Exploring Nassau, Bahamas

Posted On November 18, 2010

November 16: We had no firm plans for Nassau, but thought that we’d go over to Atlantis and have a look to start. Information that we found online about day-pass options at Atlantis was contradictory so we weren’t sure how that would turn out.

Another beauiful Caribbean sunrise as we approached Nassau at 06:36. This ship is very quiet in the morning!

The lighthouse at the entrance to Nassau harbour at 6:57, with the Carnival Triumph approaching.

“Happy Valley”, the express breakfast spot on the Destiny, serves up a good omelette but seems to get little use.

The Carnival Triumph pulls up to her berth at 07:40.

Photo shoots at the gangway. We’ve had 3 pictures taken but the quality of the prints is very poor – muddy colours and not sharp – so haven’t bought any.

The Nassau cruise port is very nice, and well organized. We were in the terminal ready to start exploring just before 09:00. The fellow on the right was getting people together for a cab ride to Atlantis at $4 per person, which we considerd to be a good deal. The driver gave a very good tour, too.

One of the options for getting around is a scooter rental, at $50 per day or $35 per half day.

There were 3 Carnival ships in port and no others – the Carnival Sensation, Destiny and Triumph from left to right. This was shot from the taxi while crossing the bridge to Paradise Island where Atlantis is located.

Everything about Atlantis is impressive!

There are 3 levels of day-pass entry fee depending on how many of the facilities you want to use, ranging from $39 for the aquariums to $112 for everything. We just got aquarium passes, had our red wrist bands attached, and headed off.

We began in “The Dig and Ruins Lagoon” which takes you on an exploration of the sunken city of Atlantis. It’s extremely high quality in every way.

This is me with a grouper.

The moray eels were very active. When we came back a couple of hours later they were all hiding in the pots along the wall.

The main recreation lagoon, with the swimming beach on the far side.

These are young cownose rays – the way they swim in a tight school is fascinating to watch. This is a defensive strategy to confuse predators trying to pick out individuals.

Although I was tempted to take a tour (which is free), having the place almost to ourselves rather than being in a group of 20-30 people was very nice.

This bridge goes over a bay of the the Predator Lagoon, which houses smalltooth sawfish, hammerhead sharks and some other fish.

It’s a fair walk over to the Reef Lagon to see the nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) and several other species-specific pools.

The red heavy-surf warning flags were flying and the ocean beach had few people on it. For some reason the beach at the RIU hotel next door was fairly crowded, though.

The Hibiscus Lagoon primarily houses green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). I would have loved to get in the shallow pool and just sit with them!

We split a sandwich at the Predator Lagoon Bar – it was large and excellent, precisely what we needed to recharge our batteries. The first local Kalik beer was okay, the 2nd Kalik Gold, their premium brand, was very good.

At 1:30 we grabbed a cab back into Nassau and when a young fellow asked if we’d like a horse-drawn carriage tour of the city I said that that’s precisely what we’d like. Another fellow took a couple of photos and I gave him a couple of bucks.

It was hard to hear what Rodney was saying on the tour but clip-clopping around town, down main streets and back alleys, was very nice anyway. It was about half an hour in total for $40 – perhaps not a good deal, but enjoyable.

We then went on a bit of a walk, to the Straw Market and a few other shops, but didn’t find anything we wanted to buy.

The lineup to get back on board was long, but a few minutes after we got on it got very bad when a few hundred people arrived all at once. We did sail at the scheduled 5:00 pm, though.