On our last day we would be departing the Bahamas for home in the afternoon. But we still had the morning to enjoy. I wanted to get out to Cove Beach and spend some of the early morning in the Aquaventure Park, and made my way to the there while the park was just opening.

My visit to Cove Beach and the Lagoon I included in the Aquaventure video I posted in the previous post. I was momentarily hesitant to get my swimming trunks wet and sandals full of sand on the day of departure, but I decided to just go for it. I could always put them in waterproof bags in our luggage and clean them up when we got home.

After walking through part of the park I returned to the room. I knew Shelley wanted to visit Dolphin Cay (and so did I) and I didn’t want to go there without her.

I returned to the room and we quickly packed up our suitcases and showered. We decided to go to Murray’s Deli again for breakfast but found that it was closed. So we stopped at the Starbucks in the resort and got some takeout coffee and breakfast sandwiches to eat at Dolphin Cay.

I mentioned previously that the Aquaventure Park is HUGE and there is about a mile walk to the Dolphin Cay from the Royal Towers. But we did find our way there with our breakfast items in hand to eat while enjoying the dolphins.

Dolphins are another animal that we both love seeing and watching. Dolphins are intelligent and playful. We were seated at a table a distance away (we weren’t inside the Dolphinarium itself but just outside it) but could watch the dolphins interacting with the trainers.

While we ate we pondered when we might come back again as a family. There’s a lot of fun things to do at Atlantis and it would just be a matter of when it made sense to fit it into our schedule. We would actually have to pay for our hotel room of course 🙁

We returned to the room, gathered our luggage and checked out of the hotel. We had a Welcome Pickups driver already scheduled to take us to the airport (which is about an hour away on the other side of New Providence Island).

We had a good conversation with the driver on the way back to the airport. As I mentioned in the prior post we talked to him about our experience at the restaurant in Nassau the prior day and he encouraged us to come back and visit the Bahamas again. We likely will in the coming years.

One more interesting note: The US customs processing line was in the Bahamas, so when we boarded the plane from the airport in Nassau we had already passed US immigration. When we landed in Denver we were free to go without waiting through customs. It was nice to do this first rather than have it waiting until arrival when we were already tired.

We really enjoyed our trip. October was a crazy month for us and by the time we returned we were glad to be home. But I felt like everything that we did, with the week in South Carolina and Georgia, followed quickly thereafter with the Bahamas getaway was worthwhile no matter how crazy the schedule became. Sometimes you just have to take advantage of opportunities when they come and throw caution to the wind.

Our 11-year-old son was fine while we were gone (though he missed us and got bored) and my parents were able to get him to school, etc. Our 18-year-old son also helped and we felt good knowing they could step up for us when we needed help.

We don’t have a lot planned now for a while. The economy has affected Shelley’s job and we aren’t sure how long she will remain there. We are just planning a relatively easy roadtrip in the summer of 2025 as of now and leaving more complicated travel plans for the following years. There are a lot of places we want to visit or revisit. Its just a matter of time and opportunity.

I had no idea we’d be taking this trip to the Bahamas at the start of 2024. It came out of nowhere. We didn’t win a million dollars, but we got a free trip and that was a great win by itself.

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.

Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island

During registration Shelley received her tournament competition time for the day which was 10AM. Since it was in the morning we were fairly confident that we would have the afternoon free. And with the afternoon free we could consider taking a snorkeling trip, since it’s a rare opportunity to be in one of the premier snorkeling locations in North America.

We looked on Viator for any afternoon snorkeling trips leaving from Paradise Island and found one for five hours that departed at 1PM. The meeting point was also only a half mile from the hotel. So after a brief discussion we booked it.

Of course, with a one-in-five hundred chance at winning one million dollars we would not risk missing Shelley’s slot tournament rounds, and IF she ended up in a competition that afternoon I would simply have to go without her. But as it was, the tournament rounds were only 3 minutes long and the second round wasn’t until the following day, so we were free to go.

As I mentioned in the prior post, the restaurants on Paradise Island tend to be rather expensive. While we were getting a free stay in the Royal Towers with access the the Aquaventure Park and were getting reimbursed for the flights out (actually more than the cost of the flights since we used some United miles as well), we would be paying for most of our meals.

Fortunately we found Murray’s Deli which served a good breakfast at fairly reasonable prices. The cheesecake pancakes were delicious. We ate plenty knowing we’d be burning a lot of energy swimming and walking throughout the day.

The Slots Tournament

At 10AM we arrived for the slots tournament and Shelley took her place at a slot machine. Slots are really just a game of chance and winning and losing is really just a matter of random luck. We were given tokens to cash in for drinks (more rum punch) and could help ourselves to sandwiches and cookies.

The tournament round was very fast-paced and though she was at one point as high as fourth place in the opening round of fifteen. she ended up in eleventh place. Again, other than hitting buttons there was nothing a person could do to control the outcome. The 100 highest scores in the first round would advance to the second round to compete for a million dollars. The rest would be free to enjoy vacation.

We assumed that she was out of the tournament, but the second round contestants would be posted at 7PM, after we returned from the snorkeling trip. It was a long shot, but maybe her group had just unusually high scores and she would still rank among the top 100 that would advance to the second round.

With the tournament round over in 3 blazing fast minutes, we went back to the room to change into our swim suits, apply sunscreen, and to gather our snorkeling gear and my go pro. We’d be on the water for 5 hours so we’d need to be prepared.

Snorkeling in the Bahamas

We wanted a really good snorkeling trip that would make up for some less-than-thrilling experiences we had in places like the Florida Keys a few years before. We are avid snorkelers whenever we have the opportunity, but it isn’t always a home run experience.

We wanted to see the famous swimming pigs of the Bahamas, to snorkel on a nice reef with many. beautiful fish, see some sea turtles, and get some beach time. This tour was supposed to offer all of these. And it absolutely did. It was probably the best snorkeling tour we’ve ever done over all.

The first stop on the tour was the Pig Beach, which was on one side of on Atholl Island, a short trip by boat away from New Providence Island.

The pig beach was fun (they are a bit aggressive about getting the offered fruit), but it did feel like we were there a bit longer than was necessary (45 minutes) and it was a bit touristy. Still it was fun and the pigs are friendly.

The next stop was the snorkeling stop (which you can see in the video above). It was terrific and very enjoyable. We spent about 45 minutes at the first reef spot off Rose Island then moved onward to Turtle Cay where we found a few turtles, a conch (actually I found it), and other sea life. The journey on the motor boat while enjoying drinks was fantastic all by itself.

The final stop was a beach break on Rose Island. The boat docked at an old pier and we walked across a stretch of the narrow island, past an abandoned home that was in disrepair that had been left by a past homesteader, and on a jungle trail to a secluded beach. Along the way we found a lizard and a peahen. The peahen may have been left by the owner of the abandoned home, and it was now a feral denizen of the island.

I’ve been to many beaches in my life and this one was one of the very best. If not the best.

Clear, warm water? Check.
Sugary, soft sand? Check.
Calm waves? Check.
Seclusion and privacy? Check.
Beautiful, natural environment / free of human development? Check.

We spent about 30 minutes in the waves, enjoying the location and the slowly setting sun. It felt great. On many levels.

After walking back to the boat we ate a late lunch and enjoyed some more alcoholic drinks. The ride back was as enjoyable as you would imagine, listening to music played on the motor boat, sitting at the back of the boat with the setting sun in the distance ahead.

I give this snorkel tour 5 out of 5 stars. Here is the link on Viator.

Back at the Resort

After returning to the resort we went to check on the list of those who would advance in the Slots Tournament. Unfortunately, Shelley wasn’t on the list. On the bright side, we would have all of Saturday free to do as we pleased.

We took a moment to sit in the giant throne chair.

After changing out of our wet clothing and showering, we decided to have dinner at a place called Anthony’s Seafood just outside the resort on Paradise Island. We sat outside. The food was good and we enjoyed a few celebratory drinks. The music on the outdoor patio was really loud (almost to a point of discomfort). It was also a fairly hefty bill. But we deserved to splurge a little.

The following day we would be free to visit Nassau and enjoy the Aquaventure Park. And maybe we could win a chance to reenter the tournament?

This past August my wife Shelley got a surprising email. She had won a trip for two (herself and a guest) to stay on Paradise Island in the Bahamas for three nights in October. If she accepted she would be participating in an slots tournament with the possibility of winning one million dollars.

At first we weren’t sure if it was real and not a scam. A brief bit of research did reveal that it was in fact legitimate. The World Tournament of Slots was organized by MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and this was the inaugural tournament in the Bahamas. Second, though we have just returned home from an already booked and planned trip to the South Carolina and Georgia the prior week, those four days were free on our calendars. We could go.

So we were getting a free vacation to the Bahamas, staying at the Atlantis Resort at Paradise Island, receiving $1000 in cash for airfare, and we would have a 1 in 500 chance to win $1,000,000 if we accepted. So we accepted. It wasn’t really that difficult of a decision, really.

The hard part wasn’t whether to go. It was how we would manage things at home. We are used to traveling with our kids and for this trip we had a decision to make. Our youngest, Evan, is 11 and he would not be off of school. Likewise if we brought him we would have to pay for his expenses for airfare and an upgraded room with two beds. And we’d have to keep him entertained while we did various activities during the tournament which was intended for two people, and adults at that. Ultimately, it made more sense to keep him home and give mom and dad a chance to go take an adult trip.

Fortunately my parents were available to help with our son while we were away, as was our now 18-year-old son who lives a little ways away and goes to trade school. My parents are elderly and my son is busy with his job and school, but between them, we took a gamble that they could get Evan to school and to activities while we were gone. We wrote out detailed instructions for both and trusted that Evan would do his part to help them as well.

Having made our decision and all the necessary arrangements, we were set to go. Still a tad nervous, but ready to experience a few days of sandy beaches and tropical seas. With the chance to win a million dollars.

Red-Eye Flight to Nassau

On Wednesday night, we took Evan to my parent’s house and made our way to the airport for an 11:59 PM overnight flight to the Bahamas with a connection in Charlotte, North Carolina. We have gotten pretty good at packing with all the recent travel in the past few years, and we could get by with a couple carry-ons and one checked suitcase.

Red-eye flights are no problem for me. I would much rather stay up late and get on a flight then take an early morning flight. If a flight is scheduled for 6 AM I know we will need to be at the airport no later than 4 AM, and to wake up at no later than 3AM (usually closer to 2AM). We aren’t good at being able to force ourselves to sleep at say 7PM, so at best we might get about an hour or two of restless sleep before having to get up and on our way to the airport.

So Shelley and I got to the airport, checked in, and waited a couple hours in a largely empty airport terminal until it was time to depart. And off we went.

It’s about 3.5 hours from Denver to Charlotte, so with the time change we arrived around 5:30 in the morning. On a long-haul flight it’s much easier to get some sleep, but the crowded airplane (we did have extra legroom on 3 of the 4 flights) and relatively short duration before the connection meant we were pretty sleepless.

We got some coffees and some breakfast in the terminal then found the most comfortable chairs we could find by the gate, which were hard Adirondack chairs that sort of reclined to try to sleep. It didn’t work.

We saw that the flight to Nassau was filling with passengers bound for the same tournament. It was definitely an interesting assortment of people. One woman was drinking at a bar by the gate. She started chatting with us, offering more of her life story than we needed to know. Then we met some more people. People were friendly, if not a bit odd.

Once we boarded I took the middle seat this time, giving Shelley the window. She had sat next to an armrest hog on the last flight, and it was my turn to sit in the middle. It couldn’t be worse, right?

Well, it actually was. Imagine a heavily intoxicated guy with tourettes and no sense of personal space. He was drinking small bottles of liquor and shaking. He gorged on candy that I would imagine was not ideal for his jerky tendencies. He knocked a soda on the aisle floor and repeatedly bumped into me. For two hours I sat politely, wishing I could be moved. But the flight was completely packed.

When the flight landed I vowed to get us more comfortable seats on the flights back.

Fortunately, once we deplaned, the immigration line was easy and we got our luggage and waited for our Welcome Pickup to convey us to the Atlantis Resort. As I had done in Europe, I booked Welcome Pickups, assuming that the courtesy shuttles would be crowded and take a while to get us to the resort. Many of the courtesy shuttles left before us, but we had a really nice ride with a mini-tour of Nassau on our way to Atlantis.

The Royal Tower at Atlantis Resort

Once we got to the hotel we had to check in for the tournament the following day. Shelley got in line for the tournament while I took our luggage to the hotel room.

While waiting in line for the tournament registration, the staff gave us free rum punch drinks and cookies. We, of course, helped ourselves to as many as we could shamelessly accept 🙂

With registration complete, we made our way to our room and got dressed more appropriately for a tropical beach vacation.

Besides getting registered we went to find the location for the tournament the next day and to familiarize ourselves with the layout of the resort. It is massive.

Since we live in Colorado, we don’t often get a chance to enjoy beaches and we made our way out to the Aquaventure Park. It is huge and covers many, many acres.

Aquaventure Park

We initially made our way toward Cabbage Beach, but the surf was much too rough to enjoy. So we returned to the park lagoon, which is filled with seawater supplied by the surrounding ocean and sea life as well. We snorkeled and swam in the lagoon a while. I needed some practice using my snorkeling attachment for my GoPro.

In a subsequent post I’ll include my video tour of the Aquaventure Park. Needless to say though, it’s really exapansive and a lot of fun.

After a couple hours at Aquaventure we bought some food at a comparatively reasonable price at one of the waterpark food venues. We had read that conch was the choice of foods in the Bahamas. We bought both conch salad and conch fritters and enjoyed these in our room. Many of the restaurants at Atlantis and the surrounding Paradise Island are VERY expensive, so be sure to check out the prices of various restaurants beforehand.

We also saw that there was still a registration line and rum punch was still being served. And we shamelessly had some more 🙂

Evening Social Gathering

The tournament hosted an evening event on in outdoor area for guests that were celebrating events. Since Shelley and I had our twentiest anniversary this year and my birthday was only a few days before, we got to enjoy a few glasses of champagne and cupcakes.

We chatted with another couple who also had just taken another vacation and still made it out to the tournament. It was fun talking and enjoying the evening.

The following day Shelley would play for a chance at the million dollars and we’d try to book a snorkeling trip if there was time in the afternoon.