The MAC Cruise

Every year the Master's of Counseling (MAC) class takes a fall retreat. It is usually at some random hotel in Daytona Beach. Well, this year they decided to step it up a notch and go on a CRUISE instead!! AND spouses could come as well!!! whoop, whoop! To say that I was excited is a major understatement :) It was a 3 night Royal Caribbean cruise that left from Cape Canaveral (which is only like 45 minutes from where we live). Gran (Shane' mom) and HayHay (Hayward, her new husband) graciously volunteered to watch the girls for the weekend. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I had been on one other cruise when I was in college. This was Shane's first one. He was very nervous about getting sick (he gets HORRIBLE motion sickness). Needless to say, he stayed drugged up the whole time and wasn't sick at all despite the ocean being very rough and the boat rocking pretty much the whole cruise. I was shocked he didn't get sick. Very glad, but shocked.

I love getting to dress up for the dinners. My normal daily wardrobe consists of running shorts and tank tops, so I was super pumped about wearing "real" clothes :)

Our ship..."Monarch of the Seas"

Our first stop was in Nassau. It was overcast and kind of chilly, but we still had a blast. We took a boat over to the Atlantis Hotel to have a look around. They definitely pack the boats to the brim....

The Atlantis hotel was, well, just a little bit nice (haha). The arch you can see in the picture is a suite that you can stay in for the small price of $25,000 a night, oh, and there is a 3 night minimum requirement. We will definitely be booking our next vacation there.

We snuck into the aquarium that is inside the hotel. I mean, we didn't lie or anything, we just walked in and they didn't stop us. We were really happy about that! The fish were way cool!

There was this really huge, crystal thingy in one of the lobbies. ..

The hotel also had a private beach....very nice...you had to pay just to walk on it. We opted to just get a glance from a distance

Formal Night :)

Here are some of Shane's professors and supervisors that came on the cruise.

Some of the girls in Shane's class...

On the second day we were supposed to be spending the day at a private island called CoCo Kay (not sure of the spelling). However, due to the hurricane that was out in the ocean, the waters were too rough to dock, so we had to spend the day at sea. We were a little bummed, but still had lots of fun on the ship. At least it was a beautiful sunny day!

This is Dr. Coffield and his wife, Mona. He is one of Shane's professors and supervisors. He is also the counselor that Shane and I have been meeting with on a regular basis. We are VERY grateful forboth of them!

Zach (one of Shane's classmates) and his wife, Ellen.

Of course one of the most fabulous things about a cruise is the FOOD!! And the 24 hour access to the food! I think I ate enough in those 3 days for the whole year. It was definitely Shane's favorite thing about the whole weekend :)

That, my friends, is a enormous piece of meat...

My favorite part of dinner was the desserts! Yes, this is where I was sitting. Yes, that is 4 different desserts. They all looked so fabulous I had to try them all and they were all AMAZING!

Our Waiter...he and Shane became great friends :)

Here is Shane (blue), Demetrius (pink) and some of the girls in their class breaking it down one night at one of the MANY dancing locations on the boat. Fun times :)