Cruisin' to the Bahamas

Justin and I just got back from our cruise to the Bahamas sponsored by Mary Kay. Neither of us have ever been on a cruise, and  we've never really been on a vacation...our version of "vacation" has always been visiting family in either Idaho or Washington. We've done family trips, sure, but we've never been on like, VACATION. So. There you go. They paid for the entire cruise package, our flights, and for those who wanted it they were able to get the drinking package for $17/day per person. Apparently that price is unheard of because normally  I guess it's closer to like $100/day per person - and that is unlimited! It was all anyone could talk about all week. Mary Kay also paid for all gratuities! So they paid for everything except additional excursions if you decided to do them. Pretty awesome. See below if you're interested in what qualified you to earn the trip.

Sunday night we left the kids with Mom and Dad and ventured down to Salt Lake City. Our flight left at midnight, so we grabbed dinner and hung out until takeoff. I started my book  "Where Men Win  Glory" and  read it throughout the trip, along with another novel. We landed in Atlanta at 5:00 AM and connected to Miami shortly after. Staff from Mary Kay were there waiting for us to help us tag our bags for the cruise ship and we loaded on the bus for the port. Justin lost his Mary Kay name tag - more accurately: Emmett lost his name tag - and before we boarded the bus this lady was making a big deal about it, radioed in to some other person her concern, and wanted us to wait over to the side before getting on the bus. I skeptically asked if he really needed it to board the ship.  Her response was, "Oh, absolutely." In all seriousness. I was dying. Ok lady,  he has his passport and  cruise pass and they're not going to let him  on  for a stupid name tag? Yeah, I'm sure. So when the bus came we just boarded it like everybody else, and you guessed it: nobody stopped us for not wearing our name tags. I was pretty smug about that the rest of the day..."Oh absolutely..." Hardly!

I saw my Washington friends while we waited to board the ship - there were 12 of us that earned the trip, and  three of them are my good friends. It was great seeing them and hanging with them throughout the trip. We spent the majority of Monday acquainting ourselves with the ship. It POURED RAIN in  Miami all  day until we sailed away to sea. We found a place to play some shuffleboard - that was about as exciting as Monday got for us.

Miami is like a scene from Star Wars

Tuesday was the first of two "perfect days" at Coco Cay -  a private island owned by Royal Caribbean. This island was over-the-top decked out. Free and unlimited food at the cabana, staff walking around the pool every minute or so asking, "Drinks? Drinks?" - you could give them your card and order whatever you wanted and they'd bring it to you. I treated myself to a "coco loco" later that week We got there early  and found a good spot by the oasis lagoon -  a huge freshwater pool connected to a swim-up bar and kids play area. Apparently it's the largest freshwater pool in the Caribbean. We spent most of the day there. We enjoyed the occasional splash in  the pool between reading sessions. In the afternoon we played at this station that had giant Jenga, bowling, and a soccer-pool table. At one point we walked down to the beach to splash in the ocean a bit. Justin said, "Wouldn't it be awesome if a turtle or a dolphin swam up to us right now?" and I sarcastically replied, "Not a shark?" and he laughed...and literally like 3 seconds later I hear Justin say, "Oh, oh, oh," and I look to my left and sure enough! THERE IS A SHARK!!! I start backing up pronto and Justin is holding  me back like "don't panic" and we skitter out of the water...we stood there laughing like a couple of idiots. It was two, maybe three feet long. We watched it swim around in the shallows for a bit before leaving. Totally hilarious and ironic. We saw a shark! Still can't believe it.

 Dave and  Suzanne (my recruiter/director)

Aww thanks  for the snack Mary Kay! These were waiting for us after boarding again after each day

Formal night

Wednesday was our day at Nassau (pronounced "Nass-ah"). We didn't book any  excursions through the ship. Atlantis is the main  attraction of Nassau - there were going to be SIX cruise ships in  port that day so we decided to skip the crowds. We signed with a local/private boat that took us snorkeling with turtles and swimming at a private island  "Rose Island." There were about 16 of us total. On  our way out to snorkel we saw a bunch of mansions, including one of Oprah's and Michael Jordan's  houses. Then a storm pretty much came out of nowhere and  we had to make a stop at Pearl  Island because there was lightning and thunder everywhere! The storm lasted about an hour and we continued on our way. Snorkeling with the turtles did not disappoint. We pretty much had this whole island to ourselves where the turtles come back each year to lay their eggs. There were turtles everywhere - I was surprised by how brown they actually  are compared to the green color I thought they were. One gal in our group managed to dive down and touch one. I marveled at the color and  temperature of the water there. Unbelievable. From there we hopped over to Rose Island to hang out on the beach until we felt like going back to the boat. The sand there felt like standing on a fluffy puppy. I didn't even know sand  could feel soft (they didn't teach me about fluffy-puppy-sand in my oceanography class at BYU-I). It is hard to describe how magical the whole scene was. Also, that water is incredibly salty. WOW. Way more than I anticipated. We got lucky with our excursion in  Nassau compared to what other's experienced. As soon  as you stepped into the city it definitely felt like you were in  a third world country. Little boys Emmett's age were coming up to us asking to buy their stuff. I was glad we did something else away from all the shopping and commotion. If we come back, we'll do Atlantis with the kids, but definitely won't be tempted to visit the city.That night we  went to an a capella show by the group ReVoiced. It was SO GOOD! The percussionist was recruited from the guy  who manages Pentatonix. It was a group of five guys and they were all amazing. That was a highlight for sure. (Justin thinks I enjoyed it a little too much...lol....I don't disagree.)

checking out the coral at Pearl Island - that's Keenan next to me

thanks Pearl Island for the pit-stop and shelter!

fluffy-puppy sand!

Keenan and Patrick

Atlantis

Atlantis in the background

reading my book - Justin and his candid photos

escargot

hot chocolate and Endgame - also our buddy cruise ship in the background.

Thursday we went back to Coco Cay and this time it was more about the fun vs. the relaxation. We got connected with some competitions they did around the island at different times. We played in a volleyball tournament in the morning. We barely lost our first game to the team that ended up taking 1st place (that should have been us!). My friend   Suzanne was on  the sideline sitting by people on the other team. She said they heard them say, "They've got a ringer" referring to me. I looked it up and according to google: "A "ringer" can be someone who doesn't belong there. Often it means a professional player, who is playing on an amateur team." Ha! Hardly, but I appreciate the compliment. After the game some people from the winning team came up to me and were like, "we're losing a player, do you want to play on our team later?" - referring to the afternoon tournament. Clearly I should have taken the offer because our team for the afternoon didn't show up and Justin, Dave, and I ended up on a team with three other people that clearly sucked so we lost again...too bad. BUT! We had fun. Amidst that there was a 3-point shooting competition that I entered and Justin entered the ping pong tournament and just BARELY took  2nd place. In his defense, he is out of contacts and his  glasses are literally  taped together with electric tape like he's Harry Potter or something (he finally  has an eye appointment next week thank goodness) so they wouldn't stay on properly ... all of this to say,  he was playing basically partially  blind and still beat almost everyone. Just saying. It was HOT that day so we spent more time in the pool cooling off and were diligent about staying in the shade and wearing sunscreen. I didn't get burned at all the whole trip and Justin only got a little burned. That night we went to another show that was a total letdown after ReVoiced. But still  fun to do.

oasis lagoon

I loved these chairs! Slightly submerged in the water on a ledge before the pool gets deep. It was the perfect place to read! Justin  disagrees.

Justin's beads of sweat...the humidity took him back to his Nicaragua days

coco loco!

lol more sweat

3-point competition

ice cream!

2nd place

more volleyball

hot air balloon in the background  (that thing was massive)

more ice cream!

more treats from  Mary Kay

watching a movie waiting for our show to start

The trip home on Friday was truly painful. We left the ship at 8:00 AM and got to Fort Lauderdale airport at 9:00. The flight left for Detroit at 2:00 PM (5 hours waiting at the airport), landed at 5:00 (3 hour flight), and departed for SLC at 6:00 (3.5 hour flight) landing at 8:00 Mountain standard time, (10:00 for us on Eastern time) only to get in the car and drive another 3.5 hours home. We rolled in right around midnight (2:00 AM for us). I'd like to thank Dr. Pepper for making that possible.

hot chocolate during our layover in Detroit

**Some other details about the trip**

Qualifications  for earning the trip were three-fold. From  January - June you  had to: 1.) order $3,600 wholesale from the company (this is the equivalent of selling $7,200 retail, averaging selling $1,200/month), 2.) Add six personal team members that did at least a minimum starting inventory order of at least $600 wholesale, and 3.) build three personal team members into "red jackets" which means each of them have three team members that are all  active at the same time (consultants are only  active 2-3 months as a time so you had to be careful about tracking this one). The company projected that 500-700 women would  earn the trip. In true Mary Kay fashion, the sales force blew it out of the water with 3,700 achievers. The company had only reserved enough slots to potentially  fill one  cruise ship  (about 3,000 people) so with all the extra people they had to offer 3 or 4 different weeks to sail to accommodate all the winners. Direct sales and MLM's turn a lot of people off - understandably so - but objectively, that is pretty amazing. Go Mary Kay! The contest was announced January 1st and the first person to qualify had it done by January 18th! I was like all the average people and finished in June. Lol.

With the exception of one night, we ate at the earlier 6:00 time than our assigned 8:30 time (who stays up until 8:30 to eat dinner? That's bed time!). For the other three nights we had dinner with groups of other Mary Kay people and their spouses. We managed to have dinner with Suzanne and Dave one night, but couldn't put together a dinner with our group  because there was no way to really communicate without service. So the other two nights we met some new people. Our last night had a cool  couple we enjoyed from San  Diego. Also sitting with us was a director who we found egotistical. The hard thing about Mary Kay people  is they don't know how to turn it OFF. And  her husband was just as bad. Their comments were so "When  we had dinner with Nathan Moore last night....when we were on the top director trip in  Hawaii...The year I did my first half-million..." I mean - seriously - who talks like that? Justin and I snuck a few glaces at each other throughout the dinner, like, "Ok - clearly  you two think you  are very important - we get it." Ha! It was great to laugh with Justin about it later.

On Thursday in the late afternoon, a few people in the oasis pool had had a little too much alcohol and the DJ threatened several times to have security escort them away. I kept wanting him to just do it already (they were making quite the scene) but I think they eventually settled down. Tuesday we were reading by the pool and one lady was so drunk she couldn't stand up on her own. She had to have two people walk her out of the  pool. That kind  of behavior is just totally revolting to me. Like, really? Know your limits people! And also, hey service people -  maybe have a policy on over-serving! I wrote a nice lengthy comment about this in the survey Royal Caribbean sent me.

On Thursday after boarding the ship for departure I decided to go down the massive water slide. I decided I couldn't NOT do it,  you  know? So I got in line and  suffered in  a humid, glass tube of stairs for about 20 minutes waiting my turn. A couple behind me were there also because of winning the trip, so we were able to make some small  talk.  Had it not been for them I probably would  have bailed,  but since we were chatting it up I felt like I needed to stick it out. My turn finally came and the slide was - in a word - underwhelming. Justin was gracious  enough to wait for me the entire time. I ended up  seeing that same couple the next morning while  loading the buses to head to the airport. I went over to them and was like, "Was it worth it?" laughing with them because we all  shook our heads - total letdown! Not worth the pain and  agony of standing in that line! Ha - it was cool meeting them.

the not-so-worth-it slide

Another guy we happened to meet while waiting for the bus to arrive to take us to the airport said to me, "Miss?"  and I look up and he says, "You are the spitting image of my ex-girlfriend from high school." Mind  you, he's at least 70 years old. So we laughed and  chit-chatted a bit...then he moved on to small talking  with the other people around. Justin later said he was making weird comments and  deemed him a dirty old man. The bus on the way to the airport almost hit a truck in front of us that was swerving across two lanes of the interstate. The bus driver was laying down the horn because there was no stopping in that amount of time. We BARELY missed him! Thank goodness.

While boarding our flight to Detroit we saw this guy from our volleyball team.  His name was Moroni. When we first met him he asked us where we were from. When we said Idaho he said,  "That makes sense - you guys are the only ones who know how to say my  name." So anyway we saw them  and  Justin was like, "Oh  hey guys!" and  I said, "Oh I didn't recognize you without...your shhhhh-swim shorts on." His wife was like, "You  mean without his shirt on?" Ha - yes, clearly that was what I was about to say but thought better of it because his wife was right there...yeah it wasn't lost on her. We had a good laugh.

Moroni from our volleyball team

Justin had several opportunities to watch me squirm all week. Whenever we would meet someone new or have to make small  talk the inevitable questions ensued..."How long have you been a director? How long have you been building your business?" etc, etc. For context, I made the decision after moving to give my unit to my senior and no longer be a director myself. This kind of thing can spur alllll kinds of reactions in the Mary Kay community and I wasn't looking forward to these kind of questions. I always tried to give the easiest answer possible but sometimes those ladies just wouldn't relent. At dinner Tuesday night one lady said to me, "Seminar this year was so much fun compared to other years, don't you think?" I quickly glanced at Justin and said, "Oh we didn't go to seminar this year..." silence. You don't, like, NOT GO to seminar. It's basically Mary Kay sin. Ha...changing the subject... That also happened on Thursday. There was a meeting on the boat from 8-10 that I didn't go to (I'm on vacation!). One girl was saying she wanted to go to the volleyball tournament but she couldn't get there in time because of the meeting. She turns to me and  says, "How did you get there so fast?" I said, "I didn't go." She did NOT expect that answer and really didn't know what to say....ha. More than a few times when someone asked me where am I from and I happened to say how Arco is a small town with less than 1,000 people they'd say, "Oh so you must have to travel a lot for your business/unit?" and I'd say, "Oh I actually stepped down a while ago." This reply would get alllll kinds of unsolicited feedback. "Oh you can always pick it right back up  when you decide... I know a national that built her area out of a town of 900..." blah blah blah. One director was trying to give me a pep talk relating it to a softball analogy while I was trying to film Justin during the ping pong tournament. I'm like "uh huh, uh huh..." thinking, "I just want to take a video lady, leave me alone!" Oh my gosh...it started to become a running  joke throughout the week. Justin would be like, "I wonder what she's going to say this time." Lol. While at dinner with one group they said, "How long have you been a director" and I said, "Oh I'm actually a beauty consultant" and they were like "OH WOW there are so few of you here that's amazing!" and I thought "Okay, yay...no awkward questions...." but then this girl asks, "Have you ever wanted to become a director?" and I was like, "Oh I've actually been a director before..." people clearly felt bad for me and felt like it was their job to breathe belief back into me. This lady from  Utah would  NOT relent and  she asked me, "So what is it that you want out of your business?" I'm thinking- let it rest lady!! Justin is visibly holding back chuckles while I try to stammer out a response that will make her satisfied. OH MY LAND! It's like that scene on The Office when they go out for drinks and start talking about paper and Kelly is like, "Guys, are we seriously going to talk about paper? There's got to be something else we can talk about." So applicable here! This is of course a foreign concept to all my readers but hey, it's my blog. I'll write what I want.

Some of my favorite foods during the cruise were the escargot (and dipping my bread in  the left over garlic butter),  Justin's rack of lamb, duck, the prime rib, and apple pie, and the ice cream cones on Coco Cay. Justin and I kept up our intermittent fasting for the morning portion of each day (breakfast food doesn't even really tempt me anymore...) and ate as late as we pleased. As much as the food was amazing and there was a lot of it, I'm happy that we didn't over-do it.  I did enjoy second dessert every night at the dining buffet at the top of the ship.

Having that quality time with Justin was truly what made the trip such a treat. Driving down to Salt Lake City Sunday afternoon was already feeling like a break. Mommin' ain't easy! And we've been so laser-focused with our circumstances that we haven't made a lot of time for each other. Being waited on constantly, not having to cook or clean, having someone else make my bed every day...total bliss. So all-in-all we enjoyed every second.

It took me 15 minutes to read through the whole thing: if you made it this far, congratulations! Thank you for tuning in to the elaborate details of our vacation. Au revoir!