Having watched Titanic a bunch of times, I am not fond of sleeping on a boat for days.  However, my husband suggested that we should do a cruise and I’m glad that we did. Here’s a little something about my first cruise trip:

Itinerary

Day 1 - New York, New York 
Day 2 - At Sea
Day 3 - Orlando Beaches (Port Canaveral)
Day 4 - Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas
Day 5 - Nassau, Bahamas
Day 6 - At Sea
Day 7 - At Sea
Day 8 - New York, New York

The Port Of Departure
Our cruise ship departed from the Manhattan Terminal, New York. On the given itinerary, the boat departs at 2 pm but you can be there as early as 9 am. We arrived at around 1 pm, which is a bit late. The ideal boarding time is 2 hours before the departure. I’m thankful that they still let us in. As soon as we were done with our safety brief, we relaxed in our room and watched the surrounding attractions that the ship passed by, such as the long stretch of the New York City skyline and the great Statue Liberty.

The Stop Over
The cruise ship embarked at the Port Canaveral in Florida around noon and departed Florida by 8 pm. Our few hours there were spent on shopping and strolling around Cocoa Beach. From exploring the Kennedy Space Museum to visiting any Florida theme park, there are various activities you can do while the ship is in Port Canaveral. You can purchase excursion tickets from the ship’s customer service area or you can just plan the activities on your own. By the way, the Sandbar Sports Bar in Cocoa Beach offers $1 margaritas on Mondays. That’s a steal!

The Destination

Our day 4 was supposedly going to be spent at the Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas, where NCL has its own private island where they’d set up a beach party. However, due to the strong winds on shore, we didn’t go there. We went straight to Nassau, Bahamas. The change of plans turned in our favor: instead of being just there for a day, we did an overnight stay in Nassau, which gave us more time to explore Bahamas. For our first day there, we explored Paradise Island and enjoyed in Blue Lagoon on the second one.

Want to see how pretty Blue Lagoon is? Click this to see my blog about it.

The Cruise Ship: The Norwegian Breakaway

Destinations, ports of departure and ships – the Norwegian Cruise Lines is abundant of those. Also, compared to the other major Northern America cruise lines, the NCL can boast their fleets. Whether you are a solo traveler or with the whole family, you can find a room that you’ll like in any of the Norwegian Cruise Line’s ship. My husband and I booked the Balcony Room and it was nice seeing the view first thing in the morning when we wake up. The room service given to us was exceptional.

The Food

With a wide variety of complimentary dining options, you’ll never get hungry on fleet. There is a smorgasbord of cuisine offered for every palate. There are various restaurants with exciting concepts, different bars and a couple of buffets that is open all-day to choose from.

The Entertainment 

Cruise trips are quite pricey but they are worth it and one of the reasons is the complimentary entertainment. During my our trip, we were able to watch different plays. Some even used to be on broadway. There were plenty of things to do in the ship, from seeing musicals to trying your luck in the casino, that we missed some of the activities that we were interested in. NCL is pretty good in making us occupied of exciting on-fleet activities.

For more info, visit their website.