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So today I managed to get up on deck in time to see us sail into the port of Nassau. The first thing I noticed was vivd colours of the buildings….we are definitely in the Bahamas! Even the port was a vivid banana yellow! Shame that the sky wasn't quite so vivid L We had an ok start with a few clouds, but during the day the clouds came in, and the heavens opened!
I chose to spend the day at the famous Atlantis Resort which was a 10 minute bus ride away. On the ride it was amazing to see how some areas of the island were seriously run-down, and yet these areas were only 2 minutes along the road from some of the most palacial houses I've ever seen.
On arrival at Atlantis we were naviagated through the shops and Casino to the pool area(s!) and climbing wall. Here I discovered I was only person doing the climbing, everyone else was off to swim with the Dolphins from my group! So, I got my trainers on and went a-climbing! The guys there were really helpful and gave me tips and hints on how to get up this thing, and I'm proud to say, on a first attempt,I reached the top!! (I also have photographic evidence coming in the post for you non-believers!) After this bit of exertion, it was time to counter-act it and sit by the pool. I found myself a spot and started reading my book. Unfortunatley I'd picked a spot next to a couple who like to talk….to everyone within 20 foot of them. So I heard there life story….and their son's and niece'st too for that matter. They were very nice people, but after an hour of small talk I excused myself to go get something to eat and see the rest of the resort. On my little wonder round I spotted the best water slide ever! You sit on a ring and float down from the top of a tower into a tube that is surrounded by sharks! This was pretty cool I thought, until a guy in scuba gear swam into the tank to do a spot of cleaning. This slightly ruined the illusion of plummeting into a tank of man-eating shark infested waters. But still, it was pretty cool! There were also numerous slides which gave everyone who came down them a wedgie because of the speed/drop combination, so I stuck to the lazy river for fear of loosing my bikini bottoms otherwise.
There hadn't really been any sun upto this point, mainly clouds filled the skies, but when on the lazy river, the heavens opened. Maybe it was a sign that I should stop being lazy. So I went inside to see what else there was to explore. Numerous expensive brand shops were inside, and with wet hair, flip flops and a kaftan, I didn't really feel the part for browsing, so I kept going into the casino. It's amazing, it was just like the ones in Vegas, but on a slightly smaller scale. Of course there were the visible addicts who were sat there chain smoking pressing away at the machines without even looking at them. The resort itself though was beautiful and I can see why it is as famous as it is. The interior decorating is amazing, and I've taken a few photographs, as that's better than me trying to explain it!
Moving through the casino I spotted the Aquarium entrance, and since most of this is walking through underwater tunnels I figured it was a good option until the rain stopped. There were stingrays, sharks (and I'm assuming these were harmless ones too) lobster, numerous fish species, and the biggest fish I've ever seen which apparently was a grouper….it looked like a big floating rock with eyes and big fat lips! Have a look at the photos….
After this I decided to head back towards the port incase of another downpour, but stopped off at the shopping street nearby first. Luckily it was only spitting at this point. Again, another sign of the mix of run-down /palacial things on the island: Gucci next door to the Bargain T-shirt store. I spotted a pair of earring that matched my bracelet that I wear to a tee, but $700 was slightly out of my price range for this trip!
Back on the ship, I decided to work off the lunch I'd had an headed to the gym. The trainer working in there happened to be from Nottingham, so he gave me an insight into what it was like for the crew working on the ship - it seems they are looked after pretty well. (The ship left at 2am that night, rather than the normal 7.30pm sailing time so the crew could have a few hours off in Nassau which I think was really good for them to have.) Speaking of English workers on the ship, there seemed to be bloomin' hundreds of them! The guy who does most of the activites including the gameshow type things was from England (and called "Pikey"….?) as were about another 3 or 4 from the enterainment team. A girl in the piano lounge came from Liverpool (or The Wirrel to be more specific) and then another barman by the pool was from Staines! There's more english people on this boat than I'd thought, and most of them are staff!
A quick shower later and it was time for the evening's show…Toy Story: The Musical. This had the input of Pixar and Jon Lassitor (the director of the original film) and it showed. It had the quality of the Disney shows that have been on Broadway, and the costumes for some of the toys were as clever as those used in the Lion King musical. There were new songs (the best being the one sung by "Sid" the evil kid, who happened to be the same actress that played Cruella De Vil the previous night), and the set/effects were amazing. Don't be surprised if this ends up on Broadway/West End soon!
Onto dinner #2, this time at Parrat Cay, a caribbean themed restaurant. Brian spotted me enter and came to greet me, looking dandy in his Hawaiin shirt tonight, and so I went to my table and met the others from the previous night. We had a lovely meal, chatting about what we'd been upto that day and our plans for the night and the next day. At the end of the meal, the Honeymoonning couple were presented which a big cake for them to take away which them….the sight of which made us all feel a bit ill after the amount we'd just eaten.
I headed back to Route 66 to see "The Wheel of Fortune" gameshow, and 2 of the girls from dinner, Brittany and Melissa came and joined in to. We were so fantastic at this (see my modesty here) that we actually one! I am now the proud owner of an "Event Winner" Disney Cruise flask. We stayed around for the next bit of enterainment which was a team game where you had to find things in the room as quick as possible. This ended up being hilarious when we had to find things like tattoo, men in bras and bellyrings. One woman had a bellyring herself, and was in a dress…..you can imagine what we saw! A bit of line dancing started afterwards, so we stayed long enough to get our cowboy hats, and then we were out of there! A last drink in the Cadillac Lounge again, and then offbed.
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