CocoCay - the Bahamas

 A cruise is what I would call a cross between Disneyland and Las Vegas and an all-inclusive resort. Super contrived, immaculate, entertaining, a place to lose time and well designed to facilitate a complete disconnect from real life. 

On the surface you book a resort type vacation with stops in other lands. Ours promised Haiti and the Bahamas. Scratch the surface and it takes just 2 seconds to realize you never really leave America. Each stop is Royal Caribbean's version of a new port. Passport control is not necessary as RC owns or rents the port of call and you'd be kidding yourself if you thought you could stray 2 steps from the intended location of the day. Every staff member from the excursion staff to catering and cleaning are paid by Royal Caribbean of course. Locals? Definitely none to be seen on Coco Cay!

We disembarked at Coco Cay on the last full day of the cruise. A small rocky island in the Bahamas completely owned by RC - of course. I think they may even have brought the sand here when it was created!

The island is made up of two parts... the chillin' side and the thrillin' side. Beachy and relaxing with loungers, markets, dining and snorkel stuff for rent or a water park with balloon ride, ziplining and more food. 

My plan for today was "Swimming with the Pigs" - a shore excursion I had booked way ahead of time using the RC app now on my phone. Quirky right? I always go for the option least likely to be found anywhere else and once I saw wee piggies chasing bits of apple in the ocean on YouTube I knew I'd be there too!

The boat sped away from Coco Cay with about 15 or 20 of us - headed to Treasure Island - another little rocky outcropping in the Bahamas and home of the swimming pigs. We spent the next hour frolicking in the warm water, holding pigs and posing for pics. It was all I thought it would be. Nothing more and nothing less. I was happy - even as I was sun burning!

At the end of the day, when the passengers depart back to the ship, they are followed by bags of trash, left over food, equipment and staff. The island is closed for business until the next Royal Caribbean ship docks.

As for us... it's time to shower, enjoy the last afternoon aboard the Mariner and capture a little of what the girls have been working on all week! I'm impressed. Athleticism and grace... both of which are extremely challenging to harness on the Flowrider!!!

Time for one more show? Yep!

Night-night for this lady. I was tired, a tad pink and happy. My belly was full of great food and maybe a glass of wine too. The ship was already headed for Florida and we were packed and prepared for the early-ish disembarking procedure.

Royal Caribbean is All Knowing and All Seeing!

 I have no idea what time B came to the room last night. I fell asleep around midnight and the first inkling that I wasn't alone was 3:30am when one of the girls was talking to B at normal volume about her toenail at the foot of my bed. 

I think that was the start of RC unraveling what has been going on, which was (in diplomatic terms) a situational grey area. 

We were called into the Head of Security's office around noon. Turns out the girls had coerced alcoholic drinks out of new friends last night. Upon returning to their room, discovered one had a bleeding and damaged toe and went in search of nail cutter - finding herself lost and disorientated in crew quarters and in violation of a handful of ship rules. Security escorted her "home" to her state room where upon they found her friend dazed, confused and intoxicated in the hallway outside it too. 

"The Mothers" were called to the equivalent of the Principle's Office for a chat - it was immediately assumed I was the mother of one of them. Don't worry, I quickly cleared that up!

This is the part where we figure out darn fast how monitored we are. I was asked if I knew where the girls got alcohol last night. I said no and that my card was not authorized with "all you can drink" privileges because honestly, all I can drink is 1 glass of wine per day.  The Chief of Security (wearing a bodycam) said "I can see that" as he glanced at my file on his computer!

So yeah, every purchase is in your file. All the jewelry, drinks, excursions... on record. And connected via our Sea Pass/room card, which is attached to a credit card and brings up your picture when it's swiped. Safe to assume there are video cameras operating on every inch of the ship too.

At this time, everyone knew B's card was loaded with "all you can drink" privileges and it was her daughter who was in trouble.  They released me and called in the daughter.

I guess warnings were given and after a brief hold, privileges were also restored to B's card. But ok, it did get a bit weirder; Today B's daughter returned her Sea Pass to her and confirmed she had borrowed it at 3:30am after once again locking herself out last night. B had no recollection of that visit AND had no idea she she now had TWO Sea Passes with her name on it. We had one deactivated and handed in at Customer Service then carried on with the day. Did anyone feel the need to alert security and risk being invited in for another sit down behind closed doors? (I think it goes without saying the only person who could get another - replacement - card with B's name on it was B. They would never have issued a card with drinking privileges on it, to the 19 year olds and I certainly didnt go asking for it! Plus now we have a record of memory issues last night too.)

Onward!

Highlights of my day? The ice-skating show = funny, colorful, upbeat, fast-moving. Really talented performers in the most creative costumes I've ever seen.

Then before dinner we hit the comedy show. Fabulous. Hilarious. 30 minutes well spent. 

Today I wore white jeans and a purple silk blouse. Dinner was less formal. I had an early night - with a belly full of mushroom risotto and crème brulee. 

Side Note: I put on a Scopalamine patch Tuesday in preparation for my Haiti Labadee Bay boat ride. It did the trick. After 36 hours of wearing it, I could honestly say I felt fine - no motion sickness. However, it appears to have a side effect and my near vision was very blurry.  I couldn't focus at all within 2' of my face. I couldn't even read the journal I had just written, not to mention menu's, emails, brochures - Nada! I took the patch off at 7pm Thursday and concluded Saturday that 36 hours of patch wearing = 36 hours to recover vision.  

One thing I had wanted to get out of this trip was answers to my questions and experiments related to motion sickness remedies. As we stand today: 

1. Stemetil Pills - Need to be able to take before feeling nauseous or they will come right back up.

2. Scopalamine Patches - works great and such but comes with major vision issues that are incompatible with photography so I'd need to factor in the half life or time to recover if using this. 

3. ReliefBand - Yay! No issues except that it needs charging and that "gap" would also need covering. Plus in rougher conditions I'm pretty sure I'd need to partner it with meds to be sure. 

Haiti for the Cruiser

 7:30am and off to breakfast!

From the dining room and ALL the other windows, Haiti was now visible. Beautiful rising and falling shoreline, steep hills and valleys meeting the rocky shore.

And by 8am we were docked.  Everyone began to disembark around 9am. 

We (B and I) had plans for an historic educational tour involving Labadee traditions, dancing, art and a wee bit of voodoo. 

I was sporting a Scopalamine patch now, just in case that short Haitian boat ride was to mess with me. The afternoon was spent perusing craft markets, lazing the afternoon away on a beach lounger and taking a satisfying nap. Well... kinda satisfying... until I woke to the sound of "ma'am, ma'am! It's time to go back to the ship".  A handsome security guard in a starched uniform was hovering over my lounger. B and I were bleary-eyed and just a touch confused. I was somewhere between dreamland and reality.

Just like that, Day 3 beginning to wind down. We were still pretty cruise-naive and I didn't get a dinner reservation before 8pm but figured we'd get a snack first and catch the ice-skating show at 7pm - until discovering that theater was also full to overflowing.

Plan B - Another quiet bite to eat then go to dinner per the reservation but just for the dessert! LOL

Back at Schooner Bar we sang along to Lionel Richie, Ed Sheeran, Queen and more.