Christmas Cruise!

Y’all, I married into the best family. For Christmas, Grandma got us all onto a Caribbean cruise!

We sailed the high seas on the Enchantment of the Seas by Royal Caribbean, and it was just lovely! The boat was pretty huge, having 11 decks, 9 pools and whirlpools, a rock climbing wall and a bungee-jump trampoline thing!

We made two stops during the trip including Coco Cay, Bahamas (the private island that Royal Caribbean owns) and Nassau, Bahamas.

Coco Cay was a dream. Beautiful, untouched beaches (okay sure, they’ve been touched by cruisers, but none of the civilization type stuff), a clear cove with some beautiful snorkeling (my cousin and Parker saw a barracuda!), and free food everywhere. It literally does not get any better than that.

We started our day out snorkeling, which only costed $39 for at your leisure snorkeling for 9 hours. Pretty great! I got to see a parrot fish, giant sea slug, and then they had plenty of exciting “sunken ship” scenes to explore. Then my brother-in-law (Taylor) and I walked along the island until we could go no further, seeing beautiful white sand, clear, blue water and interesting creatures. One of the best things the island offered were hammocks! They had hammocks randomly hung around the island between palm trees, and there were plenty so they weren’t overcrowded. I really liked that.

The second stop was on Nassau, Bahamas, which is also known as Paradise Island because the Atlantis Resort is there! Just beautiful. We didn’t go to any beaches (mostly because we were all sunburnt from the day before), so we just explored the city. It was slightly sketchy, but I had my husband and huge brother-in-law with me, so I wasn’t too concerned. We went to a place called the Straw Market, where all the locals make things (a lot of it, coincidentally out of straw) and sell them. I got some pretty cool souvenirs and gifts there. If I ever end up on that island again, doing the Atlantis Waterpark excursion will definitely be on the top of my list.

Every night on the ship, my other brother-in-law (Spenser) and I would participate in the ship karaoke. Boy, was that a blast! Of course everyone sounds terrible (and half the people in there are drunk anyways), so there’s no pressure and everyone just has fun! We made some funny friends through that!

Another thing we really enjoyed was the poolside dance party one night. They had a DJ come out, big buffets with regular food and dessert, and cool lights flashing all on the deck. We did all kinds of line dancing (and even got my father-in-law to do the Wobble! HA!).

All in all, it was a blast of a trip. It was so fun to hang out with the Boice fam, and even get to meet some of them I hadn’t gotten to yet! We enjoyed it so much, we’re already planning our next one…

Have you been on any awesome cruises? If so, tell me about it in the comments below! Also, any good deals you’ve been able to find?

— Rachel