Nassau & Blue Lagoon Island Bahamas

Our first port was Nassau, Bahamas!  It was so fun to wake up docked next to other cruise ships.  We loved seeing all the different cruise lines.

We'd visited the island before years ago and shopped/explored Atlantis.  This time Kevin booked us an excursion to Blue Lagoon Island.  We were quick off the ship and got on the first ferry over to the island.  I'm so glad we got on the first boat to make sure we got to spend as much time as possible on the island.  The ferry ride over was fun and lively with music and celebrity home sightings.  It was all very family friendly.

Our guide recommended reserveing beach chairs right away and then going over to our dolphin excursion.  I'm glad we did that because the chairs were taken quickly once the other boats arrived.  The water was beautiful.  We all agreed that we could have stayed longer to enjoy the beautiful beaches.

The ferry ride was easy and fun.  No one felt sea sick.  The weather was perfection.

The guys got on the required life jackets to try the water obstable course.  They had fun, but it was hard.  The water was deep.  The inflatables were kind of dangerous.  They would tell you to enjoy swimming, enjoy the beaches and the lunch provided and skip the obstacle course.

The island is small and beautiful.  There are several different excursions to do here.

Look at the gorgeous water!  Everything was so clean and nice.

We didn't find many shells which was fine since we couldn't bring shells back onto the ship.  I'm so glad we brought Leo's life jacket from home.  He was ready to swim and enjoy the water wherever we went.

We swam and enjoyed our dolphin excursion so much!  Kevin booked us the one where we could interact with the dolphins up close with a small group.  We got to be in the water with the trainer and dolphin.  We were all so impressed with how smart the dolphin was and how much Stormy the dolphin loved his trainer.  We weren't allowed to take pictures.  The following pictures are all professional ones that we purchased.

Stormy did tricks, showed off some fun skills, made dolphin noises, loved hugs and kisses and jumped for us.  The kids laughed when he'd splash guests for not giving him a kiss on the lips and they were impressed with all the things he could do.

Back rubs.

Belly rubs.

Hugs and Kisses.

Time to dance.

Stormy smiles!

We had the best day at Blue Lagoon Island.  We headed back to the port, did a little shopping at The Straw Market and got back to our ship with a couple hours to spare.  The port was crowded with six other cruise ships, lots of police presense and we never felt unsafe.  We stayed in very touristy areas and kept a close eye on everyone and everything.  We had a blast!

Favorite Cruise Moments

Happy Friday!  Today I'm going to round up our favorite moments on the cruise ship.  We found so many fun things to do as we explored the ship for the week.  We each had different favorites and I'm going to do my best to recap them all.

1. Family time!  It was fun to do something new with our crew.

2. Beautiful sunsets.

3. Leo loved the slides.

4. It was so fun to watch the other ships in the sea.

5. Mini golf on the top deck.

6. I love that Kevin loves to plan our vacations!

8. After dinners walks around the ship.  Usually ended with ice cream.

9. We had fun at the shows - guess that song, BINGO and a rock show.

10. Soft serve all day long.  Everyone got good at getting their own ice cream.

11. Dinner with a view.  We ate dinner at this table all week with the best wait staff.  We loved the show the staff would put on each night and there was a really great magician that came to our table.

I dream of these cranberry dinner rolls.

And Kevin dreams of giant sushi boats.  Olive loves sushi almost as much as Kevin.

12. Corn hole on the top deck.

13. Leo with our ship.  We loved seeing all the ships in the port at "The Hamas" as Leo called The Bahamas.

14. Towel animals on our beds each day.

15. Fletcher got very good at his soft serve game.

16. Big kids on vacation.  No strollers.  No pack-n-plays.  No diapers.  Hooray!  We were so thankful that we waited until the kids were a little older to try cruising.

17. We played cards and watched ships come and go at all the comfy spots around the cruise.

18. We tried fun drinks on the decks.

19. Emeril's featured dinner items on the menu each night were delicious!

20. Our room was so cozy.  We all slept great.

21. The Burrito Bar was so yummy!  We all got burrito bowls customized to order.  We loved the sandwich station.  The Pirate Pizza station.  And the salad bar.

22. We just loved exploring and learning our way our around the ship.

23. Kevin loved the coffee shop.  He loved the Americano.  I enjoyed an iced coffee (missed a real straw though) and we all agreed that Matcha is disgusting.  haha.

24. Guy Fieri's Burger Bar!  It was AMAZING.  Fresh smashburgers.  Fries.  And a topping bar to make sure your burger was topped just like you wanted it.

25. Ice carving by the pool!

26. Swimming!  The pool was small, but the boys made the most of it.  We didn't find it hard to find a spot to sit at supervise.

27. The menus were available via QR code so the kids brought their phones to dinner to order.  It was really sweet to watch them talk through their appetizer, entree and dessert options each night.  We were lucky to have such great service.  They loved the kids and learned our names/orders/favorites so quickly.

28. When you love the appetizers so much that you order two.  I'll be doing my best to recreate these fried green tomatoes ASAP.  They were amazing.

29. After dinner games of golf, ping pong, walks and enjoying the views.  The weather was perfect all week!

30. When we arrived back to the USA and it was time to leave, there was a huge US flag welcoming us home.  It was beautiful!

Whew!  That was a fun week on our Carnival Cruise.

I hope you have a great weekend.  See you back here on Monday!