bahamas Archives

First Cruise and Reminiscing

Reminiscing, remembering, a walk down memory lane. What’s the point of making memories if we don’t pull them out and dust them off now and then? Sometimes things look different after some time has passed. For example let’s talk about cruises. If you ask me now if I like to go on cruises I’ll tell you no. It’s not my cup of tea. I’ve been on 3 cruises in my life, The Bahamas , Cozumel and Alaska. Now I’ll share my feelings about each cruise, the good and the bad as I remember it. I wonder if I’ll still feel the same way after I’ve brushed off the memories.

The 40th Birthday Cruise

The first cruise was a “destination” cruise. My BFF was turning 40. It was a traumatic milestone for him so 3 of us got together and decided we’d take him on a cruise to the Bahamas. It was a short cruise. If I recall it was just 4 days. We spent one day on a private island. That was the best part of the trip for me. I got to spend the day snorkeling. My 3 friends hung out on the beach.

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Formal Night

Like most cruises at that time, one night was formal night. We were cruising with the Royal Caribbean. We all got dressed to the 9’s and had our picture taken with the captain. Then we retired to one of the lounges. The entertainment was big band music. Everyone was dancing. We didn’t stay long. My 3 companions didn’t want to dance at least not ballroom dancing. Instead we went to one of the shows. I’m a team player so I went along. Most entertainment on cruise ships is top notch and these shows were no exception. It was a good 2nd choice to the dancing.

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Bahamas

When we arrived in the Bahamas my 3 friends wanted to go shopping. I suggested we explore the ocean activities, like swimming with dolphins, as I was not interested in shopping. I can go shopping anytime. Once again it was 3 to 1 so we went shopping. After shopping was over we took a shuttle boat to Paradise Island to visit the famous Atlantis Resort. I saw my first Chihuly, a glass masterpiece and became an instant fan. The aquarium under the resort was very cool too. It was like walking through a submerged ancient city.

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Stays in Vegas or so the saying goes. Las Vegas is not a feature destination in my mind. I’ve been there several times. You walk the strip. You oooh and ahhh at the casinos and massive hotels, you eat too much, enjoy a show and gamble. Well, I don’t gamble but most visitors to Las Vegas do.

Anyway if you don’t gamble once the sight seeing is done it’s pretty boring, at least it was for me. But I haven’t been there in a number of years and I’m sure it’s changed a lot.

One of the perks of timeshare ownership is you get put on many, many vacation destination lists. You get calls from vacation clubs, other time share resorts, and cruise lines all making a pitch for your vacation dollar and some of the incentives are pretty sweet. Most of the time I say no but once in a while one comes along at the right time.

That happened just this month. I was wracking my brain for a suitable gift for a longtime friend that just hit the big 5-0. Yes , he’s taking it hard. When he turned 40 several of us took him on a cruise to Nassau, Bahamas.

This time I was the only one trying to come up with a memorable gift. It was in the middle of those musings that my phone rang. A vacation/ travel pitch.

When the agent said Las Vegas my first response was to say no, not interested but ‘Iris” asked me to just listen as it was a good deal. Well, I’m not going to tell you how much it was because my friend might be reading this and it’s tacky to leave a price tag on a gift. But let’s just say that even on my limited budget it was very affordable. In fact it will probably cost more for the plane fare.

So my friend received a 4 day and 3 night stay in Las Vegas. The trip includes a dinner for 2 (me and him) 2 show tickets and $100 for slot play (He can have that). The only thing is he has to go with me. I can’t just give it to him to take anyone. We have 24 months to use it. (That’s so we can save up the plane fare- just joking)

I’m not sure when we’re going to go. We haven’t talked about it too much except that he said he’s never been to Vegas but I’m going to start looking into some of the more unusual things to do..like maybe Hoover Dam, a visit to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop (from the TV show Pawn Stars) or a drive to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It is his gift so I suppose he’ll have a say in what we do too. 😉