DAY 3: NASSAU

Like always, I'm sure you can guess...alarm set for 7 and woke up at 6:50am. I see that as an improvement...I got an extra 5 minutes of sleep than I normally do. I'm making progress.

Upstairs I went to check on the weather. Hmmm, it was kinda chilly outside and very windy. YIKES! I knew right then and there it was going to be an "iffy" day for us.

We were passing by the lighthouse at the time I made it up on deck. I hurried downstairs to wake the family. We headed upstairs to the buffet area and called the rest of the family to meet us up there. According to Kendra, her bf was out most of the night playing in the tournament and just refused to get up.

The buffet had the same food as always and the runny eggs that I have now learn to hate even more.

After breakfast I headed up 1 deck to get some pictures of us in port.

We headed back to the room to get our things. I really don't know when they cleared the ship. They never gave us the "go ahead" to get off, but I started seeing people on the dock around 8:20am.

Kendra needed to make a decision...is she going without her bf today or was she staying back on the ship. She finally decided that she would come with us.

We got off the ship and had the normal NCL port photos done.

We were in port with Royals Enchantment of the Seas, the Carnival Dream (or who I like to call "glitzy") was pulling in and the Ecstasy would pull in later in the day. Busy port day for us I guess.

We went back and forth with whether or not we wanted to head out of port and go to Melia. It was rather chilly and sometimes looked cloudy and like it might rain. We weighed all of our options. Staying on the ship...we would do what? Pretty much nothing but eat and wonder around. It was a little too cold for swimming in the pool. If we went, the weather might get better and hey, at least it was something to do. Kendra struggled with...but if it don't get nicer out, we just wasted a bunch of money to get here. My argument was that it was money that we had already budgeted for the day, so not like we were spending money we didn't have.

We had decided to head to Melia Resort this time around. Last time we went to Blue Lagoon and had a wonderful time. We had talked about just going back there again this time. Nassau is not really one of those ports I look forward to doing. But if you are there, ya just gotta find something worth doing. I left it up to the kids to pick if they wanted to go back to the same place or try the new place I had found out. They chose Melia.

To see my complete report of our day at Melia, click the following tab:

We made it back "safely" lol and was dropped off back in the same spot we started at. We paid the driver for our rollercoaster thrill drug run ride...$1.25 for adults and .50 for kids and went on our merry way.

We had passed a McDonald's along the way and they had guards standing outside with guns and postings around the place saying "no cameras or vidoes" Now that was kinda scary. I wonder why???

Another neat thing I noticed in this little area of town, they had a "no smoke area" along the sidewalk. Once you crossed the street, there was no smoking on that entire side for a ways.

 We decided to go straight and head back toward the water this time around instead of the creepy way we had came to the bus stop earlier in the day.

We came across a pretty area with a little fountain and places to eat there.

Kendra ran into a few places in the area to take a look at the menu and use the restroom. She came out saying it was VERY expensive and we decided to pass on them and just head back toward the ship and get "free" food. Kendra complained saying she really didn't like the ship food and would rather eat there, but yet didn't want to pay those prices. Well...uh...if you want to eat somewhere here, go right ahead. I'm eating the free food on the ship. I can always find something to eat. I was still wet from being in the hot tub and it was cold out and looked like it was going to rain again. I just wanted to get back to the ship. 

We started walking back to the port down the main street. They did have a few Christmas decorations up.

We made it up to the security check in and they ask for our ship card and our ID's. Yikes! ID's?? I didn't bring our ID's! They told us we would not be able to enter without them. I think my heart just ended up in my throat. Of course we had the kids with us that could go get our ID's from the room and bring them back, but man what a hassel. They told us to step over to this guard station and talk to them about it. About that time I'm digging in my bag and felt something...it was our ID's. I forgot that I had put them in there from the previous day when they said we would need them and didn't. Whew...we made it and caught up to the family.

We had decided to do the same thing as yesterday...which was to get back to the ship, change clothes, eat a quick meal and get back off the ship to shop for souvenirs.

I was freezing and decided to take a very hot shower. We went up to the buffet and it was VERY crowded!!! The lines were out the door. Oh just great! Why isn't everyone off the ship and in port??? I guess the crappy weather kept most cruisers on today.

We tried going over to the pasta bar and pizza area, there was a long line there too. We waited for awhile for the pizza to come out of the oven and a guy standing there took the ENTIRE pizza!! Um ok.

We decided to go over to the longboard bar and get some food. There were plenty of people in there, but we managed to find a seat. We waited and waited and no one ever came. I went up to the bar tender to ask about food and he told me they weren't open. We discovered the people eating in there had brought their food over from the buffet.

Back to the pizza area. My husband ask for a whole pizza to share between all of us and the guy replied "We don't do that"...Really? YOU JUST DID!!! They gave us 2 slices on one plate and 1 slice on another. Seriously? Do you see how many people are with us?? We took it back over to the Longboard bar and ate.

We decided to head back to the pasta bar because 1 slice of pizza wasn't going to fill us up. We waited in line and had them make us pasta. We noticed that Kendra's bf was in there eating alone and sat down with him while he told us about he day wondering around the port shopping for 2 hours on his leg scooter.

We found Kendra and the kids over at the buffet and hung out for awhile with them then decided to head back outside for a few more pictures before leaving port.

The Ecstasy was beside us and looked interesting. Our Glitzy Dream was beside her and I really missed her, but was glad to see her again.

People on the back of the Carnival ship were feeding the birds

We decided to head back to the room and take a nap. We were a little exhausted, not really from the day, but in general from both cruises. At this point I discovered that basically a 2 week cruise was just too much. I loved the 7 day cruise and if you added a few additional days, that would be awesome. But gone for exactly 2 weeks straight was just a little much. I think I would really enjoy a 9 or 10 day cruise straight and be done.

We took a 3 hour nap and woke up to us already out of port. We were supposed to go back into port to do a little shopping, but truth be known, I really wasn't into it. Kendra did end up going out and somehow Sakari managed to get her a magnet to add to her collection.

Sakari decided she was hungry again and we headed up to the buffet to see if there was anything interesting. They had hamburgers and I hadn't had one in awhile and it sounded good.

We decided to eat under the smurf lights.

The hubby says...I ate this magic hamburger and turned into a super blue smurf...Sakari laughs.

It happened to her too!

It was time for my favorite desert...crepes.

We took Sakari up to the kids club about 2 hours later and headed to the casino with $50 in hand. I played the Haunted House and Genie game, which were both pretty neat games with random bonus rounds. I usually did pretty good on the Haunted House. But then moved over to the Gold Fish game. These Gold Fish games were a lot different than the "normal" ones you see on the ships or at the land casinos. But, they were hitting pretty good and kept you playing for a LONG time, which made me and Courtney happy. The hubby played craps the entire time we were there and was up $100.

We never did see Kendra and the rest of the family all night. They must have decided to sleep the rest of the day away. This is normal for her. She pays big money to sleep all day. It's a pattern.

Random pic of the review...just a little more "work" needing done on the Sky.

Tonight was the big night...the White Hot Party. Me and the girls live for this night on the ship and take many months of planning on what to wear, practicing the dances and so on. We love it.

We picked up Sakari from the kids club and went to get ready. Tonight, I went up on the deck and there was nothing there. The lights were on, but no party.

I knew this night just wasn't going to be our "normal" white hot party on board. I decided that I just wanted to dress down and wear my White Hot tee shirt and check out Dazzles...which is where they were holding the party at.

The place really wasn't hopping at all. We just kind stood there and I looked like a little lost puppy looking for a friend...my girls. They were no where to be spotted.

I know I had ask another crew member about children being in there and they said up until 11pm. It was almost that, so I guess we were going to miss the party since they didn't want kids in there after that.

Another crew member came over and said "Over there on the other side in the corner, they have people from the kids club painting faces". That made me feel better since it was 11pm and it gave us an excuse to stay there a little longer hoping to run into the kids.

One last attempt to find the kids...a phone call to both of their rooms. No answer. Sigh. We left the party at 11:15pm and headed back to the room for the night. It was a total bust.

We did manage to run in to the room steward and informed her about the towels and need 3 of them. She said she would start leaving 3 again.

The ship was really rocking tonight...like really. It was very "bumpy" tonight as well. It was really hard to sleep. Usually when it's rocking, I sleep well because it rocks me back and forth to sleep. But it was the "bumping" that kept me awake.

There was also a whistling sound coming from the vent in our room. We would hear it off and on during the entire cruise and it would drive me nuts trying to figure out where it was coming from. When I was in the room, it sounded like the vent on the water by the floor. When I was in the bathroom, it sounded like it was under the sink.

It's funny because when I would hear this noise, the first thing I think of is to grab my camera and video it to bring it back here to the fine cc people to let them hear it and diagnose the problem for me. LOL But now I can't figure out what happened to the video. I was able to capture it though.

Even though we had a 3 hour nap, we knew we would have to be up early again in the morning for Great Stirup Cay and I was still beat. So it was time to head to bed again.

Sakari wanted to get in 1 last quick drawing before turning in. 

One of her few thousands of whales...she draws a whale almost on a daily basis.

Sakari absolutely refused to take a shower tonight. She was afraid I would wash off her pretty face paint and I finally gave in and let her keep it on.

Off to bed we went...