We were on vacation last week, taking the kids on a 4-night Disney Cruise from Pt. Canaveral to Nassau and Disney’s “private island”, plus a day at sea. The trip was fantastic, and I’ll dish a little about it in this post. I thought that since we were stopping in Nassau, I’d find a cute little bookstore to write about … our first international Spotlight. Well, it’s not fair to call this a Spotlight on Bookstores because I didn’t find one! Not to worry, Cathy at Kittling: Books will be writing about Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, England in a future post; we’re going across the Pond!
We flew into Orlando and had a little time to spend before heading over to the cruise port. There’s a Hudson News in the terminal (isn’t there one in every airport), and a nice, if small, Borders. My little guy was more interested in the Universal Studios store than bookstores!
On to the cruise, this pic was taken during the bon voyage party. We had a quick, typical
central Florida, rainstorm before setting sail. I caught LW6 and LM10 with this rainbow in the background (it’s real, not Photoshop!)
Coming through the port in Nassau I spotted this sign for “Books and ‘Tings” in the cruise terminal. The store was the size of my bathroom, and featured more ‘tings than books! I thought I might be on to something when I approached the “Island Book Shop”. No luck there, either, it was a motley collection of remaindered books and calendars, along with some nicer local pieces.
Now I segue into some quick cruise highlights, including a Segwaytour in Nassau. J and I had a blast on these! They’re two-wheeled motorized “bikes” that you control by shifting your body weight (forward, toward the toes to move; upright to stop, back toward the heels to reverse … I don’t recommend reverse!). It took a bit of practice, but once I got the hang of it, it was so much fun! The guide kept saying “trust the bike” and had us Segway-ing with no hands!
One night was the Pirates in the Caribbean party, complete with dancing on the deck, music and fireworks.
We donned these silly bandanas at dinner and practiced our “Aaarrr” and “Ahoy, Matey!” What you don’t see in this photo is J holding a butter knife to me, like he’s the pirate and I’m the captive 
Each night our cabin steward left towel animals on our beds. LM10 enjoys origami and enjoyed deconstructing this rabbit and elephant to learn how to create them in towel-gami.
Just one last photo, of the kids with Goofy!
Sounds like a good trip minus the absence of good bookstores. I love towelgami!
Dawn, those are such awesome pictures! When you said ‘little vacation’ I had no idea you were doing a Disney cruise!!!
Those two-wheeled ‘bikes’ look like so much fun. I cannot even begin to imagine how much your kids loved this trip.
Thanks for sharing!
Did you love the cruise? We want to take a Disney cruise next year. We are saving up for it. We went to Orlando last year and we loved it (except for the humidity).
The Segway looks like fun!
Sounds like you need to go on more vacations to look for more bookstores!
What a great trip! How did you like Disney’s private island? The bikes look fun. The towel animals look so neat. I would love to come back to my room and see those especially if you have kids.
Serena – I found a “towel-gami” book that LM10 may get at Christmas. He’s very creative and I’m sure would enjoy freaking out our house guests with a towel lobster on their bed at night
Shana – it was great for all of us; 4 nights was just the right amount of time. We had a lot of quality family time, the kids LOVED the “oceaneers club” and “oceaneers lab” children’s programs when the chose to go. When J and I had time to ourselves we considered it a very expensive but worthwhile “date”
Ti – It was fantastic! Superb service, lots of fun, good food, options of activities for kids and adults. The counselors in the kids’ programs knew our children after a few hours. The waitstaff had our drinks ready for us when we came to dinner … nice to be pampered!
Nicole – the Segway is about as adventurous as I get! Going up over hills was tricky because I’d get wimpy and the “bike” would start to wiggle (if you’re not leaning forward it stops or even reverses!); fortunately I plowed on and didn’t fall.
softdrink – oh, yes! My singular quest is to find an outstanding bookstore in the Caribbean … I’ll have to plan my next research trip
Bree – There were a bunch of activities on the island – kids clubs were open, so they had treasure hunts and digs for dino bones. We rented a paddle boat with the older two. There were also catamarans, water trikes, snorkeling, etc. A big clean family beach with enough lounge chairs and hammocks for everyone, plus an over 18 beach at the other end of the island. Clean, fun and attentive … not ultra-Mickey-Mouse-ish
Sounds like a wonderful trip! Disney really knows how to treat their guests. The pictures are great (Arrrrrr) and I love the towel-gami. My daughter (9) loves origami so I’m off to amazon.com now to see if I can find that book you mentioned!
LisaMM – The book I spotted is *The Little Book of Towel Origami* by Alison Jenkins. I hope your daughter has fun with it, (arrrrrr)!
That would be so cool to visit foreign bookstores! We lived in Germany for four years and I forced us to find a bookstore in France so I could buy a French Bible. I wish I would have spent more time in the bookstores over there.
Thanks for submitting your post!
I would love to try that Segway; I saw some guys on TV playing Segway Polo!
Bummer about the bookstores. I like to find them when I travel, too. Did the cruise ship have a library? Some have good ones and others are a joke.
Oh the animals are way cool!
[...] Vicki by mid-day Friday with a link to what you consider your best post (this week I submitted the highlights of our recent vacation, complete with towelgami, a Segway tour, and my unfulfilled quest to find a bookstore in Nassau); [...]
Vicki – I was surprised that the books were so dated in the one larger store I found. Maybe over on Paradise Island by the Atlantis hotel there was something more impressive (?) anyone know?
Elizabeth – this ship didn’t have a true library, although there was a decent selection of books for the kids in the kids’ clubs. We’ve sailed with several lines and thought Holland America Line had a nice library.
J. Kaye – I’ve mastered the towel lobster!