Nassau, Bahamas

Photos

Today was a new country for Clay. He'll still always have more than me because, Libya. I was here before as a child on my first ever cruise in the 1970s. Boy has it changed a lot. We were the smallest of 6 cruises ships docked here today. We were docked at the absolute furthest point from the port gate. It must have been at least a mile long walk.

We booked a ship's tour here, Charm and Beauty of the Bahamas, for $79 each for a 3 hour tour. Description is pasted below. A few points. On arrival onboard yesterday, there was an excursions info pack, it contained changes to previously published tours. One was ours today changing from an easy tour to a moderate exertion tour. It was obviously the unmentioned dock walk. I will also say that we didn't return to port until after 1 pm so it was well over a 3 hour tour. The first hour was spent on the dock though, banding over 100 wrists (by my estimated count) and counting and recounting people standing still as 2 ships emptied out on either side. Then the long walk to our "Japanese Cruisers". These are miniature buses with rows of 2 by 1 seats with the aisle a fold down seat. Fortunately they did not fill the fold down seats but it wasn't terribly comfortable. I think we had about 2 dozen people per bus for our tour. I am sure we saw more of the island than I'd seen before so that was interesting and good to get out of the state fair crowds and atmosphere in walking distance of the port. A couple of other points about the tour vs. the description. We were released at Atlantis for 20 minutes and the rum distillery did NOT include a tasting.

Charm and Beauty of the Bahamas (NAS-014)
Port: Nassau
Tour Length: Half-Day (Approximately 3 hours)
Tour Description
Drive past a remarkable number of must-see attractions in the capital city.
Pause for photos at historical Fort Charlotte, which offers extraordinary views.
Savor a selection of locally produced, small-batch rum at John Watling Distillery.
Admire landmark after landmark on this all-encompassing driving tour of Nassau and Paradise Island with stops at historical Fort Charlotte and the John Watlings Distillery. Highlights include palm-dotted Rawson Square, lovely government buildings such as the Supreme Court and the pink-hued House of Assembly, and the mega-resort and theme park Atlantis on aptly named Paradise Island. Other iconic sights include the Prime Minister’s residence, historical Graycliff Inn and Fort Charlotte, where you will pause for photos. Built in 1788, the fort features a waterless moat, dungeons, underground passageways and dozens of cannons that have never been fired in an act of aggression. Continuing on, you will also visit a beautiful 18th-century estate downtown that is now home to a distillery named for buccaneer John Watling. The small-batch rum produced here is said to capture Watling’s bold spirit of adventure. You can determine that firsthand by sampling the different rums.

HELPFUL HINTS
Dress in weather-appropriate clothing.
Wear flat comfortable walking shoes.
PLEASE NOTE
This tour is primarily panoramic in nature with limited, optional walking at the stops. The tour is not available to wheelchair guests and those with mobility concerns should evaluate their personal level of stamina and ability before joining the tour.

End of tour description.

This second segment is 10 days and we paid a total of $6398 for a category B1 balcony cabin. We reached Silver Oceania Club status with this segment as O counts this as our 10th cruise credit. Oceania promises things worth real money but we've had to ask for them and work to get them. I have no idea if this is usual but we had to put our TA to work when we realized after final payment that we were not receiving promised benefits that we'd earned. We thought it was sorted out before this segment started, but now we're back to waiting to see. We thought for sure we'd get the promised tote bags and caps as we've seen them around the ship, but not yet. Hopefully it will all get sorted out as we expected from Oceania's literature and website but it seems in principle that as the guest you shouldn't have to manage getting what Oceania has promised.

We sailed away on schedule with no fanfare or announcements again. The horn was blown outside the harbor, I suppose to bid farewell to the pilot.

We have dinner reservations at 6:30 pm at Toscana tonight. We have to change the clocks 1 hour ahead tonight so it will be a short night. Good news is that tomorrow is a sea day.

Photos