The previous day we had a great time snorkeling and enjoying the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort. Since Shelley had unfortunately not advanced to the next round, we decided to take a day to explore Nassau, which was just a ferry ride away.

Before we had left we had watched videos and read a bit about Nassau and had come up with a plan for visiting sites in the city. The path would take us from the ferry stop to Parliament Square, the Queen’s Staircase, Fort Fincastle, John Watling’s Distillery, the Pirate Museum, and back around to the Straw Market and Junkaroo Beach. It was intended to be a full day of interesting and fun site-seeing, with a lot of walking (6.2 km to be exact).

This isn’t exactly what happened, however.

We decided to have an inexpensive breakfast and the prior day we had seen that there was a Wendy’s near the Anthony’s Seafood restaurant just outside the resort. We agreed that I would go get breakfast at the restaurant and bring it back to the room. Unfortunately, when I got to the Wendy’s I found that it was closed in the morning and they didn’t serve breakfast.

The walk wasn’t completely wasted, however, as I did find this interesting crane and another lizard.

Returning to the room, Shelley and I decided that we would just walk to the pier, get on the ferry, and find breakfast in Nassau

Nassau

We arrived at the ferry and paid with cash. If you ever decide to take the ferry from Nassau to Paradise Island or vice versa try to have exact cash because the ferry operator spent several minutes trying to break twenty dollar bills amongst the locals to give change back to us and others.

The ferry is very basic and even boarding the boat is a bit rough as it bobs up and down with the waves and there is no gangway to walk on. We stepped down from the pier onto the boat and took a seat, wondering if we might have needed some motion sickness pills, with the boat rocking quite a lot in the wake of other ships as it waited at the dock before departing.

Once in motion, the ride was relatively comfortable and short. It’s just twenty minutes across the channel to Nassau harbor. Along the way we saw a fenced-off construction zone where Royal Caribbean is building a new resort area for cruise visitors, and we passed alongside a couple huge cruise ships that were docked in the port for the day. We would not be alone in Nassau.

Once we arrived, we stepped up onto the concrete pier and walked off to find breakfast.

We decided to eat at a restaurant right next to the Pirate Museum. Afterward we planned to go into the museum.

After crossing several busy streets we arrived at the Restaurant called Smuggler’s. We met the hostess and when she asked where we wanted to sit we asked if we could eat inside instead of outside on the open patio, where we assumed it would be air-conditioned and cooler. We had a long day planned and might as well cool off a bit between stops. She seemed weirdly annoyed by that question and we just agreeably took a table outside.

Smuggler’s Restaurant looked neat and the menu looked pretty good. But from the moment we sat down at a chair outside (because, again, they seemed strangely offended by us asking to sit inside), the staff seemed to completely ignore us. There were a few other diners at tables, and they were getting served, but we were getting completely ignored. We eventually gave up and left.

We told our Welcome Pickups driver who drove us to the airport from the hotel the next day about our experience at the restaurant and he was mad that we were treated that way. He said he would have demanded to talk to the manager. He says tourism is very important to Nassau and he doesn’t want visitors to be made to feel unwelcome.

There are times when we do ask to talk to restaurant managers in the place where we live if we feel we need to, but being in a foreign county, you don’t always understand the local customs or even know if it will help. In the end we just felt like leaving was the best option we had.

We were feeling rather dismal after that experience and no longer wanted to visit the Pirate Museum next door. Instead we walked over to a nearby McDonald’s and ate. The service wasn’t great there either. But it wasn’t non-existent.

After eating an uninspired breakfast, Shelley said she wasn’t feeling that great and that she would like to just go to the Straw Market to shop a bit and then take the ferry back to Paradise Island. I was good with going to the Straw Market first, and then I had the option to either go ahead with my original walking plan or go back on the ferry.

The Straw Market

I have to be honest, I was completely underwhelmed by the Straw Market. The shops were crowded and I just didn’t get a great vibe.

The locals we were encountering in Nassau seemed unfriendly or offish. They were pushy about selling us a shot glass in the Straw Market, but they were otherwise not welcoming, unresponsive, or seemed to be behaving oddly. There were the occasional people that appeared somewhat unstable or drunk (which we just ignored). It didn’t feel entirely safe to just walk around (although I’m sure it would have been fine).

We entered a fenced cruise port area to do some more shopping and it was crowded, but seemed a bit more relaxed. We bought some more souvenirs and then walked back to the ferry stop.

I no longer really felt like doing the walking tour I had planned out. I would be doing it alone, it was hot, and I just wasn’t getting a great vibe from Nassau. I felt disappointed, but at the same time, how did I really want to spend the rest of my day? Enjoying the resort or walking around the town.

Ultimately, I decided to go back with Shelley and we could just hang out at the resort and find some rum punch to enjoy. Plus there was a lottery that would be happening where five of the participants in the tournament that failed to make the second round would win a chance to play in the finals. And there would be a “white party” dinner in the evening and it would be good to go back to the resort and be ready for that as well.

Aquaventure Park

My favorite part of staying at the Atlantis Resort is the Aquaventure Park. I would come here even if I was staying off property. The park is huge and has so much to see and do: sea life exhibits, an aquarium, multiple waterslide, a lazy river, the lagoon, beaches, etc. If I arrived on a cruise ship and I wasn’t taking a snorkeling tour (which I highly recommend in the Bahamas), I’d go here.

I made this video on a morning before the park was fully open (you can still walk through it) to show some of the diverse parts of the park. I know my kids would enjoy it. More than snorkeling (which I really enjoy).

During and after eating at the Burger Shack in the park, we walked through the aquarium and realized what groupers really look like when not on a dinner plate. We also saw a number of other fish that we saw on the snorkeling tour. My biggest compliant is that there was no signage or information about the fish and we had to use Google to identify the various fish species.

After spending time in the aquarium we also enjoyed watching the sea turtles and rays in their special enclosures.

Stingrays are very charismatic animals. We’ve fed them and been in the water with them before (although not at this park). They are intelligent and friendly. Likewise, who doesn’t enjoy green sea turtles? We even saw horseshoe crabs in the same saltwater pools.

The White Party

We went to the raffle in the hopes of Shelley being one of the five eliminated participants that would get a chance at winning in the final round. Unfortunately of the 450 or so remaining, she was not one of them.

We didn’t see who eventually won the million dollars but we looked online after returning home and it was a woman around our age. It would be pretty amazing to have come home with around $750,000 dollars in winnings after taxes, to use for whatever life-changing purpose you saw fit. But our prize was the trip. And that was great all by itself.

That evening the Slots Tournament hosted an outdoor “White Party” dinner with steak, lobster, and an assortment of other options with an open bar. We all were asked to wear white to the party and of course we did.

Those white shorts I had bought prior to going to Europe in the summer for family portraits came in handy. And Shelley had a very nice dress that she had made before coming.

The food at the party was top-notch. I was surprised at how good the steak filets were. I knew the lobster would be fresh, but they don’t exactly have cattle ranches in the Bahamas.

We must have each had twenty free cocktails on the trip. It was great 🙂

The night wasn’t quite over for us, though.

We went back to the room to wait for a Beetlejuice-themed party at one of the nightclubs above the casino. Shelley had purchased tickets to the party and she made a red dress to look like Lydia Deetz. She had bought me a red tuxedo to look like Beetlejuice (although I didn’t go so far as to have white makeup and a wig).

We went down to the nightclub at around 11:30 PM and found that it wasn’t at all the party or the crowd that we expected. There was a line to get in even for those with tickets. But the line could be bypassed for certain people that were dressed a certain way. Rather than get in line we decided to call it a night.

Shelley had her dress ready for Halloween a few days later at home.