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This article is the second part about our cruise in the Bahamas. The first part is found (here).

DAY 3

On the 3rd day, we woke up while we were pulling in the port of Nassau, along with 2 other cruise ships. After a good breakfast, we went on firm soil to wait for our boat shuttle.

We had booked a discovery tour of the Atlantis Paradise Island, which is a huge resort complex and water park.  There is also an aquarium with a lot of marine life and a beach. We did not do the water park because it felt kind of expensive (like a CAD$400 excursion for both of us for water slides!) and it was a good thing because it was too cold that day t for that purpose. I am sure that it must be fun though. They have a very high water slide and when you get to the bottom, you go in an underwater glass tube that passes through a pool of sharks… Cool!

The place is huge. Here are a few pictures of the complex.

There was a nice suspension bridge above water infested with sharks (aquarium). 

All around, we could see open pools of the aquarium, with the fish in them. If you look on some of the pictures, you can see the underwater glass tunnels, part of the aquarium path.

We also went to the beach but did not stay long because it was chillier that day.

(See all pictures from Atlantis)

Of course, we visited the aquarium section to see some of the marine life they had on display

They had the glass tubes underwater a little bit like we saw in Hawaii in Maui.

(See all pictures from the Aquarium)

Finally, we rejoined our boat.

DAY 4

The last stop of the cruise was on the Great Stirrup Key, which is basically a private uninhabited island owned by Norwegian Cruise line. This was actually much better than I thought: we had a fantastic beach day. The boat does not dock anywhere: they just drop the anchor in proximity of the island. They have shuttles carrying people (and all the other stuff such as food and drinks) continuously between the boat and the island all day long.

I decided to leave the big camera at on the boat that day (but should have brought it), but good thing Corinne had our pocket camera with her, so we do have some pictures from that day. We left early for the island, using the second shuttle so the island was almost empty when we got there. That gave us the chance to pick a good spot. The beach was like a crescent with a large rock at the end, so the beach had very calm water. The sand was almost white, and the water turquoise. A true Bahamas picture!

You could also take a 2 miles hike to a lighthouse, but we sticked with the beach. They had an awesome barbecue for lunch on the island, with enough choice for my strict diet (grilled chicken, vegetables, lots of fruits, etc). They also had a few bars open for the party people, and a live band playing. Weather was perfect. This was an awesome day. Just the water was a bit cooler than expected…

(See all pictures from the Private Island)

The complete album for this trip is linked below.

Bahamas Cruise

We had the “VIP” treatment when getting out of the boat in Miami: Corinne is always flagged by the US Immigration. The good thing about it (for once!) is that we bypassed the long waiting line, and just waited a short time, sitting comfortably while they checked our papers. No sweat

What’s funny is that we had no motion sickness at all during the cruise. The problem was after the cruise, on firm grounds. For several days, we felt weird and nauseous at times, especially in closed spaces.

As mentioned before, overall, we really liked our first experience of a cruise vacation, and I am sure we will do it again sometime in the future!