Easy Dream Vacations

Day 3 was our port day in Nassau Bahamas.  Most of us in the group had not been to Nassau and we were a bit concerned as to what to expect.  We heard it was dirty and the people were very rude, the beach vendors would never leave you alone and so on.   As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher, we heard no big complaints on the port.

 We pulled into port right on time docked along with about 5 other ships, smaller than the Glory.  From our ship the port did not look much different than any others, palm trees and colorful buildings.   We had a quick breakfast from the buffet on the Lido deck. Disembarkation went very smooth and we were on land.  A few pictures near the “Welcome to the Bahamas” sign and we were off. 

We had to go through a port building to exit into the city.  Before we made it into the building there were a number of well dressed locals wanting us to take a tour from them.  They really handed us a line of crap trying to get our business.  We told them we didn’t want to take a tour and were only interested in going to Paradise Island, doing some shopping in town and then going to Senior Frogs.  That’s when they started with the BS!  We were told most of the stores and Senior Frogs was closed on Sundays.  They said the Bahamas was very religious and most places were closed on Sundays.  Well I can tell you that these gentlemen did not go to church or were sleeping during the service.  We really saw nothing closed, even Senior Frogs!  It was a con to try and get us to take their tour.  So be aware of these guys.  

When we were in the port building there were locals (again in shirts and ties) hawking cab rides.  These guys were honest and upfront.  The asked where we wanted to go and answered our questions.  So 13 of us piled into a van and headed to The Atlantis resort on Paradise Island.  We new they had a tour there for $25 but many in the group were not interested in the tour.  We talked with our driver, Winston and he gave us the low down.  If you go to Paradise Island you can see a good part of the aquarium from outside as well as inside the resort for no cost at all.  You can view the Aquarium from outside looking down or go into the main lobby of the building and go down a level and see quite a bit.  We were just amazed at the number and types of fish in the aquarium.  Many colorful fish, stingrays and man-o-wars.  The man-o-wars were huge, looking to have a 10 foot or better span.   Next we were on to the beach, we asked how to get to the public beach and were directed with no problem.  We did find out just how big the Atlantis hotel and shops were, it literally seemed that we walked a mile to get to the beach going  through numerous hotels, shops, the casino and a convention center.  On my way through the casino I put $1 into a slot machine and played on that dollar for 5 minutes or so.  I walked away with $55, not a bad profit.  Once we made it to the end of the Atlantis building we went outside and walked down the street about a block or 2, passing the RIU Resort and found the access to the public beach. 

There were vendors wanting to rent us chairs or Jet Ski’s.  We said no thanks and kept on walking.  Contrary to what we were told they really just left us alone once we said no thanks.  We passed women braiding hair and once again just said no thanks and went on our way to find a place to settle down for a bit.  The beach had really nice deep soft sand, almost too soft making it hard to walk.  We had another vendor ask us if we wanted to rent Jet Ski’s and I was able to deal with him.  Kathy and I ended up on a jet ski for $30 for a 20 minute ride, much better than the starting point of $60 for 30 minutes.  We had never been on a jet ski before so I kept the ride on the tame side.  It was fun, took a little getting used to but we enjoyed it.  At one time I happened to see a large long shadow down below us, I was a bit concerned as it looked like a 6-8 ft fish. I just kept on going and didn’t say anything not wanting to alarm Kathy.  When we returned to our group here we came to find out it was a dolphin!  Sharon and others had seen it from shore swimming through our wake!  Pretty cool, I wish we would have seen it at the surface!

We walked off the beach back to the road and had no problem getting a cab back to the port.  There were a number of them lined up and just as we paid to get to Atlantis the ride back cost us $4 per person.  Both our drivers took us directly were we wanted to go with no stops or side trips. 

After getting back to the port we walked down the road to the “Straw Market”.  I assume it was so named as there were a number of locals working on weaving pictures on the straw baskets.  I ended up buying my granddaughter Shelby a small straw basket with Cinderella on it.  The lady even weaved Shelby’s name into the basket in about a minute.  Some of the vendors sold t-shirts, towels and other trinkets.  I do believe that in the near future the “Straw Market” will be renamed to the “Coach Market”.  The majority of the vendors were selling Coach Purses.  I am not an expert in Coach Purses but I am wondering just how true “Coach” they were. 

The streets and market were no dirtier than the markets on other islands I have been on,  A few sewer smells now and again but what do you expect on the streets of a city that has an average temperature in the 80’s all year long?  Bacteria will grow in those sewers and the gasses will drift out now and again.  We did get caught in a rain storm on the walk back to the ship but at least it was much warmer than at home, so the rain was not uncomfortable at all.  The only bad thing about our stop was it was so short, we were only able to be off ship from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m..  I hope to return in the future to see more of the island and experience some of the culture.  They are supposed to have fantastic fish fries!  I also heard that you can ride the local bus from one end of the island to the other for $1 with no problems.

Back on board we spent some time on the Lido deck and then cleaned up for our first formal night.  We ended up missing the captain’s cocktail party (napping) but enjoyed a formal dinner and then we joined may other New York Giant and Green Bay Packer fans to watch the playoff game.  The Glory staff had converted the cigar bar into a sports bar with 3 big screens for us to watch the game on.    Beside the cigar bar I hear that a number of other bars had the game on TV, the game was also broadcast in each cabin.  So the earlier fears of the diehard Packer fans were calmed and the game was on.  It was a good game and all of us from Wisconsin were glad to NOT be at home where it was 4 degrees below zero with a wind chill in the negative 20’s.  Let have no further discussion on the game though and move on to the rest of the evening (yea we know the Packers lost).

After the game we enjoyed the Las Vegas style show put on in the main theatre.  The dancers and singers did a great job.  I make sure to not miss any of their shows when I cruise.  We also enjoyed some time in the disco and the midnight comedy show as well.  It was R rated and the comedian certainly did his job of upholding that rating.  We had quite a few good laughs though. After a stroll around the Lido desk we ended up retiring to bed at about 2:30 a.m., much earlier that my niece Sharon who has partied each night into the early hours of the morning!