Monday, October 13, 2008

Cruise Chronicles Part 3: Nassau, Bahamas

On Saturday morning when I first woke up, I looked out to see an amazing sunrise over the open ocean with a glimpse of land ahead. When we got up later and looked through our fogged up window (our room was cold and the air outside was humid and warm), we saw the port of Nassau, our first stop. We ate breakfast (pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fruit), gathered our beach things and disembarked.


As we came off the ship our sail and sign cards were swiped for each of us, and then we had our picture taken a few times.





Then we waited until it was time to board our bus to take us to the Atlantis Resort where we had booked a Beach Day excursion. You can see it in the distance in the above photo. The ride to the resort was only about 10 minutes long, and we didn't really see anything noteworthy, we just took in the scenery which was lackluster until we crossed the bridge onto Paradise Island. Paradise island was formerly called Hogg Island but was renamed as it is now a playground for the wealthy. Oprah and Michael Jordan both own homes here, among others. Atlantis Resort is the priciest resort in the Caribbean. We took it in as we were escorted to where the Beach Day group was allowed to spend the day. We were also told what was off-limits unless we chose to upgrade. We passed the lagoons (on one side you can swim, and in a different, partitioned section is the shark exhibit), and were shown where the beach was, and then the guide explained that due to rough seas we couldn't go in the water. I was majorly disappointed, especially when I learned upon settling in on the beach that we weren't allowed in the water at all. A lifeguard sat at the ready to blow his whistle if a toe so much as touched the water.
Because it was so hot we moved on to the lagoon where we spent the afternoon splashing in the water to stay cool from the serious heat in the air. We also dodged sea urchins that impaled one of our fellow cruise passengers (she went to the nurse's station and they couldn't get the 4 spikes out, she had to walk around with the ends stuck in her foot until she went back to the ship), and jellyfish that were floating around. We spent way too long finding the remote snack shack that we could use our lunch voucher at, watched people going down the slide and raft rides that go through a tunnel where sharks swim, went through a great aquarium exhibit where Little Man touched a starfish (much to his delight) and then went back to the water some more. After we had our fill of the lagoon we headed to the changing area where we found the showers turned off, so we headed into a changing room to change out of our bathing suits. It was there that a man opened the door to see me, totally naked (we then realized the lock didn't work). After we waited long enough to ensure I wouldn't run into the man who had walked into our changing room, we headed to another aquarium exhibit. From there we caught our bus to the port.
After some souvenir shopping we went to Kafe Kalik (Kalik is a Bahamian beer), which was advertised for its Conch Salad (which they wound up being out of). So we shared Conch Chowder instead which was brown, spicy, and tasty in a different way. I had a Bahama Mama to drink, we watched rain come pouring down (we had just made it inside before it really started raining hard), and we learned Paul Newman had passed from a CNN broadcast that was airing. Then we headed to the ship which was a five-minute walk away.




That evening after cleaning up and changing, we had dinner in the Main Dining Room, this time bringing Little Man with us. Our other table companions weren't there so we had the table to ourselves. Little Man was very well-behaved and ate fruit medley, chicken strips and french fries with an ice cream sundae to top it off. I had shrimp cocktail, shared mozzarella triangles with Hubby, and had steak with new potatoes and fresh vegetables for my entree. Then I had the Molten Chocolate Cake again. Very yummy. The waiters did a conga line around the dining room, and quite a few balanced objects on their heads all while shaking their groove things. They had the children join them and Little Man made it 3/4 of the way before he got scared that he couldn't see us anymore and they brought him back. After the dancing the waiter folded napkin animals for Little Man, the last one, a bunny, Little Man brought home.

After dinner we asked Little Man what he wanted to do next and he said Camp Carnival and started dragging us towards the elevators. I was a little sad he was so anxious to be rid of us, but he was happy to play with his friends. While he played there we went to a hypnosis show in the Palace Theatre which was very funny, and then played a game of bingo before picking him up. We then headed to the room and turned in for the night.

4 comments:

Sinéad said...

You should be a travel writer, you remember everything! it feels just like we're there with you. It's great!

Anonymous said...

the pictures and the narrative make me wish I had been there! It seems like there were plenty of family friendly things to do...especially for someone who loves the water and sea creatures.
Thanks for sharing the fun with all of us loyal blog readers!

Connie said...

That Atlantis Resort is beautiful and your photos are great! You must have kept a journal on the trip because you remembered everything in such great detail!

Thanks for sharing with us!

Aura said...

Loved reading this travel journal. You have inspired me to do something with my Italy pictures. I don't think I'll be able to write as much as you do, since I did not keep notes.