The Plunkett Family Cruise
My mother had said in the past that it would be great if she could get all of her kids and as many grandkids as possible to all go on a family cruise. Normally I am all for planning a trip making something like this happen but cruising is something I had never done and honestly did not have a huge interest in figuring out. On the other hand, growing up in the 70’s and 80’s I remember the television show The Love Boat very well. The whole concept of coming on board a cruise ship for an adventure seemed incredible as a kid. As it turns out both my brother and sister have done a number of cruises. When mom and dad were in Florida during the past winter visiting with Rob and Megan, Megan heard my mom mention the family cruise idea. Later she contacted me and said she thought it would be great to get Mom and Dad a cruise and see if we could pull this off. I was all for it and what also made this trip great is that I did not have to hardly any planning. I took my cues and guidance from the rest of the family which was very nice (for once!).
Rob’s son played in a MLS Next soccer tournament earlier this past summer in June. The tournament took place in Nashville, TN which made it very easy for us to drive down from Ohio to watch the games and spend time with Rob’s family. I had never had the opportunity to see my nephew play a game (he is really good) and those who know me know I enjoy going to all of the family sporting events I can. But the other purpose of the trip was to surprise my parents with the news about the cruise. It all worked out and needless to say they were surprised and we were all excited.
Nashville Fun
Thanksgiving 2024
As a part of this trip my brother and his wife Megan offered to host Thanksgiving at their house after which we would leave the next day to head to Port Canaveral to start the cruise. I went down to Florida a couple of days early with my parents. I was glad I did so because it allowed me to have some extra time to spend with my brother and his family. It had been quite a while since I had been down to Florida and I missed seeing all of them. I was thankful to have this time. Our Thanksgiving was fantastic and we really enjoyed the day!
The Cruise
Since returning from the cruise I have had a number of people ask me if I enjoyed the cruise and would you do it again? Yes and yes (but a different itinerary). We took a 3 day cruise from Friday until Monday morning. We left Port Canaveral, went to Nassau, Bahamas and then to CocoCay before returning back to Port Canaveral.
Unfortunately I had not read great things about Nassau so we decided to stay on the boat there.
On Sunday when we awoke the ship was already docked at the Royal Caribbean private island of CocoCay. The stop is billed as “A Perfect Day at CocoCay”. The island is beautiful and we really enjoyed getting off the boat and heading to the south side of the island to grab our beach chairs and enjoy a beach day. After getting settled and taking a quick dip in the ocean, it was about 45 minutes until the first couple of rain drops started falling. No big deal, its the tropics and the small clouds would surely roll on through. Nope! It continued to rain progressively harder for the next couple of hours and it just did not stop! The day basically was rained out which was disappointing but as I look back I still had a great time – it is all in how you look at things.
We sailed on the Utopia of the Seas ship. Which as of this entry I think is the second largest cruise ship in the world! It was enormous but I honestly did not feel like it felt too large. We saw a couple of fun shows after our dinners.
Michelle Ziplining on The Utopia of The Seas
