Nassau, Bahamas

This morning, we are in the port of Nassau, Bahamas, having successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean. It was a little strange to see land again after 6 days of nothing but views of the beautiful blue ocean. We were along side the dock at about 9:00 am, and passengers were disembarking around 9:15 am.

We are taking it easy today, we may not even leave the ship. Stephanie’s cold had gotten worse last night, so we were not anxious to push the limits, but take it easy and try to get her better before we have to leave for home tomorrow. Besides, we were just in Nassau a little over a year and a half ago, and it has never been one of my favorite places to stop anyway.

We may still try and venture out around noon, depending on how Stephanie feels. We have noticed that there seems to be a lot of people coughing and sneezing, so something must be making the rounds on the ship. Not hard to fathom, everyone is contained in a relatively small space, and there are a lot of opportunities for exposure, especially in crowded areas like the buffet, and on the elevators.

We think we may have been exposed to our colds by a lady in church last Sunday, she was sitting behind us, and seemed to be having a lot of issues, coughing and sneezing. I guess we should have moved after we figured out she seemed pretty sick, but we did not. Of course, it could have been almost anywhere, but we certainly know we were close to her for a fairly long period of time. I seem to have been able to shake off what I had, and hopefully it will not come back.

We went out to the Solarium, it is a nice area with padded deck chairs, mostly in the shade. It seems to have been very popular, so we have not been able to sit here any other days, there were too many people out early taking up all of the lounge chairs. It is peaceful and quiet today with most passengers in port, perfect for reading.

About 11:30 am, we went to lunch at the buffet, and Stephanie was feeling good enough for us to venture out into Nassau afterward. We got off of the ship around 12:15 pm, and headed to the Queen’s Staircase. Nassau was very crowded, there were a total of five ships in port today. We found our way to the Queen’s Staircase, albeit, from the top of the hill instead of the bottom. None of the maps or directions we had were very precise, so as we walked uphill, we finally saw the sign for the steps. They were not anything special, but the passageway that led from the steps had been carved out of the coral rock, and it was about 20 ft. wide, and at least 120 ft. long. At their highest point, on the end of the staircase, it was about 50 ft. high (a total of 66 steps from top to bottom). This was right next to the fort, and apparently, it was designed as a way for the soldiers to get to the fort undetected, or at least protected from enemy gunfire.

The fort was not that impressive, it was pretty small, and there was not a lot of restorative information. We took some pictures from the top, and then headed back toward the main shopping area.

We ended up at a bar called Senior Frog, it is supposed to be one of the most famous tourist bars in Nassau. We went in to have a beer, and found out that their prices were even higher than those on the ship, so we only had one. I guess they depend on their reputation to bring in customers, and probably know exactly what the cruise lines charge for beer. It was fun, there were guys in the bar making fancy balloon hats, tying the long, thin balloons together.

After our one beer, we headed back to the dock area for some pictures, and then got back onto the ship. We had been gone about three hours, and that was enough for Stephanie.

We put on our bathing suits and went out by the pool for a little while waiting on the ship to depart at 5:30 pm. It started to get cloudy, and a little cool in the breeze, so we went back to the cabin balcony and played cards, still waiting for the ship to leave. Finally, at about 6:15 pm, we left the dock and headed out to sea.

The Captain explained we would be in port in Miami at 4:30 am tomorrow morning, arriving earlier than scheduled to get the crew through customs since the ship  had been in Europe for the season, and now will be doing Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises out of Miami for the next few months.

We will be doing the express departure in the morning, carrying off all of our bags. We are scheduled to meet in a lounge at 6:45 am tomorrow morning.

We finished our packing and went to dinner in the buffet once again. Although the dining room menu looked pretty good tonight, we were just too tired to go through all of that effort, and opted once again to go to the buffet. After dinner, we went to look at the formal portraits we had taken last night. We did not like them as well as the others we had taken earlier in the cruise.

Then it was back to the cabin to finish the last of the packing, and to get a good nights sleep before we have to get up early tomorrow for disembarkation.

Overall, we enjoyed the cruise. It stopped in some interesting and different places, and overall, the weather crossing the Atlantic was as good as expected, a little rough in the beginning, but certainly, smooth and warmer for the last few days.

We hope everyone enjoyed reading about our adventure. We will be putting together a final comparison of how we felt about cruising on Royal Caribbean, as compared to Princess, mainly so we make sure we understand what we felt were important issues that we like and dislike about both lines.

We have already decided that the next trip will be land based, the transatlantic cruises have been fun, but we certainly think we can see more just going solely by land. A possible itinerary would be to tour more in Northern Italy, possibly going up into the Alps, through Switzerland and Austria.

We will also be posting a lot more photos, using the internet access on the ship was slow and expensive. Once we get home and edit the pictures, we will be posting them on this site in a photo gallery, sorted by destination.

Bon Voyage.