Our third cruise was all about family. Madeline's mom and dad loved cruises and shortly after they took one early in 1999, they booked all their kids, grandkids, and in-laws on a Carnival cruise out of Cape Canaveral, FL.

 

Unfortunately, Madeline's mom passed away a few months before we sailed. In honor of her, we took the cruise anyway, and despite the very chilly Bahamian weather, we had a great time. We started our trip in Orlando, then left Canaveral for the Bahamas.

 

Alicia was 12 and Dana was 11.

Cruise 3—Bahamas

The day after Christmas, we left snowy Chicago and landed in sunny Orlando. We stayed at the Orlando World Center Marriott resort, where I stayed once several years ago while working at Comdisco. I knew it was a great resort, so we did it as a treat. We woke to this view the next morning.

12/26/00—12/31/00

We spent that day enjoying the sun by the pool and by heading over to Disney World, where we played a game of mini-golf at Winter Summerland.

The next day we relaxed even more in the sun, waiting on Madeline’s dad to arrive in town with Felicia. Here, Alicia enjoys the sun with her headphones on while reading a magazine.

The following day, we boarded our vessel for the 4-day cruise. The Carnival Fantasy went into service in 1990 and was initially based out of the Port of Miami as the first new ship ever placed on 3 and 4 day Bahamas cruises. We left from Cape Canaveral, though.

Since we had been on a cruise with the kids before, we knew that it would be safe for them to run around on their own, even though they were all pre-teens. The grandkids instantly took a liking to the ship. Here, Dana, Angela, Joey, Jessica, and Alicia found out how windy the decks can be while sailing.

I always love taking photos of sunrises and sunsets, and here I tried out a new filter on my camera. It was a star filter that created the rays coming out of the sun.

The next morning we woke up in Nassau, the Bahamas, where we got the beautiful view to the left. After we docked, we boarded a boat and sailed past Atlantis, the icon of Treasure Island and Nassau.

In the Bahamas, Angela goes snorkeling for the first time in her life. Unfortunately, due to the cold front that went through the area, the water was rather rough and made it a little difficult. Still, we had fun and we saw good fish.

That night was formal night, so Joe herded up the cats and tried to take a family picture. It was tougher than we thought it would be to get 20 people together, though, so we walked back out on the pier and took a picture of the ship at night instead.

The last day was a bit chilly, but the hot tub was always nice. The girls were really cold around the ice sculpture that a guy carved on deck. It warmed up a little and Joey joined in on the water balloon toss.

The night came and Alicia got all dressed up on deck. Then we actually got a picture taken of nearly everyone in the family.