2015 Disney Cruise Day 2 Part 1 - Nassau

The following is the second part of the account of our Disney Cruise to the Bahamas from earlier in the summer.

Tuesday, June 7, 2015

I’m not sure what time I woke up, but it was well before the sun came up. And I woke up because I was shaking. I would try to hold all of my muscles still, and I would still shake. Was it something I ate at dinner the night before? Was I having some kind of strange reaction to something? I got up and went to the bathroom, mainly to just be up and moving around to see if that would work out whatever it was. But that didn’t work. I was still shaking. So I went back to bed and tried to be as still as I could.

Once Laura was waking up, I asked her, “Is everything shaking, or is it just me?” She assured me that everything was shaking, and it wasn’t just me. That was a relief! It was as if the whole ship was vibrating. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but once we got up and got dressed, the Riedels mentioned it, too. So I knew for certain that it wasn’t just me. Maybe they had some engine running that hadn’t been running before. Maybe it had to do with how we were approaching Nassau. I never did find out for certain, but it never did happen again. It didn’t really matter that much to me, as long as I knew it wasn’t just me.

After everyone was up and ready to go, we went to breakfast at Cabanas. The first morning of the cruise, and we were already back in our breakfast rut. No complaints from anyone, though, because we can all always find plenty to eat for breakfast. And once again, we all loaded up our plates. We were also able to find a table for all of us inside the restaurant, instead of out near the pool and water play area as we had usually done on our previous cruise. Either we were earlier than before, or everyone else was later than before, or everyone else just skipped breakfast.

A nice, sunny morning on the Disney Dream.

We noticed that we were heading toward the dock at Nassau, and I wondered about that since on our past cruises the ship has always backed in at the dock. But not to worry, when we were getting close to the dock, Captain Henry turned the ship around. On a dime. I was thinking that there wasn’t room to turn around once we had gone that far, but I was wrong. So we did indeed back in, just as we always had before. Little things like that continue to fascinate me about these cruises. Maybe I’m just simple or something, but I like all of the little technical things like that.

Turning around in Nassau Harbor. Actually, it was the ship that was turning. We were just standing still.

Laura watches the goings-on down below from the top deck.

The view from the front as we back in. Read all about it in the earlier post The Disney Dream in Nassau Harbor.

Tying up the ship down below. See, we aren’t the only weird ones who are watching.

Of course, the kids didn’t seem to care much about any of that. They apparently would rather play ping pong again than to watch the ship back into the dock. So Laura and I left Jaylin with the Riedels, and we ran (well actually, walked quickly for safety’s sake) to the front of the ship to see the lines being tossed over to the dock workers so that they could tie the ship. And then after that, we raced (again, safely) to the back of the ship to see the same thing. Yes, we are strange like that. And the kids had fun playing ping pong. Laura did join them for a bit after we had finished our running around, too.

Nothing like a friendly game of ping-pong. I hope this one was friendly.

There was a large ship already docked next to ours, which was interesting to see. Our ship was actually a bit taller than that other ship. Not that we were in any kind of competition. Because we knew ours was the best one. No need to go on about it and make them feel bad, right?

The Riedels had booked a shore excursion to pet dolphins at the Atlantis resort in Nassau, so we went our separate ways for a while. We Burnses are content to just wander the streets of Nassau for a while, seeing what we can see, so that is what we had planned to do. That is one of the nice things about the cruises - if you want to all stay together, you can; but if you want to split up for a while, there is still plenty to do.

Once we exited the ship, we took our customary photos from the dock with the ship in the background, because those are hard to do when you are on the ship. Maybe they should put in a big pole and rope so that you can hang off the side and get a photo of the ship while you are on the ship. Can you just imagine how long the line would be for that on the day at sea?

Stopping by the non-pointy end of the ship before exploring Nassau.

Moving along after our photos, we were interested to see that the Festival Place building was being renovated. So all of the vendors and hair braiding people that are usually inside there were in temporary places outside of the building. But we didn’t stop to look at any of those any more than we do when we are going through the building. Instead, we made our way on out to the streets to see what interesting shops and other places we could find.

A crossing guard makes sure that we cross the street safely. I liked his uniform.

Our main stop is always Del Sol, because we like their color changing stuff. And you would think that we know right where it is after all of these years, but we always have to look at the map and wander around for just a bit to find it. I think we actually got there more quickly this time than usual. Once inside, we found several things, as we always do. I was delighted to see that they had a selection of Marvel shirts, as well as some Disney shirts. Laura also liked the front part of the store, which sold clothes and other things made from bamboo, which is supposed to be softer than cotton. It certainly did feel softer, and Laura was happy with what she found. And while she was shopping, I enjoyed watching the steel drum player who was playing his steel drum right outside the store. Those things have always fascinated me.

Since that was our main shopping objective, we set out for the cultural part of our tour. That sounds fancy and educational, but it mainly just involves us wandering through the streets to see if we see anything interesting.

The first thing we found was an interesting little courtyard plaza thing attached to some sort of building. It had a nice fountain, and no signs saying to keep out, so we took a few photos, both of the fountain and of us in front of the fountain. We walked by some of the interesting churches in the town, and we found some interesting looking stairs that made for some good photos. Nothing terribly exciting to most people, but those are the kinds of things that we like. “We” here being Laura and me; I don’t think Jaylin was all that excited by it all. But that’s okay, because I probably wouldn’t have been when I was his age, either.

I’m not sure of the significance of this fountain, but it was interesting to see. And we didn’t even squirt ourselves with the hose.

That’s a mighty tall church building! Or Laura and Jaylin are doing the Ant-Man thing.

Going up the stairs. Or going down the stairs. I can’t remember which way we were going.

Laura strikes a pose while out and about in the city of Nassau.

A tree growing up a wall, with Laura and Jaylin in front of it.

Some interesting art on display. There were actually several art displays, all sponsored by Coca-Cola. Cool!

As we kept on going, we found the Nassau Library and Museum, which we had seen before but had never gone inside. The sign said it was open, and Laura went to check while I took a few photos of the building itself. She waved to me, and we went on inside. If you were expecting some large museum with fancy displays, you would be disappointed. But if you like to see some interesting old things in old display cases inside a small library, then this would be right up your alley. And it was right up ours.

Up on the library roof

Interestingly, there were signs saying that photos were not allowed inside the library, so of course I didn’t take any photos of the interesting little items they had in there, such as a large fossilized crab or some old equipment of different kinds. And lots of books, of course. But the winding stairs that led us up to each level eventually took us all the way up to the roof level, which was covered with a chair or two, apparently for some open air reading. And it had a great view of the park area down below, and the buildings of the town beyond that. Because we weren’t technically inside the library any more, I figured that photos would be okay, so I took several of the views from up there. Hopefully, I didn’t break any international laws or anything. If the Nassau police are still trying to track me down, it wasn’t me. Must have been someone else.

Laura tries out a chair on the library roof.

Lots of room up here on the library roof. And you can barely see the Disney Dream out across the way, too.

Laura does a little shopping in Nassau. And the shop keeper gives me the look.

We wandered some more, going back to the Festival Place area and getting a cold Coke from one of the vendors there, and also finding out that there were public restrooms nearby. That saved us a trip back to the ship. We also looked around in the straw market for a while, which takes nerves of steel because every vendor almost jumps on you as you walk by each booth. Laura found a necklace that she liked, and she asked the lady how much. She said, “Twenty, but you give me fifteen.” Laura really didn’t say much, but the lady eventually talked herself down to giving Laura both the necklace and a bracelet for $10. Bargaining without even having to bargain - can’t beat that. Jaylin also found a wooden sword that he liked, and the seller even carved his name in it. That seller didn’t bargain with herself quite as much as the last one did, though.

This was our first time to go in the new straw market building, too. We had gone through the old, rickety building on our first cruise, but then we had skipped it on our second cruise. We had seen the new building on our third cruise but kept on walking past it. But this time Laura had decided it was worth a trip through there for her, and she got some nice things as a result of it. The new building has a pretty high roof, which probably helps a little bit with the heat. But it is still an open building, although all of the vendors and their tall stalls prevent much air from flowing through there. So there was still plenty of heat to go around.

We found lots of great photo spots in Nassau. Always interesting to see what you find when you wander around.

By the time we had finished wandering through the straw market, we decided that we had had just about enough of the heat and the walking for a while, so we headed back to the ship for some lunch and perhaps some air conditioning. That meant that we had to wander through the vendors outside of Festival Place one more time, and that we also had to take a few more photos of the ship from down on the ground, just to be safe and make sure that we had enough. Can you ever have enough? Probably not.

That’s not the boat we are looking for. But it does look interesting.

This is the boat we are looking for. Or ship, actually.

Watch for the next part of our cruise report coming soon!