2013 Dec. mother/daughter Carnival Freedom 4 nt Bahamas cruise

Since Angie was coming back to St. Louis for her cousin's wedding on Nov. 23rd, staying for Thanksgiving week, she decided to drive up from Ft. Lauderdale with her 2 dogs.  Josh was smart and flew up and back over Thanksgiving.  Having nothing better to do, I asked if she wanted company for the long ride back (other then the company of the 2 dogs).  She said sure, so I did.   With 20 hours driving time to their home in Coral Springs (by Ft. Lauderdale), it was an exhausting drive/ride for all of us.

About 2 weeks before her trip out, we were joking about going on a short cruise during the week I would be there.  Joking turned to  checking out cruises.  We found 1 that fit perfectly and went to 2 Bahamas islands.  So we booked it.  Not a bad deal at $198@ for 4 nights (about $235 with the port taxes for the 2 ports we went to---Nassau and Grand Bahamas), plus I was able to get a $50 onboard credit for owning CCL stock and cruising on Carnival.  So we pretty much rested up the day after we got to her home.  The next day, we met Josh for lunch.  He dropped us off at the port, and away we went. 

2013-12-2 and 3  Travel days:

2013-12-5 embarkation day for our Carnival Freedom cruise:

2013-12-6 Nassau:

2013-12-7 Grand Bahamas:

2013-12-8  Sea Day:

 

On Dec. 9th, we did the self debarkation since we only had carry on luggage and Josh picked us up.  Amazing how tired we were after only 4 days on the cruise!  We slept most of that afternoon and the next day I flew back to St. Louis.  It was a fast week with a lot of stuff packed into it.  But I love these mother/daughter vacations.  They're fewer and farther between now that she's married and lives so far away. 

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.

2004—Feb. Disney Wonder 4 nt; Not your ordinary 1st Cruise!--Nassau; Half Moon Cay

Feb. 2004 Disney Wonder 4 night cruise:

 I guess Dad's and my Florida/Disney trip was doomed from the beginning! On the way to the PDX airport, Dad wrecked his car---which was ultimately totaled by the insurance company. But he had the car towed to a repair shop and continued on to the airport and I flew from St. Louis and met him in Orlando for the beginning of a very different "vacation".

I will say the week at Orange lake Resort (his timeshare) was great. We didn't do the Disney thing this year, instead, we went to Universal Studios and a new favorite place of Dad's, The Holyland Experience. When our week there was up, we headed back to the Orlando airport and dropped off the car. Then spent the night in a hotel with a free shuttle to the airport.  This part of our trip is HERE.

On Feb. 8th, we took the shuttle back to the airport and caught our shuttle to the Disney cruise ship in Cape Canaveral. It was about an hour ride, but they had tv monitors throughout the bus with videos of the Disney ships and their cruises.  We chose this short 4 night cruise because neither of us had been on a cruise before and we didn't know if we'd like cruising, so we thought we'd try a short one.  We went with Disney because Dad had Disney stock and a general fondness for Disney.  You might think Disney would mainly by for families, but it was an excellent cruise for just adults, too.  They have plenty of adult only areas, including pool and Jacuzzi area, and monitor those areas so kids do not come in them.  Not that I hate kids---I have a couple, but now I'm older and enjoy a little peace and quiet sometimes!

2-8-2004  embarkation on our first ever cruise:

 

2-9-04 Nassau:

 

2-10-04 Castaway Cay:

 

2-11-04 - 2-18-04 hospital, everglades

It was a tough week! It wasn't my first medical emergency on a trip (Angie in England), and it wasn't to be my last! Never thought it would take 9 hours to go from cruise ship to hospital. Never thought about the hassles of getting hotels, car rentals, flights changed---not to mention customs, insurance matter, accident reports. Never considered trip insurance---although Dad's insurance covered him 100%, thanks to his military career and Medicare. What a way to end a first cruise for either of us!
I did email Disney Cruise line to see if they heard about this accident on one of their ship sponsored excursions and they told me to send a letter in writing.  I did and much to my surprise, they sent us a voucher for BOGOF Disney cruise.  So Dad and I did our 2nd cruise in 2005.  This time for 7 nights on the Disney Wonder.  To check out our "do over cruise", click here: 2005 Disney cruise

 

 

2-9-04 Nassau:

  Next morning we headed to Tritans restaurant instead of the buffet and had a sit down breakfast.

 Dad stopping on our way to Tritans to flirt with Ariel.

 Waiting for breakfast.

 The Disney ships have 3 regular restaurants and in the evening everyone rotates to different restaurants---rather a neat idea. Your table mates and servers remain the same, but the ambience is different.

 back to admiring the ship decor

 We wandered the decks a bit while we waited for clearance to go ashore.

 Our view of Nassau from the ship deck

 More views of Nassau

 Sign on the Disney ship.

 More of the Disney ship

 Maintenance vacuuming the pool

 Finally going ashore

 Dad wanted to see Atlantis, so we did the ship's Atlantis excursion.  But first, we saw a little of the town.

 Milo Boughton Butler---He was Governor General from 1973 until his death in Nassau in 1979. He is commemorated with a statue located in downtown Nassau across from the Parliament House and his portrait is on the Bahamas $20 note.

 Love the bench made of conch shells

 More of downtown

 Looking across to Atlantis

 More views of the exterior of our ship

 Back to the ship to wait for our excursion

 along one of the walkways

 On our excursion boat to Atlantis

 Nice beach!

 Views of Atlantis from the water

 Our main interest were the eleven exhibit lagoons with over 200 species of beautiful tropical fish including a predator lagoon alive with sharks, barracudas, and stingrays.

 There was even a 100-foot long clear, underwater viewing tunnel passing through the predator lagoon.

 The aquariums were well worth seeing.

  The excursion ended at the casino, but we walked back through the aquariums, then back through town to the ship.

I expected more of a modern city, so was a bit disappointed in Nassau. It was a typical Bahama town--older, rustic, full of beggers. We didn't spend much time in the town itself before we were ready to head back to the ship. (on a later cruise I was back on Nassau and surprised at how much I liked it.  It didn't look at all like I remembered!)

 Our towel buddy that night.

 That evening was our dinner at Animations (after the jacuzzi, of course).

 Dinner was great, our dinner mates were great, the restaurant was great

  the walls and waiter's jackets even changed colors while we were eating.

 A couple of our table mates even got married when they were on Nassau!

 Our servers.

 Another view of the restaurant as we were leaving.

 After dinner we attended the play Hercules. It was a cute play. Then we shopped some of the stores on the ship.
That night (11pm), we went to the pre-view of the new Disney movie, Miracle (about the USA hockey team that took 1st in the Olympics). It was really good.
Another late night and good night for sleeping.