By My in-laws generously gifted us a trip to the Bahamas for Christmas. It was a 3 day cruise on Royal Caribbean out of Port Canaveral with stops in Nassau and Coco Cay.
We talked a lot about the boat in advance of the trip to build excitement and answered A LOT of questions — especially after watching The Little Mermaid, “is the ship gonna lean over like this?” “No” “if it does we’ll have to go out and say ‘hey! What’s going on out there?!”
It was hectic but easy when we got there. We picked a time in advance to board (12 pm). Landon had loaded all of our passports, photos and other necessary info in the app beforehand so we had expedited entry.
We each were able to “check” one bag so we dropped those off on the ground floor with the baggage guys and then drove to the top of the parking garage to park. We picked a spot by the elevators.
Toddlers always seem to be too busy or have their hands full (of nothing) so he couldn’t carry anything and left us to carry everything. But we gave him a break since it was lunch time and almost nap time.
The room was bigger than we expected and perfect for our little family. The bed was a queen size and then we took our trusty pack n play for L. There was also a couch and TV in the room.
We had looked at pictures of the ship before the trip and to no one’s surprise, the orange Jeep was what L was most excited for. We located it right away but were disappointed to see that we couldn’t sit in it.
Our first night was a little rocky (even L noted that the boat was moving side to side), so Landon and I both took Dramamine. After that it was mostly smooth sailing.
Our first stop was Nassau. It was a rainy day but we got a little break which was nice.
We explored a little bit — searching for a truck — but settling on sand buckets and shovels.
It started to rain as we were heading back to the ship, just in time for lunch and nap! And I went to the gym after all that and got in a 30 minute Peloton run while looking over the turquoise waters of the Bahamas.
We did family dinners each night at 5:30. We had a standing reservation at the same table with the same waiters which made it really easy. L picked the same thing every night fruit, “pasketti” and a brownie with ice cream, except for one night when he switched it up for apple pie with ice cream only to realize he didn’t like apple pie.
The next day, we arrived at Coco Cay which is the private island of Royal Caribbean.
Landon and I booked a snorkeling excursion for this day during L’s nap. But first we planned to play on the beach, in the water park and ride the tram with our boy. You can guess which he was most excited for 😂
The turquoise water was GORGEOUS! I ran right to it and then right away from it after dipping my toe in because it was SO cold! The kids didn’t seem to mind but I preferred frozen drinks on the sand.
Our excursion got canceled due to the winds but to be honest, I wasn’t disappointed since the water was so cold and I hated the thought of putting my whole body in the water. So, we went to lunch with the whole crew before half went back to the boat and we went back to the pirate ship for more fun!
Coco Cay was definitely our favorite day. We had great weather, there was so much to do and everyone was tired by nap time!
L went to nap in Nana & Granddad’s room while I went to the top deck to read and Landon watched some football.
We cruised overnight back into Florida and had a quick breakfast before exiting the ship. We were in our car by around 9:30 AM and it was super easy to get out of the deck. The only difference with getting there and leaving was no one helped with luggage on the way out (we checked 3 bags coming in) unless you took the option to have a set time to leave the boat. We preferred to get off earlier so we carried it all ourselves.
It was a fun trip and a wonderful gift. A few things we didn’t consider as expenses before going which added up: drinks on board, WiFi on board, daily gratuities and the excursion (we were refunded of course). All good to know for future cruises! The kids club started at age 3 so we missed it by a month but that’s ok — our boy is a good traveler and we had a ton of fun sign him on the boat. Probably wouldn’t have sent him there anyway. We did check out the arcade but it was very loud so we didn’t stay long.
We all had a blast and L is still talking about Coco Cay. His trucks drive there. His boat goes there in the bath. He clearly loved it. We can’t wait for warm weather and time at the pool, splash pad and sand box again!!
PS – We’re still serving up “pasketti” at our house most nights 😂
Chapel Hill Baby 