Cruise to the Bahamas -- Day 3 at Port Canaveral

Port Canaveral wasn't one of the locations where our ship was originally supposed to stop; however, Hurricane Irene changed those plans.  At first, I wasn't too thrilled about this stop.  I've been to Florida SOOO many times before; why would I want to stop there on a cruise??  But it was what it was, and we were determined to make the best of it. 

We were supposed to go on a special trip at Grand Turks to visit an uninhabited island and see/touch stingrays in the wild.  Since we were no longer going to Grand Turk, we decided to use our refund for a different side trip.  We eventually settled on an airboat ride into the Florida swamps to look for alligators.  Mackenzie was a bit ..... dubious??.... at first, but as you'll see from the pictures, she had a GREAT time!

A view of Port Canaveral from the ship

Kenzie's ready for another adventure!

Looking at one of the other airboats and the dock

Ready to GOOOOOO!!!

Look closely -- it's our first alligator sighting of the afternoon!

And here it comes.....

Captain Kenzie, ready to to go hunt down those varmints!

After the airboat ride, we were given a demonstration by a local animal rescue group that specializes in wildlife/exotic creatures.  Here are the "critters" they brought for show and tell......

So guess which one Mackenzie had to hold afterwords?????

ugh.

Back at the ship, leaving Port Canaveral, and enjoying the warm breezes.

A view of Cocoa Beach from the balcony of the ship.

Another look back at the beach

And last, but not least, our towel critter for the night?  Is it a bulldog?  Not quite sure......

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow...... arriving in Nassau, the Bahamas!!

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Cruise to the Bahamas -- Day 2 at sea

Today was a full day of sailing.  We were pretty lazy most of the morning, and slept in until the very last minute before breakfast ended, then dashed out for food.  After breakfast, we went to a shopping seminar in one of the lounges.  At these talks, they tell you about which stores in a particular port can be trusted, which offer special deals, how to make the most of your shopping trip, and much more.  The room where this seminar was held was called the Butterfly Lounge.  In the back of the lounge, there was a wall of glass cases and in each case was a mounted butterfly.  I knew Kenzie would be bored with the talk, so I brought my camera along and turned her loose taking photos of the butterflies.  Here are a few good ones; she took over 90 photos! Click on the picture if you want to see a larger version.

 

After the talk, we had a quick lunch and went back to the room for some gazing at the ocean.....

.....and goofing off in the room!

Then Nelson and Kenzie headed off to the pool and the waterslide.  Here's the main pool on the ship:

But that's not where I found them -- they were goofing off up on top of the ship in the kiddie pool!  Why??  I don't know.....

Then off they went to the waterslide!  Here they are before going down the slide:

 

Then downstairs to the pool for more fun!

 

While they played around, I walked around the deck and took shots of the ship and the scenery.

 

That evening was the first formal dinner. Here's Mackenzie dolled up for the occasion:

Nelson was having a good time!

And apparently I was, too!!

 

This is a lousy photo, but it's a  view of the dining room from where I was seated.  The circle of lights on the ceiling is where you can look up to see the 2nd floor of dining room seating.

 

Standing in the lobby/atrium of the ship, looking up about 7 floors.  Glass elevators are on the right, outlined by the blue lights.

Another view of the elevators (taken at night, pretty dark pictures!)

The bar in the lobby, and one of our favorite performers on the cruise was sitting on the small stage above the bar that evening.  (Very hard to see again!)

Then back to the room, where we discovered our new towel critter, complete with Nelson's sunglasses!

And then, off to bed. Tomorrow, Port Canaveral, Florida.

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