Bahama-ramama (pt 1)

Earlier this year Mike and I were supposed to go to Europe, but due to his heart surgery we had to cancel that trip. I have been DESPERATE to get out of the country and thankfully one of my best friends agreed to travel with me! We decided on.... the Bahamas! I had never been to the Caribbean before so I was quite excited. 

We did a Norwegian Cruise which is only my second cruise ever. (My family and I did a Celebrity Cruise in Alaska back when I was in high school.)
I've been on two other "cruises," but don't really count them. I have been a Yangtze River cruise in China and an icebreaker ship we took to Antarctica.  Those are not your typical cruises/cruise lines! 

Overall, Norwegian was fine. I'm not sure what to compare it to since my parents planned, booked, and paid for the celebrity cruise way back when... The Norwegian Sky was nice though. We liked our room, we liked the ship, the food, etc. I felt like they weren't totally upfront about all the costs, but I have a feeling other cruise lines might do that too. (False advertising is everywhere, isn't it?) I would book a Norwegian Cruise again, but I would perhaps be more cautious in booking and try to find better deals. 

Here are a couple of pictures- one is of our room and one is us getting ready to depart from Miami.

Our first stop was Great Stirrup Cay where we had a swimming with the pigs excursion. I have seen plenty of posts from other travel bloggers about these famous swimming pigs and I was so excited to finally meet them and take a swim with them. We got some great pictures and I enjoyed my time there. 

As I'm writing this blog post I was researching more about these cuties when I came across this blog. Definitely worth a read. This is a different island, but I imagine it could be a similar situation which would be very sad. 

Great Stirrup Cay was a nice private island with plenty of water activities- swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, jet skiing, and my new personal favorite- stand up paddle boarding. Yes, I tried SUP for the first time and I actually really enjoyed it! The water there was so clear - I could see straight down beneath me and saw some underwater sculptures, real live turtles, fish, and even a stingray ! 

More later...

P.S.

Did you know that the Bahamas just gained their independence in 1973?! They're only 49 years old! 
There are also around 700 islands, but only 30 are inhabited.