Our Recent Cruise: The CocoCay, Bahamas "Experience"

As I write about my impressions of the Royal Caribbean cruise Melissa and I went on a couple of weeks ago, I would be remiss without mentioning what happened with one of its highly promoted features: a stopover for several hours in the Bahamas at CocoCay, an island privately owned by the company and transformed into a water vacation paradise, complete with a water park and lots of beach to enjoy.  After a mechanical delay kept us from leaving Ft. Lauderdale on time Sunday the 9th, we went up to the top deck (16th for us general passengers) and stood at the rails practically overcome by the intensely strong winds, interspersed with even stronger gusts.  Up there was also what would turn out to be my own personal favorite restaurant: the Windjammer, all costs already included in the prepaid cruise fare.  It featured an enormous dining area ringing a large series of buffets offering a wide range of food and drink...it was only too easy to overeat there.  When our ship finally did leave port later that night, it traveled almost due east to the nearby Bahamas destination, to harbor there early Monday morning.  When Melissa and I awoke we were planning on a fun day of beach time and went up to the 15th level's Wipeout Café for a "free" breakfast and took our food outside to eat...if anything the wind was even stronger and we were fortunate to find a spot that shielded us from it.  Later we went back up to our stateroom to get ready for disembarking when the ship's public address system boomed into our rooms the captain's personal message that he had tried to safely harbor at CocoCay but due to the high winds he used his professional judgment in the interests of safety and would bypass the island and continue onward through the Bahamas with our cruise.  Well, that was a heavy disappointment for everyone...but we could feel the wind ourselves and easily see the very choppy ocean waters the ship was now plowing through.  During the next few hours the turbulence had caused a greater-than-usual rocking motion and Melissa began to strongly feel the effects.  Our cruise was rescued, though, through the combination of an over-the-counter product to deal with her seasickness as well as something (which I had never heard of before) called a "sea band", one worn on each wrist, which due to a process similar to acupuncture was able to alleviate much of what she was experiencing.  And the ship itself had much to offer us as well while we journeyed on to our Wednesday Puerto Rico destination.  More on our cruise to come...