2018 Florida and Bahamas - Day Five - Hello Nassau!

January 16, 2018

Hello Nassau!  We woke up this morning with the intention to turn on the $10 per day call plan that AT&T has.  It was a good thing that we did.  The excursion that I had booked to do with Jeff had been cancelled due to weather conditions (high winds, rough seas) and they were trying to get a hold of us.  I was able to text them to let them know that I had received their messages.  So what to do now?  Denise and Michelle had booked an excursion off the boat to see the top 10 things in Nassau.  So they were covered.  Jeff and I decided to wander off the boat to see what the Bahamians had to offer.  After a good walk off the pier (5 cruise boats were here), we were bombarded with men wanting to give us a tour of Nassau.  Jeff was pretty quick to decide to do it.  The price was half of what Denise and Michelle paid and seemed to cover a lot of ground.  It turned out to be a pretty good tour, but pretty quick.  Maybe 2 hours is all long.  I think Denise and Michelle's was for over 4 hours.  I'm writing this as I wait for them to get back.

The tour took us through Nassau.  The country\city is a bit scary.  Seems old, run down and so on.  Pretty sad.  We saw their government buildings, hospitals, etc..  Then we went to Atlantis, which was on Paradise Island.  Rooms or very expensive there.  To have a day permit to use the amenities...$190.  Mikey Jackson used to pay $15k per night for his little room over the arch here!  All over priced.  We were dropped off so we could go through the casino...time enough for Jeff to drop $20 on 2 penny slots.  He was teaching me how gambling worked.  He did a great job!  We were also taken to a park that stared at the stars homes across the water.  We went to the Queen's Staircase where I swear the driver said 600 slaves created.  That would be about 1 brick per slave as the staircase was not that long or big!  Anyway...the funny thing was that in many of the stops we found Denise and MIchelle.  They were seeing many of the things that we were seeing.   I'll find out later if they saw more than us.  I'm sure they did.

Jeff and I came back to the boat.  I decided to get some 'Mongolian BBQ'.  Jeff went for the awesome looking burgers they have here.  Jeff could have eaten 20 of those burgers in the time it took to get my noodles seared!  Holy smokes...30+ minutes in line to get my veggies cooked and there were only 6 or so people in front of me.  Very slow!  But it gave me time to visit and learn about other people in line.  I kind of like that part of the cruise...speaking with people I do not know.  Drives Denise crazy.

Pictures:

Pretty picture of harbor at Nassau...cloudy, windy day.

Atlantis casino and resort....

Fort at Queens Staircase....

Distillery Tour...a couple of drunk ladies.

Shelling Conk....

Chickens at the distillery...

Pretty flowers...

2018 Florida and Bahamas - Day Four - Freeport, Bahamas (Paradise Cove)

January 15, 2018

Hello Freeport!  Love sleeping in a dark cabin on a boat.  Pretty nice.  Nonetheless, I was awake at 6 AM.  I don't know.....body just programmed to be up then I suppose.  I laid in bed pondering life and what this day would be like.  It turned out to be really nice.  

We met Jeff and Michelle at 7:45 AM to get some breakfast.  3 of us went to the omelet bar.  Pretty good omelet filled with massive amounts of stuff!  After eating, we headed off the boat to catch our ride to Paradise Cove.  The ride was fun, led by 71 year old Nathan Parker.  He has lived his whole life here and has been doing this driving job for 20 years. The ride took us through main towns of Freeport.  It is apparent that the economy struggles here.  Lots of folks just meandering around.  Buildings half built.  Apparently there was a hurricane in 2016 that caused a lot of damage and they are till recovering from that.

The ride to Paradise Cove took about 25 minutes.  Upon arriving we were greeted by folks who checked us in and made sure we had paid.  Once we had done that, we were given 'snorkeling' instructions on safety and where to go.   It was a pretty long swim out to the best part of the reef.  But it was well worth it.  Once Jeff and I got out there, the terrain turned from sea grass to a coral wall that dropped off pretty good.  There were tons of fish...very friendly fish that followed you around kind of begging for chum...I guess.    The depth was probably anywhere from 20' to 40' in some areas.  I thought it was really nice.  We snorkeled for a good hour or morel.  But the surf was a bit rough due to the windy conditions.  And it was tough to walk on the rocky parts as you left and came from shore.  Jeff, with his damaged foot, lost his balance and feel three or four times.  But I'm sure he would say it was worth it.  I did have my GoPro with me so I hope the videos I took are ok.

At about 12:30, we decided to take the shuttle back and go just enjoy the ship.  I had French fries on the brain.  So once we arrived, off we went to get some.  Turns out that Guy Fieri has featured the burger stop on these lines.  They looked really good. One burger type is bacon made into a big patty...no beef!  I think Jeff had that one.  We did get a couple of tacos (pork and fish).  Both really good.  But the French fries were exactly what the doctor ordered for me.

After grabbing a quick bite, Jeff, Denise and I went up to the Serenity Deck to see if there were hot tub openings.  No cigar there.  But we did lounge a bit and just enjoyed the sun and cool air.   Michelle stayed on land in the shops seeing if Freeport could fit into her suit cases.  :-)

Dinner tonight was formal night.  Surf and Turf it was for me.  Great food.  The entertainment was pretty impressive technically.  The singers, girls good, one guy is pretty bad!  But nonetheless, entertaining.  After the show, we got out of our nice clothes into something that let the food expand better in our stomachs, went to the Spencer's room and played some cards...Hearts and Fingers.  Denise won both times.  Tomorrow, more snorkeling!

Pictures:

Lots of unfinished houses like this as we drove in Freeport...

Some colorful shops for selling stuff.  We must be in the slow time...not a single one open.

Our destination for the day.....

Fun to be with my gorgeous wife vacationing....although I am having to share her with her sister!

Denise and Michelle....

Jeff and Michelle....You can see the rock formations out in the water.  We had to navigate around the buoys (just above Jeff's head) to the right and head out to those rock formations.  Once you arrived there, the depth dropped from 2' to 4' to 20' to 40' with much warmer and clearer water.  Unfortunately, the walk out there was pretty painful with tender feet like mine.   And Jeff, with his bad foot, stumbled a few times and fell.  I thought he'd be all bloodied up ready for shark chumming...but he came up ok each time.  Anyway...It was a pain to get to the reef but pretty awesome once there.

Shopping area by cruise boat where we met our bus driver....

The standard cruise affair of folding your towels into scary animals....

The harbor...

Paradise Cove....

When we got on the boat.  I think Denise boot legged this one.

2018 Florida and Bahamas - Day Three - Off to the Bahamas We Go!

January 14, 2018

Today is Sunday and it turned out to be a nice day of rest.  While at Epcot, I suggested to Jeff to call Alamo and see what it would cost to drop the car in Port Canaveral.   After speaking its corporate and getting a very high quote, he called Alamo at the port.  They said to extend the car and drop it there, it would only be $75.  That was an amazing price.  To go to the airport at a reasonable time, we would pay for another day plus $15 per person to catch a shuttle.   When we arrived at Alamo, Jeff went in and in the end, he got the car for the whole week for $139...much less than previously quoted.  We were amazed!

Anyway, we had a lazy morning as a result.  No hurry to get to anywhere.  The drive to the port was about 1.5 hours long going on non toll roads.  We really got to see the country side.  

We arrived at 1 PM and were on the boat by 2 PM.  

We went right to our room and dropped what luggage we had and headed up to get some lunch.  Naturally, we ate too much!

Just before we started to leave, I started getting texts from my good friend Steve Eaton.  He and his wife Karen drove to the pier to wave to us as we departed.   And lo and behold, we actually saw each other and waved.  It was nice that they would do that.  I'm sad that we did not get time to be together this trip.  But maybe next time.

Well, after the whole muster thing, off we went feeling colder than when we cruised from Seattle to Alaska!  It was so windy and cold.  We have been praying that the trip south would warm the air and the water.  We shall see.

Dinner time (6 PM) was upon us quite quickly.  The service and food was quite good.  Fun again to be able to choose a couple of Menu items for each course.  Thank goodness portion sizes are small.

After dinner, we went into the main entertainment place and watched people do silly stuff.  They had a single woman dance class, a men against women question answer thing and so on.  Eventually, we went back to Michelle and Jeff's cabin to play some cards (Hearts).   I think I won...but don't tell any of them.  At 10:15, we went off to watch the opening night production.  It was ok...nothing to shake a stick at.  About 11 PM....I was tucked in bed trying to go to sleep which was not easy since my stomach was rolling a bit.  I ate way too much lunch and dinner.  I won't do that again!

Pictures:

Nice condo in Kissimmee...

Our boat taken by my friend Steve who was on the pier....

The guy in the white shirt is me with Denise by me....

Boat photos....

Coast Guard escort...makes me remember of Dustin's days in the Keys....

Michelle's snorkeling mask.  Looks like I'm going to the moon!

Inside photos of the ship...

Elevator shaft....

2018 Florida and Bahamas - Day Two - Epcot Center

January 13, 2018

I’m doing my blog using voice  controls standing in line to get on Soarin at Epcot.  I will describe our day at Epcot little bit later.

Sleeping was horrible last night. Denise gave me a sleeping pill and I believe the sleeping pill caused me to get a very dry mouth.  The same happened last night on the airplane.  So at 2:30 AM I woke up to use the restroom and had a real hard time going back to sleep.  But, I eventually fell back to sleep and woke up around 8 AM.   Now back at our condo, food is a bit scarce.  We ate snacks for breakfast, which was perfectly fine.  I ate pretzels filled with peanut butter.  I'm not sure what Denise ate.  Michelle and Jeff get their systems going by drinking prune juice (Dr Pepper) as their morning breakfast juice. 

Jeff decided this morning that his legs and feet were not doing well. They were really swollen.  So he decided to stay home. Denise, Michelle and I all came to Epcot center to enjoy the day. Fortunately I put in extra clothes, some long pants and a long shirt. What a blessing that is been. It is really cold here today lots of clouds and small winds.  At the end of the day, it was 47 degrees.  Pretty cold here.

Upon arriving at Epcot center Michelle decided that she would get one of the jazzy scooters taking around the park. That has been pretty fun to watch.  Park attendees did not know that they should have taken insurance out with her driving this thing.  I've seen it hit two walls, a couple of poles keeping lines in order and so on.  Definitely a crazy driver she has been but giving us all some really fun laughs along the way. 

Epcot center is a slow pace as you go from country to country around this lake. We’ve enjoyed staying warm by watching all the cool movies\shows that each country has.  For lunch, we had burgers and hot dogs.  Yes...go figure with all the good foreign food around, that is what we ate.  So embarrassing.  But, it was better than what Jeff was eating.  He had no car back at the condo.  So he was surviving on Buffalo Pretzels, cheese crackers and Dr. Pepper.  He was still alive though when we returned back.  

One of the fun things that Denise and Michelle did was to go into the various shops, seek out hats pertinent to that country and then put the on and get pictures.  In Canada, we saw some cool hats that the 'Cast Members' were wearing.  But the guy said they no longer sell them.   He offered his hat to them but after I said she had head lice, he retracted his offer.  It was pretty funny watching his young face.

Naturally, cold and all, we closed the park down watching the big show over the lake.  It was a really fun day in many ways, more so than I'd ever admit in public.  Tomorrow...cruise day.  We're all kind of excited about that!

Pictures:

The scooter lady!  (Way too much fun!)

Hats around the world...you decide what country they are in.  And ignore the photo bomber in the first pic!

Ok....I caved in for one hat pic.  Don't tell anyone!

Some shots around Epcot....

My Morrocan belly dancer!

2018 Florida and Bahamas - Day One - Sea World

January 12, 2018

Wow...another year, another trip.  Denise and I are now traveling with her sister (Michelle) and brother-in-law (Jeff) to Florida and then to the Bahamas on a Cruise on their ship named Liberty.  Jeff and Michelle came to Florida on Tuesday evening, arriving to Florida in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday.  They did a two day pass to Universal for Wednesday and Thursday.  Denise and I got on a plane Thursday night arriving to Orlando at 5 AM Friday.  Jeff got the nod to perform his Uber role and pick us up.  Not fun for him.  Jeff and Michelle had rented a condo in Kissimmee which has 3 bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms.  It is nice for what we are doing.  Anyway, we crashed for a couple of hours...until about 9 AM.  We got up, got dressed and headed out to Sea World for our first adventure.  

Sea World turned out to be a nice day.  It was slower paced than most theme parks.   It had 3 or 4 crazy roller coaster like rides that Michelle and Denise enjoyed.  I rode on two of them...enough to get my stomach upset.  But the pace is slow because of all the fun sea life shows.  I'm always amazed to see what training has been done and how well these sea creatures perform.  The killer whale show and the dolphin show were the best.  Fun to watch them perform.

The weather was perfect.  It was over cast, so the sun was not bearing down on you.  It was in the 70's I would guess.  It sprinkled rain for about 30 seconds at one point.  It could have done more of that and I would have been happy.   Tomorrow, it is only supposed to be in the 60's...a bit cooler.  We intend to go to Epcot Center.  We shall see.

The park closed at 6 PM.  We decided to eat at a buffet for dinner.  Big mistake.  You eat too much and the food is just ok.  Nonetheless we did it.   We won't do it again.  

We came back to the condo, arriving about 8 PM.  We visited for about an hour and then Denise and I said 'Adios'...and off to bed we went.  We were shot.

It was a really nice day.  Fun being with Michelle and Jeff.  Denise and Michelle are like two school girls chatting all the way while walking from event to event.  They are going to have a lot of fun.  Jeff and I, we just walk slowly behind them wondering why we are in these places!  

Pictures:

Pretty average distance between the men and the theme park enthusiasts!  We were doing what you do at these places...walk and walk and walk, then wait and wait and wait.  Nice day though!

Me, Denise, Michelle and Crocodile Dundee (Jeff).  Where did we pick up the croc man?!?!

One of the crazy rides.  This opens up and you are pretty much laying face down, horizontal to the earth as you do all kinds of crazy stuff.  Naturally, I watched the crazies go on this thing.

Having way too much fun...

Killer Whale show was really nice.  I do really enjoy the shows watching how well trained these creatures are.  Pretty amazing.

Dolphin Show.....

Sea Lion High show....

There was a ride that took you into a penguin exhibit.  Although these guys were behind glass, the ride emptied you into an open air area where the temperature was 32 degrees and you could literally reach out and touch penguins.  There were a ton of the birds standing, swimming and so on.  Nice exhibit.

One of the roller coaster rides put some eye visual gear on your head.  I did ride this one.  The visuals were cool.  However, they needed to really slow the ride down!  The visuals took you beneath the sea in a wild, face paced roller coaster adventure.  But I just wanted to enjoy the sea, slowly!  Denise and Michelle rode it twice...one with the head gear, one without.

The ladies and Crocodile Dundee waiting for the show to start.  Great fun it was.