We Went On a Cruise!?
This is a bit different from the usual adventure I post, but it was quite the adventure in its own way, so I figure I should put it down on paper just the same!
As two working parents, and minimal local support with our kids (for valid reasons, but just means that Aimee and I are usually full on), Aimee and I don’t really get a break, especially for our two kids. So we decided, after a very stressful last few years, that we could use a vacation, AWAY from the kids!
We had been on a cruise with Aimee’s family several years ago, when Kiran was around 2 years old, but it was a challenging experience. Kiran was too young to stay at the on-ship childcare, and wasn’t able to join us on any of the ship activities. So we mostly just stayed with him, and during the evenings, just sat outside of our room while he was falling asleep inside.
So given that, being my first cruise, I didn’t think that I truly had the real “cruise experience”. So we decided to give another cruse a shot, this time kid free! The only way to pull that off, however, would be to drop the kids off with my parents, which meant driving down to Florida, dropping them off, then heading over to Port Canvaral. So after some researching, we found an Eastern Caribbean 5 day cruise, with 2 excursion days, and booked it!
We drove down to Fl, dropped off the kids, and set sail! It was a nice ship, the Carnival Freedom. After the departure day, there was a day at sea, followed by two days of excursions, the Dominican Republic followed by Grand Turk. After that, we had one more day at sea, and then arrival back in Florida. The first day we mostly just relaxed, exploring the ship, and recovered a bit from the drive and busy start to the trip.
The second day was the full sea day, and we looked around for activities on the ship, which included some shows, eating, walking around, more eating, and even dipping in the adults only pool, which was really nice. Oh, and more eating! I normally don’t eat a lot, so this was a bit much for me. Aimee, however, who is very fit and works out a lot, has a healthier appetite than I do, and very much enjoyed the stream of food available to us! By the end of the trip, I had LOST about 3 lbs, which isn’t how cruises work as far as I was aware!
The first excursion day was at Amber Cove, and we had an awesome excursion planned! It was a waterfall hike called the Damajagua Waterfalls, which is a long series of 27 falls that you hike along, and inside of, as you make your way down. The excursion starts, however, with a very long (and strenuous!) hike up the mountain, while wearing a helmet, life jacket, and water shoes! It was also abnormally hot, so that made things even more challenging! After the hike, however, the dunk into the top of the waterfalls was super cooling and refreshing! From there on, we were in the water most of the time, going down repeated waterfall chutes. It was a lot of fun, and a super unique experience that we’ll remember for a long time!
After that, we made our way back onto the ship, and laid low for the rest of the day after such an action packed excursion. We got to know a violin trio called Accidental String Trio who played most evenings in the main lobby of the ship every night. They were an amazing young group of musicians from Colombia that we fell in love with, and enjoyed stopping for a listen nearly every night that we were on the ship.
The next day, we had our second excursion, a snorkeling adventure in Grand Turk. Once we got there, a small catamaran took us out to the reefs to explore. To our surprise, a lightning and thunderstorm hit us, but the folks running the tour seemed unfazed! It was wild snorkeling in a storm, with the calm below the water, and the rain and wind above! It was a lot of fun, however, chasing and swimming with the fish, diving and exploring the reefs below.
After that, we got back to the boat, and headed out. We had one more stop, a beach spot where they introduced us to some stingrays to touch and take photos with. It was a bit of an odd encounter, and it wasn’t obvious that the stingrays were enjoying being handled in the way that they were, so I didn’t really take part. Didn’t feel like a loss of any kind, just not something I wanted to do. After that, we came back to shore and got back onto the ship. Another low key night, checking out some shows, comedy, and music.
Our last shore day was fun and relaxed. We enjoyed the ships amenities, more shows and events, and then packed up in preparation for an early start the next day. The next morning, we departed the ship around 8am, and headed home.
It was a fun adventure, and we enjoyed our time doing something different than our usual routine. We also enjoyed some couple time with each other, which we don’t get much with the kids. We did come to the conclusion that we’re not really cruise people, and while enjoyable, we tend to prefer going to a place where we control the agenda, can move around freely, and make our own plans. Similar to our Europe or Australia trips that we’ve done in the past. So next time, we may do something like that instead. Still a fun experience though, and one we’ll remember!
