Christmas Vacation Cruise 2025
Alexandra & Nicholas Tenbarge
When Georgia gets too cold, what do you do? You leave to the Bahamas to enjoy 77F degree weather!
We found a last minute cruise deal and booked it late in November, packed, and drove 8 hours to Port Canaveral in early December. The plan was to have a day in Nassau and another day on the MSC’s Ocean Cay enjoying the warmer weather and taking a much-needed decompression between busy holiday weeks.
The wind was so strong on the second day it prevented the ship from docking in Nassau, and we had an impromptu extra day at sea. Not terrible, however we were looking forward to getting off the boat for a few hours and learning some history and visiting the shops.
The promise of the kids club was dashed after only 90 minutes, so it ended up being more of a “parenting at sea” and less decompression but we had some great moments and a wonderful time on the last day when the sun came out and the wind calmed down. The MSC Kids Club was more structured and ‘school-esq’ then we had hopped and the kids did not want to stay.
Enjoying the peace at sea was very relaxing. Catching up on books, not having to worry about cooking three meals, cleaning up, and planning things to do really helped set our internal clocks to ‘cruise time’ and unwind a bit. The sunsets were lovely, still not able to sleep in late due to some little kids waking up too early.
The kids had a blast at the kids pool, making some new vacation friends (real Jean Luc vibe from Bluey). Natalie spent the last day pretty much from after breakfast till bed time in the pool with only a break for lunch and dinner). The sun lolled Lotti to sleep and she and Alex took a nice afternoon rest.
The private island, Ocean Cay, was very relaxing. A little cold, but I’ll take 75F over the 35F back home in Georgia all day every day. We picked a spot, setup ‘camp’ on the beach and the kids ran up and down the beach making sand castles and friends!
Taking a walk around the island, we found the local Iguana’s enjoying the sunny day!
The Ocean Cay Lighthouse reminded me of my grandmother who collects lighthouse figures and pictures. It was quiet and serene towards the end of the day, everyone was exhausted from a full day on the beach.
We said goodbye to Ocean Cay and went to yet another easy, peaceful, nice dinner and ended the day with watching the Muppet’s Christmas Carol on the Lido deck’s large screen above the pool. It was a little chilly, but everyone bundled up in robes, blankets, and towels and had a great time!
On the last evening the began decorating the ship for Christmas, transforming one of the staircases into a wonderful Christmas village scene. The kids loved seeing the reminders that Santa was on his way and resume their countdown to Christmas!
The cruise ended with a lovely sunset before we arrived back in Florida the next morning, with a stop at Buc-cee’s which may have been Lotti’s highlight!
