Our Latest Cruise To The Bahamas

So, last weekend was our much anticipated cruise vacation to Nassau, Bahamas :) Things have been pretty crazy since we got back, so I'm only just getting to putting the pics up - ha ha! So, this post will have no value other than to show off our adventures.

Like any cruise, it began with our boat, The Enchantment of the Seas, leaving Port Canaveral. The next day, we arrived in Nassau and Justin made sure to have an ice cream before we left the boat, naturally. That last pic was after dinner on our second night. The room steward made a dachshund out of towels, which promptly just looked like a bundle of towels with sunglasses on top when I picked them up, lol.

Since we've been to Nassau so many times, we decided to switch it up and try something we hadn't before - the Ardastra Gardens & Zoo :) I'm a fan of zoos in general, but believe me - Bahamian zoos are very different from the ones in the states. They certainly have fewer regulations as to how close the patrons can get to the animals, meaning that there was literally just a chain link fence between me and a jaguar. I think the Bahamians have it right - if you're dumb enough to stick your hand into a jaguar's cage then they are just performing a community service and helping contribute to natural selection, lol, right?

As these photos prove, I really like getting my picture taken with birds, lol. The best part of this zoo hands down is their marching flock of flamingos. Seriously there are just flamingos walking around among the zoo guests like how US zoos have a few random chickens walking around. You could walk right up to them and just hang out. It was so much fun! My mother-in-law even found a pretty flamingo feather and we put it in the ribbon on my hat :) The flamingos also are trained to respond to drill sergeant style calls and perform in a show throughout the day. We got called in as extras for the show and a flamingo nibbled my back - it was silly but fun. The zoo also had quite a few different types of parrots that were just sitting on perches. You could get as close as you wanted - I basically got just close enough for a picture without fear of getting a beak to the head.

 The zoo had many exhibits, but when our tour guide said, "Up next, we have a squirrel," we all started laughing, thinking it would just be a regular brown squirrel. It turned out to be a very pretty and colorful squirrel, but a squirrel nonetheless, lol. The red and black parrot's name is Bilbo Baggins, so of course I had to include him in the post. The next exotic creature we saw was the North American Raccoon - yep, just 2 raccoons hanging out, lol. Apparently they are a popular yet controversial pet in the Bahamas, and our tour guide was surprised to know we mostly just try to keep them out of our trash cans here. I also learned that goats, like dogs and cats, really love it when you scratch behind their ears. This iguana seemed to really like me - he decided to climb up the fence and stare me down when I was standing there. And this black swan was pretending to be asleep, yet totally watching our every move, lol.

The other big highlight of the zoo was the Lory Parrot feeding. They have an enclosure where you can hold out piece of apple and the parrots jump all over you to eat them. It was lots of fun, as you can see from the pictures. Justin was hesitant at first, but he had fun once my mother-in-law and I forced him inside. My mother-in-law even got a kiss on the cheek - they seemed to really like her.

So, we had a surprisingly good time at the Ardastra Gardens & Zoo :) It's nice to go to an attraction that is not packed with tourists. If you happen to be in Nassau, I highly recommend it.

The rest of our cruise has no picture documentation. Our next day was spent at Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean's private island, and I feared for my life in the middle of the ocean atop a jet ski. I now know that I don't like jet skiing, so there's that, lol. But my husband and his parent's had fun. We arrived back in Canaveral on Monday morning and spent the last day of our vacation laying around - it was great lol.

As usual, we had lots of fun on our cruise. Cruising is a great vacation - it's inexpensive this time of year (hurricane season), the food is fantastic, you get to go to an exotic location, and you don't have to worry about catching any planes or sticking to a rigid schedule unless you want to. I'm glad we got to go, but I'm hoping our next vacation will be someplace else - I'm a little cruised out after the last 5 years, lol, I know I'm spoiled. But cruising is definitely a nice perk to living in Central Florida :)