Carnival's Sensation - 4 day cruise to the Bahamas

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I will preface this entry in saying that this was one of my favorite vacations ever. It's possible I very likely learned the art of cruising and relaxing on this trip - or maybe I just needed a vacation THAT badly. Either way, it was my first bit of time off during a year that has brought many changes, including the purchase of my first home and the beginnings of my master degree.

Intinerary on Carnival Sensation's 4 day cruise:
Sunday (8/31) - 4PM - Depart Port Canaveral.
Monday (9/1) - 8-5PM - Freeport, Bahamas
Tuesday (9/2) - 8-5pm - Nassau, Bahamas (would have been 8am-6AM, if not for TS Hannah)
Wednesday (9/3) - At sea
Thursday (9/4) - Arrive 7AM to Port Canaveral.

Myself and Chris left Atlanta about 2:30am early Sunday morning (8/31/08) after a night out celebrating our friend's birthday. We made fairly good time, and I even managed to stay awake for most of the drive to keep him company! (A personal best I would top on the return leg.) We arrived into the Port Canaveral with time to spare, so we took the few minute drive down to Cocoa Beach to see Ron Jon surf shop and what all the fuss was about. 😊 It turns out the beach was packed. Since it was labor day weekend, there was even a surf competition!

Sunday was fairly uneventful, much of it was the standard exploration of the boat and remembering just how awesome cruise buffets are! Much of it was spent sleeping, after all, we'd stayed up all night driving and were exhausted!

Monday we arrived to Freeport, a new port for both of us. We'd booked the Peterson Cay kayak and snorkel excusrion, but it was cancelled due to Tropical Storm Hannah lurking a few hundered miles away and churning up the water. In a last minute decision (literally!) we opted for a catamaran sail and snorkel. The weather was beautiful, and it felt amazing basking on top of the vessel while we went out to sea. The reef we ended up on was fairly small, but good for the amount of time we had in the water. I was suprised at how shallow the water was that far from land... maybe 20 feet deep? Chris got some great pictures under the water too! Unfortunately, the water was choppy and the ride back not as pleasant as the movement made quite a few of us on the boat sea-sick. Chris fared ok, but I ended up matching him 1 for 1 from a previous cruise.

Tuesday was Nassau. We had another excursion cancelled on us that would have found us snorkeling on another beach and playing with stingrays, but it was cancelled as well. The time on shore was shortenened to returning by 6am on Wednesday to 5pm on Tuesday. This ended up being ok, but we were looking forward to an evening on shore. We'd hoped they would have shortened it to midnight instead. Upon arrival, we set out to find a place to develop our underwater cameras.. (we later choked when we realized we'd forgotten to ask the cost.. Walmart had spoiled us and Mr. Photo Nassau made a pretty penny.)
We took a Water Taxi to Paradise Island, not a bad way to spend $3 each way. It turns out there is always a story teller, and they are well worth the $1 tip. They point out items of interest as you pass and sometimes cultural tidbits about the bahamas. One of them went on and on about the 'powers' of conch meat in the male bahamanian's diet. Paradise Island is a private island with many celebrities homes on it, as well as the famous Atlantis resort. Rooms can cost around $700 nightly, with the 10 room 'bridge' suit going for $25,000 a night with a 4 night minimum. There is a casino, waterpark, 4 hotel buildings, shops, and I'm sure much more as a part of the development. We walked around for a couple hours even enjoying the aquarium inside one of the lobbys. After returning to Nassau we walked around the straw market where I picked up a wooden sculpture of a couple dancing for $13 as opposed to the $20 requested for it and also introduced Chris to Del Sol where we got a few things as well. (Del Sol has shirts that change color in the sun).

The rest of our time back on board the Sensation is a blur and I get my days mixed up. We devoured the molten chocolate cakes, lamb, and all types of goodies at the buffet, watched a Las Vegas style show (of which they were serious about the STRONG PG 13 rating!), and got mildly offended at the adult comedy show. (Well.. I did, it was just hilarious to Chris! LOL). At one part of the trip, we got chased out of the hottub by a freak rain shower, but that was the only rain we dealt with the entire time, and laughing as we carried our clothes to a dry area was one of my highlights of the trip. Wednesday we did spend more time in the pool as well as on the water slide and playing water wars launching balloons at each other. It was fun to be little kids again.

I can't wait for the next cruise..!

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Photos

Line dancers!
Chris and myself are line dancers, so it was fun to meet this couple dancing on the boat too!

Myself on CoCoa Beach, FL
It's just a few minutes drive down the road from Port Canaveral.

Photo op in the Freeport market area
There's a grouping of shops close to the port, but apparantly everything else is a short taxi ride away. We did a sail and snorkel excursion.

Water taxi guide
They all tell pretty much the same information.. but this one dwelled a bit on the 'powers' of conch meat..