February came around and low and behold, I was changing jobs. The change had granted me 1 weeks’ worth of free play time in between the transition. I chartered Alexis to look up and book a cruise for anywhere during that week. She came back with a fun cruise that would travel the Eastern Caribbean.
We woke early sat morning and were dropped off at the airport by Alexis’s parents. Walking to the gate to get are seats assigned we realized it was a pretty packed flight. Luckily we looked nice enough to be bumped up to first class (my first time ever). I got free OJ and rum and coke. Landing Miami, we took a Uber ride with a driver that never took the tunnel to the cruise lane. We got lost a bit and almost went to the cargo docks. We quick boarded the ship as the hangover from the flight in caught up. The only cure was more drinks, which were now free with our all-you-can-drink package.
We explored the ship to get our bearing and find out where we could and couldn’t go, as well as which deck granted the best access across the ship. Our room was in the front of the ship, so when we finally go to enter it, we crashed asleep for a couple hrs.
Sea Day 1: We rambled through the buffet at the garden café and slow made out way out to the H20 Grotto to lay in the sun and get some drinks. Eventually we made it to the Cruise Critic Meetup which Alexis was able to sign us up for. Again we were the target demographic for the ship, but we had fun none the less. We met all the staff and chief operating officers. At this time, we found the cool “brewery like” bar in the front of the ship and got some beers. The whole got really small here as we ran into people (bompiani’s) from Greensburg, Pa who were really good friend with one of my other friends and cousins. During the day we played some minigolf and did 2 of the 3 water slides (the little one and the big looping one which flushed you out like toilet). The night was taking up with some time drinking and singing at the “howl at the moon” show, where they had 2 dueling pianos. This first sea day was rough as we noticed that this boat moved a whole lot more than the other ships.
Sea Day2: I woke really early to get some pictures of the sun rising on the open ocean. There was some slight cloud cover but it gave some nice sunrays. I also was able to put our towels down on 2 chairs in the front of the boat. With the sunrisen, chairs reserved, and Alexis still sleeping I hit the gym to get my pump on so I would look good laying out all day. The rest of the morning consisted of napping and reading my book (moms book). I played in the grotto got MORE DRINKS, and then went to the pool and got more drinks, and then eat more food. That night we walk the million dollar quartet show. which stylized the meetup of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Cash, and Carl Perkins.
St Thomas: We woke pulling into port, and quickly left the boat to get a jump on the massive cattle call, which would soon be spilling out on the streets. We booked it pass all the prebooked taxis and trips and went to the local taxi stand to get a trip to Magen’s Bay. Magen’s Bay was a beautiful beach. We had the spot to ourselves for a while before the hordes caught up to us. The location was picturesque with white sandy beaches and wildlife swimming all through the surf. After a while we hopped into another Taxi to check out Coki Beach, which was the public free access beach. The place was pack with chair and drink all jammed up on a small sandy beach. It was still very pretty, and the place to go if you wanted to get your drink on. Snorkeling here was very good as there were good currents and coral formations in the bay. We didn’t last long her as there were too many people, so we bus’ed it back to the downtown area to walk some of the tourist locations. We cruised through the ridiculous downtown shopping district with Jewelry stores as far as you could see. We ducked off the main drag for a bit and found the Amber Waterfall house and the 99 Steps which led up to BlackBeard’s castle. At this point, we were getting tired so we made the trudge back to the boat and walkthrough some $100 million yachts. Back at the boat, we got some drinks and I filmed a time-lapse of the boat pulling out of the harbor. That nigh ship time was dedicated to getting sushi (and talking to a recruiter from Canada) and getting drinks at the Brewhouse, while listening to a terrible piano player. The goal of sleeping early that night was made easy, by having that terrible music choice.
Tortola: We woke early in the morning and quickly tried to scarf down some grub from the Garden Café. We were packed and ready and waited for the velvet rope to drop to let us off the boat. We were the 1st one off the boat, but we were the 1st ones out of the port. We made our way to the public ferry terminal and caught the 7:45 ferry off of Tortola to Virgin Gorda. Here we hopped on a bus and were taken to the National Park of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) called the Bath’s/Devils Bay. We walked the trail backward to get away from all the people. We found seclusion on the very southern tip of the island. There were some classic boulders to climb and nice personal bays. Alexis climbed some rocks, which were made of some very frictiony granite. I went out into the bay and got washed off of the rock while posing for a picture. We eventually found the Babar boulder on the walk to Devil bay. I climbed the rocks while many tourists next door were content with snorkeling. We played on the beach and tried to climb Devil’s Arete during high tide, and splashing waves. Eventually when my skin had failed we walk through the caves backwards, and enjoying lapping pools of blue water in a cathedral of granite boulders. Lasted before leaving the park, we hung out at the baths area and chatted with the friendly t-shirt man. We bussed back while all the island chicken finally decided to wake up around noon (they were on island time). We managed to get back to the cruiseship without issue. Leaving port again I setup a timelapse. While filming We ended up talking to some Penn Staters and attempting to round out our drink list. Alexis eventually fell asleep on the front of the boat as we went through the narrows. Before sunset we ended up partying at the pool and then running to the karaoke lounge. The night was capped with us sneaking into the comedy show.
Sea Day 3: Was a relaxing day of nothing, we just hung out at the pool watched some people, drank the day away, and did a bunch of the boat activities.
Nassau, Bahamas: The morning came and we pulled into port and back into the docking spot. From the back of the board we could see the Atlantis resort and all the $ toys that surrounded it. Following the cattle call off of the boat, we made our way to the bus to Atlantis. The resort is pretty wild. The area is completely theme in incredible detail that this place was a lost world. We got a quick tour of the casino and shops to give a lay of the land before we made our way to the waterpark area. We quickly hopped in the rapid river and were washed around the park. The river has a built in wave corridor and a system of elevator that would carry you to the next set of rapids. Next up we saw the Aztec Temple was open and explored it. There was no one inline for the challenger racing slides, so we went down. While we were up there, we saw no line for the “Leap of Faith” Slide, the famous one in all the pictures, so down we went on it. The “Leap of Faith” shot you straight down the side of the tower, into a hole and tube that goes right through the middle of the shark exhibit. If you manage to open your eyes while falling and sliding you will see bull sharks floating all around you. To get a better look at the shark, we also went down the “Serpent” tubeslide in the aquarium which let us actually view the sharks without screaming. The last 2 slides we managed to conquer where on the “power tower” . It was the “Abyss” bodyslide, which we did not know it shot you straight down into a black hole, and the “Drop” tube slide which spits us back out in to the lazy river.
After all the sliding was done, we walked around the compound taking in all the architecture and design of the resort. We found the “DIG” area which is the recreation of an archeological dig which found Atantis. It’s hard to describe but it was pretty surreal. Also the last big note of the day was that we were finally able to get crepes at the Garden Bar before it close.
The cruise closed out the next day as we pulled into port. We got off the boat and hung around South Beach until our flight occurred, which ended up then being delayed and canceled. We didn’t get back to Charlotte until 1 am (instead of 5pm).
Here is the best drink Talley I could gather, many are missing still. Alexis out drank me in volume and in hardness of drinks
| Mike | Alexis |
| Bahama mama | Mimosa |
| Pyrat Shot | Rebellious Fish |
| Pain Killer | Toma |
| Rebellious Fish | Gentleman Jack |
| Mia Tai | Moscato |
| Coors Light | Merlot |
| Heineken | Chardonnay |
| San Miguel | Coors Light |
| Amstel Light | Smoked Fashion |
| London Spritzer | Jack Hammer |
| Chile Mule | Gateway |
| Raspberry Mojito | Raspberry Mojito |
| mojito | Burgual and Sprite |
| Spicy Passion Mojito | Glenfiddich single malt shot |
| Dark and Stormy | Mr WorldWide (pitbull drink) |
| Very Dark and Stormy | Chocolate Martini |
| Mr WorldWide (pitbull drink) | Long island |
| Margarita | |
| Champagne |
