Trip to the Bahamas--Day 1

For Christmas this year, we gave the kids a trip to the Bahamas. They have been begging to go on a cruise--and with all that's happened this year--we thought the best time to get away would be the week we usually spend with one of their grandfathers. We chose the Norwegian Sky because is was the only ship that met our date requirements and did not have a sea day. Having had a bad past cruising experience, I did NOT want to be "trapped" at sea for a full day. Also, Scott has boycotted Mexico until the crime has decreased. So here we are all excited about a balmy vacation in the middle of the coldest winter I can remember... We got up on Dec 27 at the unheardof hour of 0330 to make a non-stop 7am flight out of Louisville to Miami. I regretted that decision before the sun even came up, but was glad later when I found out that a major snowstorm had hit the north east and 5 major airports were closed, plus Atlanta had a 6 hour delay. I think that all of the other flight options would have had us missing that ship completely. Courtney and Preston were great on the flight and I wished I could have sat with them since Scott fell completely asleep within 2 seconds of takeoff.

We got to Miami and made it easily from the airport to the cruise ports via taxi. We left Frankfort at 18 degrees and arrived Miami to a balmy 53...NOT sunbathing weather. The cab driver cracked us up though all bundled in his winter coat complete with hat and gloves. We got to the ship a little early and could not board so we hundled up in the waiting area (better early than late though!)

Finally we get to board!! We were all starving by this point....

They took a sweet family photo as we boarded,

We had a fanastic lunch and then wondered around the ship until our room was ready. Miami is gorgeous, the ship was great, but dang it was more chilly than I was hoping for.

We were able to enter our rooms at 2pm and I had a minor panic attack when I saw the size of our tiny cabin. Seriously, the sitting room in my bedroom is larger than where we were going to spend the better part of a week!!

Ok, then the kids put their beds down and I had a MAJOR panic attack! I texted these pictures to my buddies at work who were cracking up. That calmed me down a bit though :-).

The sunsets the entire week were utterly amazing,

At 5pm, as we were leaving Miami, the cruise director announced that because of the major storms that had hit the east coast, we were to expect worse that usual seas and, that if we did have sea sickness medication to take it ASAP.

JOY.

Thankfully, I put my patch on at lunchtime just to be safe; Scott is a pro at cruising and Preston cannot be shaken. Sadly though, Courtney was not spared. The seas were awful; no one could walk a straight line and she became horribly ill. The rest of us had a great dinner, but after giving her some medication she fell fast asleep.

Unfortunately, she fell fast asleep in MY bed. Which meant that Scott and I slept in their's. Here's how we all woke up the next morning...

Needless to say, I did not sleep much at all. The water was so rough it felt like the shaking turbulance you get on an airplane. And the one time I got down in the middle of the night, I slipped on the stairs and BROKE MY TOE. It immediately swelled up twice it's size and turned completely purple and made it impossible to put on anthing other than flip flops the rest of the week. Ok, day 1 was not so great, but it did get much better....