*Written by Devon Carlson, Campus Correspondent of Her Campus at Dickinson!
Much to my own surprise, this past week, I went on a cruise to the Bahamas with my two grandmothers.
Of course, I had some initial: I knew the vacation would require a lot of patience on my part, trying to manage the kinds of things I wanted to do versus what they wanted. I also knew that going on a cruise could put us in very close quarters, which could prove to be disastrous. We left for Miami, and I approached the entire vacation with optimism but hesitancy, hoping the next five days would be fun for all of us.
The trip overall turned out to be much better than I originally anticipated. Yes, the rooms weren’t very spacious, but I didn’t realize how large the ship would be. I could go upstairs to the pool area and read a book by myself or wander the other 12 (!!) levels of the ship on my own. We also had a deck that promised a gorgeous view of the ocean, so I could relax on our private balcony. The weather was beautiful so I spent large parts of each day tanning and relaxing out by the pools and hot tubs on the ship. We also went on several excursions on the various islands we traveled to: I sat on a beach in Nassau for hours one day and the next took a 13-mile bike tour of Freeport, another island of the Bahamas. It gave my grandmothers and me some space so when we reconvened after our excursions, we could share stories from our days.
I had a great time exploring the Bahamas and navigating the cruise with my grandmothers and was pretty disappointed when we got on the plane back to freezing temperatures back up north. During those five days, we shared many laughs (because what would a vacation be without family embarrassing each other?) and suffered through a little bit of sickness (one grandma got sick on the last day), but all in all, this one will be a vacation I’ll never forget.