My Life in Pictures

Monday, July 11, 2011

Norwegian Sky

Our 2nd Cruise of 2009 was on Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) on board the Sky for a quick 3 night cruise to the Bahamas with our friends. We had not cruised on NCL before and were a little leery to try it based on the freestyle concept. We aren't big fans of that but it was a good deal so we tried it out. It wasn't a horrible cruise but we just like the traditional cruise dining and not the seat you anytime anywhere concept. We like that we get to know our servers and that they get to know us.
The Sky was originally part of NCL America fleet based in Hawaii and sailed under the name Pride of Aloha. She was built in 1999 and is starting to show her age a little.

We left out of Miami. My friend Louise (Weez) got some good pictures of us leaving port.

Time for some drinks as we leave!

The girls got matching pedicures for the cruise!

All dressed up for dinner one night.

Too much coffee for Trav!

On our 3 night cruise we stopped at Nassau and NCL's private island. We didn't even get off the ship in Nassau. We did venture over to the private island with Weez and went snorkeling. Travis stayed on the ship.

This is pretty much all there is to NCL's private island. It is not nearly as big as Royal Caribbean's two private islands. So crowded here good thing Trav stayed on the ship he would have hated this.

Headed back to the ship.

Our lovely ladies all set for dinner

The highlight of this cruise was the pub crawl we did. Weezy got some good pictures of this with her camera. I wish some other lines would do something similar since they all have so many bars now. This was so much FUN!!!!

Overall we weren't overly impressed with NCL. I wouldn't totally rule it out if the price was good but we just aren't big fans for the freestyle concept. We did have a blast with our friends and hope they had great time to.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas

Back to the cruising! The next one is from one of our 3 cruises during the summer of 2009. We went on Freedom of the Seas with my parents in June. We did an eastern Caribbean cruise this time. As usual a little info on the ship before we really get into it.

Freedom of the Seas is the first of the Freedom Class cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. It was the largest ship in the world form 2006 until the Oasis of the Seas was completed in late 2009. It was built in Turku, Finland at Aker Yards. It weighs in at 154,407 tons, is 1,111.9 feet long, is 184 feet wide, and is 209 feet tall. She can carry 3,634 passengers on her 15 decks. She was even in the Guinness Book of World Records. A truly amazing ship!

Time to get to our cabin so we can be on the balcony during sail away. Here is my parents room. Ours is exactly the same right next door.

We left out of Port Canaveral.

People come out to watch the ships leave port.

Now it is time to do some exploring before dinner. Here is out table for dinner. Such a great spot right on the rail looking down over the 1st floor of the dining room.

This is the Royal Promenade that runs down the middle of the ship. If you didn't know this was on a ship you would never know you were at sea.

Here is the kids splash zone. Abby will love this area when she is big enough to go with us!

First Stop was at CocoCay. So clam first thing in the morning!

After tendering over to the island it was time to walk around and get some pictures before our turn on the jet skis!

Now it's our time to ride. It was nice and flat today so we got to go really fast!

After we got off the jet ski it was time to relax for a bit. Mom & dad found some nice chairs up under a tree so we had some shade.

Amazing sunset that night!

Next stop was St. Thomas. Most of these pictures are from the ship pulling in. We got off but just did some shopping in the port area so not many picture opportunities there.

I want to buy me a house like this when we win that 200 million in the powerball!!

We had dinner in Chops Grille this night. Such an awesome place to eat. This is our must to alternative dining now! My gorgeous wife all dressed up for dinner.

After dinner we came back to serenity!

This little guy was sitting on the bed wearing my sunglasses.

After St. Thomas we he St. Martin. Again we didn't get off here. More time to explore the ship. I wandered around while were in port just snapping some shots of the port and the ship.