Good morning from the comfort of my sheets… I have had such a productive couple of days y’all. I somehow managed to get three loads of laundry done and most of the house clean… EXCEPT for my bathroom because it is the one room that I loathe with the burning fire of dragons. Whenever I clean that room it stays clean for about 2.3 seconds, then the dirt fairy makes another visit and Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo… It needs to be cleaned AGAIN. Aside from my mad woman cleaning, I also went to Zumba last night and did the salsa until my glutes almost fell off. I do Zumba a lot, but this was a new instructor and she was relentless! At one point in the class I actually thought to myself, “If I have to do the cumbia for one more minute, my calves are going to break off. They are just going to snap off like a couple of old Italian breadsticks.” So there I was in the back of the class, worrying about my Italian breadstick calves and struggling to breathe, and I looked up to see the cutest little granny – SCHOOLING the entire class in the front. I mean this woman was jumping all over the place and doing the Merengue like she was JLo herself. At that point, I figured, “Megan Marie, pull yourself together. If that eighty-year-old woman can dance like that so can you.”
I have had to be in beast work mode the past couple days because for the past couple weeks… I have been in full-on VACAY – all-day mode. I mean I swear y’all. You would think I was a world traveler: I went to Germany for a hot minute, I was in Kentucky for almost a week and a half, Seattle and Charleston, and my latest and final adventure was to the Bahamas. I booked a Valentine’s special cruise offer with my favorite gal pals… because we all know boys have cooties and the only cure for cooties is the beach and an ice-cold mojito… Am I right??? Or am I just right? Our little Galentine’s Day Cruise was my friend Felicia’s idea. She is the kind of friend who is the stitching that holds us all together, so when she invited me to go on a girls cruise I couldn’t refuse. Plus who says no to a cruise? Not this girl.
It was my first cruising experience, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I was a tad nervous because I have absolutely heard the horror stories about people going on their very first cruise and being glued to the “porcelain throne.” I really did not want to be that person, and luckily I wasn’t! I didn’t get seasick one time y’all!
We were practically the first people on the boat, and we ACTUALLY were the first people to hit the buffet (proud moment). I think that was the moment where I knew it was going to be a good trip. Slap me with a good buffet? I am there baby… Ain’t no porcelain throne gonna pull me away. OH, the food y’all. I honestly would cruise just for the food. It was an endless smorgasbord of goodies. We would eat the buffet for breakfast and lunch then we would go to the restaurant for an unlimited course meal for dinner. Not to mention if you needed a little nooner snack because the other 4,000 calories didn’t fill you up, you could go grab a hot dog or wings at the pool. I honestly am going to have to cumbia with granny for the rest of March to make up for my gluttony… but oh was it worth it.
My very favorite part of the whole cruise was how relaxing it was. We all put away our phones (GASP) for the duration of the three days, and honestly, that was the very best part. Have you been to a restaurant lately and taken a look around? Next time, I dare you to count how many people are on their phones. Even when they are with other people! It’s so easy these days to get caught up in those little screens and miss what’s important going on right in front of you… miss whose important right in front of you. We were able to put away our phones for just a few days, and we made so many memories and actually spent quality time together. That’s what life is all about right?
One thing that I didn’t expect was how small the ship seemed. I don’t know why I guess I always assumed that a cruise ship was so large that you never saw the same people. That was not the case. By the end of the cruise, we could recognize most of the cruise line employees and many of the passengers. It was way more intimate than I had ever imagined. On the very first night when we were pulling off of the dock in West Palm Beach, we met the coolest two Samoan men. Actually, I walked up to one of the guys and asked him if we could borrow his spot on the railing for a photo, and I said we would save it for him. He did us one better because he just happened to be a really amazing photographer and he ended up taking our photo on his own top-of-the-line iPhone. He then introduced us to his brother and we hung out with those guys the whole trip. They said they were like our designated Samoan bodyguards, but they were so sweet and had such good hearts, I honestly can’t imagine either one of them ever hurting a fly.
Our excursion day was spent in Freeport, Bahamas, and if you want to take this new cruiser’s advice? If you are planning a cruise destination, I would choose Nassau over Freeport any day. The only reason being the cruise ship doesn’t dock you within walking distance to the beach. Since we had chosen to skip buying an excursion from the cruise line we had to find our own transportation to the beach, which ended up being a Bahamian cab service. Their first mistake was that they tried to charge us more than the other tourists. UM NO THANK YOU HONEY BUNS. We ended up “negotiating” the price down to 6 dollars each way per person, so that crisis was averted, but we met a new one when the cab driver kept insisting she was taking us to Taino beach when we wanted to go to Lucaya. We found out during the drive, thanks to a very slow T-Mobile international plan, that she was insisting upon Taino beach because it was a “fee” beach that would charge each person $5.00. My guess is that the cab drivers get some type of compensation for dropping us there. Anyways, we insisted that we wanted to go to the FREE Lucaya beach and guess where that lady drove us to? Taino beach. At that point, the little feisty mamma came out in me y’all, and I crossed my arms and said, “None of us are getting out here. We would like to go to the Lucaya beach. Thank you.” Little lady was not happy with me for sure, but when she saw my face which was set in it’s “try me” position she quickly put the car back into gear. Lucaya beach was just as beautiful as we imagined, and what do you know it didn’t cost us a dime piece! SO THERE… Though next time we all decided to avoid that situation entirely, and purchase an excursion from the cruise line. Yes, it is a little bit pricey but in the end, you avoid having to find your own way in an area that you are unfamiliar with.
Other than the sneaky little Bahamian cab drivers, for a first-time cruiser, I would say I can’t complain one bit. You can’t really go wrong when you have your girls, your Samoan bodyguards, your toes in the sand, and a belly full of buffet goodies. I will say that for a short three days, that was the most relaxed that I have been in a really long time. Not a care in the world aside from what time the pool snack window closed and whether or not I had a fresh beach towel. Not a bad mini Bahamian vacay if you ask me, even if it was only three days. Sometimes that’s all you need to hit the reset button on all of life’s daily stressors, just a little slice of paradise. Now, it’s back to the real world where I can’t pretend that eating cheesecake every night is good for my health and the laundry will magically do itself. Until next time ya filthy animals. This Bahama mama is peacing out.
XOXO,
Megan Marie