The Midnight Showing of Trisha

Cruise Askew, Night 2 at Senor Frogs

Naturally at the end of the day we had a lot to celebrate - good friends, Gavin & Nikki getting engaged, AND it was Linnitt's birthday to boot.  A lot of us had birthdays in the weeks before and after the cruise, which helped us pick this date, but hers actually fell smack on cruise time so we had to celebrate!  Since the ship was docked much longer in Nassau than it had been in Freeport, we didn't actually have to be back on the ship until 5:30 am the next day.  So we took the opportunity to all have dinner in Nassau at a restaurant called Senor Frogs.  There are several locations, it's kind of a world wide touristy restaurant known for a good time.  Gavin had heard lots about it and, if I remember correctly, was really the catalyst to our deciding to go.  And the fact that it was just a couple of blocks from port and you didn't have to take a cab was a plus.  I dread taking cabs in America let alone a foreign country.  Call me cynical, but I don't trust it.

Anyway we all made it back to the boat from Atlantis and our assorted other adventures (Linnitt & Korey had just wandered around town, Kevin & Maria went to swim with sting rays) and chilled until about 7.  A few of us wanted to go a bit early and wander the straw market right next to port before it closed, but when we went through it to get from where the bus dropped us off to the ship half of it was closed already, and with almost all of us needed to shower off some chlorine before dinner, it just wasn't in the cards.  I'm not sure I've mentioned it, but our awesome Carnival agent Terence had made sure that all our cabins were right near each other at the end of our deck, so we just kind of congregated there before heading as a group down to dinner.  Good thing we did too, because Nikki totally saved me with some aloe vera gel for my sunburn!



We walked down to Senor Frogs, where some of our travel group had already acquired a table.  The place was decorated with ecclectic signs, black lights, and other Mexican style decor as that was their cuisine specialty.  As soon as we were seated, employees came around and made sure we all had obnoxious balloon hats on since it was a celebration.  Joy.









Everything in that joint was highly touristy, but fun and at the same time not super overdone or flashy.  The menus were comical, the drinks were plentiful, and even the table clothes had amusing diagrams on them for placement of the plate, cup, salsa drips, etc.  The staff also had put purple mardi gras style beads at each of our place settings, and also came around and made sure we all had some.  At the end of the night I realized I had three!  We took our time in picking out our dinners and I decided to have their sample platter for dinner - nachos, quesadillas, and floutas (though I had a feeling that I wouldn't eat those, and I was right).  We also were not shy to order drinks.  Katie went for a tequila sunrise, I opted simple for a strawberry margarita, Joe and Adam made what seemed like a suicide pact with the Zombies, and Andrew wasn't shy and double fisted a couple beers.







My food arrived and OH MAN... quite possibly the best quesadillas I've ever had.  The flour tortillas were just so soft and perfect... nummy.  My margaritas were good, Katie said she couldn't even taste the tequila in her drink (though when I tasted it, it was ALL I tasted), and Adam & Joe quite liked their Zombies... maybe a bit too much for Joe.



When we were almost done eating, the DJs and employees practically attacked Linnitt and brought her up on stage, much to her embarassment.  She'd already told us that she wasn't the type of person to really celebrate her birthdays, so she didn't look too happy about it but took it in stride.  The staff also came around with random shots, and I have to give props to Drena for taking one!  And after 3 tequila sunrises, and two zombies, and some other alcoholic beverages, Katie, Adam, Andrew, and others had no shame in their game on the dance floor.







We weren't out that late... the place really turned into a nightclub and we weren't that into just dancing.  We all wandered back to the ship, some of us in a semi-drunken stupor, and Joe & his three zombie's worth of intoxication decided that dammit, he wanted ice cream and pizza.  The ship had a 24 hr pizzaria and they always kept the soft serve machine on that's in the buffet area where the pizza is, so dammit we went for ice cream and pizza.  That was, of course, after we decided to go up to the very top deck and check out the mini golf course that we planned to play the following day.  Joe was on top of the world, apparently.





We just wandered back to the staterooms, happy that we were going to be able to sleep in the next day, which was the last day of the cruise, the "Fun Day at Sea". 

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Cruise Askew, Day 3 in Nassau

As the day before in Freeport, Nassau started bright and early with a 9:15am departure time for the excursion to the Atlantis Aquaventure.  Unlike in Freeport where a lot of us branched off to different excursions, most of us went to Atlantis.  Adam, Nicole, Gavin, & Nikki had decided to fork over the extra dough to swim with the dolphins, while Katie, James, Lena, Crystal, Ed, Joe, Andrew, Drena & I all decided to do just the water park portion.  Carrie & Steven ended up coming with us too because the dive they were scheduled for was canceled due to choppy waters.  Atlantis was my favorite part of the Bahamas HANDS DOWN!

Gorgeous.  Now this was the tropical paradise we'd been hoping for.  Definitely more touristy than Freeport, but that's just what we wanted.  It took us about an hour to get to the park from port and through the long ass tour they take you on before letting you loose.  I made the error in judgment to only bring the disposable waterproof camera I'd bought with me and not my normal camera, not really knowing that there would be SO much cool stuff to take pictures of before getting to the slides.  I figured slides are slides, pictures aren't 100% needed, but I was wrong.  LUCKILY, Katie was a champ and remembered hers, and wisely relinquished it to me during the tour and I must have taken probably a hundred photos just of the grounds as we were walking through.  You think I'm lazy getting these updates up, she still hasn't taken the photos off her camera and sent them to me.  I think I may have to go to her house next weekend to retrieve them myself!  I was able to snag some that others took, so here's a delicious taste.







That walkway in the last photo isn't actually a walkway, though that's what most of us assumed it was at first glance.  That's actually one big suite.  The tour guide pointed out that celebrities like Michael Jackson have stayed there.  The price is $25,000 per night with at least a 4 night commitment and books years in advance.  It has views of both sides of the island, over the resort and beach and out to the ocean on both sides.  Just... WOW. 







We decided to attack The Current before hitting the slides... there's a slide called the Leap of Faith that's something like a 120 foot drop that dumps you into the lazy river, and several people wanted to go on that.  Crystal and I... not so much.  So we opted to just grab some tubes and jump into this lazy river.  Well, it wasn't that lazy.  It was actually more of a rapids ride... think Rip Roaring Rapids for those familiar with Great America... except with an individual tube like at Waterworld or Raging Waters.  Of course, no rocks, more artificial rapids created by strategically placed water jets, but it was a nice balance back and forth from scream like a little girl rapids to lazy floating.  Crystal & I were greatly amused at how far apart we got at some points because of the rapids.  We did a round and jumped out.  We'd been separated from most our group and Ed had opted not to get in the water at all after feeling the colder winds that were blowing through, so he was keeper of some of our stuff by one of the big pools.  We'd left most of it like clothes, cameras, etc. in the lockers at the main visitor center, but he chilled in a shaded lounge chair with our towels and sunscreen.  I believe Carrie & Steven chilled with him awhile, so he was definitely not bored.

Again, I've failed you for photos... I took a bunch with my waterproof disposable camera, but I haven't taken that camera in to get developed yet.  So, that'll be it's own post I guess.

I personally hadn't really noticed the wind until after we were getting out of the water (of course).  It wasn't as nasty overcast in Nassau as it had been in Freeport; the sun was out most of the time and it was definitely brighter and bluer skies, but there was a chilly wind blowing.  Crystal and I headed almost straight past Ed and into the neighboring pool.  Soon after Lena and Katie found us and Katie joined us in the pool.  We spent a lot of time just chilling talking with the majority of our bodies submerged in water to keep warm (yes, the water was warm... just like I'd dreamed for Bahamian water!), then finally got out to utilize our meal vouchers and get some lunch at the snack bar near the pool.  As we were eating with Carrie, Steven, Ed & Crystal, the others managed to find us.  We spent the time drying off and getting our grub on while attempting to solidify plans for the rest of the afternoon.  We decided that once we were all done we'd head over to the two aquariums that Atlantis boasted.  We had wanted to meet up with the 4 that went for the dolphin excursion, but without cell phones (NO ONE wanted to mess with $6.99/minute international rates!) there wasn't much way to communicate.  Although we headed over to the aquarium in kind of two groups since some were going to stop off at the lockers first, and while they were there they ran into the dolphin folks, who'd been far delayed and were more interested in enjoying the slides than the aquariums at that particular moment.



It was about that time that I first learned (cause I haven't been in the loop I guess) that Gavin had been long planning to propose to Nikki while they did the dolphin swimming.  And she'd said yes!  Gavin, you suave motherfucker... this boy made arrangements with the people at Atlantis to, during their experience, have a dolphin swim over to them holding a buoy that said "Will You Marry Me?"  I guess originally he wanted the dolphin to be carrying the ring somehow in a waterproof container or something, but people quickly talked him out of it.  What a dreamy way to propose to a woman... via dolphin in the Bahamas... and I LOVE dolphins, ask anyone whose seen my collection of dolphin stuff... so yes, consider me super jealous!  It was just so romantic and sweet and great.  Couldn't have happened to a nicer couple of people to find each other either.



So, back to the aquarium, aptly titled The Dig.  One of the coolest things was the decor, which again, we'll have to wait for Katie's photos of because I don't see any of our other travel buddies have pictures of it in their albums that they've shared with me.  But, they also had two MASSIVE manta rays.  Like, 10 foot wingspan.



That photo has no scale and doesn't do it justice... once I get the photos from Katie I'm almost certain I have one that has a scale object in it.  When we went through with the group we just had my disposable camera with us, but on our way out of the park we went through again to stop in the gift shop that was in the center of the aquarium halls, so I took a TON of photos of the inside of the aquariums with her camera... it all fascinated me.  I love aquariums.  The decor inside was also rather futuristic in an ancient civilization way, very true to the Atlantis theme.  So there was plenty of photos of that too.  One of the nifty factoids that the tour guide had told us that morning about the aquarium's residents are in such good shape because the water in the aquarium isn't just water treated with chemicals and sea salts to mimic their natural sea water - it IS actual ocean water from the surrounding Caribbean.  Pretty cool.



Once we were done oohing and ahhing as a group, we wandered around the lagoon area to the other side where the smaller predator aquarium was located.  This promised to be sharks, sting rays, barracuda, etc. that, for obvious reasons, can't be housed wiht the other fish.  I have to say I was disappointed - the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas was a much better predator only aquarium attraction.  The decor was basically none, and they were all just in one big bowl like tank.  There was one of those glass domed walk ways, but that was it.  And the sharks are the small ones that aren't that impressive, and there didn't seem to really be that many fish in there either.  So that was a bit of a let down for me, but The Dig made up for it.

In general Atlantis was AWESOME, and I'd love to just fly straight to Nassau and spend more time there to do the dolphin swim, try out more slides, hang in the lagoon, snorkel, feed sharks (yes, they do this twice a day but we missed both times), etc.  The only thing I really didn't like about Atlantis was the exorbantly long tour upon first arrival and that the park was cashless - I specifically brought cash with me to take care of snacks and stuff but even the snack bars only accepted credit card or payment via room key if you were a guest at the resort.  Which was lame, and now I owe Carrie like $4 for an ice cream lol. 

More photos I stole from Crystal since Katie's laggin'...





Once we were done with the two aquariums as a group, it was pretty much decided that we were done for the day.  Drena was having some energy issues because she really needed to get back to the lockers and take her medications, so Joe & Andrew volunteered to go back to get them while the rest of the group stayed with her at the shark area.  Katie and I had decided that, since we already knew we wanted to go back to the gift shop in The Dig before leaving, we'd head back to the lockers with them and get our stuff and then head back to the port.  Once we got back to the lockers we realized that there was an inlet right beside them for The Current, so since it had definitely warmed a bit, we took one last go-round before the park started reeling people in and we got dressed to leave.  We made our stop at the gift shop, taking another slightly less leisurely trip through the aquarium for me to take better photos with Katie's camera.  We wandered back to the bus area through the casino, taking more photos of their really cool dolphin lighting features and a couple of the big glass sculptures they had. 

Just in time, we ended up getting onto what seemed to be the last or second to last bus, and low and behold the rest of our group ended up on that bus too!  So we all rode back to the port.  I was a bit sad to see when we returned that the Harley shop I'd seen that morning was now closed.  I really wanted to get another shirt for my dad, but I was relived when Linnitt later told me that all the stuff inside looked exactly like what Katie and I had shown her that we got at the one in Freeport.  But later that evening as we went to Senor Frogs I had to take a photo of the store anyway.  It's perfectly placed next to a Nascar store - which means my dad would have been like a little boy in a candy store!



Once again I'm going to tease you to say that the festivities for the evening at Senor Frogs are worthy of their own post.  So stay tuned!

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Cruise Askew, Day 2 in Freeport

Day two started bright and early with Katie and I getting up at 7 ish.  Not really my idea of fun on a vacation to get up earlier than I do when not on vacation, but we'd docked in Freeport and jam packed our time there with an island bus tour and a glass bottom boat tour.  To steal Katie's wording from her blog, Freeport was not the tropical island paradise that we'd imagined.  Freeport is the industrual capital of the Bahamas on the main island Grand Bahama Island. 

As a disclaimer since I take a LOT of photos and talk a LOT about my experiences, this is only day 2 up until our getting back on the boat after being on shore.  The formal dinner was that night on board and that requires a post by itself, apparently.  Yes I ramble that much!

We made our way down to the gangway and off the ship to where the tours were.  We were informed that, while on our tour, we should stay on the last stop the bus made because that's where the glass bottom boat would leave from.  Otherwise we'd waste a bunch of time taking the bus back to the cruise ship port and then another bus back to the port for the boat.  So on our way to our first stop, a market in downtown Freeport, we started snapping photos of the local scenery.

There were markets and similar stands everywhere on the island, which were commonly referred to as "straw markets".  Katie described them as a cross between a flea market and an art festival, but I'd really say they were strongly more flea market.  Most merchants sold local straw woven bags and necklaces and such, with a lot of other trinkety things like t-shirts 3 for $10 and shot glasses 2 for $5.  Of course, being a collector of shot glasses, I got one.  We spent about 20 minutes at the market and I almost missed the bus because of a group of other tourists lingering in the small stall that I wanted a shot glass from (I hadn't seen the same one at any of the other stalls).  But I made it on and we were off.  Here's some photos from the market:

On our way to the next stop, Taino Beach, we were driven through some of the neighborhoods of the island.  The tour guide/bus driver told us that this upper-class neighborhood was mostly 3-4 bedroom houses that ranged from about $100,000 - $200,000.  Since we'd already been told that the Bahamian dollar exchanges at a 1:1 rate with the US dollar, I was really irritated to know that a super nice house in the Bahamas is way cheaper than a comparable house here in the SF Bay area!  Someone I mentioned that too reminded me that the crime rate in the non-tourist areas is pretty high though, so I guess that's the trade off.  We were told more facts about Freeport and the Bahamas, and soon we arrived at the Junkanoo Beach Club at Taino Beach.

We were there for about 30 minutes, enough time for Katie and I to sink our feet into the crystal clear Caribbean Ocean and walk on the soft sugary sand of the beach.  The overcast weather was a bit of a downer since we were hoping for blue skies like you see in photos, but it was still absolutely gorgeous. 

We ran into our travel companions Linnitt and Kory as we left - they'd chosen the shore excursion that was just spending the day at Junkanoo to soak up the sand and waves.  So we said a quick hi & bye to them and were back on the bus heading to our final stop, Port Lucaya.  This area is one of the main tourist areas of the island, where many of the resorts are located, the casino, and the port where all recreational vessels are docked (for the most part).  So while we were only supposed to be there for an hour with the bus tour, we took the advise of the tour guides at the ship's dock and stayed a couple hours in Port Lucaya waiting for the Glass Bottom Boat tour we'd scheduled. 

This was great, because it gave us plenty of time to wander around the shops, where we discoverd a Harley-Davidson store.  My dad collects t-shirts from various Harley stores, so of course I HAD to get him a Harley of Freeport shirt!  We also stopped in one of the drug stores there to get some munchies to take back onto the boat.  The gift shop on board really didn't have much in the way of snacks to keep around the stateroom, and didn't have my staple caffinated beverage, Mountain Dew, at all, so I grabbed a couple bottles and some snacks to take back, as did Katie.  We wandered around for a long while trying to decide on where to eat lunch.  Katie wanted to sample some local fare, but unfortunately all the restaurants were pretty mainstream and the only local fare they had was conch, but she wasn't quite ready to give that a shot, so we ended up having some strawberry daiquiries and really American food at Rum Runners (she had a hot dog, I had a grilled cheese sandwich... adventurous, aren't we?). 

Finally it was time to go on the glass bottom boat tour.  We found the place to turn our tickets in and were led to the boat and got on. 

We set out of the bay area, past the jetty and out into the open waters.  The water the boat was in was incredibly clear, so it was easy to see every plant and random fish as we headed out to our first stop.  We finally arrived above a coral reef with tons of fish swimming around.  I was worried that the photos I was taking through the glass below wouldn't be that great, but the clarity of the Caribbean really helped that endeavor.

They gave us some hamburger buns and let us toss them over the side to feed the fish.  I didn't expect them to rush to the surface, but they did and it was really cool to see them schooling around just under the surface.  A couple of small kids tossed in their buns whole instead of breaking them into bits like the rest of us did, and it was a massacre!  The fish went nuts, of course.  We then took off towards a ship wreck in deeper water, which Katie and I were looking forward too.  They also promised that there would be sharks there, which was also exciting.  Unfortunately when we got there, divers were on the wreck, which meant the boat couldn't hover over it.  Bummer.  But, we did see sharks!  Since the water was a bit deeper, we couldn't see a lot of detail, mostly just silhouettes.  But even that was nifty.

The small boat was rocking a lot and it wasn't making me feel all that great, but I still wish it had gone on longer.  We got back to the dock and, smartly, went straight for where the tour busses were to get back to the ship.  They'd given us return vouchers when we got off at Port Lucaya, so we just jumped back onto the first bus that was headed back to the Sensation.  Good for us, even though we thought we had time to spare, because we got back right about 3:30, the time they told us we HAD to be back on the ship by. 

So, like I said at the beginning of this post, that evening on board after we set sail and said bye bye to Freeport, the formal Captain's dinner was scheduled.  That, my friends, requires more time to process and a whole other post.

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