After a day at sea attending lectures, enjoying the sea air (when it wasn't raining), and of course enjoying good food and the exciting entertainment of the Crystal singers and dancers who went non-stop for an energetic forty-five minute show, we arrived early Saturday morning in Nassau. Now we've been to Nassau more times than we can count and originally planned to stay on the ship but we'd only had one chance to swim in those beautiful Caribbean waters so we found an excursion that sounded inviting and booked it.
While we were getting ready to go ashore we saw a familiar sight. Several of our trips to Nassau were aboard a Disney ship that our niece performed on. She was Belle and several other characters and we booked a couple of three day cruises to see her perform. I knew we would hear the ship's whistle play "When you wish upon a star" at least once during the day.
We waited in the Stardust Lounge for our excursion to be called to go ashore and when it was, we followed our escort to the dock and waited there while the Bahamian guides checked our tickets and had us sign waivers. When the tour boat arrived, we were off to Blue Lagoon Island.
On our way we passed lots of interesting and very large homes. Later on the way back we would be told about some of the owners or previous owners. One was the Starbucks' founder and another Beyonce. It was a beautiful day. No strong winds. No rain. Temperature was perfect. The thirty minute ride was
wonderful.
The Blue Lagoon Island is separate from the larger Island, New Providence, and it appears to be developed only for tourists and local guests to enjoy. We pulled into a little harbor and were led to our section of a beach that stretched on for quite a ways. The beach was divided into sections so even though other cruise ships sent groups, each had a separate area and we were not crowded.
The water was perfect but there could have been a little more of it. The sand bar that stretched out into the water went most of the way across the channel for swimming. The water was only mid-calf deep. There was a section that had inflated water slides in it set aside for the kids from the Disney ship. On the outside perimeter it was a bit deeper and you could actually swim without hitting your knees on the bottom. It got a bit crowded after a while with people who wanted to be at least waist deep in water.
The chairs we found were in the shade of some palms and sea grape trees and a gentle breeze made it quite pleasant. Just before lunch, we took a walk to the area that had dolphins, sea lions, rays and even a caged raccoon. There were optional excursions that featured encounters with the dolphins but I think you could have bought the experience there as well. There was also interaction with the rays and sea lions.
We had brought our snorkel gear but one look at the waves where the snorkeling area was told us it wouldn't be worth the attempt. It was very shallow as well and rocky. Reports were not real good about the snorkel experience. It's tough for scuba divers to get excited over snorkeling anyway.
Our lunch was in an are reserved for us by the beach resort. It featured hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, rice and beans, and my favorite, fried plantains. Going to the Caribbean and having fried plantains is like going south of the Mason-Dixon line and having grits. Those people know how to make them right.
The return trip to the ship was scheduled for 1:30 and we were ready to return by then. We would get back just in time to shower and change and curl up on the bed in front of the iPad to watch the Ohio State football game. The live stream froze a couple of times but it was better than nothing. And we won!
Our reservations for dinner were at the specialty restaurant called Umi Uma. If it sounds like yummy, it was. The restaurant features mostly Japanese dishes and sushi of course. We ordered warm Sake which we were introduced to when we went to Japan. It's been a long time since we had it and there wouldn't be any mischievous sons around to refill my cup when I wasn't looking.
Dinner started with an assortment of sushi and sashimi. So good you wanted to close your eyes and moan. Anytime there is a mushroom dish, I'm there and the mushroom salad was amazing. More kinds of mushrooms than I could count. I was considering the lobster stir fry but the waiter described the specialty dish of Nobu Style Black Cod and I ordered that. Unbelievably delicious. Of course I followed it all with a wonderful dessert, chocolate soufflé cake with sesame ice cream. Oh, Bob ate too but I didn't pay much attention to his entrée after the first bite of mine.
The main entertainment for the evening was Bruce Hammond again but this time he presented a variety of songs from other artists like Bobby Darin and Neil Diamond. It was another great performance.
I went to bed wondering what our next port would be like. We'd never been to Bimini and I'd only heard stories about it from our marine science student of years ago when he went with his professor and a group of students to study sharks. Would I decide to get in the water or not?
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