Surprise cruise! B2B Victory and Glory review Feb 2-15/15

[cruisingbajan]

$18 on the way there, $22 on the way back.

 

Thanks.

[sjn911]

Soo looking forward to this...and I love that video song too...big Enrique fan here...sooo sweet...take our time and so happy to be able to follow your story..thanks for sharing...

 

Sarah

[RobertL88]

Subscribing; what a nice and creative way to surprise someone with a cruise! Can't wait to read more!

[Elaine515]

Looking forward to the Glory part of your review... COME BACK PLEASE !!! lol

 

 

 

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[ch27088]

Thank you for sharing your review with us. Loved the way your surprised your boyfriend with the scavenger hunt. I love your review and can't wait to finish reading.

[0pelletier0]

Hey guys :) Sorry it's taken a few days to get back.. lifes too hectic.. anyway, without further ado....

 

Day 3: Sea Day! (I know I said Freeport in the last post, forgot about the first sea day!)

 

I don't have too many pictures or anything exciting from this sea day because for the most part we were just wandering around and/or being lazy so I didnt have my camera most of the time.

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We didn't do much this day. It was our first official day of doing nothing. We layed out on the decks quite a bit, though the weather was pretty awful. This whole cruise ended up being super windy and cloudy. A lot of the time it probably should have been pants instead of shorts, though i was NOT going to wear pants most of this trip.

Throughout the afternoon we went to urban myth trivia, the big bang theory trivia and we also went up to lido and watched the ice carving demonstration, mens hairy chest competition, and the bean bag toss competition.

 

Later in the evening we went to the family friendly comedy, the close up magic, and the adults only comedy shows. The comedian this night was Ceejay Jones and he was absolutely hilarious. We enjoyed his show many times throughout this cruise.

 

This night we also went and watched "The Other Woman" at the Dive-In Movies. This was the first time I had ever done the dive in movie and it was so neat! we did bring a small blanket with us up to lido because it was pretty chilly every night.

 

 

Before bed, of course our next towel animal was waiting for us...

 

 

As I said, nothing too interesting this day... so next up, Freeport!

Edited March 3, 2015 by 0pelletier0

[0pelletier0]

Day 4: Freeport, Bahamas

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We woke up excited and raring to go. Unfortunately, weather here today wasn't great either. But we didn't let it bother us. The port was pretty industrialized, as are a lot of them. There were some large cargo ships and you could see people working everywhere.

Edited March 3, 2015 by 0pelletier0

[0pelletier0]

We had the "Freeport Kayak & Nature Experience" excursion bright and early at 8:30am so we got going quickly in the morning. We ordered room service this morning which consisted of bagels, yogurt, orange and apple juice, fresh fruit, and a muffin.

 

Debarking the ship to get to the excursion was quick and easy. We met our excursion on the pier and about ten minutes later, were in the van on the way to our kayaking. The vehicle we rode in was the oldest, scariest thing. We were all swearing it was going to break down as it was also pulling a trailer with the 6 kayaks. At one point we went over a bump and the exhaust hit the ground, and we lost a piece off the van. The driver jumped out and grabbed it, and threw it in the back. We all had a pretty good laugh and everyone was good sports about it. We lucked out not having any complainers in our group. They were all a fun bunch. The drive was pretty long, going all the way to the other side of Freeport, so I got lots of time to take pictures.....

 

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OIL DRUMS

Our tour operator said that Freeport was hit hard by hurricane Frances and Jeanne, both within the last 10 years, and has been struggling to rebuild. You can see all the damage in the trees as there are tons of dead trees around.

 

Freeport's airport: Grand Bahama International Airport (not a very good pic)

 

Major canal of the island. A lot of rich people build houses along this canal, and they are in the middle of making another bridge across the canal further down, as currently there is only one bridge to cross it, making transit times across the island pretty long.

[0pelletier0]

Once we got to the site, we got a quick lesson on how to hold our paddles, as well as what to do. The person in the back is the "steerer" and has to watch out for the river banks. He gave us some tips and tricks as to maneuvering the kayaks because at some parts of the river, the opposite banks come very close to each other and it is difficult to paddle.

 

I read reviews about this excursion prior to booking it, and it had mostly great reviews. However there were a few people saying it was awful and the banks were too close together and they were getting stuck and it was no fun. We didn't get stuck at all (surprisingly) but a few in our group did. Nobody was grumpy about it though. We all laughed and screamed about it and had a blast. It was breathtaking kayaking through the mangroves and if you look in the water, you could see TONS of oysters as well as a lot of little black fish, though I didn't get any pictures of the fish. At one point we also saw some kind of ray laying on the bottom of the riverbed, which I tried taking a picture of, but didn't turn out. Luckily, the weather was just right for kayaking. Sunny, but a bit breezy and not too hot. Kayaking turned out to be a lot more work than I thought!

 

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[0pelletier0]

Our kayak trip was about 2.5 miles long I think I remember the guide saying. I was surprised - it didn't feel that long. When we got to the end, it dumped us in a small "bay" where we got out of our kayaks.

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We got back into the van which another guide had drove down to meet us, and we drove back to our starting point. From here, we got on a raft to pull across to the other side of the river. The guide picked 4 men to pull the rope to get us across, and Nick was one of them.

d

 

Once across, we had a short - maybe 10 minute - walk through a bit of the foliage to get to our final destination - the beach!

The guide was great on our walk. He pointed out a lot of the wildlife and was very knowledgable. He showed us the 4 types of mangroves on the island - white, grey, red, and black.

 

White:

 

Grey:

 

This (forget what it is called) is a member of the pineapple family and grows on many of the palms around the island.

 

[0pelletier0]

This is a poison wood tree. If you touch it, it acts like poison ivy... Of course, he didn't say that until I had already touched it thinking "this tree is so cool looking!" Luckily, it didn't do anything to me... I was waiting for it, but nothing happened.

 

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After our short nature walk, we finally saw IT!!! Looking just like a postcard..

 

 

It was too cold and windy to swim, but we had to at least put our feet in - it was after all, Nicks first time in the ocean! We tried to lay in the sun a bit because its what you are supposed to do when in the bahamas... however, still too cold to lay out there too long.

 

[SMSACE6]

I am loving your review! Thanks so much for posting one. And I love how you broke it to your boyfriend about the cruise:) You both look like you are having a blast!

[0pelletier0]

The excursion included lunch which consisted of "make your own sandwiches". They had bread, different kinds of meat, cheese, lettuce, pickles, and mustand/ketchup/mayo. They also had lemonade, iced tea, and water to drink. The food was light enough to not feel heavy and ruin the excursion, but enough to fill us up. The only negative about the lunch was that there were bees all over the food and juice jugs, as it was just sitting out on a picnic table.

 

After the lunch, some raccoons came by and we got to watch them. One of the guides threw some stale bread into the bush for them to get them to come a bit closer.

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Shortly after that, we took a different path back to the van. This path had a small bridge that went over the river and we stopped on the bridge where the guide tossed bits of bread in for the fish. Considering the depth and size of the "pond", there were some BIG fish in there! I coudln't manage to catch them in a picture so I just took a video.

 

http://youtu.be/_9hmGHRihEs

 

After we were done looking at all the fish, we went back to the van and drove back to port. The excursion took most of the day, so we looked around the shops in port, got a few souvenirs for Jace (2 tshirts and a toy crocodile) and headed back on board. But not before getting a few more pictures....

 

Edited March 3, 2015 by 0pelletier0

[0pelletier0]

We got back on board around 4:30 and lounged in our room until it was time to set sail. Took a few more pictures from the balcony, and watched as we headed out to sea again.

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We decided to go to the MDR for dinner after sailaway, because we anted to be done eating by 8:00 to go to Game Show Mania.

Dinner was great (forget what we had though) and during dinner this night, the staff put on a show to "Low"

 

After dinner, we went to the Game Show Mania which was absolutely fabulous. The hosts did such a great job making it fun and entertaining for the whole family. After that we went to the Love and Marriage Show which was the highlight of the whole cruise. The host had us nearly peeing ourselves laughing and everyone on stage were such great sports. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life.

 

Shortly after, we decided to turn in, only to to find.......

 

our next towel animal waiting for us!!!! Up next: Day at little stirrup cay..?

[Jenny in TX]

Great start to your review! I will be on the Glory next month so I am really looking forward to that portion of your review.

[cruisin blue]

Awesome surprise and awesome review! Thanks for taking the time to share.

[Giggles2007]

Following!

[TrqoisWtrs]

Looking forward to reading more. Great work on the surprise! :)

 

Our CD was Marcello

 

I love Marshmellow! :D

[chuffy06]

Great job! More please!

[alyivan12]

Following along! Hoping to hear about your Glory cruise before mine next month!

[0pelletier0]

Day 5: Little Stirrup Cay

 

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We woke up super excited for this port. I had never been to one of the private islands (mind you, neither had Nick) and had heard TONS of good things about them. We woke up just as the ship was pulling in and we sat out on the balcony and watched for a little bit. We anchored out a ways from the shore and we could see the island. We got ready, packed our beach bag with everything we might need, and grabbed our tickets for our parasail excursion. I tried to parasail in the past but it got cancelled due to high winds. So I was SUPER excited to finally get to parasail. We headed down to the buffet for breakfast to await tenders. Since we had FTTF, we were planning on being some of the first off to max our time in the sun.

 

We were JUST finishing up breakfast when the captain came on the loudspeaker and informed us that due to high winds and a storm coming in quickly, we could not port and that we were LEAVING :( Well, no parasailing for me today.... again....

 

Around the ship, a LOT of people were complaining about the port. We heard a variety of "I paid all this money to not go to the port?!" or "this cruise only had 3 ports to begin with and now we only have 2?!" I couldn't believe how many people were angry. We overheard 3 seperate groups of people talking about going to guest services and asking for a refund for the cruise... hmm.. guess those people didn't read their cruise contract...:rolleyes:

 

The ship pulled out of port almost immediately, followed by the captain again informing us that anyone would shore excursions would get reimbursed on their sail & sign account, but that we would just be making this a sea day because Nassau tomorrow was so far away, there was no other close port we could go to today. Bummer, another sea day. Shortly after that, they delivered a new funtimes to our room, with different activities to accomodate the new sea day.

 

[0pelletier0]

For the most part of this day, we were lazy and just lounged around. Wandered around the ship, had a nap, sat out on our balcony, etc. I only took 2 pictures throughout the afternoon which were...

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Not very exciting... We went to quite a bit of trivia this day including entertainment trivia, movie trivia, and sports trivia. We didn't do very good in any of them but had fun. We went to family friendly comedy with comedian Thea. I wasn't a big fan of her as her whole spiel, she seemed to go on and on about how things were different in the old days, and how she was so poor, and how kids are spoiled and entitled these days, how we should be disciplining our kids more.. Didn't find her very funny, and I don't see how kids were supposed to find it funny. She also singled out 2 little boys in the show (ages 7 and 8) and especially the 8 year old, kept picking on them. She kept yelling at him and calling him up on stage and he was actually hiding behind his dad because she was scaring him.

If anyone else has ever seen her, what did you think???

 

We did go back for the adult only comedy and it was a bit better, but still not my top choices.

 

We had dinner afterwards at the buffet, as the MDR was closed, and then we went to the late showing of the Playlist Productions show VROOOM and it was so good! The lead singers were fantastic, as were the dancers. It finished around 11:30 so we decided to head to bed so we would be ready for Nassau! As always, our towel animal and fun times were waiting for us...

 

[0pelletier0]

Day 6: Nassau!!

 

This day is going to have the most pictures of any of the days (except for 1 day from the Glory maybe), because we saw SO much!

 

We were super excited because we were booked to go to Atlantis resort. I had read all the reviews and wasn't sure what to expect. Everyone said it was fantastic, but it was 50/50 whether people thought it was worth the money or not. I figured I would give it a shot and have my own opinion. Nick had only been to a waterpark once but it was in Minnesota and was a cold day... we only went on one waterslide and froze, then chose to stick to theme park attractions for the rest of the day instead. So he was really excited to go to Atlantis.

 

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We woke up to.......... CLOUDS! ICK. Not the ideal weather for a water park... We went out on the balcony and it was chilly! There was high winds, and not very much blue sky. We were a bit bummed to pay over $350 for a waterpark if it was going to be too cold, but we were going to make the best of this! After a quick room service breakfast, we headed down to meet our excursion. The excursion met on the main floor (Deck 3) of the auditorium. There were signs posted as to where you should sit for each excursion. We found our row and sat amongst other cruisers waiting to go to Atlantis.

 

While waiting, 4 excursions across the aisle from us got cancelled due to 'poor weather'. My first thought was "Oh my, these poor people had a port cancelled yesterday, and now their excursions cancelled today". They looked so bummed out. But then my next thought was "if the weather is bad enough to cancel other excursions, how is Atlantis going to be....." We were almost wishing ours would get cancelled so we could get our refund instead of paying the money to have a bad day.... But I should have known better than to think that.. who could have a bad day in paradise no matter what the weather is?

 

Our tour guides came around and got us to sign the waivers, then gave us our wristbands.

Edited March 12, 2015 by 0pelletier0

[0pelletier0]

There was a staircase barricaded off just for excursion guests, so they quickly took us down the staircase to deck 0, and off the ship.

 

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Once we got off the pier, we hopped aboard a bus to head to Atlantis! It started raining while we were on the bus, but thankfully it didn't last long and was over before we got to the resort. Of course, had to grab a few pictures on the way...

 

[0pelletier0]

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The bus ride wasn't too long, and before we knew it, we were there. Our tour guide gave us the instructions as to where to meet back, and when. And off we went. He started with a small tour of the main areas, before letting us loose on our own. I will say, I think they should provide us each with maps... we got lost MANY times here. It is a bit confusing once on your own. We figured it out each time, but took a bit longer and wasted some of our very expensive time there.

 

Our guided tour portion started us off in one of the hotels, and then went outside and around the grounds where I got LOTS of pictures. Everything is so gorgeous and perfect at the resort.