Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas

Our first port of call on our Bahamas cruise was Norwegian Cruise Line's private island, Great Stirrup Cay.

It was actually intended to be our last stop of three but due to some weather related issues, the captain reversed the itinerary of our ship. I had read that it was sometimes an issue on this island, since there is not a port on the island itself. Instead, the passengers tender back and forth between the cruise boat and the island. It was nice that they thought to do that so we could see it, but it did mess with our self-planned excursion that was scheduled for our planned port of call. Luckily, we were able to move our rental car to the last day without too much trouble.

Justin and I had no official excursions planned for any of the stops. We did plan on doing a few things at each port of call with the exception of this one. They had lots of things you could sign up to do; water sports and activities. But we very much enjoyed the relaxed feel of the day.

We got up and ate breakfast on the ship {for the record here, I never slept in past 7:00 am}. Actually, I think on this first day we actually got up, worked out, and then ate breakfast on the ship. Then we started to think about getting off the ship and heading to the beach.

To get off the ship, you had to go claim some passes with a boarding group number and then wait for your group to be called. That took awhile... but probably around 11:00 we were able to get on a boat and tender over to Great Stirrup Cay.



It was basically a long stretch of beach with lots of chairs. We all ended up with chairs close to each other so that we could visit as we liked. The bars were open and served free drinks since our cruise was an all-inclusive ship to begin with. Basically, the beach was an extension of the boat. I remembered at this point, as I typically do on these types of vacations, that I really enjoy a mudslide.


I went down to the water and discovered that the water was a bit cool. I prefer pretty warm temperatures. There were plenty of people swimming in the water comfortably, I just wasn't one of them! But the water was gorgeous. It was so clear and a beautiful shade of turquoise.

So happy to spend time with BOTH of my sisters!



Around lunch time, a buffet of food was set up on the island for everyone to eat from. The food was different from the ship's buffet, at least I think it was {only really ate breakfast there} but they had a good selection & I very much enjoyed the ribs that had a jerk-like rub on them.

Our cruise ship from the island.


So, we drank, we ate, we lounged, and then in the early afternoon, we decided to head back to the boats before most of the other people did. Once back, we hung out by the pool on the ship.


We had a lot of fun on this little island. I probably could have just stayed put the entire week and done this. It was kind of like an all-inclusive resort where you had the beach and the pool except your room was floating... It was a really good first day at our first stop, though! We are looking forward to our next stop: Nassau!

DISCLAIMER: I did not take very many pictures of anything after we got back on the boat each evening... and if I did, there aren't many worth sharing!!!

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