We thought we went on our "babymoon" last year when we went to Peru then Iceland. Peru was supposed to be our last trip before trying for a baby, then we found the deal on Iceland flights and decided to have one more last trip before babies. Well, when we found out we were pregnant, something made me want to plan a trip during our pregnancy. Something relaxing with just the two of us to get away. We wanted to get away from the to-do lists, house chores, social obligations, work, just everything. This was one of the best decisions we've made since finding out we're pregnant, I believe.
In the end, we decided to book a cruise. We have been wanting to go on one, but we always decide on something more adventurous. This seemed like the perfect time to try one, and it was! We had originally booked one for the previous week, but it was cancelled because the ship we were sailing on was being renovated and it wasn't ready in time. I was a little bummed, because we really wanted to go on a 5 night cruise. There were no more 5 night cruises that were available for us to go on once we ruled out dates due to my travel restrictions (the cruise had to be complete by the time I entered my 24th week) and places due to Zika. So, after our cruise was cancelled, it was either this one or a 3 night, which was definitely too short. We REALLY enjoyed ourselves, but at the end, we both said 5 nights would have been nice. Maybe next time!
We flew down SUPER early the morning that our cruise departed. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale and took and Uber to Miami. It wasn't bad, but I will say flying is more difficult and less comfortable being pregnant. I'm at the point where sitting still for long periods of time isn't preferable, so there's that. Totally worth it and I would do it again, just something to note. I probably wouldn't want to do a really long flight unless I could guarantee I could only sit beside Josh. I'm more irritable and bigger than my usual self, so having people right on top of me was a bigger issue than it typically is for me. It wasn't as big a deal on the way there, because our flight left at 5:30am and I was able to get back to sleep. On the way back home was a different story. I had a man beside me who took up his seat and part of mine. He fell asleep and snored really loud with his mouth open and I could smell his breath. I was hot. Those things make for a bad combo, so I felt pretty awful by the time we got off the plane.
Going through security for the cruise wasn't bad at all. One security guy did pull me aside and ask - "What are you, about 5 1/2 months pregnant?" It caught me off guard, but I told him I was 23 weeks - pretty dang close! He told Josh he was leaving to take me to the beach and winked at him, then he told me he didn't like to have pregnant ladies go through the metal detectors/scanners. He said even though the FDA says it's fine, he wouldn't be able to sleep at night if they came out in 10 years and said it was causing issues and he had been sending pregnant women through them all this time. He told me he was going to have Johnny Depp pat me down, who was actually a really nice lady. When she got to my belly, she patted it too and said "Awwww! ...I'm sorry, I know you're probably tired of that, but I have to check there too." So that was the first stranger belly rub I've experienced, but it wasn't like a random stranger came up to me to just grope my belly. I wasn't offended and I think the guy was really sincere.
Now on to the good part!
We went to grab lunch, then our rooms were ready shortly after, so we went to take a nap. I needed a little snack after our nap, so we went to the buffet for a "salad". Somehow, I ended up getting enough food to make me feel full. Totally didn't mean to do that. We went back to our room to get ready for dinner anyway. Even though I wasn't super hungry, dinner was still very enjoyable. We sat with all couples who were close to our age, so I would say Royal Caribbean did a good job of trying to pair us with people we might have common interests with. Our waitstaff was amazing! Our head waiter was Dmitro from Ukraine and his assistant was Simone from Jamaica. They basically made our dining experience. I think we both got steak the first night. It was really good. No complaints at all - it was tender and the flavor was great - just not the greatest steak I've ever had good. That's pretty much how we felt about the food as a whole. Overall, I think we've been more impressed with the food at the all inclusives we've been to. That is definitely the case for the buffet. I was expecting a huge variety of fresh fruits and fresh fruit juices. That wasn't the case. They had a few fresh fruits and the juices were orange juice, lemonade, fruit punch and some other juice that didn't sound good. It wasn't a huge deal, because I'm drinking mostly water anyway, but a glass of some random fresh fruit juice at lunch would have been very welcome. Anyway, we were quite tired, so we literally just crashed after bed. I slept SO much better than I do at home (even though the bed wasn't nearly as comfy as ours). I'm assuming it was a combination of the gentle rock of the ship and the fact that I had no responsibilities.
Our first view of Nassau. I'm so glad we had this little window in our room! I've been told by several people who have cruised not to pay extra for an outside room. We didn't do this on purpose. We had an inside room booked for our original cruise. When we booked this one, there were no interior rooms available. Since this was a shorter cruise and a cheaper boat, we still ended up getting money back. I would definitely want to consider having an outside room the next time we cruise. I loved seeing the ports in the morning and having natural sunlight!
Our ship in Nassau - Notice the Disney ship in the background. We plan on cruising with Disney later in life.
We had previously considered an excursion to a private beach and to swim with stingrays, but I woke up with a sore throat (I think it just got way too dry) and Josh was taking Dramamine, so he was groggy. I decided being stuck in a group of people for 5 hours and being on someone else's schedule was not for us. I don't regret that decision at all. We started off the day by checking out Nassau a little. We went straight through the little market thing that is at the cruise terminal. They try to get you to buy things, but walk with a purpose and they don't bother you too much. It was very similar to touristy areas we visited in the Dominican. We walked around and looked at some shops. Went to the straw market (which is very similar to "local" markets we've been to in other countries. There are some hand made items in there, but there's also just a lot of crap made in China that ladies try to pass off as locally made.) We spent just a few minutes in there, got what we were looking for and left.
After our "shopping", we went to
Pirate Republic, which is the only brewery in Nassau. It's an easy walk from the port. We went when they first opened, so it wasn't busy at all. Josh got a flight and really enjoyed all the beers he tried. I was excited about the pretzels, but they were not great. Even with the pretzels, we really enjoyed ourselves at the brewery. There was a guy dressed up like a pirate who would walk around and talk to you like a pirate. If we find ourselves in Nassau again, we would be happy to go back.
After the brewery, we went back to the ship to grab a snack and change into our bathing suits. We decided to walk to a public beach and we actually found a good spot on it!
Our view for the afternoon. Complete with a little bump and my swollen sausage toes. Ignore the crooked horizon.
23 week bump!
What Josh's beach reading consists of these days...
Next, we walked down to the
Fish Fry to grab lunch. This is an interesting group of little seafood shacks. At least as far down as we went, we didn't see anything but food, so I'm not sure how they all stay in business with SO much food and really nothing else to attract people. We went to
Oh Andros, which was recommended by the bar tender at Pirate Republic. The waitress told us the portions were big enough to share if you're not too hungry. We got an appetizer mostly because we wanted some conch fritters (nom!). We absolutely did not need them. For our entree, we got fried conch, rice, potato salad and fried plantains. There was SO much food. We were both quite hungry and we still only ate half the food. We really enjoyed the place. It felt very local and everyone was super nice. The food was good and reasonably priced.
After this, we started walking back to the ship to be lazy for a bit. It was quite a walk, so we had to stop and rest my tired feet (and I was getting crampy). I would have had us stop again for a short break, but I had to pee, so I toughed it out. We got back to the ship and napped, which was great. By this time, it was probably 6:00. We were at port until 11:30 that night, but we didn't really plan to get back off the ship. Most things were closing up as we were going back to nap and we were excited for dinner on the boat anyway. We walked around the boat a little more before dinner, then went to the main dining room to eat. Really tasty food and great service again. We crashed after dinner again. The next day was Coco Cay and we got there kind of early, so we didn't want to stay up late anyway.
On our way to Coco Cay!
Coco Cay is Royal Caribbean's private island it it's beautiful! The huts on the island are all really brightly colored and of course the water is beautiful.
Anna had told me about the snorkeling excursion she and John did when they visited on their honeymoon. It was affordable and something you do at your own pace, so it was right up our alley. They had some other options, but we both were not in the mood to be on someone else's schedule. We went out a little shortly after we got there, then we came in to lounge and get lunch and we went back out. I really enjoyed it and we saw a lot. A stingray, a huge sea cucumber, tons of fish, a stingray, a live conch, a big dead lobster...the only thing missing was a sea turtle. Sigh. I lost my sunglasses and that sucked, but otherwise, this was an awesome day!
We have pretty much only video of snorkeling and I'm way too lazy to sift through that right now, so maybe I'll upload some one day. :-)
Our last day was in Key West. We found a brewery on the water, so we stopped there to plan the rest of our day. We were able to look out on the water and it was really enjoyable. We realized at this point that we had both left our credit cards in our room. Yikes! Luckily, we had just enough cash to pay for Josh's flight and stop for a small iced mocha to share on the way back. It wasn't awesome to walk back to the ship at the time, especially since our time at Key West was limited, but it's funny now. It actually reminded us of a time from our dating days, so that was fun to look back on and we were able to laugh about it even as we were walking back. Unfortunately, I didn't feel well when we got back. I grabbed a snack on the ship thinking that would help, but it didn't. I was just really nauseous. Maybe I got too hot. I put the sea bands on because you know, they look great with my super cute dress. I ate a couple ginger lozenges and laid down for about 15 minutes. I felt a little better, but still not great. I decided to tough it out. We were only in Key West for a few more hours and there was plenty of time to feel like crap on the boat later. We found a shaded place to sit down and check into our flights while we decided what we wanted for lunch. We decided on
Caroline's and we don't regret it. We were not super hungry and I was set on getting some key lime pie if I felt better in a bit, so we decided to share a fish sandwich. SO good. Service was great too! I felt quite a bit better after eating and resting for a bit. Maybe this southern girl just needed some fried food in her life!
Since Josh got to go the brewery, we set off to find some key lime pie for me.
The way to a pregnant girl's heart - key lime pie in Key West
When I bought this dress several years ago, I told Josh it would be a cute maternity dress too. He wasn't as excited about that idea at that point (and neither was I), but I like planning ahead and I still think it does. :-)
On the way back to our boat for the very last time. Bye bye, Key West!
Once we got back on the boat, we went to change to our bathing suits and decided to head to the pool to read a bit and relax. We picked a good spot for watching the sun set, near the front corner of the boat. To our surprise, once Key West was out of view, most of the people around us left and it was pretty much just us. It was quite nice. We stayed there until the sun went down and it was time to get ready for dinner.
Rocking a bikini...you know...in case I look like I got attacked by Freddy Krueger once I pop this little one out and never get to wear one again.
Last night before returning to the real world!
Our last dinner was amazing and we said our goodbyes to our cruise buddies and waitstaff. We had a relaxing rest of the night and slept like babies. I'm SO glad we took the time to do this. It was exactly what we needed. It's basically impossible for me to not get caught up in all that still needs to be done while I'm at home, so getting away for a bit was perfect! We plan to spend a long weekend away for our anniversary as well and I'm definitely looking forward to that!
