Nassau Bahamas

January 2nd we arrived at the Bahamas very early.

I couldn't find a specific excursion that we were interested in so we decided to just adventure out to see what there was. We didn't realize that January 2nd is a HUGE holiday for the Bahamian people. They started a New Year's Parade at midnight that morning and it went strong until close to 11 AM!!! This parade was hard core, the costumes, the music, everything was spectacular. I can't imagine what it was like at midnight when it started because there was confetti ALL over the streets. These people can party!

I wish the cruise line had let us know about this celebration because everything didn't open until pretty much noon and we had to be back on the ship by 1:30 pm. Omar and I walked around town and found ourselves at the Governor's House at about 8 AM. We asked one of the policeman armed with his machine gun how far of a walk it was to Atlantis Hotel. He looked at both of us and said, "You look strong and healthy, it will probably  take you 20 minutes."

20 minutes later we were just getting to the HUGE bridge that went over the water. Tons of taxis passed us as we walked and tried to let them pick us up. On the bridge we flagged down someone to come take a picture of us. This will probably be a one time walk on that bridge for us.

It is not very easy finding the right way to go to get to the hotel once you get across the bridge, we had to ask people. In general the hotel is very nice. You can't see too much at the hotel without paying for a half/full day pass or be a patron of the hotel. We still got some nice shots.  I was not able to find online very easily how much it cost to buy a ticket to the water park. The cruise charged $160/pp, if you buy it at Atlantis it is $120/pp. I was so glad we didn't buy the tickets especially since the park doesn't open until like 10am-5pm.

Omar did $2 in slots - he didn't win anything - slots are actually VERY complicated to understand

We then took a taxi over to Fish Fry. Everyone recommended it. We waited for it to open by walking over to the beach. I was going to go swimming, but the water was FREEZING! That explained why we saw no one in the water.

The restaurant filled up quickly and service was poor. The for sure do everything on Island time. Omar ordered a red snapper fish, the whole fish fried and I got their conch salad which was to DIE for! Best conch salad ever.

We saw everyone going to a side stand to order these ice creams and so we decided to get one on the way back to the ship. They were so delicious. It was like a pina colada and strawberry daquiri ice cream or something.

We went to the straw market which everyone talks about needing to go see.  A lot of the shops were closed or just barely opening due to the holiday. But the ones that were open all really sold the same thing. We really didn't buy anything. I wasn't too impressed with the straw market, and would be okay skipping it next time.

When we were waiting in line to get back on the ship I asked the vendors nearby how much it was to go snorkeling and it was about $15 less than doing it through the ship. I think I will be doing that next time.

Bahamas total: $95 ($26 taxis; $34 lunch; $23 souvenir and ornament; $10 ice cream; $2 casino Atlantis)