Our Cruise to the Bahahmas and Key West Florida

I am slacking big time in my posts and for that I apologize! As per our usual we have been insanely busy... It' also occurred to me that I didn't post anything about our cruise adventure!...

We did end up going on our cruise to the fabulous Bahamas despite the weather and the impending doom of Hurricane Sandy. Yes, we were out there in the Florida straits when she was growing into the massive "super storm" that wiped out parts of New Jersey. How was it you ask? Rocky to say the least. The first day was very nice, we left the port of Miami right on time and were steadily sailing along that night to be in Nassau's port the next morning.

We arrived in Nassau and it was EXTREMELY windy! We had a little rain but we did have a GREAT time. We went on our shore excursions while there; the underwater submarine and the city tour around Nassau and Paradise Island. The next day we were supposed to go to Coco Cay which is Royal Caribbean's private island for a day of beach fun but sadly we had to skip it since the winds were too high to tether the ship off and because we were trying to out run the Hurricane behind us, this is where the vacation took a detour to crap-tastic-ville.

That day we sailed to Key West and up the Florida straights (which is usually pretty rocky anyway) around 8pm that night we decided to head into the theater after visiting the lounge for our "drink of the day". And this was when I received my first bout of motion sickness or "sea sickness". I've been cruising before, I've been on airplanes galore, I've even been under water but never have I been sick in all my life. We had to leave the show early and I ended up sleeping from about 8pm till the next morning with a brief intermission to the bathroom around 3am. Around 5am it got extremely rocky and we actually woke up out of our sleep to the sound of the ship crashing down on a 15 foot wave. It nearly knocked us out of bed (in a room on the 8th deck) and later that morning we discovered it trashed the dining room and theater on deck 3 with over turned palm trees, plants, tables and lighting.

We docked in Key West around 7am and took our raining but interesting tour aboard the "Trolly of the Doom".  We stopped off at Key West's fort and took our EMF detectors (Ghost Reader Meters) along for the tour. We stopped inside the fort at the "Robert Doll" and low and behold our meter went off as soon as I had a light tingling sensation in the palm of my hand. I told hubbers to pass me the meter since I had a tingly sensation in my hand. It felt sort of like when your foot falls asleep and sorta being brushed gently by a breeze but just in my hand. And like a well behaved tourist I asked Robert's permission before I photographed him and then thanked him as well. Some of the people on our tour thought it was a bit ludicrous to ask permission and thank a doll, however our tour guide warned us if we didn't we'd be asking for the address to write Robert an apology letter to undo his curse. We also found out later after we boarded the ship again that two of the ships passengers didn't make it back on. I wonder now if those were the two skeptics on our tour...? LOL! Anyway here's a few pics from our adventure on the high seas!

Ready to board and sail away to paradise!.. or so we thought... LOL!

Our room, tiny right? It was ok, we didn't spend a lot of time in it.

The lunch buffet in the wind jammer.

The pool deck where we spend most of our time!

The view of downtown Miami from the pool deck.

Inside the centrum where the shops and dining rooms are.

The Casino!

Our first drink of the day... a Bahama Mama!

Hubbers winning big at the casino!

Docked in port at Nassau

Hubby standing next to the ship LOL! So little!

On our underwater sub tour!

Someone's a little worried LOL!

Don't we look cute in green?

Pretty fish and crystal clear waters!

Atlantis from Paradise Bay

Want to buy a conch for $5.00?

Fort Fin Castle

A view of Paradise Bay from Fort Fin Castle

In front of the fountains at Atlantis

Junkanoo the Mardi Gras of the Caribbean!

Our treasures and trinkets from Nassau

Woohoo! Midnight Pool deck party and buffet!

We found these statues in Key West and decided to have a little fun...

Um.. honey? You've got a little something back there ;)

The Jess-a-saurus strikes!

I swear she looks like shes about to say "Get your own burger!"

Pretty statue... I believe it's of Ernest Hemingway.

Docked in Key West.

He got a "Cookie Monster" cone!

Aboard the Trolly of the doomed!

At Key West's Haunted Fort

Hubby prepared to find the ghosts with his EMF reader!

Robert the doll. Creepy right? In the left corner just behind him is where I was standing when my hand started to tingle and the EMF reader was going crazy! The papers on the wall are notes and letters of apology written to Robert and begging for him to remove the curse because tourists have come and either mocked him or not asked his permission to be photographed. I think it might be a good idea to even just thank him for viewing this pic! ;)