Caribbean Cruise 2025

On Sunday October 19th we took an Uber to Port Canaveral to start our cruise. I'd booked an Uber XL since that was the biggest they offered, but it wasn't quite big enough for all of us and our luggage. The driver somehow managed to cram it all in though, and we left him a good tip.

Our first day was spent eating and exploring the ship. In the future we're going to pay to upgrade to a better bed situation since we did not like having the kids on top of us. We vastly preferred them having a separate bunk bed like they did on our last Carnival cruise.

We started off with all 6 of us in the dining room at 5pm, but the kids got bored quickly and wanted to go to their camps. We took them up to the buffet later for a bit more food and dessert. Their pizza was amazing, especially the Italian style thin crust pizza. Yum! The buffet food was hit or miss, but the dining room was usually pretty good.

The next day we arrived in Nassau. The most popular thing to do in Nassau is their big water park "Atlantis," but we opted out of it since it's expensive and we had mom and Kathy with us. We figured we should focus on something that they would enjoy.

We took a taxi to Ardastra Gardens and zoo, which honestly sounded more appealing than it looked. The cab ride was expensive, admission was triple the price for non-residents, it was considerably smaller than we were expecting, and it was pretty run down. But we still enjoyed the animals, including these beautiful macaws, most of whom were out in the open. 

Close to the entrance we saw a pigeon plum, peacocks, turtles, and monkeys.

There were also common farm animals, like turkeys, chickens, roosters, and bunnies.

Then to our delight we stumbled upon a free roaming white peacock. I'd never seen anything like it in my life! He wasn't a complete albino since he had some brown on him, but later we saw another one that looked completely white.

From there we went over and saw the sheep and the pigs. I'm surprised there wasn't a petting zoo for the sheep, bunnies, and other docile animals.

As we were walking towards this macaw, we wondered why it was in a cage and not free roaming like several of the others. Then the instant I walked in front of its enclosure it flew straight at me cawing loudly. I'm sure it would have attacked me if it could have. It definitely seemed pretty aggressive.

We then saw several other birds, including these pretty rainbow lorikeets like the ones we'd fed at Busch Gardens. This place could stand to have more feedings and other interactive experiences. 

We also saw some free range flamingos, which I'd never seen before. 

When we got too close to them they would start marching away ultimately coming back in a circle to where they started. We found out why they did that later when we went to the Flamingo show. 

Discovery Cove offers a Flamingo Mingle encounter for $60-$80 a person. Being able to get this close to the flamingos at least made the cost of coming here feel much more worth it.

We also saw capybaras and the non free range flamingos.

There were also iguanas, caimans, raccoons, and this mother in law's tongue plant.

There was this lovely pond and several interesting ducks.

And there were many more birds, including these beautiful snuggling barn owns.

Oscar and the kids, as usual, were on the lookout for random lizards.

At the Flamingo show we learned that the free range Flamingos we'd seen were trained to march. When we walked close to them they responded to their training and started marching in a big circle. We were invited to come down, stand on one leg, and the trainer would bring them around to mingle with us.

Though we were able to get our money's worth out of it, I still think they could stand to invest in more animal experiences for tourists, like bird shows, animal feedings, and having a petting zoo. 

As we were leaving Oscar made a new friend in the trumpeter hornbill. He'd make bird noises to get the hornbill to follow him. The hornbill would fly from branch to branch trying to follow Oscar's noises. It was so sweet! He wished he had food or something else to give it as a reward for responding to his calls. 

When we finished up we had our taxi drop us all back to the cruise terminal. Mom and Kathy walked back to the ship while the rest of us walked to the Parliament building and to the Queen's Staircase. Walking probably wasn't the best idea since it was hot and the roads were narrow without much sidewalk, but we enjoyed seeing the sights.

Tyler took some photos and video of us leaving Nassau.

The next morning we arrived in Ocean Cay, MSC Cruise's private island. Oscar and I had booked a waverunner tour at 10:15am, but when we got to the check in desk, they told us we'd need to reschedule since the surf was too rough. We rebooked for 1:30pm, and I did a little swimming at the beach.

We then went back onboard where I took the kids up to the water park.

We tried to do our rescheduled tour at 1:30pm, but the surf was still too rough. We rescheduled again and this time Tyler went swimming with me at the lighthouse beach. 

We blew up some pool floats and played with a water frisbee we'd brought from home.

Oscar walked around the island while we were swimming. People left their food out on the beach, which brought several iguanas out too.

And we finally got to do our Waverunner tour at 4:30. At least it was worth the wait. It was so much fun! We even got to see a couple stingrays in the ocean. We fell off a couple times, but we always got back on. 

We met back up with mom and Kathy for dinner and some lovely views from the boat.

Ocean Cay has a nightly 5 minute lighthouse show at both 9pm and 10pm. I saw the 9pm show from the boat with mom and Kathy, but our views weren't great. It was crowded and we had to constantly crane our necks to the left. When I got back to the room I found Tyler nearly in tears. He'd raced down to try and get off the ship so he could see the light show and record it, but they wouldn't let him off because he was an unaccompanied minor. He'd then raced up to try to see the show from the ship, but it was over by the time he made it there. I told him I could take him to the 10pm show, and he perked right back up. There were a lot less people at the 10pm show, so we had a great view from the beach sitting in comfy chairs. 

The next day was our "at Sea" day. I found a duck on top of the giant Lego sailor, which Tyler claimed. Leaving ducks for others to find is a well known cruise tradition. 

Later that morning we played ladder toss, which they called "ladder golf" on the itinerary. Tyler won a bandana.

I'd bought the kids arcade cards, and I wanted to make sure they used them before the night was over. Here's Tyler on the Formula 1 racing simulator. 

Oscar and I both helped Allison in the Lego building challenges. Oscar and Allison built a "squirrel tower." We just built a tall tower then tried to knock the other team's tower over with a tennis ball. I totally nailed it knocking over the other team's tower with a perfect shot. Too bad Oscar only got pictures, not video.

Later I took Allison to meet the Do Re Mi character and the Lego characters.

She danced with the Lego friend then watched the characters do a dance for us.

Here's Tyler in the rafting simulator then we went to the kids' club for some family trivia.

That evening I went up to the outdoor deck at sunset.

That evening we went to dinner and the evening show while the kids were up at their camps.

The kids got done playing at the arcade before our credits had run out. I went down and asked Oscar if he wanted to finish using the credits with me. He did the racing simulator then Tyler just happened to be walking through the arcade right before we did the shooting game - Los Banditos. We had just enough credits to let him join us for it.