Okay, I’ll admit it, I didn’t make it to the island during the
daylight hours, but by the line of families I saw getting back on
the boat in time for dinner (with sand toys, buckets, shovels and
towels — oh my, how much fun is the beach) the island seemed to be
quite the hot spot. According to Lisa, the water was brilliantly
clear and was made even more enjoyable by the intensely beating
Bahamas sun (legitimately, my Minnesota raised self couldn’t be out
in direct sunlight for more than an hour before I thought I was
going to melt into a puddle on deck 12).
While people may have played, relaxed and gone wave jumping during
the day, I maintain that watching the sun go down while riding the
tender (for those of you, like me, who don’t know ship lanuage —
the tender is a small boat that scurried back and forth from the
island to the cruise ship) and all that happened thereafter was the
most heartwarming and all out fun part of the trip.
Picture this — look out on a private island entirely full of
lights and then step into sand you can sink into. There are video
screens, torches, palm trees swaying, hammocks, kids tossing around
beach balls — all generously donated by Volvo!– and the sand
dance floor is totally full. Dancing the night away with
LGBTQ-headed families, allies, and extended family members — to
fabulous music i might add–reminded me why we do the work we do.
All families should be able to step out on a dance floor (or a
beach) and show their love while rocking out to Whitney Houston,
Kelly Clarkson or Beyonce.
As a side note Volvo has been an amazing sponsor both on the cruise
and to Family Pride. In addition to donating all of the beach balls
for the island tonight at 7:30 pm they are raffling off a 2-year
lease for one of Volvo’s top- of-the-line luxury SUV, the Volvo
XC90. This is the third year Volvo has been a sponsor of the cruise
— so let’s remember to thank them for their support of R Family
Vacations and Family Pride!