I’ll have another frosé, please! Last week was so much fun trying something new and meeting a few new friends! I went with my friend Brooke on a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas to check out the new private island that Royal Caribbean developed into private beaches and a water park! The island is called Coco Cay and it was amazinggg!
This was my first ever cruise and my first ever trip to the Bahamas, so I didn’t know what to expect! Our ship was the #NavigatoroftheSeas and we departed from Miami to set sail on our Monday-Friday trip to Coco Cay and the Bahamas. This was a media trip for us, and we had the pleasure of meeting some of the Royal Caribbean PR team, social media team, and a few other media members and influencers on the ship! Y'all know I love meeting new friends, so I was excited that we had a few new friends "built in!"
We walked onto the ship and WOW. All I could think was “this is just like Vegas!” That’s not quite true, but it was definitely my first impression! We dropped our bags in our stateroom and then went to explore the ship. I was blown away by the size of the ship (how does it not sink?!?!?!) I know I said at least 20 times “wow it’s just so big.” I *think* they said that the ship capacity was around 2500 people so I couldn’t believe when the staff told us that one of the other ships was twice the size of the Navigator- WHAT?!
I loved getting to connect with other influencers while we were on the ship- travel bloggers are some of my favorites and we got to hang with Sebrin (@theclumsytraveler) all week and had a blast!
Hanging out on the ship was amazing, but I think my favorite day was the day we visited Coco Cay Island! The nice thing about it being a private island by Royal Caribbean is that all of our food and drinks were still included (from our cruise meal plan) on the island and all of the staff were Royal Caribbean employees, which was nice! Side note: I loved that the staff were international and from all over the place- their country of origin was displayed on their name tag, which made it easy to start conversations with them! I think I could totally work on a cruise ship. (haha!)
Anyway, the island was great, and my favorite beach drink was the "Coco Loco," served in a pineapple! There was a floating bar a little ways off the beach in the water, so we hung out there for a bit and were taking some photos with the gopro and even saw a (v small) shark! After that, we read on the beach for a bit- I mostly stayed under my umbrella! We mostly relaxed in the sand, and then visited the waterpark side of the island, where Royal Caribbean build the tallest water slide in North America! (what?!) Best dayyyy!
We sailed through the night and then the next day arrived in the Bahamas! We got off the boat at Nassau and went to explore! We stopped at “the straw market” which is what everyone recommends doing, but DON'T waste your time!! Unless you’re looking for the ultimate cheap souvenir, you don’t need to stop. All of the booth owners were trying to get us to stop, saying they were “giving deals today!” haha it was a giant warehouse, and not quite as cute as the market I had pictured in my head. We also visited Baha Mar, which is a private resort. Visitors are allowed to enter the casino and restaurants, but not the private beach, which is what we did. haha oops! I would definitely go back there!
The cruise rearranged the schedule due to weather, so our final day was spent living the good life on the ship- we lounged at the pool, made some new friends, and of course grabbed some ice cream and frosé! The best drinks were definitely poolside! All of the frozen drinks were amazing!
Some people are cruise people and some people aren’t, but I think I’m in the middle! 😉 The cruise was so kid-friendly and I can see why parents would want to take a cruise for the ease of keeping everyone together and not having to worry about logistics with children. It seems like a cruise is a great option if you don’t want to deal with the headache of figuring out additional airport transportation, or additional legs of the trip, but still want to visit a couple different places. The cruise gave us an opportunity to visit the Bahamas without any additional hassle which was SO nice. I was a little nervous about getting sea sick, but I don’t think I ever even felt the ship moving at all! I would definitely cruise with Royal Caribbean again; we heard from multiple guests that the RC cruise was the best cruise line out there and I believe them!