Nassau, Bahamas

Our first Port of Call was Nassau Bahamas. The waters were beautiful, crystal clear and aqua blue. Nassau is on the small island of Grand Bahama, but it is the largest city and the seat of Government.

We docked between the Island of Grand Bahama and Paradise Island. Paradise Island is a strip of land that has million dollar homes where many movie stars and famous people have vacation homes. At the end of Paradise Island is the grand resort, Atlantis.

We went on a two hour tour of the city, which included some shopping, a fort, the Queen's staircase and a ride over to Atlantis to walk around the property.

Queen's Staircase

After our tour, we asked around and took a city bus to Da' Fish Fry, which is a group of restaurants that specialize in fish and conch. We enjoyed some conch fritters. Then we got back on a bus and went to a resort at the other end of the Island so we could enjoy some time on the beautiful beaches. I can't believe I didn't get pictures. Terry was using the Flip video camera a lot and I must have been trying to stay alert to make sure we were making the right bus connections and getting back to the ship on time.

This is the restaurant we ate at: http://twinbrothersbahamas.com/dynamicdata/default.asp

During the final hour of our time in Nassau, we went to the Straw Market to shop. This market was full of booth after booth of people selling straw hats, purses, jewelry, and knock off purses and wallets. Each booth had the same stuff...as you walk by, they call out "Lady", "Lady", come buy this, spend your money, what do you want?.....over and over and over. I picked up a few things and bargained my way through and was happy to get out of the market.

I will try and post some of Terry's videos in the next few days.

Day two - "A Fun Day at Sea"

That is what Carnival calls it when there are no ports of call for the day....."A Fun Day at Sea". They do there best to make it just that. There are always a lot of activities that everyone is invited to enjoy, or you can just relax, read and enjoy a tropical (non-alcoholic - in our case) drink.

Every evening when you come back to your cabin, there is a towel animal and a schedule for the next day, along with two chocolate mints. Every time you leave the room, the steward comes in and cleans everything again. Very enjoyable!

Here are a few more shots of the cabin....the bathroom was a lovely shade of pink, reminded me of 70's decor. This ship was a lot bigger than the one we sailed on before, but the smaller ship was more updated.

There is plenty of closet and drawer space to utilize, which is what you have to do. There is really no place to lay luggage out, so it is best to put everything away and stack the empty luggage in the corner or bottom of the closet.

The second evening, was one of the formal dining evenings. Some people go all out in gowns and tuxes...but, that is not a vacation to me. So we settle for dressy/casual, as many guests do. Once again, our kids surprised us with an Anniversary cake. Many of the staff came out and sang, very loudly and had us kiss.

The cake was very good and as rich as it looks. As far as the food on the ship, there is a lot of it....quantity, but not always great quality...at least at the buffets. The dinners in the dining room were always good and very tasty.

25th Anniversary Cruise

These treats were waiting for us in our cabin. A sweet gift from Brittany, Ashley, Jose and Justin. Yum.
The Cabins are not huge, but sufficient room to get ready, rest and sleep. The bed was very comfortable.

A view of the ship's Lido deck. Our cabin was on the Panorama deck, which was through doors right behind the pool and hot tub, under the slide. It was a great deck and very convenient.
On the deck before we left the Port of New Orleans. I loved how the beautiful clouds were covering the skyline.

This was not the order that I wanted the pictures in and I wanted to post many more, but Blogger was not cooperating....(Judy if you have any suggestions, let me know).

The weather was perfect the day we boarded the ship. We decided not to leave until a couple hours after boarding began.....I remembered how crowded it is in the beginning. When we got to the port, the crowds had already boarded, as we walked in, a lady said come with me and we ended up getting VIP check in. It was a great way to start the cruise. Then, when we got to our cabin we were greeted with a sweet treat from our kids!

The first night we didn't go to the dining room for dinner. We had eaten a late lunch at the buffet and we were not that hungry. So later in the evening we had pizza. Besides all of the buffets that are open most of the day and evening, there is a 24 hour pizza bar and 24 hour ice cream.

Our Steward was Puttu and he too was very accommodating. The Ship is very clean and the staff are always ready and willing to help in any way. In the evening we went to the opening night show and we always enjoy the dancers and singers, they are top quality.

We were glad to be on board and ready for vacation! The next day (Sunday) would be a full day at Sea.