2013-12-6 Nassau:

Day 2 dawned with us docked at Nassau.  I had been here with my Dad on a Disney cruise back in 2004.  That was actually the first cruise for either of us.  I remembered taking the boat excursion to Atlantis and loving the aquariums, but I didn't remember how expensive that was (most likely Dad paid for it---he was very generous that way!)  But other than Atlantis, I wasn't too impressed with the rest of Nassau.  So I was surprised when Angie and I went to breakfast in the Lido and saw this line of beautiful beaches.  I was commenting to Angie that I wondered if they were public beaches and a couple sitting next to us chimed in with the answer---yes, Junkanoo, the large beach to the far right, was indeed public and free.  He also said it was only about a mile walk away, so Angie and I had our plans for the day made right then---we were going to the beach.  Until then we had contemplated trying to take a taxi to the Atlantis and wandering around to see what we could see for free.  I had read that to go through the aquariums by ourselves now would be $40.  It was $80+ by ship excursion!

 As we wandered around the deck taking in Nassau from the boat, we got a kick out of this sign Carnival had up.  While we were docked, they had these up all over the place and Carnival employees painting rails and such.

 Soon we were on our way off the ship and on our way to Junkanoo. 

 Strategically Senior Frog's seem to be close to all the ports.  We turned left there and had to go inland about a block and on around the hotel with the first really nice beach (Hilton I think?). 

 Along the way we saw this interesting "graffiti"?

 Eventually we came to Junkanoo.  It was a quite a long beach, so we continued on a ways to less crowds.

 All along the beach we passed hut after hut of little bars, masseuses, bar b q joints, chair rentals, ... .

 The jerk chicken being bar b qued here smelled so good we had to try it out after we played in the water and sat on the beach for awhile.  It, and the pina collada we got, were very good!

 Our perch on the beach.  We brought our beach towels from the ship and enjoyed the beautiful day.

 The ships look deceptively close here.

 Another bar on the beach.

 Walking back to the ship.

 The entrance to the building leading back to the ship.

 Loved all the colorfully painted buildings along the way.

 After about 5 hours on shore, we were ready for a late lunch in the Lido. 

 It was nearing dusk when we were sailing off.  That's when Angie noticed the hotel in the distance with all the cranes.  Turned out to be the one she was working on the rock work for when she worked at PGAV in St. Louis a couple years before.  That was about the time the market crashed and the hotel construction got put on hold.  She was excited to see how much of it was done now.

 Looking the other way, we could see the Atlantis.

WAlking through the Lido we got a kick out of the napkin folded on the silverware pile.

 Later we also decided to try out the pizza.  It was actually pretty good.  No restaurant food tonight.

 Then we explored the ship some more.  Here is where the kids' area is.

 Another lounge---I believe this one is called Decades.

 And Swingtime lounge.

 This was the lounge where we went to watch the comedian and some karaoke. 

 We also had a drink here one night.

 Back in our room, we were greeted by a towel animal. 

  I'll have to admit I was much more impressed with Nassau this time around.  Seemed a lot prettier then I remembered.