2013 Dec. mother/daughter Carnival Freedom 4 nt Bahamas cruise

Since Angie was coming back to St. Louis for her cousin's wedding on Nov. 23rd, staying for Thanksgiving week, she decided to drive up from Ft. Lauderdale with her 2 dogs.  Josh was smart and flew up and back over Thanksgiving.  Having nothing better to do, I asked if she wanted company for the long ride back (other then the company of the 2 dogs).  She said sure, so I did.   With 20 hours driving time to their home in Coral Springs (by Ft. Lauderdale), it was an exhausting drive/ride for all of us.

About 2 weeks before her trip out, we were joking about going on a short cruise during the week I would be there.  Joking turned to  checking out cruises.  We found 1 that fit perfectly and went to 2 Bahamas islands.  So we booked it.  Not a bad deal at $198@ for 4 nights (about $235 with the port taxes for the 2 ports we went to---Nassau and Grand Bahamas), plus I was able to get a $50 onboard credit for owning CCL stock and cruising on Carnival.  So we pretty much rested up the day after we got to her home.  The next day, we met Josh for lunch.  He dropped us off at the port, and away we went. 

2013-12-2 and 3  Travel days:

2013-12-5 embarkation day for our Carnival Freedom cruise:

2013-12-6 Nassau:

2013-12-7 Grand Bahamas:

2013-12-8  Sea Day:

 

On Dec. 9th, we did the self debarkation since we only had carry on luggage and Josh picked us up.  Amazing how tired we were after only 4 days on the cruise!  We slept most of that afternoon and the next day I flew back to St. Louis.  It was a fast week with a lot of stuff packed into it.  But I love these mother/daughter vacations.  They're fewer and farther between now that she's married and lives so far away. 

2013-12-7 Grand Bahamas:

The next morning we were excited to wake up to another beautiful day and our much anticipated return to Paradise Cove to snorkel Deadman's Reef.  Angie, Tim, FAith and I had actually stayed here for 3 nights back in June of 1999.  We all LOVED it!  We were the only ones there when none of the cruise ships were in town.  In 1999 there were 2 old 2 bedroom villas, 2  old 1 bedroom condos, and 2 brand new 2 bedroom villas not quite finished.  Now the old villas and condos are gone (blown down by a hurricane), but the 2 newer villas look great.  Looks like they also rebuilt the Red Bar area and check in area shown here.  I had reserved our trip through their website for $35 @ (which included snorkel gear and rt transportation) instead of the $80 the ship charged.   We also rented a locker for $5, 2 chairs for $3@, and prepaid for lunch $7@. 

 It was as beautiful as I remembered!