Austin, New Orleans, Orlando, Miami…after chaos like this, these two mlungus needed a break and a detox and nothing says chill like a cruise in the Bahamas.

We missioned around quite a bit to try book the cruise at the last minute and take advantage of our Discovery card discounts and by the time we had finally realized that this was not going to happen, we were left with only one choice of cruise liner, one choice of room, and, literally, only one room. We initially wanted to head out on one of the Royal Caribbean ships as they're supposed to be more our age group and they are associated with Discovery but they were fully booked. Next we tried Carnival as they're also meant to be more of our age group, but they too were fully booked. Lastly we tried the final of the cruise liners that fitted our budget, Norwegian Cruise Liners. This one is meant to be more family orientated. We managed to get what we later found out to be the very last available cabin out of all three cruise liners. The only available room was the more expensive ocean view room but we had no choice and booked it. Two days later, we were making our way through measly passport control and onto the ship for both of our first cruise experiences.

Being brand new to cruising (in the literal sense) it took us a bit of time to find our feet and figure out where and when to eat and what was included and what wasn't. It was comforting that the first voice we heard over the loudspeaker on board was a familiar South African accent (yip, the cruise co-ordinator was an expat) but having our bottle of voddies taken away from us as we got on board didn't help- even though we would get it back at the end of the cruise. We quickly became comfortable, though, and before our first dinner on board we had booked our first excursion, a deep sea dive in the warm waters of Freeport Island. The dive was awesome and everything we had expected. We did two dives on the day. The first dive was our first non-qualifying dive and our first dive on our own. We didn't see too much and just took in the excitement of our first real dives. The next dive however more than made up for the lack of sea life on the first. This dive started off with a sighting of a sting ray, then a grouper getting cleaned and then two Caribbean sharks - within touching distance! Amazing.

There wasn't too much nightlife on the ship and what there was seemed very contrived and family orientated. Even Dazzles "nightclub" couldn't really dazzle. It reminded us of the entertainment on offer at Umhlanga Sands during July school holidays. But this meant that we could concentrate on our intended goal - chillax. So that's what we did and we pretty much slept through the next whole day and only got off of the ship again for the last island stop, Nassau, the home of Sol Kerzner's Sun City-like-but-more-extravagant Atlantis Hotel.

The food on the ship was brilliant and all included in the price of the cruise (note that drinks are however not included). Buffets for breakfast and lunch (with different type of lunch buffets) and dinner was either a buffet or ala carte restaurant with no seating times, you just arrive and get seated there and then. We did the ala cart each night and had a great meal at each dinner. We only made it to breakfast on the first day so we can't comment too much on that and we tried to keep lunches healthy: for the first time in the States we had a wide range of salads and fruit and healthy things to choose from so we took full advantage. Keeping in line with this healthy spirit, we even made it to gym twice.

The cruise ended completed against the cruise code but we can't be blamed as we had to find our party shoes (and drinks) and bring in mlungu Brett's birthday the only way we know how - a booze filled all nighter party. Heppy heppy!

So even though our last night on board pretty much cancelled out all of the relaxing that we did on the ship and the islands we stopped at, the whole cruise experience was brilliant and is highly recommended if you're ever in Miami.

The birthday celebrations didn't end there though. After disembarking from the ship back in Miami, we quickly made our way to the airport to catch our flight to New York to continue celebrations and for our final stop in the USA. The cruise took up some of our initial intended time in NYC but we didn't mind that we only had one weekend there in the end. Once there we got to meet up and spend some good time with our South African friends who were holidaying in New York, Jared and Kerry Landsman. Mlungu Brett was even able to take in a brilliant Fatboy Slim concert on Governor's Island with Jaclyn Rabin before meeting up with mlungu Darren and the Landsmans for one final US traditional bourbon and ginger at a very cool and well hidden prohibition bar called Back Room in the Lower East (and to complete the tradition only two hours of sleep that night). What a way to end off our incredible 2 month and 16 state tour around the USA.

To all our hosts in America thank you, thank you, and thank you again. It was great seeing you all and getting a taste of your lives in the states. We hope to see you all again soon…in your cities or ours.

Trek on…Brett and Darren