DAY 7: NASSAU BAHAMAS

This will be the first time that I have been on a cruise where we don't pull into port until later in the day. It was really nice not to have to get up early and be off the ship to race to the next destination. We were to be in port from 12-7pm.

However, once again, I was up bright and early (well, bright and early for ME that is). I woke up at 8:30am and out on the balcony I went. I have to say it was the most calm seas I think I have ever seen. There was no waves or anything (other than what the ship was making and it wasn't really going that fast either). I know I took a picture of it, but can't seem to locate it for some reason. I took a picture because I just couldn't believe how still the water looked.

We got dressed and decided we would try breakfast at O'Sheehans since we had never done this before.

I got the "Express"-which consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and jelly, hashbrowns and it said pastries (but I did not get the pastries???) I also ordered a side of french toast. I did ask the waitress if they had the yummy sugary whipped topping to put on it and got a firm "no" as an answer. Yes, I was heartbroken, but there's always tomorrow to get my final fix.

The hubby ordered the "country" breakfast and when it arrived, there were no baked beans. Now, I'm not sure why people in the country eat baked beans for breakfast, but it just sounds weird to me. However, he wanted them and told the waitress that they were missing. She quickly brought out his "cup" (and I use that word lightly) of beans. This was probably smaller than the size of a shot glass. Like 1 spoonful. I just had to laugh. I now wish I would have taken a picture of it.

The kids messaged me wanting to know where we were for breakfast and after telling them, they came up. Once they were seated and looked at the menu, Kendra said "this is the same stuff you can get downstairs but more of it at the buffet". Yes, yes it is. It's just a different atmosphere to try out and we're enjoying it. They decided they wanted to head down to the buffet so they didn't have to "wait" on their food to come out. I guess they had a bad experience the other night when waiting on food and it took 40 minutes before the food came out. They wasn't about to have to wait again she said (even though it was clear that we already had ours and it wasn't taking that long). Oh well, to each their own.

We headed back to our room after breakfast to watch the ship pull in.

The night before Disney had taken off out of port in St Thomas after we did and we noticed that they were racing past us out in the ocean in the middle of the night. I guess they were in a hurry to get to Nassau.

We found that they were already docked once we got close enough to see.

We followed a Carnival ship in.

I really love the "entrance" they have as you pull into port.

I also love this little lighthouse there. I know it has been there for many many years. I can remember back in the 80's being at Junkanoo beach and taking pictures of it across the water.

...and of course Atlantis off in the background. That place is massive looking.

There are 3 piers there and Carnival Sensation (I think it was) decided to take the closest of course). I just knew that we would get the one at the end and have to walk a mile to shore. Of course it could be that we are so massive in size too.

All of a sudden we started turning. Oh em gee! We were going to turn around and back this bad girl in. The Captain is amazing. hehe

I was busy taking pictures of the area as we were able to get an awesome view of everything as he turned us around.

We actually docked at 11:30 and was cleared to get off very quickly.

HOWEVER, we had booked an excursion with NCL (I know, I normally don't do this) to go to Blue Lagoon. I let Kendra do the research and pick where she wanted to go for Nassau. Nassau is not really one of my "must-do-favorite-ports" places. So I was at a loss. She had mentioned going to Atlantis, and although I know it looks beautiful, I have read way to many reviews from cruisers on here about how it's not worth the money. You get very little time there and there are multiple packages to purchase and you do not get everything unless you add it on and so on. For instance I was reading that you can by the pass and it only included like the beach there. If you wanted to do the water slides, you have to add more money and so on. It could be a very expensive day and not one that is worth it for such a short period of time (then factor in the crowds that would be there). So I told her I'll pass on that and to find something else.

She found the Blue Lagoon excursion and I researched it and it seem like everyone enjoys the place with the only complaints is not enough time there. Well honestly, isn't that a complaint at every place you visit in port? There's just never enough time anywhere you go, but it is what it is.

I had read about the entire "ferry boat" thing and the times they leave and the "last ferry ride back" or you're stuck on the island forever and ever. But yet again, that didn't sound too bad to me either. Ok, snap out of it Kim. You can't just stay on an island and claim you missed the ferry without someone noticing. Back to reality.

The price was (I believe) $54 for adults and less for kids. I knew it came with your buffet lunch and drinks and that the water activities were extra. The only water toys that our group was possibly interested in were the water toys in the ocean and it was an extra $15 per person for the entire day. I did my research and found that if you booked local, then the water toys were included in your day package. However, after a lot of thought, we would have to catch a cab (costing more money) and take the time to go over to Paradise Island to catch the water taxi over to Blue Lagoon. This sounded like it could possibly cost us more, plus more time, plus an extra stop at Paradise. We finally opted to just book with NCL and be picked up directly at the dock by the water taxi and head straight over to Blue Lagoon. I had fully prepared myself to know that it's a long ride over there and that we would only get to spend about 2 hours there for that price. Anything more would just be an extra. Since there really wasn't anything more that I was interested in doing, I just figured it would be worth it to see the place and let the kids have a little fun.

The bad part was, our reservations was at 1pm and here we had already docked at 11:30am...wasting time. Boo. Our tickets had arrived in our room at the beginning of the cruise and they instructed us to go to the theater to meet at 12:45pm.

When we arrived, we were among the first (with Kendra believe it or not) and they instructed you as you came in to go down to the front of the theater, 1 person per family, to get your arm bands.

Now Sakari is a good, well behaved child and if we were alone, she would sit there with us until it was our turn to leave. Obviously Brayden was with us and he can't sit still for nothing and started going up and down the isles and toward the front of the theater and so on. Sakari soon followed and I had to yell a few times for her to get back up there with us. Then they would sneak off again. Obviously I'm getting frustrated. I don't like for my child to act like that and Kendra is the type to say "He's just a kid and having fun entertaining himself while we wait." That's the big difference in the two of us. The employee at the front that was passing out the arm bands at one point gave them the microphone and let them say hello to the audience. For some reason, Brayden decided that it was now "his" show and started climbing up on the stage. Off I went to grab and scold my child. "Nope, this isn't going to happen. March your butt back up to the chair and sit before you go back to the room and miss going to the beach today." That's all it took for me and she was sitting down between us for the remaining of the wait.

At 1pm, they started herding us out of the theater. They told us to stay single file all the way to the boat that was waiting on us. Do you know how impossible it is to do this when you are mixed in with others getting off the ship, trying to scan key cards out, and tons of other people walking down the pier as well? Then factor in having to get your family pictures on the pier when getting off. I mean who wants to miss out on that? Not our family and Kendra is a big fan of that and takes a picture with EVERY character out there.

I tried to keep my eyes on others with the arm bands to figure out where we were going. We headed down the pier and at the end, we veered off to the left where there was a dock. The boat pulled up and we all piled on.

I looked back and captured a picture of the Getaway sitting at the pier.

Courtney snapped a picture of us all sitting on the boat waiting to take off with her phone.

Trying to get a decent picture of the kids and every time I turned around, this is all Brayden would give me.

Kendra and I taking a selfie while the hubby and Kolin are at the "concession stand" in the background getting soda's and chips for us. (Soda was $2.50 each)

(You see the creepers in the background? LOL I always find it funny when you are taking a picture and others are looking at the camera with you and you don't even know it until you see the picture).

"Oh wait mom, you have your sunglasses on, let me put mine on and try again."

She insisted that I take another so "we can match".

Along the trip, there was a guy in the front that was telling everyone various things along the way. He was pointing out the "famous peoples" homes. I was only able to hear Beyonce & Jay Z's home and also Eddie Murphy's island. Beyond that, I have no clue. He wasn't on the microphone and the word was kinda getting passed back as people were talking about it. I wasn't really in a seat that I was able to take pictures, so I did it on the way back.

Now I know that others have commented that it's about a 40 minute boat ride to the island. But honestly, it did NOT seem like it was that long. Maybe I was just enjoying the scenery? Maybe it was because the ride was straight there without any stops at Paradise? I'm not sure, but it went by quickly. It was a beautiful ride and I think what really takes so long is because when you are in the canal (? I'm not sure if that's what it's called), they have to go really slow. It's probably like a no wake zone. Then once you get past all the homes, you could go a little faster. You go out and around this bend and then they could go fast over to the island. I didn't actually realize just how close the island is until on the ride back. It's really not that far. It's just the "speed zones" that take longer. :)

To read my full review of our day at Blue Lagoon, click the following tab below:

On our way back, we got split up from Kendra and she had to take another ferry back to the ship. I kept looking behind us and I never did see the other ferry coming with Kendra on it. Oh no...it just dawned on me...we can't even go back to the ship since we have Brayden because we don't have his key card. There was no getting in the gate at the port or anything. Ugh. Well, the good thing about it was that this was a ship sponsored tour and without that last ferry being back, they weren't leaving us no matter what. This settled my mind at least.

We are getting closer to the ships.

When the ferry was getting close to the ships, the one thing I always like is that they will stop and give you the opportunity to take pictures of the ship.

They make sure everyone gets a chance and do not rush you. Then they slowly pull around it while you continue to take pictures. Awesome job.

Of course, they had to pull up and dock NOT where we had originally got on at. We were now outside the pier and they make sure you have to walk along the roads, therefore hoping that you will shop and spend money or get your hair braided. I think we were asked by the same lady at least 5 times in a matter of maybe 10 minutes.

We went in the port area (they have tons of shops in there before going to the security area) and we found soda being sold for only $1 a can. Of course after seeing $2.50 for soda everywhere we have been, we seen this as a deal and started filling up. hehe

We slowly walked toward the security area and figured we would wait there for Kendra and her bf to arrive. It was only about 5 minutes and they were there.

Our all aboard time was at 6:30pm and it was already 6:30pm. I was really hoping that Kendra hadn't been back for awhile and decided to do some shopping, therefore forfeiting her "I was on a sponsored tour" excuse to get on the ship (if everyone else from that ferry was already on).

We quickly headed toward the pier and stopped along the way to take some pictures (since I felt a little easy about not missing the ship because people were still walking in).

We made it down the pier and turned and was in the home stretch to the ship. I could hear the music blaring and see people dancing and the welcome back party was here!!! Woo hoo. I love the welcome back party.

We made it up to the ship, grabbed our cold hand towels, gave the staff our NCL beach towels to get clean and dried non-heavy towels...and it was quite. Completely quiet. The party was packed up in an instance and we had missed it. Sigh. Wait, what's this? Kendra hands her wet towels to the staff and they roll away....not giving her any. She had reached down in her bag on the ground for something and when she looked up they were gone. To see her running after them yelling for her towels...priceless. 

We were checked in, on board, to our rooms and it was 7pm. Whew, that was close. They made several announcements for about 6 people and at 7:15pm, we pulled out.

I'm sitting on the balcony and I see the sunset. I swear that the sunsets disappear into the water (snicker) so much quicker than anywhere else. It's amazing how quickly they are gone. I actually got up and ran (well, hobbled on my hurt foot) and grabbed my camera to take a picture.

Snap 1

Snap 2 five seconds later

We headed off after our showers to get Sakari something to eat. She never did come out of the water at Blue Lagoon to have her lunch. She never once complained about being hungry either, which is extremely weird for her since she's hungry 24/7 and thinks she has to eat every 1.5 hrs when at home.

Then she was ready to go to the kids club for the last time. We only snacked because of our reservations at 9:15pm at Teppanyaki. I called Kendra to make sure that they were still going to eat and she said "yes", so I had my confirmation before having more to eat at the buffet.

We headed off to the Casino to play for one last time and to cash in our winnings for the week.

I started getting a little risky on this day. Of course everyone I have ever talked to talks about doing the "max" bid and winning good. I'm conservative. I play the penny machines and I play all the lines betting the smallest amount you can. I will try to find the .30 - .50 per spin bids. However, tonight would be different. I would play one of my favorite games from the week and I would slowly work my way up to the max bid of $3.00 per spend. YIKES!! :eek: Well, it played off and worked for me. I started with $40 in my pocket, but only played $20 in the first slot. I walked away with $118 that time. I moved on to another slot that I had been playing during the week and figured I would sink my other $20 in to it and go back and forth between the max bid of $3 and the next to the max bid (I think it was $1.50). Yep, my amount kept going up and up. I think I have a new strategy now. 

We ran into Kolin and Courtney and she had me take a picture with her phone of them standing with the chandelier in the background. I snapped the picture and then said "Let me take a real picture for you."

It was almost time to head to Teppanyaki (9pm) and I wondered if Kendra would actually be on time.

We arrived at Teppanyaki at 9pm and Kendra was not in site. You know me, always early, but I decided I would take a chance and try to run up to the photo shop to get my pictures.

When I got up there, it was PACKED. There was no getting pictures any time soon, so we headed back to the restaurant. It was only about 10 after and I stopped to check in. I expected to wait a little bit, and hopefully see Kendra dragging along, but they took us straight in.

There were already 3 people sitting at our table. We ordered our drinks and they served us all Edamame Japanese soy beans. Oh my gosh they were so good! He explained that we were to open up the bean, pop it out and only eat the inside. It was a lovely little snack. The hubby and I both agreed that we could sit around and snack on these all day and would be happy. I don't remember having any of these the last time we were at Teppanyaki and I know they don't serve them in the Japanese restaurants that we visit around here.

We were looking over the menu's and the waitress was coming around taking orders.

I had the chicken and shrimp and the hubby ordered the chicken and noodles.

Then...Kendra and family finally arrived. We were forced to actually do some switching around in the seats so that the 3 of them could sit together and just the hubby and I (because of the way the table was shaped). We got some glares the rest of the night from the people in front of us. I don't know what the glares were all about...Kendra being late, Brayden, me being a cougar, Kendra's boyfriend with the tattoos...there was no telling. I just seen a lot of whispers going on and looking over at us. Sigh. Although I didn't let it ruin my night, it felt a little uncomfortable because they just wouldn't stop starring with the glaring judging eyes.

Next up was the Miso soup. It was tasty, but I had no idea what it was and had to look it up when I got home.

Meanwhile, since Kendra and the family had just arrived, they were just now getting their edamame beans and Brayden was loving his, which surprised me. He ate every last one of them and some of Kendra's too.

We were then served our seaweed salad, which was pretty good too. At least a lot better than the salad they served at the Illusionarium. The chef started to prepare our meals and confirmed them with all of us and the show began.

Either the guy was new or nervous or something, but he did not get off to a good start. He was trying to swing the utensils around and kept dropping them. I think the more he tried, the more nervous he seemed.

He did things with spinning eggs, catching the eggs in his hat, "drawing" things on the grill with the egg white, making shapes with the rice and so on.

He made an egg into a cobra snack and sang "the song" when you coax them out of the basket as he made the snake slither toward Brayden. Brayden loved it.

Of course I got the mean stare when I got up out of my seat to take the picture of this because I was sitting on the end and couldn't see the entire thing.

We were served our rice in the bowls and our chicken was soon to follow.

Now I don't know about others, but when I eat my "chicken fried rice" I eat them mixed together. I'm not sure the "proper" way to eat this at "this" Japanese restaurant, but when we go to the land based ones, the rice is put on the plate and then the chicken. When we took the rice and emptied it onto the plate and then put our chicken with it...MORE GLARES!!! Seriously? What were we doing wrong? They kept their rice in their small little bowls while they daintily took bites, trying to keep the overflowing rice from falling onto the dinner mat. Is that really the way you are supposed to eat it? I would rather eat mine together and not make a mess and have more room!

I have to admit...the last time we went to Teppanyaki, I did not enjoy it too much. I really didn't care for the food that time either (this was on the Pearl I believe). I swore that time that I would probably never eat there again. It wasn't bad, but nothing special that I would want to do again. I very much enjoy the land based ones we have here.

Since we had the UDP this cruise, it's probably the only reason that I agreed to go. I'm so glad that I did. It was WONDERFUL. I absolutely LOVED the chicken and the seasonings they used this time. There was just something different about it. I don't know if they have changed things since the last time we tried it or what. I would definitely go again now to compare on another ship. I can say that I honestly didn't care for the shrimp this time. Maybe it was the type of shrimp. I'm not sure.

I took a few quick pictures around the place. I loved the way they had the place decorated as well.

It gave you a great relaxing Japanese feeling. The last time we went, it was basically just a room with 2 tables. Nothing special.

Brayden was getting sleepy so Kendra's boyfriend decided to take him back to the room and put him to bed. Kendra stayed back with us. I guess that was the improper thing to do as well, so more glares. But I'm sorry, when you have a tired little one, it's best to excuse yourself than to force them to stay there when they get whiny and then having to carry them back to the room at 48" tall and 50 pounds.

I noticed the time, 10:20pm and started to panic. It was time to pick Sakari up from the kids club. Yikes. We weren't even done eating and we were not able to have desert. We did ask the waitress for a "to-go" box (maybe not the proper thing to do either according to the "looks" we got), but we needed to feed Sakari and I know how much she loves rice. Kendra also had her bf's boxed up so that he could finish eating back in the room since he had to leave early.

Courtney also reminded me that tonight was the diamond shops raffle at 10:30pm and ask if I had my tickets. Oh my gosh, I completely forgot about them. I had an entire bag of them back in the room just from buying my ring. It had to give me better chances right?

So Courtney ran to pick up Sakari before 10:30, gave tickets to Kolin to stand while they called off the raffle numbers, met him back there just as they began, they informed me that I was only 3 numbers off of the grand prize. DARNIT! 

We headed back to the room and met Courtney there. I ran in, gave Sakari her food, told the hubby I would be back and then Courtney and I raced to the photo shop to buy my pictures.

At this time, I'm all of a sudden in panic mode. Serious full blown panic mode. It's going on 11pm and our bags were to be set out in the hall by 11pm and I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED PACKING!!! I needed to buy my pictures. I needed to go down to customer service and get a final statement. I needed to go to the jewelry store to pick up my authentic certificate for my diamond ring. Ugh...this was just not cool. It was getting late.

The one thing that did make me smile during this mess was that Sakari came home with an autograph book from the kids club "teachers". One of them had wrote in her book (the one that remembered her from the Jewel cruise) and she was excited about that.

I thought this was a nice thing to do for the kids. It's the first time it has ever happened.

So I am busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off...trying to get everything done and not enough time to do it.

We race up to the photo area to purchase my pictures. I take out my folder and grab the ones that I wanted. Then we started looking for our plank and zipline pictures. Yet, they still don't have any out since the 19th??? The guy promised us that they would be out yesterday. So we approached one of the workers who said they didn't print anymore and we would have to go on the system and look for them. :eek: Sigh

We had to look up the "event" (which I think was "sports") and then remember the day we were there and around the time. Geesh. After scrolling through tons of pictures, I finally found mine. I did find a couple of other pictures of mine that I wanted as well. I ask the clerk about it and they said that I could "place an order" and they would have to print them off and we could pick them up tomorrow. Um, we are leaving the ship tomorrow. I could only imagine the chaos it would be with the 8 of us. So, I decided I would reluctantly walk away without those pictures. Sad boo-boo face.

I found my "10" photos that I wanted to make the $129 package and approached the counter. The lines were not as bad as earlier. I guess everyone was busy doing the right thing and PACKING, like I should have been but was busy at the photo lab instead. Grrr

Here was the picture from our Nassau day.

I quickly ran down to the customer service desk to get a copy of our bill. The lines weren't as long as they were earlier...thank goodness. Once again, everyone was busy doing the right thing and PACKING.

I parted ways with Courtney and pretty much ran to the room to start my mad dash packing spree.

I throwing stuff in suitcases, jamming things in places I didn't know existed or would fit, and putting them out one by one as I finished. I always find it a hard task to figure out what to pack away and what to leave out for the next day knowing that whatever I leave out, we will have to lug around with us all morning until we get our luggage. I always manage to forget something that I should have packed or always manage to forget not to pack something I need. When I'm in a hurry, it's even worse.

So I get to the second suitcase and put it out with 2 more suitcases to go. Wait, I am out of luggage tags. What the heck??? They only gave me 2 luggage tags for 4 people in the room? Did someone not go to elementary school?

So now I'm racing around trying to find something to wear that's "appropriate" to head back down to customer service. I peek outside to grab my luggage with the clean clothes in it and it's already gone. Yikes. Ok, so I guess I'm putting on some dirty-already worn clothes because that's the suitcase I still had in the room awaiting for a luggage tag.

Down to the customer service desk I went for more tags. I arrived back up to our room and continue the mad dash of packing and I thought I would be nice and instead of putting them outside of the room (since all the other luggage were completely cleared by now), I wheeled them down to where they were putting them to haul them away. (It was only about 10' away since we were right there by the elevators and the employee door was right after that). They thanked me for bringing the luggage and I scurried back to the room for last minute details.

Off to bed at 1am and the alarm set for 7am.

Here's another random picture from today of us at the picture Kiosk. I have to tell you this is the most brilliant idea ever. You take the picture and pick from different "postcard sayings" and you can post it to your twitter, facebook, email it to yourself and others and so on....all live and post right away. It's awesome. They should put these on all of the fleet. We had a lot of fun with them.

I photo-bombed Courtney and Kolin's pic...oops.

One last picture of my beautiful new ring. I had to take a picture of it with my wedding ring. I love it so much because they really compliment each other. I swear it looks like the same ring but the "outsides" of it shaved off and then you have a mini-ring of my wedding ring. I'm so in love with it.

Now I do have to tell a story about buying "rings" on the ship. Like I said before, I won the jackpot on one of the slots on the Epic and purchased the hubby and new black diamond ring. The ring now looks like §hizznit with the silver all crappy looking, several diamonds falling out. We are just really dissatisfied with it.

I have thought about purchasing another when on some of my other cruises and was told that the Epic has a different jeweler than the rest of the fleets. Well, with this being another one of the new ships, it has the same Jeweler as the Epic. We spoke in depth with the rep there and even though it's been over 2 years, she said she would call the headquarters to see if they could do anything about his ring. Well, they never did give us the certificate of authenticity, so I imagine there's nothing that can be done. That's why I made sure I got mine with this ring.

Now....since I have been home, I have noticed that the big diamond on the top is loose. It kinda rocks back and forth now. I'm really afraid that it's going to fall out. :( The hubby and I had discussed this in detail prior to buying it because it sits so high up and only has 2 prongs holding it in. There's a huge hole when you look at the side of it and it just looks like it would be easy to pop out. Now my worse fears are coming true and it's loose. When I look at my wedding band, the diamond on the top has 6 prongs holding that bad-boy in and it's not going anywhere. I have hit that ring on so many things and caught it on things and it has never moved or lost any of the diamonds in it and it not only has the big diamond on the top and the baguettes, but also diamonds around the entire outside. I'm at a loss on what to do. Do I wait until it falls out and send it in to them for repair? Do I send it in now? I just don't know. I just know that I would be really upset not to have it on my finger for awhile. I also know that I probably won't be buying any more jewelry from another jeweler on a ship!

I went to a jeweler today and when they ask me where I got the ring I told them on a cruise. They suggested I send it back to them to have it fixed and wanted to know if it was purchased at International. When I told them it was actually purchased on the cruise ship itself he said

"I really hate to tell you this, but if it was me, I would send it right back to them. You haven't had it but a few weeks and it's already lose. They should have a warranty and here's the thing. In order for us to tighten it, we have to heat the ring up. When we heat the ring up to tighten the prongs, it can loosen up the baguettes and cause more problems and damage, which we can't be responsible for. Then once the prongs are tightened, there's not guarantee that it won't happen again in...a week, a month or later down the line. Then you'll have to have it done gain. We had the exact same problem with our rings that looked exactly like this and we decided to redesign them and ended up putting a hidden wire prong under it and you couldn't see it and it didn't take away from the look of the ring. So, we no longer have this issue. Also, in order for us to tighten it, it's going to be about $250 to have it done. So unless sending the ring back to where you got it is $250 worth of hassle, then I'd send it back." 

So, here I am trying to figure out what to do. I'm going to have to look at my certificate and call them I guess and get instructions on sending it back as much as I hate to. :(

Should I get a second opinion? $250 is not at all what I had expected them to say. :o