New York New York
Let's be real. When it came to choosing our Honeymoon destination, a Cruise to New York was our clear winner. The other stops on the itinerary and even the ship itself were fairly redundant in the decision making process, although our loyalty to Marella played a minor role – especially with two incredibly high-maintenance dogs waiting at home. The value for money offered by Marella was a lifesaver.
Sure, our quick visits to the Bahamas and a day in Charleston were charming, but when we booked, they might as well have been a day and a half in Milton Keynes City Centre. For us, those two days in New York were the sole reason for booking this cruise.
1 - Freeport Bahamas
With only 3 hours to explore this beautifully welcoming country, we decided to stay close to the ship and explore the market at the port, paddle in a puddle, drink from a coconut and enjoy a drink in the interestingly named Dick and Willy's bar. The latter called for a remortgage when we ended up paying 56 dollars for 2 Slushy Cocktails. Its interesting the lengths that human beings will go to in order to obtain "Free" Wifi in order to find out if they had a Job Offer waiting for them in their emails. I hadn't, not yet anyway, but on the positive side, Clare was able to update our joint Instagram and let our followers know we were drinking in a place called Dick and Willy's.
One thing I will say about the Bahamas is that we enjoyed our brief interlude here and despite the gargantuan price tag of a cocktail (with free wifi), the other market offerings were very well priced. There was no way I was coming away from there without a tie dye Hoody and a Baseball cap. Considering that these stalls rely on the reasonably limited footfall from each cruise ship, I was impressed at only paying around £30 for my hoody and around a tenner for my hat. Clare got a T-shirt and a hat too.
Sea Day
Next up was a day at sea and an opportunity for a star to be born onboard the Marella Discovery, but more on that later. Despite a rough sea, we managed to find a spot behind a wind breaker near the back of the ship to soak up some rays and read. My literature of choice was Peter Kay's latest book and possibly inspired me for things to come that evening.
Unexpectedly, a torrential downpour struck without warning, catching everyone off guard, even the ship's sophisticated satellites. Naturally, our sunbathing session came to an abrupt end. Nevertheless, the beauty of a cruise ship lies in the multitude of activities available on a sea day. We swiftly relocated to the indoor pool, ironically drying off from the rain before taking a dip.
The indoor pool on a rough sea day is great fun and wilder than a beach pool with a wave machine. In retrospect, had this been in the UK, the pool would have been out of bounds and covered by lots of red health and safety tape that particular day. Still what a fantastic way for us to build up our appetite for dinner.
After dinner we headed to the theatre to see a magic and comedy act by Martin Daniels - the son of the late Paul Daniels. They often say sitting in the front row isn't ideal for such a show, but defying the norm, we claimed those seats. The inevitable happened as I found myself invited up on stage, relishing the joy of making an audience laugh. Seated comfortably on Martin's stool, I became the subject of amusement. The pinnacle of laughter ensued when Martin, upon learning we were honeymooners, quizzed me about our wedding date. My spontaneous response, "Let me check," elicited a roar of amusement. Without skipping a beat, I walked to the edge of the stage and called out to Clare "What date was the wedding?" again more laughter ensued. Having people laugh at that felt amazing. It was a joke of course. I know the date of our wedding and if I ever forget, I can just look on Facebook.
I had a whale of a time on that stage and it was lovely that throughout the rest of the cruise people kept coming up to me and saying how funny I was. The cherry on the cake was being asked for an autograph - although I am not sure the request was serious.
New York - the Show Piece of the Cruise
Until our cruise ship arrived in New York, London was my favourite city in the world. Had we have flown into New York, London may have held this accolade for a few hours longer. I genuinely believe that arriving in this City on a cruise ship Via the Hudson river added to the magic.
Its true to be said that for me New York was Love at first site. From the first glimpses of the Sky Scrapers as we sailed towards it, to the views of the Statue of Liberty. There is something beautiful about her (although our tour guide later in the day said that Liberty is not a woman and is Gender Neutral. How incredibly modern).
We both found New York to be incredibly special and if we thought it was spectacular in the daytime, we were in for a shock as night fell.
Ill be honest, I can't do it justice in this Blog so I am going to make a page and a Blog dedicated to just New York. Suffice to say it is now one of our special places and we have booked to go back in a few months time.
Charleston
A huge contrast to the skyscrapers of New York. Charleston really shows how vast and diverse America is. Charleston is traditional and seems to have a church on every street corner. Things to look out for in this port are the rainbow row of houses, the pineapple fountain and the sign on the public lavatory door telling you to leave your gun outside. Sadly by this point of the cruise, I had contracted Covid so we didn't do too much exploring and I became desperate to return to the ship.
Summary
In 2019, we fell in love with cruising. Ironically our Honeymoon cruise has now caused us to fall in love with New York. We will be back - both to New York and to the friendly Marella fleet of cruise ships.
