Cruise 2024

This summer our family vacation was a cruise! We sailed out of Port Canaveral (Orlando) and sailed on the Carnival Freedom. It was a 6 day cruise and we felt like that was the perfect amount of time.

We let both girls bring a friend and this was a genius idea because they are old enough to stay together and do their own thing so Chris and I had a lot of downtime together just us 2. They had their own room across the hall from us and Chris and I had a balcony room.

Our first stop was at Nassau, Bahamas. We chose to do The Blue Lagoon Island excursion. This was a private beach they took us to and rumored to be where part of Gilligan’s Island was filmed. The water was so calm and clear and we enjoyed a day of just chilling by the beach and hanging in the water!

We ate at the dining room most evenings. The waiters always made everything a lot of fun! The sunset that night was amazing and one of my favorites the whole cruise.

The next morning we were up bright and early to catch the tender boat to head to Princess Cays. This is a private island that Carnival owns and everyone was able to go here for the day, it wasn’t a separate excursion. Because of this we wanted to be on the first boat over to avoid the crowds as much as possible. We rode over to the island, got a great spot at the beach and enjoyed a day in the sun! We left around noon and headed back to the ship. This was right when it was getting busy for the day at Blue Lagoon so I am so glad we timed this perfectly!

That night was our formal night so we all went back and took good showers and got ready for that evening. There were some really really fancy people for formal night- it was fun to people watch!

The highlight of this night was after we had all changed into comfy clothes we walked by the professional picture people and they insisted we all get together for a “formal” picture. And this is how they posed us!!!! We laughed and laughed and laughed. Chris was a good sport!

The last stop on our cruise was at Turks and Caicos. We all agreed this was our favorite island we visited! The water was breathtakingly beautiful and pictures truly don’t do it justice. The port where the cruise stopped at was also a really cool port with lots of neat shops.

The excursion we did here was a guided bus tour to learn the history of the island. Their island has a 2% crime rate and 0% unemployment rate. They understand there that if they don’t work, they don’t eat- definitely not like the U.S.! Another thing about Turks and Caicos is that their gas is $8 a gallon because it has to be imported from the United States or Great Britain.

Our tour guide was a middle school science teacher who does the tours in the summer time to make extra cash. He was so much fun and we loved learning about their island.

After our tour, we were dropped off on a private beach called The Governor’s Beach. We had 3 hours here before we had to get back on the ship and this was the best afternoon! The water was crystal clear and felt so good on that hot day!

The last full day on the ship was a day at sea. We were super lazy and laid around the pool most of the day and enjoyed being on the boat.

I am not sure if we will ever do a cruise again or not. We enjoyed it and are glad we experienced with our girls, but the food wasn’t our favorite and we did get “bored” on the last day at sea. Chris and I might try one without the girls and from a different cruise line, but not sure if we will do another one with the girls. Just our opinion! We are thankful we had great stops on this cruise and were able to see a lot of God’s beautiful world!

I hope you have a great week!