A Vacation Luxury

The Royal Promenade

At least for us it was a luxury vacation:  a cruise.  We took the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas out of Ft. Lauderdale to Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Kitts.  Truly a delightful week.

Looking down at the Aqua Theater.

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday so we wouldn't be rushed on Sunday getting on the ship.  Walked up the street to Jaxson's Ice Cream Parlor /Restaurant.  It was an expected 45 minute wait for a table so of course there was conversation between all of us waiting to get in the restaurant. Not too long afterward, we ended up getting called out of the line early (someone had given up and left and we were the right number of people to replace them).  As she seated us we felt like we were really at a table for four.  So we invited the couple behind us in line to share our table.  We had a really pleasant dinner and ice cream dessert with the couple.  Got up to leave and found out the husband had paid for our dinner. Said they'd still be waiting in line if it hadn't been for us.  Wow - totally generous and completely unexpected.

Pearl Island from its tower.

Clear water at Pearl Island

Over the course of dinner it came out that we were staying in accommodations that were somewhat "less".  I was concerned about bed bugs and roaches and so forth.  They were quite vocal in their offer to let us stay with them overnight.  Which we declined.  But she insisted on sharing phone numbers.  We hadn't been back in the room maybe half an hour and she was on the phone checking to make sure we were ok, and "are you sure you won't change you mind?  It's no trouble at all and we'd love to have you stay with us".  And double wow.  Totally generous and kind.  It was a sweet way to start the vacation.

Bahamas beautiful water.

Ours is the big one on the right / Nassau

towel art.

On Nassau we took a twin-hulled ferry over to Pearl Island and just lounged away the morning. Next to the incredibly beautiful and clear water. It was a lovely low-key excursion, complete with "lunch" at 10:30 in the morning:  rice and beans, fresh cooked grouper, bbq chicken.  Really nice.  The riverfront tour on the way back to the ship was fun - learned a lot about Nassau and some of the houses there. (Michael Jackson's place reportedly rents for $25K / night with a 7 night minimum and a 3 year waiting list.  Yes, that's what they said.)

Sunset / moon rise in humidity.

More towel art

After a sea day we visited the other two islands and did some tours that showed us a bit more of each place - a bus tour and a train tour (narrow gauge RR leftover from the sugar cane plantations that they've turned into tours around the island, complete with rum combined with whatever else you wanted to drink, no matter that it might be 10 in the morning.  The other riders were more than happy to drink all the rum they were allowed.) St. Thomas still showed lots of devastation from last year's hurricanes - two in a matter of a couple weeks.  Lots of homes still have only blue plastic tarps for roofs.  The tour guide said not a single tree on the island (and there are lots of trees on that tropic bit of land) had any leaves left after the storms.  It was sobering and heart wrenching.

Cemetery / St. Thomas

The Husband's favorite.

A couple more sea days brought us home.   Royal Caribbean knows how to make your trip fuss-free.  There is food.  And food.  And more food.  Cookies (pretty decent ones, too) all the time, just for the taking.  We did the "my-time" dining which put us in a less formal setting and was just right.  Our waiters were so pleasant and attentive.  My most favorite dessert of all was what they called Pavlova - served the very last night.  I could have eaten several of them - though I really felt like all I did was eat!

Magen's Bay St. Thomas

St. Kitts / two huge ships.

Fortunately, our cabin was nearly all the way forward and the restaurants were all the way aft.  Which meant about a quarter mile walk each time we headed back to eat.  Which was often.  So I ended the week with quite a few more steps than usual on my step-counter.

A fun thing:  a Princess Cruise ship docked immediately beside us at the pier on St. Kitts.  We departed port before they did.  I loved that the crew had a giant yellow hand that they waved at us as we were leaving.  They have a cute sense of humor.  And really, it was interesting how much fun each passenger was having waving to the passengers on the other ship- a fun social exercise in kindness.

Waving bye-bye

Sea turtle off the pier St. Kitts

We had more time than we expected before our flight home so ended up at Sacrament meeting in Ft. Lauderdale.  A small little branch- there were maybe 85 people in attendance and likely 15 of those were visitors.  The Bishop said they usually have 20-30 visitors, most of them from the cruise ships. Since we hadn't really planned for church, we were there in our jeans and sneakers. They didn't care.  We were welcomed with sincerity and warmth.  It was their Fast Meeting - there was a very tender, sweet spirit there.  We were so glad that's how the trip ended.

A favorite spot.

And it was pure heaven to sleep in our own bed. (Though there felt like precious little of the night left by the time we crawled in, we arrived home from the flight about 1:30.)  And pure heaven to shower in our own shower.  Pure heaven to find all well here at home and to feel like we were missed.

My favorite Pavlova

I'm so grateful we were able to get away for a while.  I'm grateful that we didn't feel compelled to succumb to all the sales pitches, that we didn't spend money for things we neither needed nor could use just because it was being pitched at us. That means we came home really owing nothing more for the trip than we'd planned. I'm grateful for Uber - saved us a lot of hassle with car rental.  (In FL, the state oversees Uber, making sure they're "vetted" and safe.  I liked that.)  I'm grateful we found the frozen yogurt machines on the ship, I made a commitment to never pass them without partaking.  Yes, it was wonderful! (I kept telling myself it was calcium that is good for my aging bones.) I'm grateful I was able to spend the week with The Husband, I still can't get enough of that. And while I'm not especially grateful for the cold/cough I picked up on the trip, I am grateful that I'm several days into it and it should be abating soon.  (And I'll just say here, I've worked and worked on the placement of the photos.  It looks perfect here.  Not so much when I complete it.  Don't know how to fix it.  So it'll just look amateurish.  Oh well.)