Friday, September 6, 2013

7 Quick Takes {14} Vacation Edition

Going to do this a little differently this week and recap our vacation. Might be boring (and LOOONG) for others to read but I want to write it down before I forget. Feel free to skip the wordiness and just look at the photos:) 

(don't say I didn't warn ya!)

1. The day before and day 1 of the cruise. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and were checked into our hotel by 11:30 am. Conveniently enough there was a Chipotle right across the parking lot were we managed to scarf down our burrito (bowl) quickly before heading back to our room for a nap. Since we left our house at 3:15 am (!) that morning a nap was definitely needed. Once our nap was over we walked down the street and boarded a water taxi that gave us a nice little tour of some of the rich and famous' homes that sit right on the water. We stopped by the mall to pick up a new pair of shorts for Seth and then headed down to an area that had lots of restaurants. Yum!


Heading out for the evening in Ft. Lauderdale 
Water taxi - a great way to travel

Delish burger and fries at 11pm. Yes, please!
We made it to the port by 11:00am the next morning and we were on the ship and headed to our first meal by 11:45. The ship was gorgeous and the food was yummy as usual. While exploring the ship we stumbled upon a tour of the spa. The tour ended by having a  lady give you a neck and shoulder massage for about 5 minutes. That's all it took to sell us on a couples massage. And it was AMAZING! Keep in mind they do automatically add in a huge gratuity and we probably wouldn't do this again because it was super pricey but I definitely enjoyed. 


Just watching a little titanic before heading to the port. A bad sign??

The boardwalk. Complete with a carousel and donut shop:)
Happy happy happy!

Baller!
At dinner that night we met two of our table mates for the first time. A super sweet couple named Russ and Julie (name twins) who are about our parents age and from Utah. After gorging on food we went to the the middle of the ship to watch an ice skating show that was pretty impressive considering how small the rink was. We swung through the ships casino for a bit of gambling before heading to bed at a decent hour since we had our first island stop the next day.


We may or may not have contributed a lot of quarters to this machine.


2. Day 2 of the trip. Sunday we woke up and got dressed for touring the island of Nassau, Bahamas. We walked around the island for a bit before taking a taxi over to the huge Atlantis resort. The casino stole a bit of our money before we headed out to the beach where we swam in the crystal clear blue water before heading back to the ship for another meal. Since we were only at the island until 1:30 we wanted to be sure that we made it safely back to the ship before it left. Being on time has never been my strong suit and those ships don't wait!


Hey, awkward!
I wish Kansas had a beach.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool where we met a super fun couple from Indiana, Jack and Deb. They had purchased the all you can drink package and were super nice to keep ordering us extra drinks. Let's just say it turned into a pretty fun afternoon and a nap was needed before dinner:) 

Another couple, old enough to be our grandparents, joined us for dinner that night, George and Ida. They had moved to the U.S., from Hungary, 56 years ago but still had an accent like they got off the boat yesterday. They were a nice enough couple but always seemed to find something to complain about. Our show after dinner that night was a comedy show that was probably the funniest thing I have ever seen. All 3 comedians were spectacular and didn't seem to care one bit about being politically correct. The highlight had to be when the very round comedian danced just like the snowman on the old school version of Rudolph. Pretty sure people peed their pants laughing so hard. 


Hey mr. crocodile....
....and eskimo??
3. Day 3 was a sea day so we slept in, ate tons and spent more time at the pool. I went to go see the show Hairspray at 2:30 which was absolutely incredible. I told Seth he would probably hate it since he's not much into musicals so he took a nap. Once the show was over I decided to go on a run. Probably because all I had done up to that point was eat. I managed to run the 2.4 laps around the ship that equaled a mile and then speed-walked a few more for good measure. 

The motivating signs as you ran. 
Our show that night was before dinner and it was a dive show at the aqua theatre. Basically a cast of super talented and past olympian divers did a show where they dove into a tiny pool from heights up to 57 feet! They also included some synchronized swimming and pretty cool trampoline skills. This show was pretty awesome. Then we ate dinner:)


Seth LOVES taking photos and I told him if he didn't
take another one I was using this. You're welcome Love:)

4. Day 4 we stopped at the beautiful island of St. Thomas. We took a taxi over to Megan's Bay which is supposedly one of the Top 10 beaches in the world. I have been there several times before but it is still gorgeous even if it crowded with tons of people. We ran into Jack and Deb again so we hung with them a bit. There's a nice little bar right on the beach that makes the strongest drinks in the world. My long island iced tea was basically straight alcohol so I enjoyed laying on my towel soaking up the sun for awhile:) On our way back to the ship we stopped at an overlook to snap a photo with the beach in the background. 


Apparently people take photos with donkey's?
Megan's Bay
Paradise!
Once we made it back to the ship we made a giant plate of nachos and then jumped in the pool for awhile. More dinner and another show with different comedians that night. 

5. Day 5 was spent at St. Maarten. One of our favorite islands. You leave the ship and walk to the pier where you take a water taxi over to the beach and shopping area. Somehow while weaving our way through the throng of people trying to rent us jeeps and braid my hair we got suckered into a timeshare presentation. The lady promised it would only be an hour, we could tour a beautiful resort, and then we could hang out on the private resorts beaches for the afternoon. Plus you would get a $150 credit to a jewelry store were Seth was going to get a watch. Lies. We went on the tour which took 2 hours and 15 minutes! Then when we went to the jewelry store you couldn't use the credit on a watch and they basically just gave us a necklace I will never wear. To drown our sorrows we hit up the beach where Seth had a few beers, we were offered drugs and we negotiated a better deal on riding a jet-ski for an hour. They let us ride for a little over an hour before motioning us back in to the beach where we soaked up some more sun and dug for shells in the ocean. 

Gorgeous infinity pool I wanted while touring the resort.
This is where we jet-skied. Pure amazingness! 

Approximately 12 photos later and this is the best photo. 
After returning to the ship we again gorged ourselves on nachos and hotdogs before taking a nap before dinner. #fatkids. We had no show that night so we explored the ship more and played the "Deal or No Deal" slot machine in the casino. 

Before dinner. Sad it's fuzzy since it's a normal smile from Seth. 
We can just pretend I ate salads for every meal. 

6. Day 6 was another sea day where we literally spent hours at the pool soaking up the glorious sunshine and planning our next couple of meals. Not much else to report besides going to see a show where people went flying through the air everywhere you look. We also went to a fun game show called The Quest where we enjoyed watching a drunk lady be one of the contestants.   



Dancing with balloon man.
The diving pool.

7. Day 7 and our last day floating out on the ocean. We spent our last day much like day 6 soaking up the sun and dreading leaving our floating paradise. At dinner our waiter, along with a few others came over with a (3rd) dessert to sing me Happy Birthday since my Birthday was in less than 2 hours. I have no idea what the dessert was and it honestly didn't taste that great but it sure was pretty:)





We left the ship at 8:30 the next morning and headed to the airport where we got delayed in Chicago for awhile before returning home. Since it was my birthday (and we had no food at home that didn't require cooking) we stopped to pick up some good ole' Kansas BBQ and a redbox movie. Hello 27!



Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary.

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