Our very first cruise ever was 10 years ago! We went with my sister and her husband (Nancy and Peter) and their friends from Arizona (Chris and Emily). I believe we were celebrating Chris’s 40th birthday at the time. Nancy texted us out of the blue one day last year and She told us that Chris and Emily are planning a Cruise for Chris’s 50th and we were invited, that’s all she had to say, we were in! This cruise was perfect timing. It was a couple days after Christmas, and Doug usually has that time off anyways. We were pretty excited to get to go during a holiday.
We left out of Galveston, Texas. We liked that its so much closer to fly to Galveston than Florida. This cruise had 4 stops and we got to celebrate New Years Eve on it too! Not only was it New Years Eve, but it was also Nancy’s birthday. We knew it was going to be a good time!
Our first stop was to Key West, Florida. I have always wanted to go to the Keys, So I was pretty excited about this stop. Doug and I had no planned excursion for this stop. We just decided to get off the ship and explore on our own. We ended up doing a Hop on Hop trolley off tour. This tour was perfect for us. It took us to all the things we wanted to see. It also allowed us to see the entire island pretty quickly too. We saw the southernmost point( but there was a super long line so I just snapped a few pics and moved on, there was no reason to wait for that pic! LOL) the Lighthouse, The actual Kermit in front of Kermit’s Key Lime Pie shop, we both aren’t a fan of Key Lime Pie so we didnt even try any… sorry all you pie lovers. I loved Key West, I would totally vacation there, it was such a fun, cute little beach town.
Our second stop was to Freeport, Bahamas. This was the only port Doug and I decided to do an excursion. It was New Years Eve and Nancy’s birthday so we decided we should do something fun. We ended up going to Pirates Cove Beach and renting a cabana for the day. It was a beautiful beach and a beautiful warm day. It was hard to believe back at home it was snowy! We chilled, ate, swung on the adult swings and hung out in our private little cabana all day. It doesn’t take much to make me happy, this is my perfect kind of day. Once we got back to the Ship, we took a power nap. We knew we had a full night ahead of us ringing in the New Year, We needed to stay up late. Us girls decided it would be fun to dress up for New Years Eve in sequins dresses. That was really fun, I don’t believe I’ve ever worn sequins before? sadly we only took like 1 picture of us dressed up and not even one of all of us together?! Not sure what we were thinking? After dinner, we decided to change and head to the lido deck. We joined the dance party that was going on there, we spend the whole night there waiting for the big Ball Drop! Ringing in the New Year on a cruise was a blast! That night was definitely one of our highlights on this trip! So much fun! I guess getting out of our comfort zones and dancing the night away while listening to old 80’s and 90’s music is right up my alley, I loved it!! Beats sitting at home on my couch watching the ball drop that’s for sure!!!
Our next stop was at Carnivals port Half Moon Cay. We were glad this was our stop the morning after a night light New Year’s Eve! Doug and I slept in because we didnt book anything for this port. That was much needed. When we did finally roll out of bed we met with the others on the beach. This is a beautiful Port, I have been there once before, so I knew what to expect. A perfect day to relax and regroup. One thing I will say that is different about cruises than an all inclusive resort, is there is always so much going on all the time, I find I get pretty tired from staying up late every night and then having to wake up early to get off the ship, so a day like today was perfect.
Our final stop was Nassau. Again Doug and I decided to be very low key this cruise and we just played it by ear when we got off the ship. I had looked up a few things we should see and we did our own walking tour. I will say this ended up being the least relaxing stop, I didnt feel safe walking the streets, the cars where zipping by us and the roads are so tight and crowded, along with them driving on the opposite side of the road, I didnt feel super safe walking. I felt like I was going to get hit by a car at every turn! We ended up seeing the Straw Market, The Queens Staircase, Nassau Fort Fincastle, Umbrella street and did a little shopping. The weather was perfect too, another great day!
The last two days of our cruise were sea days and we spent them playing games, watching shows, live music, piano bar, comedy shows, and lots of eating and relaxing! A perfect ending to an awesome trip!
*Got to love the Heavily Filtered Photos, we almost couldn’t find our pictures because we didnt recognize ourselves! LOL
Overall I would highly recommend a Holiday cruise, there was a festive air everywhere you went and being in warm beautiful places during the holidays was magical! I hope to do it again sometime! 10 out of 10 recommended!
Janna's Journey 