Malabrigo Cruise- First Sunrise, Nassau

I'm an early bird. It's not something I aspire to, I just wake up early. I learned a long time ago not to fight it. This propensity comes in handy on cruise ships, since the majority of cruisers sleep late. I get up, kill time until the breakfast areas open, and wander the decks with the other fifty (out of 6,000) folks who also get up early. It's peaceful and beautiful and quiet. And the photo-ops abound.

We sailed from Ft. Lauderdale around 5:30 pm the evening before, and were docked in Nassau, The Bahamas by the time I got up the next morning. In case you're wondering, a big big ship sails very smoothly, though we did have very smooth seas, and it's not storm season. I don't know how much The Allure will rock in heavy waves, but for our cruise, things were smooth almost the entire way (and I'm not prone to motion sickness anyway, so none of it bothered me, except for the night that our room safe door banged repeatedly as we rocked gently. In order to close the door, you have to program a combination into the safe itself, but since it was dark and the middle of the night, I figured if I did that, I'd never remember the combo in the morning. So I did the next best thing- I stuffed a pair of underpants in the hinge. Instant silence. Also: instant roommate confusion when she got up later... Kath, are those *special* undies? )

Anyway, pretty pictures of our first port sunrise...

 Every city is beautiful in the dark, but there is something especially beautiful about a tropical city viewed from the deck of a luxury cruise ship. Oh, in case you were wondering- in July, it was sweltering even very early in the morning. In March, it felt good to wear a sweatshirt on deck at sunrise.

Looking down onto one of the bazillion hot tubs. Seriously, I think there were 8 of them.

 I was tempted to swim in the dark, but never got around to doing it. As you can imagine, the pools were pretty crowded in the afternoons.

 More hot tubs.

  Looking back at the Windjammer, where I ate a buffet breakfast (and sometimes lunch). The deck is wet because the very hard-working crew hosed it down. The Windjammer was on Level 16. Yeah, the 16th floor. On a boat.

I have no complaints about the food anywhere on the ship. My waistband may complain, but I won't.

Sunrise. All together now: ooooooooo

As always in port, there were other cruise ships. They way they parallel park these behemoths is amazing, worth being up early to witness even if you're not a morning person.

Caribbean Sunrise some more

In case we forget where we are

More Nassau

Next, our half day on shore in Nassau.