On February 25th, 2018, my family and I left for NYC to board a cruise ship called the Norwegian Breakaway. My favorite part about boarding the ship in NYC was seeing the Statue Of Liberty for the first time. The process to board the cruise ship was long and tiring, but it was all worth it in the end. It was a long morning with much to be done, and the seven days to come would be memorable.

The first two days were spent at sea, just travelling to our first location: Port Canaveral, Florida. There were many activities my family and I engaged in these days to keep occupied. Between late night comedy shows, family game shows, hot tubs, and musicals, we all shared a laugh and a great time. One show we went to was called Rock of Ages, a musical featuring old rock songs with comedic dialogue. This show was probably my favorite because it was so entertaining. Another show that we saw while at sea was called Burn the Floor. This show featured jazz music, with people dancing, at some points upbeat and at some points calm. It was a good mix and made for a good experience.

The stops we made include: Port Canaveral, Florida, and the Great Stirrup Cay, a part of the Bahamas. A few days later, we arrived in The Great Stirrup Cay. This is a private island that not many people visit. In order to get to the island from the ship, everyone had to ride ferry boats over, which was about a five minute ride. The time spent at this island was a blast, and nothing like my family and I expected a private island experience to be like. There was music playing, an eye-catching ocean view, warm sand, hot sun, and air smelling of delicious food. We were at this island for the entire day,  until about 7 pm. There was nothing that could have been better. Since it was so hot, I got a tan within an hour or two. After a few hours on this island, we were hot and ready to go back to the ship. Unfortunately, I forgot to drink a lot of water in the hot weather, so I just about blacked out on the ferry ride back. Our last stop was supposed to be to another area of the Bahamas, but it got cancelled because of the storm located up North. The captain figured that we should head back to NYC early because we would have to travel through the storm, an experience that was not very fun. The storm affected the Sea as well, so the waves were huge; rocking the ship back and forth very rapidly. This experience made many people seasick, my mom and I included.

The only other unfortunate experience that happened during our cruise was someone needing medical attention while we were out on the Sea. At this time, we were heading up North, and we had to head West in order to meet up with a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to transport this person to a nearby hospital. The person was safe and in good hands. Other than this, everyone had a great time.

We met so many new people from different areas, including New Jersey, NYC, Maryland, and Albany. What I thought was awesome was the areas of the world that the cruise ship workers are originally from. I got to converse with some of the bar workers and restaurant workers who came from Philippines, China, Thailand, and India. One of the bar workers told me that he works on the cruise ship for eight months out of the year and goes home for four. Considering the diverse areas that people had come from, it was also neat to see people that came from the same State as me. I loved hearing all of the different accents as well.  Overall, it was an experience I will never forget!

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