Oh Mama... did we go! We had a fantastic time while on our cruise to the Bahamas.
The title of the post is is Bahamas or bust for a reason. We did have a few bumps in the road... Read on!
I must start from the beginning. I was SO Excited to go on this cruise. I had never been on a cruise, never been to the Bahamas, never taken our babikins to the beach... I WAS EXCITED. Before the cruise I was closing up school, celebrating Ella's first birthday, and trying to pack for our trip. I must also state that Ernie was out of town on business the week before we left. Why none of this is my poor husbands fault, it did at to my stress. On top of all of that, because of Ernie being gone, I didn't sleep. I cannot sleep without my husband.
Finally cruise day came. School was out, I was ready to let loose, have fun, and relax. I was really tired, but FINALLY felt stress free. I was ready! Bags packed, we were on our way! We landed mid afternoon in Ft. Lauderdale. We got dressed in our finest and headed out to a birthday dinner party to honor GiGi's 80th birthday. What a wonderful night meeting family and new friends.
The next morning we headed down to Miami to board the boat. Anyone who has ever taken a cruise knows the process to get on the boat. I felt like a herd of cattle. Go here, do that, go this way, and go through lots of security. We finally got on the boat, did a little exploring, ate some lunch, and waited for our bags to come so we could go swimming.
After feeling settled, we showered and got dressed for dinner. All day long I had been feeling sluggish. I thought that I was just tired. I had a sore throat and some sinus pain, but thought I was just getting a cold. We ate dinner and by the end of dinner I was feeling pretty miserable. My whole jaw and teeth hurt, along with my throat. Still I didn't think anything of it, I just went to bed early with Ella.
Come the next morning I was feeling horrible. I couldn't swallow to save my life. The boat docked early in the Bahamas. We were up by 7, but the sick bay didn't open until 9:30. That was the worst two and a half hours of my whole life. I immediately went to sick bay when they opened. They took my temperature and proceeded to ask how long I have had a fever. I was unaware I had a fever I thought I was just cold because of the AC. They asked me why I was there and I told them I thought that I had strep. They looked at me in confusion. None of them were americans and didn't speak English well. They told me that it was 100 dollars just to see the doctor, plus any other medication that I might need. I said, "At this point, I don't care. Please get me better now because I don't want to feel this way the whole cruise."
I was brought back into see the doctor. She proceeded to look in my mouth and with a gasp and a disgusted look on her face she said, "I don't even need to do the strep test. You have the worst case of Strep I have EVER seen." My response... "Of course I do!! Why wouldn't I get strep on my vacation?" AND just to add.... I have NEVER had strep before. So once again I say, "Of course I do! Why wouldn't I get strep on my vacation?"
After one shot of penicillin in my a*# , another dose of antibiotics for my fever in my other a#$ cheek, and a bunch of meds I was sent on my way. And for the record. I did cry! It hurt so badly! NOT like normal shots. I had two bruises in my a#$ cheeks to prove it. I think they thought I was a big baby, but you would cry too if you got two big needles in you and your throat felt like mine did.
After about an hour I felt almost 75% better. Thank you shot of Penicillin. I was so bummed because I thought that my strep would ruin our trip. It did put a damper in the trip, but didn’t stop us from having fun. I wouldn’t allow it. Our first stop was in the Nassau. We didn’t do any of the excursions. Ernie and I decided to do a little exploring instead. We wanted to introduce Ella to the ocean. So we went in search of a beach. It wasn’t a resort beach, but we didn’t want to pay a lot of money when we knew we weren’t going to stay long. We found this little beach and had fun resting, playing in the water, and digging our toes in the white sand.
After an hour on the beach, we packed up, and head back for the boat. We ended up spending the rest of the day at the pool. Just a heads up for all the cruisin’ people out their with children who are not potty trained, you can’t take them in the pool with a diaper on. The first day we were talked to about Ella wearing a diaper in the pool. They said that they didn’t mind babies in the pool but they couldn’t wear a diaper. I said, “Alright, but if my baby poops in your pool… I am not to blame!” Good thing my sweet baby Ella has pooping problems and we knew she wouldn’t be pooping in the pool. ( I know… TMI)
That night we had a great “fancy dress” dinner! It was fun to get dressed up and enjoy a night of lookin’ good. I felt like we were at prom. They have so many cameras around to take your picture. We got some great family pictures!
The next day was the best day by far. With everyone feelin' good, we were off the boat for another day of exploring and fun. Our second stop on our cruise was to an Island owned by Royal Caribbean; CocoCay. This was a great beach, with not a lot of people, only the people on the boat. We enjoyed swimming in the clear waters and Lauren and I went Parasailing. Lauren has done it before, but it was my first time and I really enjoyed it. Great memories!
That night was a rough one again. Just when I start feeling better, Ella starts feeling yucky. That night Ella threw up. We found it odd, but thought it might be some motion sickness. The waters were really choppy. She did it again the next morning too, but we still thought it was a bout of seasickness. She wouldn’t eat or drink anything. We proceeded anyway to check out the Florida Keys, to do some sightseeing, and shopping with our sick baby. She did fine the whole day, but still refused to eat or drink anything. We enjoyed the Keys a lot. It has a wonderful atmosphere with some cute, quaint shops.
We enjoyed another great dinner that night and a beautiful sunset.
The next day was the end of our cruise. Ella threw up again in the middle of the night and once at the airport. It is NOT a fun thing flying with a one year old, but with a sick one year old is even worse. We managed to fly the whole three hours and twenty minutes with no throw up… thank you Lord, but she was sick for the next five days. It was terrible!
Despite the sicknesses, we did have a great adventure with LOTS of memories. It was wonderful spending time with Ernie’s family and celebrating GiGi's many years of life. We love you GiGi and we are glad we were part of your birthday celebration. A great big THANK YOU to Grammy as well. We couldn't have done ANY of this without you.
1 comment:
For some reason, your posts haven't been showing up on my blog list, so I haven't seen any of these! Sorry you had some "bumps" on your cruise, but it still looks awesome, and how fun to go with family!
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