Kevin and I finally went on our mini-moon to the Bahamas. We have wanted to take a cruise for some time now, but didn’t actually book our trip until after our wedding in July 2018. Right after our wedding, we wanted to take a mini vacation to somewhere warm. The temperature in Ohio has been getting colder by the day, so planning this trip to the Bahamas during mid-October worked out perfectly for us. The only direct flight we could find to ensure we did not miss our cruise had a departure time of 5:59 a.m. This meant we had to wake up at 2:30 a.m. and leave by 3:00 a.m. to have enough time to drive to the airport, park, take the shuttle, and catch our flight. We were both very groggy waking up so early in the morning, but we managed to arrive at the airport and catch our flight on time.
Day 1: We arrived in Miami, Florida just a little after 8:30 a.m. and proceeded to the cruise checkpoint. I was pleasantly surprised by how organized the cruise checkpoint was. Once we headed towards the baggage claim area, we saw a large sign pointing to check-in for cruise passengers. Neither of us have been on a cruise before, so we didn’t know what to expect. We waited in line to check in with the cruise staff. When it was our turn, we gave our names to one of the cruise staff members and she checked us off on a clipboard. We waited for about an hour before we boarded our shuttle towards the cruise port. When we arrived at the cruise port, we went through security fairly quickly. The cruise staff welcomed us on board, and invited us to start eating at the Windjammer. We also took this time to make reservations for some of the specialty restaurants we had pre-booked ahead of time. Our staterooms weren’t ready yet, but we were light packers so it didn’t bother us to eat first prior to entering our staterooms. At around 1:00 p.m., the cruise director announced to all passengers the staterooms were ready. Kevin and I headed towards our stateroom right away to drop off our carry-on luggage. The view of the ocean from our stateroom was beautiful. We were so excited to finally begin our cruise vacation to the Bahamas.
The first specialty restaurant we went to was Chops Grille. Kevin ordered lobster bisque, jumbo cocktail shrimp, 9-ounce filet mignon, and a chocolate fudge cake for dessert. I ordered the goat cheese walnut salad, crab cake, lemon olive oil branzino, and some strawberry ice cream. We shared gruyere tater tots and jumbo asparagus. The food was very good, but my favorite dish was definitely the branzino. I made a mental note to try making branzino using lemon and olive oil at some point after I return home from the trip.
For the rest of the evening, we went to see an ice-skating show, and part of a comedy show. We were so tired by 10:30 p.m., we headed back to our stateroom to get some rest.
Day 2: I woke up a couple times throughout the night due to the vibrating motions of the ship. The amenities offered on the ship were well planned that I forgot we were on a ship at times. The vibrating motions definitely reminded me that I was on a ship. My sleep turned into multiple naps. When I finally woke up and peered out the window, I noticed we had arrived at Nassau, Bahamas. I didn’t get up from bed until almost 10:00 a.m. the next day. Kevin and I decided to hit the gym for a bit before proceeding with the rest of the day. We both ended up going for a quick run on the treadmill. By the time we finished going to the gym, we were starving. We quickly showered and made our way to Windjammer. After brunch, we headed straight for Nassau, Bahamas and spent about an hour exploring the main streets before returning on board. For the rest of the day, we relaxed on the ship’s Solarium before heading to dinner.
On our second night, we had dinner at another specialty restaurant, Jamie’s Italian. Our waiter served us an array of appetizers – whipped ricotta and roasted tomato bruschetta, rosemary garlic bread, fried squid, and a cured meat plank. The cured meat plank exceeded both of our expectations. The flavors were paired so well together. I knew immediately I wanted to create my own version of a charcuterie board when I returned home. Kevin ordered the lamb chops for his main dish. I ordered a crab spaghetti. Kevin kept raving about the lamp chops long after he finished his last piece. To round out the rest of our meal, we ordered dessert. Kevin had vanilla ice cream and brownie with some caramel popcorn. I ordered the Amalfi lemon meringue cheesecake. Our entire experience at Jamie’s Italian was wonderful. We retired back to our stateroom shortly after to sleep off our adventures.
Day 3: The ship finally arrived at CocoCay, Bahamas. We had a leisurely breakfast in the morning. The breakfast items served in the main dining room were your typical breakfast items (cereal, yogurt, eggs, meat, pastries, cheese, and waffles/pancakes). After breakfast, we headed towards the gangway to take a small boat that shuttled us to CocoCay. We had slathered on a lot of sunscreen ahead of time. There were beach chairs already on the beach. Kevin and I each found a beach chair and soaked in some sun. Right at 11:30 a.m., the buffet lines opened up and we had a BBQ lunch on the beach. Kevin enjoyed his usual BBQ selection of ribs, chicken, and fresh fruit. I had some mac ‘n” cheese, chicken, fresh fruit, and seafood paella. Shortly after lunch, we walked around the island for a couple of minutes before boarding the shuttle boat back to our cruise ship. Back on the ship, Kevin suggested we sign up for an escape room. We ended up signing up for the 4:30 p.m. escape room game later in the day. We spent the rest of the morning in the solarium and stopped by the water rides at the upper deck.
At 4:30 pm, we made our way to the highest deck, deck 15 to participate in the escape room game. Both Kevin and I have participated in escape rooms in the past, so we had some sense of what to expect. We were paired with two other couples – one from the U.K. and one from Atlanta, Georgia. The game host led us into a room in the upper deck where we watched a short video introduction to the game. She then led us into a room set up like an observatory and we began our game. I must admit that when it comes to logic games, Kevin definitely shines. He was able to lead our group to solve a majority of the puzzles. There were a mix of verbal and numerical puzzles and the games were fairly challenging. Even so, we ended up unlocking all of the boxes and escaping the room with 9 minutes and 36 seconds left. Our game host told us our group had the best time with the smallest group of contestants on this cruise. All of us were very happy with our teamwork in completing all of the puzzles.
We didn’t book a specialty dining restaurant for dinner on the third night, but it also happened to be formal night. Our dinner reservations at the main dining hall was at 7:15 p.m. Once we arrived, we were seated at a table in one corner of the restaurant. Kevin had French onion soup, New York strip steak, and crème brûlée. I had shrimp cocktail, jerk chicken, and apple pie a la mode. The service was a lot slower, but the food was still very delicious. We finished the evening off with watching the second half of a comedy/variety show and part of the movie, Adrift, on the pool deck.
Day 4: With all of the food we’ve been indulging in for the last few days, we wanted to squeeze in another day at the gym. We woke up just after 8:00 a.m. and proceeded to the fitness room. I ended up going for a short run, while Kevin fit in an entire workout. For breakfast, we headed towards Windjammer again. Today was sea day, which meant no island stops as the ship heads back to Miami, Florida. Without any island activities, we definitely noticed a lot more people everywhere we went on board.
The first activity after breakfast for us was rock climbing. We were strapped into harnesses and were then released to climb the wall. I made it about half way up. Kevin climbed to the top and rang the bell. Later at 1:30 p.m., we made reservations for the Sky Pad, a virtual reality trampoline ride. When we arrived at our reserved time, there was already a long line ahead of us. We waited almost 30 minutes before our turn. The cruise staff strapped us in and placed a virtual reality headset on us. The entire ride lasted less than 3 minutes. We also attended two trivia games throughout the day.
For dinner, we made our last reservation as part of our 3-night specialty dining experience at Chops Grille again. Kevin ordered the truffle mushroom soup, beef appetizer, lamb chops, and cheesecake. I ordered the walnut goat cheese salad again, peppered bacon, garlic butter shrimp and ice cream sundae. For our sides, we had truffle fries and creamed spinach. Our final dinner on the cruise was absolutely amazing. I was definitely inspired by all of the foods I ate.
To end our night, we watched a comedy/magic show performed by a former contestant on America’s Got Talent. When we got back to our stateroom, we fell asleep almost immediately (at least I did).
Day 5: Our cruise ship arrived back in Miami, Florida. We packed our belongings and proceeded to check out following the schedule provided by our cruise ship. We enjoyed our mini-moon very much and cannot wait for our actual honeymoon in 2019.