Our college besties invited us to join them on their 10-year anniversary cruise and I couldn’t book it fast enough! We love traveling with them and I love any excuse to visit a new place. Our last trip with them was our Alaskan cruise when I was pregnant with Camryn. All four of us also reached gold status with Carnival on this cruise, which was particularly fun since it was Daniel and Candace’s golden anniversary (10th on the 10th).

The week leading up to the cruise, an unexpected winter storm caused us to reschedule our flights three times. The day before, we decided to drive to Birmingham after putting the kids to bed so that we could be on time for our 5:00am flight. It turned out to be a great call because we woke up to about 4 inches of snow and a delayed flight. We drove carefully to the airport on the icy road. As we checked in, the ticket agents were shocked to see that our flight was the only one still scheduled to fly out that day. We watched the winter storm continue east and our worries began to grow. Our layover was in Charlotte and if the Charlotte airport was grounded, we would have to drive from Charlotte to Orlando that night, but in potentially worse driving conditions. We collectively decided to cancel our flight, rent a car, and drive to Port Canaveral. We finally arrived to our hotel around midnight. 

Traveling to the cruise terminal was MUCH easier the next morning. We returned the rental car, hopped on a shuttle, and quickly arrived at the cruise terminal. Our wait was relatively short and we were on the ship in no time. Our first stop was a cruise favorite – Guy’s Burgers.

Our husbands treated us to mani-pedis for the first night of the cruise. They must have read that we liked that from our girls’ trips 😉 Would you believe we saw more men in the spa than women??

For the first fun day at sea, we took it easy and enjoyed the first cruise elegant night. 

NASSAU

I have been to Nassau twice and remembered a nice beach within walking distance, so we didn’t plan to do an excursion. We walked to the beach and it has changed drastically since the last time I was there. What was once a nice, sandy beach was now a tourist trap. The sand was covered in beach chairs and attendants hounding you to rent a beach chair. We finally made it to a small patch of sand where we could lay our towels down. On the ship, we were warned not to leave our stuff unattended, so all four of us couldn’t get in the water at the same time. After lunch and a brief shopping trip, we went back to the ship to watch all the late people run back to the ship – always quite entertaining.

AMBER COVE

Dominican Republic was a new country for me and Weston, so we were already excited. About a month before the cruise, Weston and I decided to book an excursion to swim with the dolphins. It had been on my bucket list for about 20 years and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity again. I think you can tell by the smiles on our faces that we thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Weston said that was his favorite part of the cruise too! The dolphin apparently liked Weston because she swam over to hug him a second time.

We ate lunch and then explored Ocean World. I snorkeled in what felt like a people-sized fish tank. We got to feed and hold a ton of birds, plus we both got kissed by a macaw! Then we caught the sea lion show and the dolphin show before heading back to the port.

GRAND TURK

The four of us had planned to make Grand Turk a beach day because the public beach is right off the pier. It was a little more crowded than the last time we were there, but we still found a good spot to sit and soak up the sun. After some shopping, we went back to the ship early and rested before the second elegant night. 

FUN DAY AT SEA

Our last day on the ship was a fun day at sea. Daniel and Candace booked a tour with the captain while Weston and I went to a towel folding class. We went to a towel folding class on our very first cruise too and it’s always entertaining!

After returning to Port Canaveral, we took a bus to the Orlando airport and had a much less adventurous travel experience than the last day we tried to fly. We made it to Birmingham right on time, then drove our separate ways. Our kids were still awake when we arrived home and we got the sweetest greeting from them. They also stayed awake an extra two hours that night because they missed us. 

We had a great time and I’m already counting down the days until our next adventure!

A moment for all the cute towel animals:

And another for all the delicious foods!