We were dropped off at the terminal by the good folks from Bodden Tours and we were feeling good about the decision to abandon a private beach for two hours. We were hoping that Mahogany Beach would be worth it for us to come back, not to mention we really hoped that the port area would be worth it for us to shop around a bit. With it being the last port we would visit, we wanted to squeeze every last drop of fun out of it.

Upon arrival we had to walk through the port shops. Because of timing, it really wasn’t very busy and it would have been a perfect time to do some shopping. However, we were desperate to get some beach time in (okay…maybe Sunshine was more desperate than I was, but I still was really looking forward to it), so we began to make our way towards Mahogany Beach.

Before we started, though, we simply HAD to take advantage of the cheesy photo op that was staring us in the face!!

Okay…back to business.

There were two ways to get to the beach: walking or riding a lift. The lift had a fee associated with it, so we just didn’t think it’d be that big of a deal to walk. And kids, it’s literally a five to ten minute walk to the beach…depending on whether or not you stop along the way to take pictures of the lift in action:

Carnival has created Mahogany Beach much like it did Grand Turk, so it’s a private area meant specifically for guests. It’s also a spot that screams out “awesome” and “beauty” at every turn. With blue water and white sands everywhere you looked, how could you go wrong? I mean, just look at some of the pictures we took while walking to the beach…

We walked by the shops en route to the beach because we had our priorities straight. It was a good thing, too, because the beach was absolutely spectacular. Last year in Grand Turk the majority of our pictures didn’t turn out, so we wanted to make sure that we took advantage of the opportunity presented in front of us.

We walked to the very end of the beach, where I changed into my swimming trunks and prepared to take a swim in the ocean with my lady…albeit a short one (I’m not much of a beach person). This part of the beach was actually pretty cool as there was a bar there with music playing…giving the atmosphere of a “party beach” (the rest of the beach was pretty quiet and tame). We grabbed a couple of chairs underneath a palm tree and both agreed that it was the BEST idea to cut our Bodden Tour short in order to enjoy this beach. At this point, Sunshine took a picture that should be blown up and placed on our wall somewhere…

We swam in the ocean for a bit, took pictures with our underwater camera (that somebody STILL hasn’t gotten developed yet…ahem…), and loved and laughed without a care in the world. The water, though, was REALLY salty…probably the saltiest water I’ve ever been in. But honestly, none of that mattered when the area looked like this…

We dried off and lay in the sun for awhile, but realized that if we wanted to enjoy some shopping then we needed to start heading back to the terminal area. I got changed and on the way back took a few more pics of our amazing surroundings…

We took the “scenic route” back to the terminal area and found a beautiful, large swing facing the ship. Again, this was one of those “small things” that we wanted to enjoy, even if for a few minutes, as we didn’t want to take for granted a single minute. As you’d expect, someone came along and offered to take our picture for us.

So we made our way back to the terminal and couldn’t wait to make our way around to all of the shops. One of the first things we saw was some “entertainment”, similar to what we had seen in Cozumel a couple of days before. It’s funny watching back because the one guy on the left looked waaaay too happy (and totally trying to work for tips), whereas the kid on the right just wanted to be anywhere else but there…

 

Yes…I tipped them. How could you not love the dude’s smile?

Now most likely because it was only 30 minutes or so before final boarding time, the entire shopping area of Mahogany Bay was pretty empty at this point. As you would imagine, this meant that we could walk in and out of shops and not have to worry about huge crowds all over the place.

There weren’t only the same shops that you saw everywhere else (i.e. diamonds and other jewellery, t-shirts, boots and belts, etc.), but there was also a “craft market”, which housed a TON of local artisan products. I really enjoyed looking through here because some of the items were so unique.

I had never tried coconut water before, so where the sun was pounding on the both of us (and the warm water I had been carrying around with me all day just wasn’t cutting it anymore), I figured that when I saw a sign for “Cold Coconut Water”, I just HAD to give it a try…

We proceeded to the ship at this point as the lines were beginning to form. We had to walk through a store in order to the dock itself and we were taken aback at the people having the same idea as we had (i.e. wait until the last minute to re-board). The lines began growing so quickly that they had two lines set-up, one aft and one port. We were originally in the first line-up, but it looked like the other line was moving quicker so we walked around to that one.

After a couple of minutes I told Sunshine that the line-up behind us was backing up into the store so we made the right decision.

She didn’t hear me.

I repeated what I had said, just a bit louder.

She STILL didn’t hear me.

I decided to be slightly sarcastic (I know…not me, right??) and spoke overly loud and slow, just to kinda be a jerk. Because it was me and it was Sunshine, we both burst out laughing. Sunshine found it so funny, in fact, that she requested I do it again for the camera…just to show the world how much of a jerk I could be.

We quickly went up to Lido Deck to not only eat (the place was packed at this point), but also to take a couple more photos of our surroundings, in particular the shipwreck that was located right next to our port.

This evening was the last “Cruise Elegant” night of the week, meaning we got to dress up just one more time.

Of course, that meant we had to take a REAL photo with a REAL photographer…just to show the world how happy in love we were.

The highlight of this particular night was the “Party Like It’s 1980″ event in Madusa’s Lair. We were looking forward to jammin’ to some 80′s songs all week long, but for some reason when we got there at the designated time it was a non-stop Michael Jackson fest.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love 1980′s Michael Jackson music as much as the next guy…but this was excessive. After about 10 or 15 minutes of MJ, they decided to stop everything and have a THRILLER DANCE EDUCATION event. Seriously, some guy from the Ukraine (one of the ship’s dancers) was talking broken English on the house microphone and began teaching about 20 people how to do the “Thriller dance”. Of course, it was done in steps.

Slow…grueling…mind-numbing steps.

The guy seriously sounded like Borat and looked like Mikhail Baryshnikov. It was insanely funny to watch but man were we happy when it was over. I mean, we had waited all cruise to dance to the likes of “Word Up”, “Love Shack” (even though I hate the song), and this incredible ditty (seriously…we requested it!!):

We ended the night with another towel animal and were absolutely exhausted.

With only one more day at sea left, we were at that point in the vacation where you want to stay but you kinda want to go home to the kids, too. But the last day at sea will be talked about tomorrow…