1st Annual STRENGTH CRUISE Recap!

It’s hard to believe that 1st Annual Strength Cruise has come and gone already! But, the memories we all shared of learning, laughing and loving our time on the 1st Strength Cruise will live on forever!

I’m honored to say that we had a very diverse group of fitness professionals and exercises enthusiasts from all over the US and Canada! And, although everyone came from different backgrounds, everyone immediately bonded together as one big fitness family, which will remain friends for a long time to come.

In this post I’m going to bring you along for the ride as we relive our Strength Cruise memories by sharing with you many pictures taken by the 1st Annual Strength Cruise family.

And, to go along with the pictures, I’ll also give you a recap of what was an absolutely amazing and very special time for all of us!

Day 1

We began boarding the ship around 12 noon. They take your picture right before you walk on the boat. As you can see, I don’t travel without my bodyguards

When you first walk onto the ship and see that “Welcome Aboard” sign – Thats when your vacation officially starts. Just ask Billy Santana – His big smile says it all!

The first thing we did on the boat was EAT! The buffet was insane. If they didn’t serve it, you didn’t want it!

 We then went up on the pool deck. Once there, we knew this boat was mean’t for us fitness folk when the pool’s statue looked like it had been doing it’s share of deadlifts and hip thrusts!

The Cruise left port at 4:30. We started the Strength Cruise check in at 5pm in our conference room.

There was no shortage of killer FREE stuff given out on the 1st Annual Strength Cruise – THANKS to our awesome sponsors; SORNIEX, JACO CLOTHING, VPX SPORTS SUPPLEMENTS & TRIGGER POINT PRODUCTS for hooking everyone up with awesome swag!

 I kicked things off  (at 5pm) with my Bodyweight Training Workshop. I knew everyone had spent that day sitting (on a plane, or in a car getting to the port) and wanted to give my fellow fitness folks what we like best – MOVEMENT!

And, no Nicky T Bodyweight Training class is complete without Push Ups – Performance U style, baby!

I finished my workshop at 8pm and everyone headed to their room to shower up for dinner, which was at 8:30pm.

The Strength Cruise group had our own section in the dinning room, which we shared with the folks on the Yoga Cruise. The Yoga cruise was help by mother, Faith Bevan, who owns Flow Yoga.

We sat together for dinner each night. Had lots of great food and great conversation…

And lots of laughs!

Since we all had such a long day of traveling and getting settled on the ship, most of us crashed out early to start fresh the next day.

Day 2

We got some breakfast and workshops started at 8am.

Jon Goodman started our day off right with his Focus System workshop, which was perfect for Personal Trainers looking to streamline their client results and maximize retention.

Then, Dr.Supplements himself – Jose Antonio delivered his amazing, evidence-based workshop on the best sports supplements to take and why…

Check out the killer shirt from Jaco Clothing Dr. Antonio is wearing. Yeah, everyone on the Strength Cruise got one of those FREE. Don’t act like you’re not jealous!

Workshops finished around 12 noon, just after the ship docked in Nassau, Bahamas. It was time for us to shop and explore!

We went to the Straw Market to do a little shopping!

Here’s Bill Sonnemaker taking a liking to the art made from Coke Cans…

Check out the cool mask I bought, which is now hanging up in my house! I put it on at night an turn into a cartoonish super-hero who wears a zoot-suit. (that’s a MASK movie reference, if you didn’t know)

After shopping – We all hit the beach at the amazing Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island.

Clay Harrelson, Scott Milan & Andy Rivadeniera – Bro’ing it up for the ladies on the beach at the Atlantis.

Mike Speigel and his wife Stephanie swimming with the Dolphins.

After an eventful time in Nassau, we got back on the ship and went to town on the Buffet!

After catching some rest and a workout in the ship gym, which wasn’t bad – We got dressed up for “Formal Night” dinner and an after dinner deck party.

Here’s JP Siou (who has super cool business cards) along with his better half parting with the presenters:

Jon Goodman and Cassandra Forsythe – We were so lucky to have both of these amazing presenters teaching us on the Strength Cruise…

Billy Santana just wanted a picture of my sweet ass vest!

As awesome as my vest is, I had to change into something more comfortable, like one of my Jaco tees! Plus, I didn’t want to out-style Jon Goodman

Here we are busting out “the Point”!

Scotty Milan and Lindsey Harrelson cuttin some rug in the club after the deck party.

Day 3

We hit the breakfast buffet and started class at 8am. Cassandra Forsythe delivered an awesome presentation on why Women Should NOT Train Like Men.

Cassandra’s lecture was so awesome that none of us wanted to take ourselves away from taking notes to take a pictures of her teaching.

But, we did catch lots of Pictures of Bill Sonnemaker’s class on Self Myofascial Release using Trigger Point products. We took pics when we needed a break from the pain he put us all through

 After classes, we headed of the ship and tendered out to the beautiful private island of Coco Cay!

Here’s a cool shot of our Cruise Ship from the boat tender!

Once we got on the island, we found a part of the beach that we had almost all to ourselves!

Our Strength Cruise group met up with my mom’s Yoga Cruise group for an awesome beach Yoga class, which my mother, Faith Bevan taught. And, did an amazing job!

After Yoga, a bunch of us wanted to get a little beach workout in. So I people through an express bodyweight/ partner workout.

 After our workout, we grabbed lunch and chilled for a bit! Here’s Kate and Daniel Blankenship doing exactly what you should do on vacation…

After some down time lying on the beach, we played on the aquatic jungle gym, which was an absolute BLAST!

We played until it was last call to board the final tender back to the ship!

Here’s a few pics we took on the ride back to our Cruise Ship:

 Once back on the ship, most of took a nap and met up before dinner for our private cocktail party, which we shared with my mother’s Yoga Cruise group.

Aside from all the fun and laughs – there was lots of thinking going on during our cocktail party, at least for Bill Sonnemaker and Mike Spiegel…

After the cocktail party, we had our last dinner together as the 1st ever Strength Cruise family. And, some of us decided to join the wait staff in doing the macarena!

After dinner, we  bounced around to a few different bars and clubs on the ship, making the most of our last night.

Stacey Schaedler obviously enjoyed herself at the 70s YMCA party…

 Day 4 – Off the Ship

Once we all got off the ship, which was early in the day (9am), a bunch of us went out for breakfast at a local IHOP.

We filled our belly’s, hugged it out and said our goodbyes until next year’s Strength Cruise.

By the way, Stacey gives great hugs…

THANKS & The 2nd Annual STRENGTH CRUISE!

Thank you for reliving this amazing Journery with me and the rest of the 1st Strength Cruise family. It was a very special time for each of us. And, a time none of us will forget!

We hope you can join us for the next Strength Cruise, which is set for Feb 14-18th, 2013!

To reserve your room now, contact Cary Graham by phone at (727) 741-1438 or email: cgraham@cruisesinc.com

More info on the 2013 Strength Cruise is soon to come here on my Blog!