Vanessa Marie : the bahamas

I just got back from my cruise to the Bahamas, sad to say that I didn't get any color. Most of the time was spend being on the ship, we only got to port 3 out of the 7 days of the cruise. In acutality it was 2 out of 7 because due to unfortunate events, we only got to port at Nassau, Bahamas for one day. Freeport, Bahamas did not fall through because of poor weather conditions; there was a bad thunder storm the night before.

The drive to Maryland took about 3.5 hours, which wasn't that bad. I rode with Diana and 3 of the other girls; we chatted the whole entire drive, making the time pass by. The minute we saw our ship we shrieked like groupies chasing after our favorite boy band. After all the talk and months of waiting, the day finally arrived; stood before us was the Carnival Pride. After meeting up with the other half of the girls, we got our tags and checked in multiple times before we headed for the ship. My stomach was doing 10 flips per minute; I was excited about my first trip outside the US.

We slowly made our way up the ramp to the ship and for whatever reason I had an image of Leonardo DiCaprio came in my head (Titanic version). It was nothing that I had imagined, especially since I've never been on a ship before. The place where we had entered was called the Atrium, the main lobby. I laughed to myself because I thought of atrium, one of the heart's chambers, haha. It was beautiful, the whole room was lite with warm light, making the room look as if it was filled with gold; the room also had an antique feel to it, I liked it.

Since we couldn't go to our rooms yet, we checked in at guest services then went to get some grub. What? We were starving! There were two dining places, The Normandie, a fancy resturant which is included in the package, and the Mermaid Buffet, which you can tell by the name it was a buffet. Yeah, I drooled a little... All I can eat for 7 days! You know who was a fatty! We stood in the buffet until it was time to go to our rooms, where we established our territories and made ourselves comfortable; after all it was our "home" for the next 6 days.

To go through day by day would take pages to write, so instead I will just mentions the highlights of the trip, haha, I shall spare you all from the boring details. During the daytime, there wasn't really much to do so we ate (a lot), walked around the ship, slept, girl talks, went to the gym or watched tv. There were small little events around the ship, but it was very family oriented. We really didn't get to meet any people our age; it was more adults with their family and children, young teenagers or the much, much older people. And when we did see people close our age, it was either they were with their boyfriend/girlfriend or stuck with their group of friends. But who needed to meet anyone? We were a group of 8 girls! We had each other and that's all we needed.

At night was when we had fun, for the most part. They had comedy clubs, dance clubs, the hot tubs, the casinos, karoke, game lounge and tons of bars. We would find something to do almost every night and when there wasn't much, we would go back to our rooms where we would have our talks and laughs. Ah, I almost forgot... for the first time in my life, I was called on stage of a magic show. Ha! Yes! Me, called onto stage, I was as nervous as a dog - but I did it to myself. Everytime he would ask for a volunteer I would raise my hand, but I wasn't chosen; at that point I given up. But then all of a sudden he asks for a young woman, my girlfriends rose my hands up from both sides and all of them pointed to me. I don't know if I should have thanked them or yelled at them, haha. I got what I wanted, but it was unexpected. So there I was, on the stage of a magic show juggling bowling pins with the magician while he's on a unicycle. And I failed miserably, haha. That was my moment on the spot light.
When we arrive at the Nassau, I was in awe. It was gorgeous! The clear blue skies, gorgeous blue/green waters, unique buildings and the people were extremely friendly. You can see through the water! And I saw fishes and sea shells. Haha, we don't exactly have nice waters here in Jersey. The weather was comfortable and the air was so fresh. I couldn't wait to see what Nassau at to offer. We didn't do too much however we did get a tour, bought souvenirs, laid out on the beach and ate really good food at Senior Frog. I am bummed because I didn't get to go into the ocean, it was a little too cold for my liking; I wasn't the only one. I love the heat, 75 degrees wasn't beach weather for me, haha.

Our Freeport port was canceled because of the weather conditions. Everyone was bummed out since we all were looking forward to it. So instead the ship headed back to the US. That day we went to the comedy club and saw Happy Cole - he was a funny guy. The rest of the trip, we took it easy. You can say everyone was partied out, haha.

Minus the occasional sea sickness, I had a great time with the girls. But I must admit that I thought about Jorge almost everyday; everything I saw and did, I wanted to share with him. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I went with the girls, but I still missed my best friend. I'm used to doing everything with him. On this trip I noticed how much he does for me, such as seeing what's in the area, things to do and so on. He organizes things so that I have a great time. With the girls, it was a little unorganized, something I'm not used to. But I will know for next time that someone needs to be the planner, which is usually me.

I took a lot of pictures of the trip. Girl time is needed at times. I hope that as we all get older we all keep in touch and have many more trips together. I love creating memories with the people I love the most, they are irreplaceable.

Now, without further adieu, the pictures from my trip... Enjoy!