Monday, July 6, 2009

Day 2 – Nassau, Bahamas

Since I did not want to waste a minute of my time on the cruise I made sure to set our wake up call for 6:45am on Saturday, so we can rise nice and early to make it to the gym.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of a jogging track that I have seen on cruises of my past, but was still thankful to have an assortment of treadmills to choose from with beautiful views of the never ending ocean.

It was pretty packed in the fitness center at 7:00 am and I had to wait a bit for a treadmill, but it was totally worth it.

I ended up doing a 30 minute speedwork session and felt AWESOME! I felt like I could go fast forever and had to keep forcing myself to do intervals as to not burn out too fast. I think it was the excitement of the cruise that just had my adrenaline pulsing.

After the treadmill did a quick arm work out at a very crowded mirror. I think all the manly men were not to happy with the 4 or 5 of us girls trying to squeeze in mirror space to do our work outs at well. I found it quite amusing actually. Screw you manly man, I need my mirror space too!

I then cooled down with some stretching and cool work.

Derek joined me at the fitness center as well, getting some biking in and weights.

I left the fitness center a sweaty happy mess.

Derek and I went straight from the fitness center to the sit down breakfast in the dining room. We were seated with two other sets of couples in their 20s. One set was from the Tampa area and the other was from Charlotte. We actually kept running into the Charlotte couple multiple times during the cruise and became good friends. I told them about the blog so I want to say a big Hello if they’re reading this!

The sit down breakfast begins with a selection of fresh pastries. I selected the almond berry looking bread.

I had one of the slices and gave the other to Derek.

I was very happy to see the option of Crunchy Granola Cereal option on the menu.

I ordered the granola selection and combined it all into a great big mess with a little bit of honey for a touch of sweetness.

I also ordered additional fresh fruit on the side.

The breakfast was really great and refreshing after my sweaty work out.

As it was 4th of July the staff of the ship went all out with Red, White & Blue Pride.

A GIGANTIC Flag cake was on display all day.

Unfortunately when it was time to serve it, we were just going to dinner and didn’t want to spoil our meals. Bummer.

However, we did catch the end of a presentation on how they prepare cakes on the cruise ship. And by ‘catch the end’ I mean we walked up as everyone was in line to sample the end result.

Derek and I split the thin piece.

It was ok. Neither of us are big cherry fans so we weren’t the best critics.

With time to kill, the two of us headed to the top deck to watch our ship pull into the Nassau port.

We were a little scared with the gloomy dark clouds, but they seemed to disperse as soon as we docked. We got very lucky!

Our excursion was suppose to meet on the dock at 12:45, so we decided to go ahead and take advantage of the free lunch on board.

I was excited to try the Passage to India portion of the lunch buffet.

I filled my plate with a sampling of the indian selections as well we a veggie filled salad.

I also had a small bowl of Chilled Pineapple Soup, which seemed like a good idea, but was not great at all.

I had a couple spoonfuls, but threw most of it out.

Check out Derek’s first plate of his lunch feast.

See all the pickles? hehe

He also went back and had a big plate of salad as well.

At first Derek and I were not planning on doing any shore excursions and just explore Nassau on our own, but once on board we both decided it would be fun to partake in the Stingray & Snorkeling Adventure.

We met our group on the dock where we were banded and corralled to another boat.

The second boat then took us on a very slow 30 minute ride to a small island with a secluded beach and lots of sun.

The swimming with stingray portion of the excursion was actually a pretty amusing set up. They basically had caged a couple dozen sting rays in a portion of the beach for us to swim with.

All the stingrays had had their stingers removed and are hand fed by groups of tourist twice a day.

I think Derek and I pull off the snorkel look, don’t you think?

Heading to the water!

At first the stingrays were a little boring just to stare at. I mean it was cool to be floating above them, but after a couple of minutes of seeing stingrays and sand I was a little bored. Luckily it was about to get interesting.

The guides lined all of the snorkelers up along the shore and gave each of us a handful of fish bits to feed the stingrays. The stingrays that were once running from us as we snorkel were now our best friends and weaving in and out of the crowd like puppies hoping to be fed and petted.

It was pretty cool to have the stingrays literally suck the food out of your hands. One stingray did get a hold of my pinky finger at one point. It didn’t hurt, but I was pretty much done had sticking my fingers near their mouths at that point.

After an hour of feeding the stingrays we headed to the other side of the beach to chilax in the sun.

I enjoyed a cookie I had slipped in my purse on the ship.

The clouds were starting to cover the sun again at this point, which made for perfect napping weather. Derek and I both passed out and when we woke up the ship had returned to take us back to the dock.

On the way back I snacked on a pear I had grabbed at lunch.

The tour boat dropped our group off on the dock where the typical shops were set up to sell cruise patrons as much Bahama theme junk as possible.

We had time to kill so Derek and I decided to roam the shops and see how great our bartering skills were.

Apparently mine suck. I tried desperately to bargain for one of the many knock off Coach bags on display, but no one would go under $40. I refused to pay too high and went home bagless. Oh well…

I did manage to barter for a cute frame that will hold a beach picture from our trip.

I also could not resist a scoop of Espresso Chip Ice Cream from an Ice Cream shop we walked buy.

I want to say that Derek and I split this, but it was more like Derek had two or three bites and I demolished the rest. It was the perfect treat to enjoy in the hot island sun.

Saturday was our formal night and both Derek and I were very excited to play dress up for the evening. I love any excuse to wear a pretty dress and was especially excited to show off this new number I picked up at Gap for 50% off.

Look… POCKETS!

Love it!

My date was pretty sexy himself in his suave suit.

We took some formal photos, then headed to the tail end of the Captain’s Cocktail party.

I managed to grab a free glass of champagne from one of the cocktail carrying waiters.

Me like the champagne!

When the shindig ended I made friends with the Captain.

We’re tight now. He asked if I wanted to steer the boat into our next port, but I told him he could handle that job.

The formal celebration continued with dinner where I started with a nice glass of Shiraz.

I meant to only have one glass, but the couple at our table ordered a bottle of wine and kept refilling my glass. By the end of the night the bottle was gone and I was feeling very tipsy as I was explaining my blog to the table next to us. lol

But back to the actual meal.

My choice for bread this evening was a nice hunk of sweet cornbread.

I couldn’t not decided which starter to order, so I got two!

First up… the Orange Carpaccio.

This was good! I would never have paired the citrus with feta and red onion, but the combination worked well together.

Next, I had to have the Escargot.

Nothing is better then butter drenched snails. Yum!

Derek had never tried escargot before, so I left him try a bite.

He like it and actually had a second one on top of the first!

On past cruises I have been on lobster is usually the star of the formal night meal. Sadly, that was not the case on this ship. I made a pouty face on the lack of lobster, but did order the Eggplant Mozzarella Tower.

It reminded me of deconstructed eggplant parmesean.

There may not have been lobster on the menu, but there was souffle for dessert!

I LOVE souffle and only ever get it on cruises. I was very happy to order it and enjoyed every single bite.

Yum!

Derek and I enjoying our meal.

I became very talkative and friendly after so many glasses of wine, so I had no problem asking the table next to us to take a picture of our table that evening.

This is the point where I started jabbering on with our neighbor table about all things life and blog. I hope I didn’t make too much of a full of myself.

After dinner there was a comedy show we wanted to catch. Derek and I had fun with the camera as we waited for it to start.

I would love to go into detail of the comedian and the jokes, but as soon as the lights went out so did I. I happily snoozed as everyone in the crowd laughed and giggled. It was a nice evening nap that left me refreshed for the midnight buffet pool party going on upstairs.

I was still full from dinner and could not believe how much food people were shoving on their plates as they walked from table to table.

I happened to catch a girl with a big bowl of gummy bears and even though I was full, suddenly had a craving for a couple. I managed to find the gummy bears stashed at the ice cream sundae display.

I had a couple sans ice cream.

Somebody however had no problem partaking in the full sundae set up.

There is something about being surrounded by a couple thousands of strangers that just makes you want to get up and dance.

I hopped on the dance floor and quickly learned the choreography to ‘Hot, Hot, Hot’ Nothing is more fun then making a fool of yourself on camera.

Of course there’s can’t be a pool side dance party without someone bringing out the limbo stick!

Don’t worry I wasn’t the only one making a fool of themselves.

The camera goes both ways!

I think it was time to call it a night at this point.

Stay tuned for Part III at Coco Cay in the Bahamas!

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