Perfect Day at CocoCay!

Wifey was not really looking forward to CocoCay.  She was wrong.  It was/is awesome.  We had two main activities planned for our visit to the island (1) Zip-lining and (2) snorkeling.  

Ziplining was a pre-scheduled/purchased ticket and we had booked this for about 9:00 am, or maybe 30 minutes after our ship was due to dock and we could disembark.  We hurried off the ship as soon as we were able and stashed all or gear for the day in a free locker near the zip line shack and enjoyed killing some time (we were early!) taking advantage of the ship's photographers who were stationed nearby with their cameras!  

We stopped by again after our ziplining experience to catch two shots in all our gear! 

Once we'd Zip-Lined and returned our gear, we started off in search of Snorkel Beach and a sunken shipwreck.  Sadly, figuring out exactly which patch of ocean this sunken shipwreck was under was a bit of a challenge and pushed both our swimming tolerance to its edge.  Wifey did, eventually, spot a sunken wreck and, with Hubby's encouragement, made a second trip into the ocean to reach it with her underwater camera (Merry Christmas or Happy Birthday to me 2021).  

After snorkeling and Zip Lining, we ate lunch at CocoCay.  it was spectacular. 

Nassau

We added a new country to our Visited Together List today!  The Bahamas!  Our plans for our first day at shore were to visit the Queens Staircase, do some shopping, and generally meander.  We did all of these AND accidently wondered by the US Embassy (under construction)!

QUEENS STAIRCASE ... we certainly took the long way around to reach this.  

As our boat approached Nassau, we saw Atlantis the distance.  If re-taking this cruise and port, we'd buy the $5 each transfer over to Paradise Island and see Atlantis etc.   

If anyone reads this blog and knows Hubby .. don't tell him we posted this … but look, it's Rusty's guest house!  

Embarkation - Independence of the Seas

 Wifey chose Independence of the Seas for our 3rd cruise because it has a Sorentos Pizza onboard and had an itinerary available with only one sea day which was the very last day of the cruise.  

We started at our hotel lobby and loaded into a van with a few other folks heading to Port! 

5 minutes later we had exited the van, dropped our checked luggage off with the luggage handlers and were walking towards check-in.  Lines were minimal and we made it through with no problems!

First steps onto Independence!  And a quick snap of the Monday Elevator!

We managed to embark too early for Muster so we started our vacation with PIZZA!!!

Orlando Airport; Cape Canaveral Hilton

Blog post written 2 months in arrears.  Apologies for lack of detail.  

On Feb. 6, 2022 we flew to Orlando Florida on our way to cruise to the Bahamas on Independence of the Seas.  We were upgraded into first class IIRC resulting in seats that were one row apart instead of next to each other. 

The luggage pick up experience at Orlando was by far the worst we've ever experienced.  We waited over an hour.  But our bags did arrive at long last.  

We immediately caught an Uber over to Port Canaveral so we'd be positioned close to our cruise ship embarkation the next morning.  We'd been able to snag an 11:00 embarkation time by waking up at midnight to check into our cruise.  Our Hotel offered port transfers for $8 each which we took advantage of.  

The next morning we enjoyed free breakfast at our Homewood Suites by Hilton.  The hotel provided gloves for COVID safety at the breakfast area.  

Breakfast was pretty standard Hilton hotel fare. MYO Waffles; a meat, and a premade omelet.  Considering it was truly free (we had paid for the night using points) nothing to complain about!