FLArmyWife

Monday August 15: Half Moon Cay

We woke up and did our typical routine: DH went to the gymsuper early but was back by about 6:30 which was when I was stirring. Wewatched the sunrise from the balcony then headed up to the lido buffet forbreakfast. Then it was back to the room to watch the boat arrive at the island.I was so nervous about the tendering thing as I had never done that before.When the announcement sounded that everything was a go, we headed down to geton the FTTF tender. Because there apparently wasn’t many FTTF people attemptingto get on the island yet the boat ended up waiting around even for regularguest to board before heading in to the dock.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BS37FFiVUIEnZHTG3

DH and I were both just so amazed at how clear and beautifulthe water was. We walked down the trail a little before making the turn towardsthe beach and picking out some chairs. We got front row choice. We each had inhand a tall island drink, an EXPENSIVE tall island drink ($15 a piece!), byabout 10/10:30 am.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YOLTTtRQ4YYkgmmr1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rb7aepcLu9MNTiqx1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EEfbgjihkwAmq6zh2

After finishing ourdrinks rather quickly we both took some time to read and just enjoy the sun. Wealso were enjoying watching all the children being “set free” to have fun.After an hour or so of hanging out on the beach we opted to go for a walk. Dueto my bad knee and ankle we had to walk in the area where the sand was hard(you know that place where the tide has gone out but the sand is still somewhatwet so it’s compact and not mushy or loose). We walked about 20 minutes onedirection then opted to head back to our seats.

We were dying hot by this time so we ventured into thewater. Now, usually I am an ‘only ankles deep’ type person because I have aphobia of sharks [to the extent I cannot go into the shark exhibits ataquariums]. However, the water was so clear I actually was willing to ventureALL the way to the rope. I only lasted about 20 minutes in the water beforeanxiety took over and I retreated to the shore. DH stayed in the water for alittle longer.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HFW3oWeFEDaf3mBo1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ka4MZAaCW1Ch4GTg1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xtai83Tc4U5kvdvr1

When DH got back we decided to go get some food. We, alongwith many others, fumbled our way around for a bit before being pointed in thedirection of the buffet. The food selection, for me, was not appetizing. It wasa lot of ‘hot’ foods (temperature wise) and I cannot eat hot foods when I’mhot/in a hot environment. I opted more for veggies and such. We found a tableand ate. There were chickens roaming around and were getting a kick out ofthem. After eating we decided to try and beat the crowds back on the boat. Hereare some photos from the tender back.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KKnQY43jGG4r5F442

…… more to come [i apologize for it taking so long. Life man... life]

Sorry life is a little hectic. Hoping to work more on the review this weekend

Sunday August 14: Nassau

Due to our home schedule with our toddler we were up and moving by 6:30am. Wetook the few short steps up to the buffet and got breakfast. The omelets wereFINOMINAL. DH and I both had one EVERY morning. The good thing about being upso early meant we didn’t have to deal with long lines.

The other items on the buffet was subpar. The eggs, pancakes, etc were coldunless you happened to catch it right as they were putting a new tray out.

We would grab coffee and then take it back to our room to enjoy on our balcony.I brought powdered flavored creamer because I just can’t stand bland coffee.

So we sat on the balcony and watched the boat pull into port. We were the ONLYboat in port. I was really looking forward to using the empty boat as time forus to enjoy the amenities but DH kept insisting we at least try to go find someliquor. So we went ahead and left the ship. I HATE being bombarded by so manypeople right there. It just makes me so uncomfortable. We were quick to justkeep walking. Eventually we found our way to a store that had samplings of rumcake. OMGness it was delicious. Wepopped in a few other shops along the road before I pleaded DH to go back tothe ship. We were back on the ship by roughly noon. My anxiety was so high Ifelt like crud, but I was determined to make the most out of the day. DH wantedto go back on the island to drink at Senior Frogs. So off he went and I headedup to the serenity deck. Let me just say, without the boat moving and creatingwind the serenity deck adult only area felt like a damn oven. I only lastedabout 10 minutes before retreated down to a slightly covered area by the pool. Unfortunately,the heat was just exasperating my already nasty feeling so I retreated to theroom around 1pm, drew the blackout curtains, and enjoyed a nice quiet nap. DHwas back on the ship around 2:30. Once DH was back we headed up to the lidodeck to grab some lunch. After lunch it was back to the room to watch the shippull out (I know we’re so exciting, right?).

That night was the first of two formal nights. We opted todo semi-formal. I worse dress slacks and a blouse. DH wore a button up shirt,khaki’s, and a tie. We arrived at dinner and worked on trying a few differentthings. We both ordered the lobster tail, but DH decided to try something ‘odd’off the appetizer menu. I will list everything he/we tried in a separate postas for the life of me I cannot remember what nights we ate what nowunfortunately.

After dinner we went to the room, changed into jeans andt-shirts [i adorned a hoodie as I was FREEZING anywhere inside the ship]. Wethen went to go watch the Studio VIP show. Oh boy was it bad. We didn’t stickaround for the entire thing.

I was of course in bed by 10 pm. DH went off to see a comedy show.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qzPtj4A74KyAWdyh2

Next Stop: Half Moon Cay

A little about our room. The location had it's good and bad points. The halls were nice and quiet, and for the most part no noisy neighbors. We were just down the hall from the stairs that led straight up to the Lido buffet. Oh it was wonderful (and also bad lol) to be that close to food. The downside? All day/night you could hear the chairs being moved around just above our room. It got especially bad when the evening pool side movie would end. The crew would come around and start straightening up, which I am ok with, but I could hear every movement of those chairs.

Other than that, we absolutely loved our room. Spacious, plenty of hangers, beautiful view, etc. We especially loved that we faced east 90% of the cruise so almost each morning we could watch the sunrise either from our balcony, or if being super lazy, just open the curtains and watch it from bed.

Will post about our day in port at Nassau soon!

We only sat and waited about 20 minutes before they started boarding. Compared to other cruises I’d been on I found the waiting area and boarding process to be a bit more confusing than other cruise lines. But sure enough we were on the ship fairly quickly and, WOW PINK EXPLOSION! [i did not take pictures of the inside though]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uRueCsQ3uAn4cidp1

We headed right up to our room to put away our soda then head to get some food as McDonald’s was barely holding us over.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6wxj78Lz9e2NTQwj1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VQtWtJynAVgZXoG62

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c66OJbxeOZMh14Iz2

The entertainment schedule for the week was sitting on thevanity.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wgkcmv451LGHwfgu1

We met our room steward in the hallway. He informed us that all that was needed to be done in our room was for him to run the vacuum. We set our bags down, through some sodas in the fridge, and went to grab some brunch.

After eating, we returned to our rooms. It wasn’t quite 1 pm yet and, even with having purchased FTTF, our bags still were not in the room.However, that wasn’t too big a deal. We headed off to tour the ship. In the process we played some carnival games, toured the spa, and entered a few raffles.

We returned to our room around 1 and our bags were there. We took some time to unpack and get all situated. Then we sat on the deck with some soda and *ahem* spirits, and watched people board the ship. We could seethe gangway from our room. We were shocked to see there were quite a few people that were pretty late getting on the ship. Then came that annoying siren for the muster drill. We hung out in the room for as long as possible before making our way down. By doing so we were placed near the front. Even with being upfront, with the heat my claustrophobia kicked in full-swing very quickly. After the drill was over our section was one of the last to be dismissed. An elderly gentleman beside me almost passed out so they escorted him to a place to sit down. A woman standing beside me could see I was not doing well, asked if I was ok, and then sternly urged the crew members to hurry-up. I was grateful for a stranger’s concern but also understand that the crew members standing there with us have no control over how fast all the other guest move thus no control over how quickly we would get dismissed.

I was not feeling well by the time we made it back to the room. I, begrudgingly, had to lay down and take some medication. I usually love to watch leaving port but my body just wasn’t having it. So, my DH went up to the serenity deck and watched us leave while I rested to hopefully feel better in time for dinner.

I had opted for early assigned dinner. We were assigned to eat in the gold pearl restaurant. We walked into dinner right at 6pm. Seeing as our typical dinner time at home is 6:30 this seemed to be working out perfectly.

We were sat at our own table, in a quiet little spot off beside the staircase on the right-hand side. The head waited introduced himself: Ali Ross. We talked briefly so he could get to know a little about us and our preferences then he handed us menus. We opted to only drink water that night at dinner at neither of us had drank much water leading up until then.The two assistant waiters, Angel and Mark, both came over and introduced themselves. Angel was an older gentleman probably in his 50s. Quiet and reserved. Mark was a young vibrant character who seemed to be in his early to mid-20s.All three of our waiters were from the Philippines.

I had steak for dinner with a shrimp cocktail as the appetizer. The steak was alright, but I have had better at longhorn, outback,etc. Then for dessert I tried the infamous Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. I was SO disappointed. I love chocolate and usually am in love with any dessert that is chocolate. There was barely any ‘cake’ part to it and the ‘melting’ part was just not good tasting chocolate in my opinion. It was almost as if it was ¼ cake and ¾ chocolate soup.

After dinner, we briefly returned to our stateroom to look at the FunTimes and try to see what we wanted to do. We opted to check out the Clue murder mystery show then we stuck around for Bingo. We paid $40 to get the‘best’ package. Imagine my surprise when we won the very FIRST game of Bingo! My prize? A $100 credit to our stateroom! Woohoo so I made $60 for us to spendon drinks. Round 2’s winner got $150. For round 3 there ended up being no winner so the jackpot was held for another night.

Despite being on vacation my body is on such a timed schedule that I was back in the room in bed by 10pm. DH stayed up and went tothe comedy show. He later reported he liked it, but you could tell the guy was having an off night. DH returned to the room around midnight or so.

Next stop: Nassau.

Ok the long-awaited review! I may still have to break itdown into different posts but I’m gonna do my best.

Friday August 11 was the big reveal. It was later in theevening due to an issue at the restaurant.

As you all saw from the video he was excited but clearly just exhaustedoverall.

Saturday morning, we got up and he started getting stuffpacked. My mom had stayed the night before as she was staying with our sonfirst half of the week we were gone. My mom and I went to the grocery storewith my son while the DH packed. We got back around 11am and my son went downfor a nap. That’s when I went to check on DH who still was barely packed. Well,he couldn’t find his passport! We tore the house apart looking for it to noavail. My MIL even started going through stuff she had at her house in case forwhatever reason it happened to be there.

I was getting so discouraged as he couldn’t find hispassport or his birth certificate. I even pulled up the Carnival website to tryand see how much, if anything, would get refunded if we canceled. As Isuspected it wouldn’t have been much.

Finally, around 2:30pm my MIL sends a text with a picture.She had found a copy of DH’s birth certificate. Thank goodness! DH finallyfinished up packing. We kissed our son goodbye, made sure my mom was all set,and off we went. We were driving to Orlando to stay at my in-law’s house asthey were driving us to the port in the morning.

When we got to my in-laws we had dinner and just relaxed. Wehad an alarm set for 6am the next morning as we wanted to be on the road by6:30.

Sunday morning: IT’S CRUISE DAY!!!

It was almost 7 when there was a light knock at our bedroom door. DH and I bothsleepily roll over and squint at the clock on our phones. How in the world hadneither of our alarms gone off?! So, we rushed to get dressed and pack the car.We were on the road by 7:30 with a 3/3 ½ hour drive to port ahead of us. No onehad eaten or had coffee so we decided if we made it to Port Everglades withtime to spare that we would go get breakfast somewhere.

We had only been on the road about 10 minutes when themirrors filled with the flashing red and blue. My FIL had been doing 15 overthe speed limit! Oh boy. The officer asked questions about where we were fromand where we were headed as we were in a rental car. We explained that we werelocal but late heading out to the cruise port. Thankfully, the office let usoff with just a warning. In about 45 minutes or so we were finally on 95southbound.

We made it to the St. Pete area before we all gave in tohunger and the need for coffee. We went through the McDonald’s drive-thru andgot back on the road. After eating I made it a point to sleep a little more asI get carsick. I awoke as we got off 95 to head to port.

Drop off at the terminal was quick. Having purchased FTTF wegot through security and to a check-in counter in under 5 minutes. At thecheck-in counter they were confused why my husband’s name on the reservationwas ‘Christophe’ when his name is ‘Christopher’. I explained that no matter howmany times I had tried to change it the R just kept disappearing. So the ladytried it herself and sure enough it wouldn’t take the R. Apparently DH’s nameis 1 letter too long (though this made for some fun throughout the cruise aseveryone referred to him as ‘Christoph’ [pronounced like the Frozencharacter]).

Everything went great with using DH’s birth certificate. Wewere sitting in the FTTF waiting area very quickly.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7z4zMkMruDTBqiHj1 (I can't get the photos to link :( )

We survived and faired well. We lost power Sunday night at 8pm and didn't get power back for 39 hours. It was rough with so many dogs and people in the house. Also my hubs got called out to go to Fort Myers on the Friday before the storm and just got back on Sunday.

Of course it's taken a little for our cable/internet company to get everything fixed since the power issues but finally everything is returning to normal.

Monday I will be on my own for several hours while hubs is at school, baby is at preschool, and in-laws are at work. Should give me plenty of time to finally get around to that review.

Grany so glad y'all faired pretty well.

a quick check-in. Irma has officially made landfall. We are still a 3hrs drive from there though so they don't think the worst for us will hit for several more hours.

For now it's 7 people and 7 dogs in 1 house. We have water, food, and electricity. At this moment we're just trying not to go stir crazy.

My hub's national guard unit got called out. they are currently at a shelter where the storm is worst to help keep evacuees in order. Once the storm passes they'll help aid in any rescues or cleanup needed.

Hey guys, sorry I promise I haven't abandoned this thread. Things have been nuts. 2 days after getting back we had to start packing to move. Within 7 days we had moved and then of course 4 out of 5 household members got really ill. My son was running fevers of 102+. For 2 weeks we've been battling a double ear infection in him and have even had a trip to the ER. On top of all that we are trying to prepare for the possible impact of Irma.

So, I promise I will be back to update on how everything went and to answer posts/questions.

Thank you all for reading along

Well we had a WONDERFUL time.

it's been a hectic 48 hours or so since getting back and will only continue to be more hectic.

I hope next week to post a full report but this week I am on my own to pack our 1200sqft, 2 bed 2 bath apartment before Saturday morning.

We knew where it was last year when I did it... but we've moved since and it seems to have disappeared in the move.

Not going to a hotel. We will drive the 2 hours to my in-laws and then 3 hours to port in the morning.

Thanks all

it's been a hell of a day. Hubs can't find his passport or birth certificate. We spent 3+ hours tearing the house apart (which looked clean and beautiful, now it looks like a bomb went off). but my MIL found a copy of his birth certificate at her house. I called carnival TWICE to double check a copy would be ok.

Sorry for the delayed post.

Dinner was a bit of a fiasco last night which led to the reveal being almost an hour later than I had hoped. They my wifi decided to be a butt and took almost an hour to upload the video... by that time I was exhausted from the day.

But here it is..

well... we are at t-minus 10 hours (roughly) until the big reveal!!

Me too!!! 13 months in the making and I spill the beans Friday morning at our anniversary breakfast! How are you telling? I made a YouTube video

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How cool!

Friday evening after dinner we (us and our families) will come back to our house for dessert. When he walks in there will be a large box wrapped up on the table. Inside is a brand new suitcase. Inside that is a few shirts, a tie to match a dress I'm wearing for formal night, some travel toiletries, and two envelops. Inside 1 envelope is our boarding passes and itinerary. Inside the other is the information about the excursion my in-laws got us.

only 48 hours until my big reveal!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

LOL, yep a military man should be able to pack in less than an hour. My hubby is a former Marine.

I feel so excited for you, and can't wait until you tell him all this.

 

Many years ago, I worked for a bank. They held a contest for 3 months, to see who could open the most new accounts, and close on the most loans. I worked my butt off, and was one of the winners, of a 4 day trip to Bermuda.

I kept my running a secret for that 3 months. Dreaming of how I could surprise my hubby with the trip. Well, the trip fell through. So instead of a happy surprise, I cried telling my husband all that had happened.

The next day he came home with brochures, and said "honey if you want to go to Bermuda, we'll go." I'll never forget what he did. We went and had a fantastic time.

 

I know you and your sweet husband will also have a fantastic time. Make lots of memories.

Oh my I'm so sorry that the trip fell through but how sweet of your husband to take you.

I still am just baffled that it's pretty much here!

How are you keeping the packing under wraps? You have to pack for hubby also, right?

Hubs had national guard drill all weekend so he wasn't home. I did a majority of my packing while he was gone. For him, I put stuff like new shirts, a new tie to match one of the dresses I'm going to wear, new flip flops, etc in a brand new suitcase for him but the majority of his packing is on him! lol

Our plan is Friday night the reveal, Saturday afternoon we drive to Orlando and then Sunday morning we'll drive to FLL. So he'll have Friday night and Saturday morning to get it figured out. :') He's military he should be able to pack on the fly right? ;p

my in-laws sent me money to book an excursion on them! once I do that everything will officially be done for the surprise.

I also started to do some packing. sooo crazy. it's the final countdown!

Thanks everyone

yes the days do seem to drag by.

Granys, hope you don't have any storms either

Ahhhhhh....... single digits!! and only 1 week until the big reveal!

And of course the tropics have been fairly quiet for months but wouldn't you know a decent sized storm is starting to brew out there.

GranysT, I definitely have every intention.

That being said, it may be delayed until September once we have officially moved. Certainly I will try to post at least SOME info about it before that but with moving and such I do just want to warn that it could possibly not be until September. Which I apologize in advance

quick update on the John Heald thing..

I was reading on his page just a moment ago that he is about to go on vacation for a week or so.. which means at best he'll be home right before we leave. The person that was responding to people's 'stories' and requests was saying that the request should be made ONE day before sailing.. so I'll try to post on the 12th but will go into it fully knowing he may still be on vacation

You might try the day before when he is about to find out anyway, or if he is pretty much "on top of everything" in facebook, maybe have a friend who isn't on your husband's list contact JH with the information. Yours is just amazing of a story not to act on!:cool:

I may try the friend approach.

Looking forward to the video!

(y)

I just read your entire story and am amazed that you have managed until just 2 weeks out and have not told your DH about the trip. That's amazing! Thank you. it is definitely getting more and more difficult with each passing day. I think it was easy early on because up until final payment it was still up in the air.

I'm so glad that your financial situation cleared up and you were able to make it happen. Given the fact that you said you need to move again the end of the month, you've got a lot on your plate.

yes we are moving again and finances are always a crazy revolving door but as long as bills are paid I'd rather have memories than items. We come back the 19th and the 21st my hubs and the baby will move. super crazy!

 

And please thank your husband for his service as well. My niece is currently dating a wonderful young man, helicopter pilot in the Marines. I know that when his service comes to an end, he'll be utilizing the GI bill to get some additional schooling to move on to a new career. They live in SoCal, so it's incredibly expensive out there.

 

Thank you. yes schooling is terribly expensive. It is sad that it costs so much to get a decent education but I am so happy the military has found a way to help it's service members further their education after their service OR the option to fund the education of their child(ren)

 

Looking forward to hearing about the unveiling of the surprise in later posts. Have a wonderful trip.

Thank you. I imagine the video will be posted either Friday night or Saturday morning of next week. :o