards the main part of the island

Then we decided to work our way back towards the main part of the island. It was getting a little chilly just laying around and not moving. We were getting ready to eat lunch anyways.

After we ate, Mike, Janice, and I once again relaxed at least for awhile until I started getting cool again. This was one of my favorite spots on the island.

On the way back to the ship was very exciting (at least to me). All day it had been really, really windy. By the end of the day though, it had worsened. Our group ended up staying on the tender for at least 30 minutes waiting on the tender in front of us to unload passengers. All the while Mike is looking up towards the front of the ship and notices the capitan and his crew using their binoculars to watch what is going on down below. Obviously that is not a very good sign.

The wind would pick up hard sometimes so the crew would have to stop unloading the passengers from our tender. It would kick up the ramp way too hard. I was glad to finally get back on the Sovereign after that excitement!

Even after all the excitement of the day we were wore slap out. I know we went back to our room and took a nice long nap.

Next day was destination: Bahamas!

Early the next morning, I woke up to the ship shaking. Apparently we had just arrive at the port and was being turned in the correct position. We knew it would be awhile before we could get off of the ship so we took our time getting ready. Still had to eat breakfast (my favorite part of the day).

After eating breakfast we ran back to the room to make sure we had everything. At the last minute we decided to hold off taking our beach towels and stuff until later. This would be our shopping and visiting the Pirates of Nassau Museum trip.

The Port of Nassau, Bahamas December 2007	Atlantis off in the distance	Port of Nassau, Bahamas with Atlantis off in the distance
Mike explaining something on the wall and Pirates of Nassau	A Scene at the Pirates of Nassau Museum	Walking from the island back to the ship

On our second time off the ship we decided to head to the beach. Mike talked to a very interesting taxi driver. Mike and Janice warned me that I would probably have an adventurous ride to the beach.

I did.

The driver took us to a spot that was located behind the Atlantis Resort. Mike payed a pretty good amount for three chairs to rent. The water was okay it was just the breeze that was not helping at all.

I pretty much stayed in the water trying to keep warm. Janice eventually came and hung out with me. Mike did attempt to enjoy the water but that didn't go too well.

Mike and Janice pumping themselves up to go in the water	Janice and I off in the distance playing in the water
Mike a little chilly for the water	Another picture I like of the Bahamas

When we were getting ready to leave and I was cleaning myself off I discovered I had a load of sand all inside of my bathingsuit in every crevice! I couldn't wait to get back to the ship and take a shower. When I did there was sand everywhere in the bathroom. Janice had a lot too just not as much as me.

Later on that night we met up with the girls whom we dined with in the evening. They were all college age girls and interesting to be around.

After that we all split up to do whatever on the ship until it was time to leave the port(which was around midnight). It was very beautiful at night with all of the lights on the island.