Mitsugirlys graduation getaway cruise

Kim - I think the pic of you and your hubby looks just fine! You can tell you just finished nursing school, because you are being over critical of yourself... ;)

I, too, am about to finish and have my Getaway cruise scheduled for just that occasion! :D Hoping to find myself nursing in the ED. Currently a Flex Tech (I work in all departments) and love it when I get floated to the ED!

Enjoying the details in the review. Just wondering if I missed the part where you talk on the 1st day about the actual rooms?? I saw the post about when you were boarding, but then nothing till the 3rd day? Trying to decide if I want to splurge and upgrade from balcony to mini-suite when we board...

Thanks,

Sara

Kim - I think the pic of you and your hubby looks just fine! You can tell you just finished nursing school, because you are being over critical of yourself... ;)

 

I, too, am about to finish and have my Getaway cruise scheduled for just that occasion! :D Hoping to find myself nursing in the ED. Currently a Flex Tech (I work in all departments) and love it when I get floated to the ED!

 

Enjoying the details in the review. Just wondering if I missed the part where you talk on the 1st day about the actual rooms?? I saw the post about when you were boarding, but then nothing till the 3rd day? Trying to decide if I want to splurge and upgrade from balcony to mini-suite when we board...

 

Thanks,

Sara

Well happy graduation to you coming up. I don't believe we have flex Tech's at my work, but we do have Flex Nurses and man do they make a lot of money doing that. I'm really not sure if I will be staying in the ED after I pass boards. Another tech just graduated in March and passed her boards in April and they told her that they couldn't hire her, but would give her an excellent recommendation. I feel so bad for her. She's been a tech there longer than I have. :( I'll just be happy I guess where ever I get to work to start out with.

Yes, the rooms were on the First boarding day. It's located on page 3. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2048113&page=3 and starts at post #54.

Maybe you skipped a few pages somehow? Day 1 after the room pictures are about the rest of the day we had, going to the Illusionarium show and followed by a whole bunch of pictures from around the ship. The 2nd day is on there as well. :confused: It starts on page 10 at post #192. :)

Day 7...Nassau, Bahamas.

This will be the first time that I have been on a cruise where we don't pull into port until later in the day. It was really nice not to have to get up early and be off the ship to race to the next destination. We were to be in port from 12-7pm.

However, once again, I was up bright and early (well, bright and early for ME that is). I woke up at 8:30am and out on the balcony I went. I have to say it was the most calm seas I think I have ever seen. There was no waves or anything (other than what the ship was making and it wasn't really going that fast either). I know I took a picture of it, but can't seem to locate it for some reason. I took a picture because I just couldn't believe how still the water looked.

We got dressed and decided we would try breakfast at O'Sheehans since we had never done this before.

I got the "Express"-which consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and jelly, hasbrowns and it said pastries (but I did not get the pastries???) I also ordered a side of french toast. I did ask the waitress if they had the yummy sugary whipped topping to put on it and got a firm "no" as an answer. Yes, I was heartbroken, but there's always tomorrow to get my final fix.

The hubby ordered the "country" breakfast and when it arrived, there were no baked beans. Now, I'm not sure why people in the country eat baked beans for breakfast, but it just sounds weird to me. However, he wanted them and told the waitress that they were missing. She quickly brought out his "cup" (and I use that word lightly) of beans. This was probably smaller than the size of a shot glass. Like 1 spoonful. I just had to laugh. I now wish I would have taken a picture of it.

The kids messaged me wanting to know where we were for breakfast and after telling them, they came up. Once they were seated and looked at the menu, Kendra said "this is the same stuff you can get downstairs but more of it at the buffet". Yes, yes it is. It's just a different atmosphere to try out and we're enjoying it. They decided they wanted to head down to the buffet so they didn't have to "wait" on their food to come out. I guess they had a bad experience the other night when waiting on food and it took 40 minutes before the food came out. They wasn't about to have to wait again she said (even though it was clear that we already had ours and it wasn't taking that long). Oh well, to each their own.

We headed back to our room after breakfast to watch the ship pull in.

The night before Disney had taken off out of port in St Thomas after we did and we noticed that they were racing past us out in the ocean in the middle of the night. I guess they were in a hurry to get to Nassau.

We found that they were already docked once we got close enough to see.

We followed a Carnival ship in.

I really love the "entrance" they have as you pull into port.

I also love this little lighthouse there. I know it has been there for many many years. I can remember back in the 80's being at Junkanoo beach and taking pictures of it across the water.

...and of course Atlantis off in the background. That place is massive looking.

There are 3 piers there and Carnival Sensation (I think it was) decided to take the closest of course). I just knew that we would get the one at the end and have to walk a mile to shore. Of course it could be that we are so massive in size too.

All of a sudden we started turning. Oh em gee! We were going to turn around and back this bad girl in. The Captain is amazing. hehe

I was busy taking pictures of the area as we were able to get an awesome view of everything as he turned us around.

We actually docked at 11:30 and was cleared to get off very quickly.

HOWEVER, we had booked an excursion with NCL (I know, I normally don't do this) to go to Blue Lagoon. I let Kendra do the research and pick where she wanted to go for Nassau. Nassau is not really one of my "must-do-favorite-ports" places. So I was at a loss. She had mentioned going to Atlantis, and although I know it looks beautiful, I have read way to many reviews from cruisers on here about how it's not worth the money. You get very little time there and there are multiple packages to purchase and you do not get everything unless you add it on and so on. For instance I was reading that you can by the pass and it only included like the beach there. If you wanted to do the water slides, you have to add more money and so on. It could be a very expensive day and not one that is worth it for such a short period of time (then factor in the crowds that would be there). So I told her I'll pass on that and to find something else.

She found the Blue Lagoon excursion and I researched it and it seem like everyone enjoys the place with the only complaints is not enough time there. Well honestly, isn't that a complaint at every place you visit in port? There's just never enough time anywhere you go, but it is what it is.

I had read about the entire "ferry boat" thing and the times they leave and the "last ferry ride back" or you're stuck on the island forever and ever. But yet again, that didn't sound too bad to me either. Ok, snap out of it Kim. You can't just stay on an island and claim you missed the ferry without someone noticing. Back to reality.

The price was (I believe) $54 for adults and less for kids. I knew it came with your buffet lunch and drinks and that the water activities were extra. The only water toys that our group was possibly interested in were the water toys in the ocean and it was an extra $15 per person for the entire day. I did my research and found that if you booked local, then the water toys were included in your day package. However, after a lot of thought, we would have to catch a cab (costing more money) and take the time to go over to Paradise Island to catch the water taxi over to Blue Lagoon. This sounded like it could possibly cost us more, plus more time, plus an extra stop at Paradise. We finally opted to just book with NCL and be picked up directly at the dock by the water taxi and head straight over to Blue Lagoon. I had fully prepared myself to know that it's a long ride over there and that we would only get to spend about 2 hours there for that price. Anything more would just be an extra. Since there really wasn't anything more that I was interested in doing, I just figured it would be worth it to see the place and let the kids have a little fun.

The bad part was, our reservations was at 1pm and here we had already docked at 11:30am...wasting time. Boo. Our tickets had arrived in our room at the beginning of the cruise and they instructed us to go to the theater to meet at 12:45pm.

When we arrived, we were among the first (with Kendra believe it or not) and they instructed you as you came in to go down to the front of the theater, 1 person per family, to get your arm bands.

Now Sakari is a good, well behaved child and if we were alone, she would sit there with us until it was our turn to leave. Obviously Brayden was with us and he can't sit still for nothing and started going up and down the isles and toward the front of the theater and so on. Sakari soon followed and I had to yell a few times for her to get back up there with us. Then they would sneak off again. Obviously I'm getting frustrated. I don't like for my child to act like that and Kendra is the type to say "He's just a kid and having fun entertaining himself while we wait." That's the big difference in the two of us. The employee at the front that was passing out the arm bands at one point gave them the microphone and let them say hello to the audience. For some reason, Brayden decided that it was now "his" show and started climbing up on the stage. Off I went to grab and scold my child. "Nope, this isn't going to happen. March your butt back up to the chair and sit before you go back to the room and miss going to the beach today." That's all it took for me and she was sitting down between us for the remaining of the wait.

At 1pm, they started herding us out of the theater. They told us to stay single file all the way to the boat that was waiting on us. Do you know how impossible it is to do this when you are mixed in with others getting off the ship, trying to scan key cards out, and tons of other people walking down the pier as well? Then factor in having to get your family pictures on the pier when getting off. I mean who wants to miss out on that? Not our family and Kendra is a big fan of that and takes a picture with EVERY character out there.

I tried to keep my eyes on others with the arm bands to figure out where we were going. We headed down the pier and at the end, we veered off to the left where there was a dock. The boat pulled up and we all piled on.

I looked back and captured a picture of the Getaway sitting at the pier.

Courtney snapped a picture of us all sitting on the boat waiting to take off with her phone.

Trying to get a decent picture of the kids and every time I turned around, this is all Brayden would give me.

Kendra and I taking a selfie while the hubby and Kolin are at the "concession stand" in the background getting soda's and chips for us. (Soda was $2.50 each)

(You see the creepers in the background? LOL I always find it funny when you are taking a picture and others are looking at the camera with you and you don't even know it until you see the picture).

"Oh wait mom, you have your sunglasses on, let me put mine on and try again."

She insisted that I take another so "we can match".

Along the trip, there was a guy in the front that was telling everyone various things along the way. He was pointing out the "famous peoples" homes. I was only able to hear Beyonce & Jay Z's home and also Eddie Murphy's island. Beyond that, I have no clue. He wasn't on the microphone and the word was kinda getting passed back as people were talking about it. I wasn't really in a seat that I was able to take pictures, so I did it on the way back.

Now I know that others have commented that it's about a 40 minute boat ride to the island. But honestly, it did NOT seem like it was that long. Maybe I was just enjoying the scenery? Maybe it was because the ride was straight there without any stops at Paradise? I'm not sure, but it went by quickly. It was a beautiful ride and I think what really takes so long is because when you are in the canal (? I'm not sure if that's what it's called), they have to go really slow. It's probably like a no wake zone. Then once you get past all the homes, you could go a little faster. You go out and around this bend and then they could go fast over to the island. I didn't actually realize just how close the island is until on the ride back. It's really not that far. It's just the "speed zones" that take longer. :)

We pull up at Blue Lagoon (you kinda come in between some land like you do when you are on the private island at Great Stirrup Cay) and it was beautiful. Just like the pictures that I had seen and read about.

There's a long pier that you walk down and on the side is where some of the dolphins are at.

There was a lady who was working with one of the dolphins and it was doing tricks. She would tap the water with a long stick and the dolphin would come up out of the water and do multiple flips in the air and come back down.

Of course every time that I snapped a picture, it looked like the dolphin was just jumping up. Kinda hard to catch them in motion during a flip.

Courtney managed to capture this with her phone.

This was at the end of the pier and the edge to the dolphin area. It was like a beach area that you walk right in to where the dolphins were. Kinda neat.

The island was beautiful and pretty big too. This is once we hit the land and looking back at the dolphin/animal areas. You can see in the picture that they offer a 8x10 photo with the dolphin for $37. Ouch.

Walking along to find out where we are going to decide to sit for the day and snapping pictures as I go.

I remember seeing this when we first came in. It was some type of land bounce area. I forgot to go back and explore it. I guess I just can't imagine anyone wanting to jump on the hot plastic in that heat. Water toys would be more fun.

There is tons of shade on this island. Anyone wanting to know if they'll get a seat in the shade...no worries AT ALL. Plenty of room.

There are a lot of hammocks to.

They did have several small areas roped off saying "Reserved Private Area". They were small areas. But I never did see anyone in the area. Some were just sandy areas. Others had chairs. Others had the clam shells. I think they were preparing for later in the day and I'll tell you why I came to that conclussion later in the review.

Tons of water activities to be done there if you are interested. Gosh, I remember these water bikes (trikes) back in the 80's. It was "the" thing to do at the beach. Well, it was basically the ONLY thing to do back then because they didn't have the fancy water trampolines or anything. Then you have the water park. It was pretty big with a lot of things to do out there.

That pink outfit is leading me to believe that is, in fact, his purse... :cool:

 

Carry on.

LOL. Kinda what I was thinking too. :D

I walked out with my new shiny beautiful beget ring on my finger.

 

Love, love, love the ring! I bought a few rings on my March cruise, but they were nothing like that! Jealous...

Here's a few things to show you pricing of different activities you can do.

They do have locker rental if you so desire. $5 plus a $5 deposit.

This is the huge building where you get your lunch at. There's plenty of seating both on the bottom level and on the top. There's definitely no lack of tables, chairs or anything on this island.

I absolutely love when the islands in the Caribbean have everything painted really colorful. When I see colorful things, it always reminds me of the Caribbean.

We finally decided on an area in front of the beach (that was directly behind the dining building). There were plenty of chairs there and also plenty of shade or sun depending on your mood at the time.

There are plenty of grape trees and palm trees everywhere.

As always, Sakari is the first to get everything off and head to the water.

The kids playing and having a great time.

Mammaw, take a picture of me floating.

You will find a lot of little fishes swimming in the shallow area. I did see a lot of these long fishes and the smaller fishes were following them around.

You see the big blue floaty directly behind the kids in the above picture? Well they had several of these along the beach. Of course the first thing everyone thought was they could get in them and float. But, when you got up to them, they were filled with really ugly brown stuff. I'm not sure what they were for??? Does anyone know? It was almost like a floating scum collector or something. I have no clue.

Kendra's normal pose in the water.

We decided it was time for some food. I think it was about 2:30pm. The lines were forming, but moved along quickly. If we had just managed to wait another 10 minutes, there wouldn't have even been a line.

You could choose from a hamburger or hotdog. Normally I would take the hamburger, but just wasn't in the mood for it. So, I got the hot dog. IT WAS HUGE. It was a footlong and just sounded good to me for some reason.

They also offered you chicken. I'm not sure what the dressing was on it. I'm a "breast" girl, so anything other than a breast did not appeal to me. I got it just in case one of the kids wanted it.

The meal also came with the large steak fries.

There was a topping area that had lettuce, cheese, pickles, tomatoes, orange slices and whole apples.

They had another area that you can make your own salad. They also had bean salad, orange slices, corn salad, beets, onions and croutons.

The one thing I really enjoyed about this place was they paid attention to detail. It wasn't just a hut that they sat up and served you food from. They actually made it look appealing and decorated to give you a nice Caribbean feel. This of course is something I always pay attention to, but yet others may not. I think it's just the photographer in me.

See, after I was done with my "extras" for the salad, there wasn't even a line now.

A view from the back of the building.

I sat down and ate with the kids. The hubby stayed back with the munchkins while they continued to swim. They said they weren't hungry and didn't want to get out of the water. They all arrived to eat about 15 minutes before I did and they all had corn on the cob. Either I missed it, didn't know to ask for it, or it was gone and they were getting more. I'm not sure. But after eating, I wasn't hungry any more.

They had a drink station and you could get either lemonade or something that looked like fruit punch. However, I have NO IDEA what this stuff was, but it was AMAZING. It tasted so good. Maybe they just loaded pounds of sugar in it? I don't know, but it was good.

The kids over heard someone talking about how you were only allowed to get 1 glass, but I constantly seen others going up to get more. So I really don't know what the "rules" were and where they got this information. I went up several times and the kids kinda went up, ducked in like spiderman when the server wasn't looking, grabbed a cup, and zoomed out.

When I was done eating, I decided to go off and explore an area that I didn't know existed. It was directly behind the lunch building and there was a path up and over like these dunes.

There was like a whole other little lagoon back there.

If you want a secluded, deserted area away from everyone else, this looks like it's your place. I thought maybe this was the snorkeling area, so I headed back to pull out the map they gave us when we arrived.

There was a sign to let you know you would be swimming at your own risk and there wasn't a lifeguard on duty on this side. (Yes, the other side had a life gaurd both at the water park and at the beach).

On my way back up and over the dunes, I noticed the other huge building (like the building where they were serving lunch at) and noticed they were decorating it over there. It was really pretty and it looked like they were getting ready for a wedding or something later in the day. I loved the colors they had (same colors I had for my wedding).

When I arrived back at the camp, the kids all decided they wanted to do the water toys. Even though there wasn't much time left, they still wanted to try it out. $15 per person it was and according to them, well worth it. It completely wore them out, but it was fun to watch them. They give you a wrist band indicating that you have paid for the "fun" and a life jacket must be worn.

Watching them trying to climb on these completely wore me out. I could only imagine the burning muscles they had at the moment. It was hilarious to watch for sure.

I couldn't believe that Brayden was able to make it up on these things. He was doing just as good as some of the adults if not better.

If you notice, some of the pictures are crispy clear while others are not so focused.

While I absolutely LOVE my point and shoot cameras, this is where they fall short. They are not good at any zoom. I have tried over and over with different things and settings, the zoom just SUCKS. Whether it's on land or in the water. Sometimes I have a tendency to forget this and take pictures zooming only to remember that it gives me nothing but bad results when I see the pictures when I return home. A much better option is always to take the picture at the highest setting (which I keep my camera on) and then crop in close the picture you are trying to zoom in on. You will get a much better picture in the end.

The hubby adventured out into the water and was watching the kids having so much fun.

"You want to try it, you know you do!"

He finally gave up and came back in saying "I bet they are having a blast."

The kids finally returned and talked about what a good time they had and how worn out they were. They said it was really hard to climb up on them, but it was not only fun but funny as well to to try.

Lots of smiles.

Kendra did go out with one of my cameras to catch the close up shots.

Sometimes you just have to go for it.

Typical Kendra selfie

No matter how hard he tried, he was not pulling Courtney up there.

While the kids were having fun on the water toys, I took out the map and tried to see where this "snorkeling" area was and headed off with my gear.

The map claimed that it was around the corner at the beach area there closer to the rocks.

The beach area around the corner (same beach that we were on, but it curves a little), did not have much shade and there weren't very many people there.

I went into the water and it had a drop off. There seem to be areas here and there that were dug deep and then would go back up. There really wasn't much to see and very little fish. I did find a school of pretty big fish (and I had no idea what they were), but still not much to see.

My failed attempt of an underwater and on top of water shot.

So although they may claim there's a "snorkeling" area, it's far from anything I would call snorkeling.

I walked back to the camp a little disappointed to find the kids back out of the water.

The hubby finally made a decision that he was going to give it a shot and try out the water toys.

Everyone was worn out except Kolin. He happily went back over to swim.

The weird birds of Blue Lagoon that stole my husbands chicken off his plate.

I know you are all tired of all of the water toys pictures. But man there were so many and I only picked a "few" out. LOL

One last one and it's a video that I compiled together.

FISJ-sKtE5Q

So it was getting close to the time that we should probably start packing up, dragging the kids and munchkins out of the water, and headed toward the entrance where we were to catch our ferry back to the ship. As much as we hated to leave, the time had come.

When we arrived, they told us that the Disney people would be leaving the island at 4:30. If we were on NCL, we had the option to leave at that time with Disney or we could stay until 5:30pm. Of course we opted to stay until 5:30pm.

About 5:15pm, we packed everything up and started heading that way. I really wanted to stop and get a picture underneath the Blue Lagoon sign before we left, but when we got there, they had the water bikes there in the way. Boo

We all had to stop one last time at the restroom and Kendra decided she would change in to dry clothes. I didn't have a great feeling about that.

They had clean restrooms and a changing area room as well.

We all went outside, looked around in the gift shop to kill some time (I didn't find anything that interest me). Obviously Kendra was taking her time, just like always. After a certain amount of time, I was tired of waiting and said "Ok, we are headed out. I'm not getting left behind."

We all headed toward the dock and there was a line all the way down it and they were loading the boat.

We watched the dolphins swimming around right there beside us at the dock.

After getting half way down the pier deck, I did see Kendra come out and head for the line. We were slowly moving in the line and Sakari and Brayden were watching the dolphins as my "panic mom mode" was in full force because they had nothing but a rope to keep you from falling into the water.

We got up to the beginning of the line and they ask "How many?". They let us on and said "That's all". Um....ok. So Kendra wasn't making this trip (although there was another ferry pulling up for the remaining people).

We started pulling away.

Here we go...OH NO....WAIT!!! TURN AROUND...GO BACK!! I have a kid that doesn't belong to me!! Not again. How does this always happen?

There we go...leaving mommy behind. Just great.

Ok, well, I guess it's not "so" bad. I can say that "normally" when Kendra is not around, Brayden usually minds me pretty good. It's only when Kendra is around that he completely acts up.

I gave him that glaring mammaw look like "you better not try me boy!" and he was good the entire way there. He just hugged me and told me how much he loves me. Awww, there are those times that he just looks at me with those piercing baby blue eyes and he melts my heart.

On the way back, I managed to zoom (oops, something I shouldn't have done) in on the house they "claimed" belonged to Beyonce and Jay Z to take a picture.

I do have to say that I always wonder when they tell you things like this on a tour. I mean they could tell you anything and you would never know if it's true or not. When I returned I tried to google any info I could get on it and there wasn't anything at all claiming that they even own a house in Nassau or the Bahamas. I did find that they vacation there a lot and there was a mention of the place they usually "stay" at when in town. But no mention of them owning a place. So, who knows.

They also showed us the "island" that Eddie Murphy was supposed to own. I did find information on that online, so I guess maybe that portion is true. LOL

Like I said before, I couldn't hear what all they were saying on the ride over, so I have no idea who else had a home there of "interest". I know they say that Michael Jordan and Oprah have homes there, but I couldn't tell you much more.

We came up to the huge bridge(s) that we went under on the way over and stopped close to one of them. That's when I found out that this was "Paradise Island" and the stop others talked about. We were lucky to be there maybe 1 minute and dropped of about 3 people and off we went.