Port Canaveral

Arriving to Port Canaveral, we only got a tiny peek at the ship we were going to be getting on. It was too big to see up close, we would have to wait until we docked along the way to really step back and appreciate how big this floating city was. So first, we had to get through customs.

It felt like quite a cattle call. Our passports were a few years old, and Dave, who always looks different depending on what plays he is in, looked really different! So we had new pics taken, and got scanned in, and although we had to have our paperwork with us all the time, we never had to show them to anyone again for the entire cruise, even coming back in – it was all facial recognition and scanning our cruise card.

We had to cool our jets for a little bit while we waited to get our room. That gave us plenty of time to go to the safety briefing, and start checking the place out. Being from the NW, we found shady spots whenever we could.

Our room was a cozy little thing, but no problem for us, who are comfortable in the Caravel for most of our travelling.

We could watch where the ship was going from bed 😀

And a private balcony, which was my favorite part. I sat out there reading and watching the flying fish sailing away from the bow of our ship. So cool!

Some of the meals were in buffets, some were in fast food type take-aways, and some were fancy sit-down meals. It was fun to try all the different places.

Nassau

The next day we got to Nassau, and finally got to get off and get a good look at the ship:

Holy smokes that thing is BIG!!!

We stopped at a museum right at the dock, neat museum, but very small.

Walked up to see the courthouse.

Took what felt like a very questionable ride on a carriage.

But overall we found Nassau to be kind of depressing. The area around the dock seemed to be very poor, and the people were all engaged in trying to scoop up cruise visitors to buy their questionable wares. It was super busy and crowded, and as we walked back to the docs we saw why – there were now several giant cruise ships here!

We went back to our ship and went and enjoyed the nearly empty pools and chit chatted with the other passengers who had chosen to skip Nassau. By afternoon we were on our way again.

As each day went by our cabin felt smaller, as we had to share it with towel animals:

They were too cute to unfold!

Amber Cove

We had booked an excursion for Amber Cove (Dominican Republic) to a dolphin experience. We tried to do a little research to ensure it was a place that took good care of their animals, and it actually looked pretty good.

I wore a cute swimsuit I bought just for the occasion, one I could feel comfortable walking around in public in all day, because we were going to get in the water and visit a dolphin!

It was a great day! Interacting with the dolphins was really cool. It was neat watching the trainers interact with them. We saw a lot of exotic birds in big aviaries. Watched a couple other demonstrations with seals and dolphins. And the whole time it was a warm tropical rainstorm. Crazy day. We were exhausted by the time we got back to the docks and onto our ship, which was really feeling like home by then.

I think we had a day of rest before the next stop. I got a lot of reading down relaxing on the balcony or down by the pool. We found the adult quiet area at the bow of the ship. Perfect!