Cruise 2026: Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas

The second (and last) stop on our cruise was Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas. Great Stirrup Cay is a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines. Normally, this sort of “destination” island wouldn’t appeal to me; my fair-skinned self isn’t made for basking in the sun or floating in the lagoon, even with sunscreen. However, there was one activity on the island that we couldn’t pass up. Well, that I couldn’t pass up: Stingray City & Swimming Pigs on Treasure Island. I was sold on this cruise as soon as I learned about the pigs. Kenn, being the sweetie that he is, agreed. Norwegian only offers this specific cruise twice a year; we were on the last one for the year.

The pier at Great Stirrup Cay is only large enough for one ship, so the Star dropped anchor away from the island and passengers were “tendered” to the island on smaller boats. Specific instructions were provided for how and when to arrive for tendering. As per normal, the actual process was… disorganized. Our excursion to Treasure Island was scheduled for 11am, and since we were supposed to allow thirty minutes for tendering, it was important for us to be among the first to tender. (There really needs to be a better term, LOL.) In spite of the confusion, we made it onto the first boat so we were in the queue for our excursion in plenty of time. Whew!

Our group had a bit of a hike to the dock where we took even smaller boats to Treasure Island. Once on the island, we were given the instructions for how to behave around the animals before being allowed to proceed to the interaction areas. Staff was on hand to work with everyone individually to limit any issues. Of course, we had to sign waivers; where animals are involved, accidents can happen. Example: I got stepped on by an adult pig. No harm was intended, the pig simply wanted some apple. Did it hurt? Yep. Swim shoes don’t provide much protection from pig hooves. But, I was fine; not even a bruise. We were not allowed to take phones into the animal areas so there were plenty of staff with cameras recording everything. Yes, that meant we had to pay extra for photos, but I was fine with that. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, braces yourselves. Photo dump incoming!

Posing with Gigi
Baby pig snuggles
Feeding the pigs

Which would you prefer: swimming with the pigs or interacting with the stingrays?

Cruise 2026: Key West

I guess everyone chooses a cruise because of the destinations, but our reasons for choosing these destinations were very specific.

Panoramic photo of Key West from our stateroom.

Key West has long been on our list of places to visit. Kenn also decided that if he truly hated being onboard the ship, we could disembark in Key West and rent a car to drive back to Tampa to pick up our car.

Since we only had five-ish hours in Key West, we booked a tour on the Old Town Trolley. The tour would allow us to hit the highlights of the town and hop on and off as we wanted.

Our Old Town Trolley tour guide.

The tour would have been more informative if we could have heard the tour guide over the lady behind us; she talked incessantly. At one of the stops the tour guide started his informative spiel and the lady behind us piped up, “He sure talks a lot.” You think? It was almost like talking was his job!🤦‍♀️

We got off the trolley at the famous buoy marking the southernmost point in the continental US. Usually, taking a selfie somewhere like this is an absolute free-for-all; this was incredibly organized. Everyone was in an orderly line and the people at the front of the line gave their phone to the people behind them, who took the photos, gave the phone back and then repeated the process for their own photos. I was impressed!

We walked from the buoy back to where we boarded the trolley locating the Zero mile marker along the way. Oh, and I got to see the feral chickens of Key West, so I am a happy woman!

The Zero mile marker and the beginning of Hwy One.
Handsome guy at a gas station.
Mom and baby.
Another mom and baby.

Have you been to Key West? If so, did you cruise, fly, or drive?

Cruisin’ Together

Kenn and I have long had a cruise to Alaska on our bucket list. Cruise-savvy friends pointed out that, if we haven’t been on a cruise before, we’d probably want to start with something shorter to make sure we actually enjoy cruising before signing up for something lasting seven to ten days. Good point! Kenn has never been on a cruise and I’ve only been on one – when I was twelve. We looked into cruises and discussed several options. At Christmas, we pulled the trigger and booked a four day cruise. We departed Tampa, Florida onboard the Norwegian Star on March 12th and made stops in Key West and Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas before returning to Tampa on March 16th. I’ll write separate posts for our shore excursions.

We learned a few things along the way:

While neither of us had problems with seasickness, I was prepared with Dramamine, acupressure wrist bands, and inhalers just in case. (My daughter-in-law and a couple of the grandkids suffer from carsickness, so I have passed everything on to them.) However, I have now been warned that the Pacific tends to be rougher than the Atlantic, so we shouldn’t skimp on preparations whenever we go to Alaska.😬 Long-lasting patches have been recommended so I’ll add them to our anti-seasickness kit next time around.

We have also agreed that paying for a stateroom with a balcony was worth the extra cost. I don’t think either one of us would have done well without having a view.

Paying for valet parking at Port Tampa Bay was the way to go. We dropped off our car and the parking crew handled getting our luggage to the ship. When we returned, our car was brought to us. Easy-peasy.

“Checking” our luggage the last night of the cruise worked like a charm. It allowed us to disembark without wrestling our luggage through all of the various checkpoints. Our luggage was waiting for us in the baggage claim area, which was the next to the last stop. Also, Kenn’s bright orange suitcase and my bright blue one were easy to find amongst the sea of black and maroon luggage.

While we had no major problems with Norwegian Cruise Lines, our next cruise will probably be on a different line so we can see how things vary.

Have you been on a cruise (or cruises)? What cruise line did you use? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?