Day four dawned bright and early in the capital of the Bahamas… Nassau. I was pretty sunburned so most of our adventures had to consist of sunless activities… :( 

Since we weren’t “tendering” debarking was quick and painless and basically consisted of riding the elevator down to the 3rd floor and showing our Sail and Sign card to get off.  From there we just followed the crowd since we had NO  idea where we were going.  There were two other cruise ships docked next to us, so there were lots and lots of tourists headed out to enjoy their day.  Once we got off the dock area, we headed to a building that boasted the sign “Entrance to City.”  Inside, we were bombarded with options.  We decided to head across the bridge to Paradise Island where the Atlantis Resort is.

We heard a man yelling loudly that his ferry would take you to Paradise Island for only $3, so we decided to go for it.  He lined all the unsuspecting people up and began barking strict instructions to FOCUS!  Lol, he was seriously intense about us needing to focus and follow the person in front of us so we wouldn’t get lost.  Our little caravan ended up trekking through the city to reach the little ferry boat which he had repeated incessantly was leaving RIGHT NOW. As we journeyed with our group through the crowded streets we had some difficulty staying caught up since the people in front of us let a big group ahead of them thus making us lag behind.

It was humorous really, because the husband in front of us kept fussing to the wife to hurry and catch up with the lady in front of her.  She was nowhere near as concerned as he was, and he finally appeared to just give up and jogged ahead himself, leaving his wife and son to be left behind.  :)

Once we got to the boat, we saw that people were basically having to lunge from the dock to the shifting, rocking boat.  It was seriously ridiculous.  We’re talking a decent gap between dry ground and the boat.  The man was standing there to hold your hand as you took a deep breath went for it. :)  The boat that was leaving RIGHT NOW in actuality was what seemed like for-evah later!  We figured out they were continuing to bring more and  more groups so that not an inch of room would be empty and therefore wasted.  I guess they didn’t want to lose a potential 3 bucks.

Once we finally departed, the original yelling guy began his tour guide as we made our way across the water to Paradise Island.  He pointed out which houses belonged to who… the only one that was worth mentioning was Nicolas Cage.  He also pointed out a former nude beach that had been closed by the government due to too many boating accidents.  :)

As our short tour ended, he informed us that he was not paid by the captain and ONLY earned his money from tips for his tour guiding.  He also then informed us that he would be coming around to each and every one of us for a tip.  What?  I was under the impression that tips were optional.  Something you gave of your own volition.  Um, no.  Not in the Bahamas.

And he did.  He walked around the crowded and tightly squeezed boat with his hat out to every person similar to a church offering plate.  And most every group I saw gave into the pressure and tipped him. Including us, by the way.

Once we arrived, we once again had no idea where to go, so we followed the crowd.  Paradise Island is bee-yootiful!  We had to walk quite a ways until we found the entrance to Atlantis, but once inside it was so nice.  There were shops along a marina type thing with huuuuge and FANCY pants yachts.  We stopped at several shops and even found a Jamba Juice!  (I thought of you, Heather!)

The “bridge” between the two buildings is actually a 10 room suite you can book for only $25K with a minimum booking of four  nights!  Yikes!

The Atlantis Resort reminded me of some of the Vegas hotels that are an attraction in and of themselves.  It is an enormous complex with tons of stuff.  We walked awhile just trying to FIND the entrance to the beach… Once we did, we were promptly stopped by a middle aged female guard who asked for our room key.

My answer of “Um, we don’t have one.” somehow didn’t manage to convince her to let us squeeze by anyway.  Sheesh.

 

Shortly after that we headed back across on the ferry to downtown Nassau and were shocked to see the VAST difference between Paradise Island and Downtown.  Talk about “crossing the tracks.”  As we walked through the streets we shared our thoughts that we didn’t really want to hanging out here after dark.  A somewhat intoxicated or perhaps “high” older fellow turned around randomly to Chris on the corner and slurred… “Are you looking for me?”

Later as we were eating our lunch of pizza, another older fellow wandered in and stopped beside us and informed us that he was hungry and he “wanted some pizza.”  I averted my eyes, but Chris looked at me and said, “What’d he say?”  I replied (eyes still averted), “He wants some pizza.”  It wasn’t much later and the big, burly manager was escorting him out. 

After some more shopping, we found a shaded area we later learned was called the Something Town Square.  We relaxed on a bench under the shade until deciding we should try a Surry ride.  Our guide book informed us that it was only $10/person.

We found one of the Surry people and asked about the cost.  Big surprise… he informed us it was $20/person.  Upon further questioning (we asked what ride we could get for $10) we got the “short tour” for the original advertised price.  The first guy hooked us up with the owner who rounded up a driver.  After we got inside, First Guy then told us to get our camera ready so he could take our picture.  We naively thought he was being nice.
After he took TWO pictures and the driver was giddy-uping us on our way, First Guy begins walking beside our buggy on MY SIDE, informing with yet another spiel about how he is the picture guy.  He does not work for the driver and only earns his money through tips for taking pictures… yada, yada, yada.

I said, “Okay.”
He said, “You can go ahead and give that now, if you’d like.”
I said “Okay” and promptly turned the other way.  I’ve found averting my eyes can get me a long way in the Caribbean. :) Plus I am really not a fan of coercion.

I do not mind being hard core when I need to be.

It was fun though even if we did get the short tour.  Thankfully First Guy/Picture Guy was nowhere in sight when we arrived back at the starting place.  I’m sure he was off swindling some other poor unsuspecting souls.

We had a low key night, heading back to the ship for dinner and the rest of our evening… We enjoyed the view from our room of the nighttime sky and the lights of Nassau as we pushed off and headed for HOME! 

 

Here was the Towel Creature waiting on us in our room! A cute Froggie!