Night sun of a bee's labor

So our wedding was nothing short of a perfect day. We were surrounded by loved ones and had the time of our lives. So much gratitude to everyone who could make the trip to see our ceremony and celebrate at the reception. The food was great, the friends and family were great, and the conversations...great. Nothing short of perfect.

Then off to our honeymoon with little sleep and headaches from...a long day, we'll say. Short drive to Atlanta to take a flight down to Orlando. From Orlando, a short drive over to Port Canaveral, where the fun began...kind of. We got onboard fairly quickly, and enjoyed the first glimpses of what the next five days would encompass. Despite what our shuttle driver claimed, we discovered that we had in fact actually beaten our luggage to our room and wouldn't see it for a few more hours. So we did what many bored Americans do with free food...we ate!

We found one of the buffets that ran a bit like The Real Chow Baby, where you snag your ingredients at a salad bar type arrangement and hand it all to the chef, who then includes your desired meat (if any) and self-chosen sauce and cooks it all until finished. I chose glass noodles, mushrooms, carrots, onions, shrimp and the Thai barbeque sauce. It was interesting to say the least, but good. Definitely enough to hold me over until our scheduled dinner reservation at 6PM daily.

So from here on out, I'll skip all the boring details (although, food is not boring to me). I'll move ahead to   my opinions of the whole trip...

The ship was definitely interesting. I was expecting a little less neon and a bit more elegance, but overall, I was impressed, as the cruise was my first. The food was also not what I was expecting, but was satisfactory. I enjoyed the wait staff at our dinners every night. They were enjoyable and conversational, which was nice because the other couples seated at our table came one of the four nights for dinner. The rooms were small, but to be expected fitting over 2000 people on one ship. Again, the staff in this department were also enjoyable.

My absolute most favorite part of the entire cruise was spending the day in Nassau at Atlantis for our excursion. The ocean is beautiful, as well as the resort. We enjoyed the lazy, but slightly rapid, river. We enjoyed taking pictures and drinking Nassau Coca-cola, which is far better than Coke here in the States.

The best part of the excursion was our visit to Dolphin Cay. We did a shallow water experience with a 10-year-old dolphin named Elektra. She was very friendly and extremely playful. We got to pet, hug and kiss her, as well as see a few of her tricks. I particularly got the privilege of sticking my finger in the beginning part of her mouth (image right at her lips, if she had them). She would close down on my finger and then make a "fart" sound with her blow hole -- as if  she and I were doing the "Pull my finger" joke together. Absolutely amazing and beautifully smart creature. I was in love with the entire experience.

Overall, I'm not completely sold on cruises. The entire experience was great. I enjoyed having almost everything I needed in one location, but I love the freedom to go wherever and do whatever like at a resort, especially with the food. (I see food being a theme throughout this blog!) I had a wonderful experience and a lovely get-away with my new husband. Guess we'll see where our next adventure takes us...when the credit cards get paid off :) Until then...more news in our daily lives to come...