Friendcation
If you’re like us we are always looking to plan our next great adventure. We’ve been on some incredible vacations (Alaska, Vietnam, California twice!, etc), but some times you just want a quick weekend getaway and that’s what we did on this Friendcation. We gathered a group of friends and found a great deal on a cruise out of Cape Canaveral. That’s the beauty of living in Florida we are close to theme parks, beaches and cruise ports. There’s no extra planning on how to get to the port and most importantly no extra cost!
The cruise we choose was a 4 day cruise on Carnival to the Bahamas and if I remember correctly it was only about $200 a person which a really great deal considering cruises include lots of entertainment and most importantly FOOD! There was 9 of us that went on this trip. I think staying around 10 and under in your group is a good goal. If you get too many people in your group it’s hard to make plans and keep up with everyone and that just creates stress when you’re suppose to be relaxing!
When you do a 4 day cruise you have 2 port days. We decided that we would all agree on an excursion to do together on one of those days. The other day would be a free for all to do whatever we each felt like doing (which ended up being all of us just hanging out on the beach).
Our first port day ended up being our beach day. It was fun and relaxing, We did take a ride on a banana boat at the suggestion of one of our friends. I had never heard of a banana boat? before. It’s basically a float that is pulled behind a jet ski that is literally shaped like a banana. Your group piles on and basically you are just trying to not fall off. Sounds easy right? NOT AT ALL!! We all went flying in different directions, it was fun but we were all definitely sore afterwards. The best comparison I can give you is: it’s pretty much like when you try to ride the mechanical bull at country bars. (or something like that!) I don’t have any picture of our ride because they take you kind far out from shore and it was hard for those that didn’t come with us to take photos.
The excursion we decided on was to go snorkeling. It wasn’t new to any of us, but it was the most practical of the choices. Other options involved heights (ie: zip lining) and some of the group doesn’t like heights, other choices were just out of the price range we wanted to stay in. Plus they said that it was a party on the boat and there was rum punch on the way back to shore. Win-win right?
Everything was beautiful on the way out, blue skies, blue waters, and plenty of sunshine. We arrived at our spot all jumped in and enjoyed the beautiful views. We were supposed to snorkel for about an hour, but after about 30 min our guides started calling us back to the boat quite frantically. We weren’t sure what was happening as we hurried back to our catamaran. When we got back on board and took our seats we didn’t realize what was happening at first. Until we noticed in one corner of the boat there was a lot of commotion happening. What we eventually learned was that a woman was pulled from the water after she started drowning. They were relentlessly doing CPR and trying to save her. However unlike in the the US there is no Coast Guard in the waters of the Bahamas and it was about 45 min before a tiny police boat arrived to pick her up. It was all a little crazy and of the people on the boat with us there was a few nurses and they never stopped doing CPR the entire 45 min between when it happened and the police arriving. Unfortunately after we got back to the boat we asked about the woman and she did not survive.
After we made it back shore we still had a few hours before we had to return to the ship. Our group decided to lighten the mood and wanted to go to Senior Frogs to eat. I for one thought that was an interesting choice of activity since we got free food on the ship. However it’s all about the experience right? So we went and we did have a good time before we had to make a mad dash back to the ship after it started raining on us!
When we made it back to the ship a bunch of the group decided to take naps but a few of us decided to head to this Tea activity they were having and then wondered into a scavenger hunt activity. We ended up winning and we got an elusive “golden ship” on a stick, ha ha! I mean that’s priceless right. We spent the evening enjoying a magic show at dinner, watching the beautiful sunset, playing a few games in the ship lounge and then heading to the ships “club.” Pretty sure we’re past the average age of club going these days but when you’re on a cruise it’s all fair game!
Aside from the tragic event on our snorkeling trip it was a fabulous time. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a getaway at a budget friendly price. We’ve been on a few cruise lines and they all excel at different things. Of all the ones we’ve experienced, I would say that Carnival gets it right in the food department.
What have you guys done to get away for a long weekend? Let me know in the comments.
We’re always open to new ideas as we love adventure and travel!
Also if you’ve found yourself here on my little corner of the internet, do me a favor and enter you email over there on the right hand side and follow my adventures! I’ll be sure to check you out too if you leave me a link.