1st Carnival Cruise: Miami, Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos

Hanging out in Turks and Caicos

I once read something online about how difficult it is to vacation with a young child. The article said that parents can travel with young children but they won’t be able to vacation with young children. The difference between travel and vacation is that with travel you are sightseeing and experiencing a new culture. Vacationing involves pure relaxation- no need to see anything- just relaxing. I completely agree with the article especially after my experience on our first cruise to the Caribbean.

Getting some sun

I had always wanted to go to the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico and we fell in love with the Caribbean. It was the best honeymoon ever. We relaxed, laid-out, had delicious meals and did a little bit of sight-seeing. Some days we mostly relaxed in our room and hung around the pool.We had no worries. The ocean was beautiful, the sand was super soft, and the weather was beautifully warm- truly paradise. Not to mention the hotel staff treated us like royalty and even upgraded us to the honeymoon suite.  Well, our honeymoon ended, we had a baby, I enrolled in a master’s degree program and paradise seemed nowhere near. My husband and I were having marital conflicts and so I came up with the "bright idea" to go on a cruise to the Caribbean. I convinced my mom to come along. My husband had to work and wouldn’t be able to watch our baby. Part of the reason he didn’t come was because he didn’t have any days off.  I couldn't and didn’t want to leave our son for 8 days. So he came along. I thought how hard can it be? We’re going to be in Paradise? Besides, I had read that cruising is one of the most baby-friendly vacations.

The 3 of us

We flew into Miami which was a 4 hour flight. The flight went okay. My son was a little fussy but I was able to calm him down with a technique I often used. My technique was this: when he was little (less than two years old) and he would get fussy on the plane, I would hold him tight around my arms and let him cry and he would eventually fall asleep or just sit quietly in my arms. I surprised my mom with this technique. When we were on the plane, my mom was very anxious about my son crying and when she heard him cry- she panicked! But I told her not to worry that I knew how to soothe him. When we got off the plane, she said “Wow, he just sat on the plane quietly.” I glowed with pride :)

At the Turks and Caicos port

We were pressed with time to make it to the cruise terminal on time. The shuttle to the terminal seemed to take forever and to make matters worse; we didn’t have a car seat for the cab. We convinced a cab driver to take us to the port without a car seat (I don't recommend). We arrived at the port, dropped of us our luggage and then approached the kiosk to get our keys. The check-in staff didn’t have our keys and they were being very unfriendly. They were taking forever and didn’t seem to care that we needed our keys to board the ship. My mom and I were panicked because we didn't want to miss the boat. My mom became inpatient and tried to look for our keys herself and then out of nowhere the lady responsible for getting our keys, who previously was just chit chatting and ignoring us, ran up to the security guard and asked him to escort us of the cruise! The security guard ignored her but did warn us that we couldn’t touch anything and that we needed to wait to get our keys. The lady finally gave us our keys and we boarded the cruise.

Inside our room

The rest of the trip went okay. However, my mom is not a good traveler. She dislikes adventure and novelty and prefers comfort and luxury (mostly vacationing). She also hasn’t taken care of young children in recent years. She isn’t used to getting up early to give milk to a baby and to change his diaper. She is no longer used to rushing herself to get up or when taking a shower. She is definitely not used to carrying a “million things” when going out- the diaper bag, Sippy cup, stroller, sun block… the never ending list of things to bring with a young child. Needless to say, she had some adjusting to do on the trip. 

Catching the waves

Part of me became upset with her because she wasn’t keeping up like my husband did. Part of her became upset because this was supposed to be a vacation, not so demanding on her.  To make matters worse, my mom became physically ill and said that she was very sea sick and that the rooms were too crowded. Not to mention, she  complained about how the room smelled bad every time my little guy went poop. As I said, she is not a good traveler. My son started feeding off the tension and started crying on a regular basis- like screaming crying. He also missed his dad because at times he would cry out “Dada.” So much for paradise, right?

Nassau

Our trip itinerary included a day at sea, Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay (Carnival’s private island), Nassau, and Miami. The islands had the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. They were like baby pools- baby blue clear, soft, and beautiful. My son was able to run into the small waves. My most memorable memory was walking him back and forth on beach and him falling asleep in my arms. The ocean was soothing and calm. We had a lot of fun in Nassau. We did a local tour instead of booking a tour through Carnival lines. Carnival's tours were about double the cost of the local tour we took. Nevertheless, our tour was very affordable and we were able to see most of Nassau and Paradise Island. The tour guide was a Bahamas native and had so much pride in his country. He gave us local fruits to try, took us to a Nassau market, and even showed us where the locals lived. He thanked us for visiting his beautiful country and told us that he wanted to give us a taste of his paradise. My toddler did very well on the tour. Our tour companions were very nice to my son as well. Our last day was spent in South Beach. I wouldn’t describe South Beach as child-friendly. People on the South Beach tour were not friendly to us and kept making glances as if we were ruining their tour. Miami was also very hot and I didn’t really see many families- the city mostly caters to young, attractive, singles. 

Eating inside the ship

It was fun being on the cruise overall. The food was pretty good. I really enjoyed the dinners. The staff inside the cruise was the nicest. They were so thoughtful and accommodating. My son was teething during the trip so he struggled to eat anything and would throw huge fits during dinner. Our waitress (who was an angel in disguise) was very kind about it and would bring different meals for him. She would also try to comfort him and make him laugh. I loved the way she pronounced my son's name.

Nassau

Looking back, even if the trip was not the paradise I had imagined, I have great memories of it. I also learned the difference between traveling and vacationing. I have accepted that I won't be able to vacation with my little guy for awhile. I learned that it’s better to travel with my spouse and it is actually difficult traveling without him. I am more appreciative/grateful that I have a partner that takes time to travel with his family. I also learned to accept this: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” You can go to paradise but it doesn't mean that you will be in paradise. Happy travels!