sweeetbea

I'm going to try & upload some pics of us at Sandals Beach, hope it works :cool:

Have not been able to figure out how to upload pics, here is link to my pics. Look for the ones at Sandals to give you an idea what the beach is like. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2096161&id=1284458887&l=7bcf063bf4

Thanks for the review!

 

My family (7 of us) are going for Christmas and are looking for inexpensive things to do as my sister is on a VERY limited budget. Your ideas look like a lot of fun!

 

I would love to see Atlantis' aquarium and we are in port until 10pm, we may just go after 6pm...

 

Thanks again!

Last year we were stopped at Atlantis every step of the way. This time we went around 4:30 pm and had absolutely no problem walking around. I was actually very surprised there was no one to stop as at The Dig. It was after 6 by the time we got to The Dig entrance .. guess we just got lucky this time round.

However, last year, our friends went earlier in the day (I'd say around 2 or 3 pm) and they had no problems getting into The Dig either & they did not pay anything to get in!

There are lot's of ways to explore Nassau inexpensively & have fun. Enjoy!:)

So I can just use the sandals beach and no one will say anything? Also, what is the straw market? Is it like a flea market? Thanks for the tips!

We got on the beach that Sandals Grand Bahamian Resort uses with no problems. :D

The security guy will advise that the beach is public & can be used and not to go past the pier/bridge, not to enter the actual Sandals property (where the concrete begins) & of course, not to use the beach chairs.

I did inquire if chairs could be rented & he suggested going front desk but we only planned on being there a couple hours to enjoy the water & lay in the sand, so it was not worth it to us to rent a few chairs.

The public access to the beach is 1/2 a block from the resort's entrance by the circle in the road (look for the beach access sign, look for the beach access signs along the road for other places to hop off the bus too). You just walk down the access road, go past a couple houses, and an apartment complex on the left side. On the right side of the road you'll see the building belonging to Sandals.

You'll walk what seems like 2 blocks to get to the beach itself. It does not look like much when you first get there, especially to the left side of the entrance but to the right side is Sandals. The water was an absolute delight, it felt just like being in a pool .. perfect for us cause we're not good swimmers. I'm going to try & upload some pics of us at Sandals Beach, hope it works :cool:

The Straw Market is basically a flea market. Lot's of fun items for purchase & lots of items made out of straw. You can see the Straw Market from the cruise ship -- look for the big white tent next to Senor Frog's. I did see there is construction going on for a building which is the future, permanent home of the Straw Market.

There's also lot's of shopping to do in the area where the Straw Market is located, if that's your thing.

You'll read much about vendors being very pushy. I have personally not experienced this in Freeport, Nassau or Paradise Island. Vendors will ask, I just smile and say thank and move on. If you want to experience pushy vendors & peddlers ... go to China (esp. outside of the Forbidden City), holy crap! those were some pushy vendors!

This was my 2nd cruise ever .. so far, Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas & Carnival Sensation are my favorite :)! Ok, so they're the only 2 ships I've on to date, LOL.

Loved the Royal Caribbean experience but I'm also partial to it as it was a very memorable & unexpected, surprising romantic trip. Carnival Sensation had too much competition in respect to RRC but I did enjoy the ship.

Loved our interior stateroom much more than Monarch's. The bathroom was heaven compared to the one on Monarch .. it was actually large & you can move around in the shower! Good points for Carnival Sensation on both stateroom & bathroom.

Thank goodness for the security briefing RCC gives, this prepared me for all future cruises as Carnival's security briefing sucks! Not very informative at all. Both ships are very comparable but as far as atmosphere, service, entertainment .. RCC wins. I did enjoy the water park on Carnival Sensation which was the 1 thing RCC does not have.

For my very 1st cruise last year, I pretty much went blind .. did not do any research at all for the ports. This time I researched as this would be our 2nd time to Nassau & Coco Cay was not a port of call this time round (really loved Coco Cay!).

We're shoe-string travelers, so shore excursions booked from ship is not for us .. plus, they are way too expensive! From doing some research on the internet, I found that the port of Freeport has nothing to offer & it is best to book an excursion or find transportation elsewhere.

Best advise I found: take the $5 jitneys to Our Luyaca, so that's what we did. Super easy to find the jitney's at port. Our driver dropped us off at the casino & pointed us in the direction to beach access. We spent a delightful few hours at the beach enjoying the water & sand. Later we shopped for a bit at the colorful Port Lucaya Marketplace.

We did not eat at Our Lucaya as we had ordered sandwiches from our ship which we took with us .. but did see a number of cute places to try the marketplace.

Overall, great day at Our Lucaya. Would like to try some other beaches next time, esp. the one at the national park. FYI: Catch the $5.00 jitney's back to the ship right at the marketplace. Not bad for a $10 per person day! :)

We had been to Nassau last cruise (last year), so we had already seen the straw market, shopping area & a little bit of Atlantis.

This time I had read about the $1.25 public bus # 10 from Downtown to Cable Beach (pick-up at the corner of W. Bay St. & George St. near the Straw Market or walk all the way to the McDonald's/Dunkin Donuts across from the Hilton British Colonial on W. Bay St.).

This was a great option and cheap! There are many stops to get off the bus for beach access. We asked the driver to recommend a stop and he dropped us off at the beach access that is shared with Sandals Grand Bahamian Resort. You won't be able to use the Sandals facility but the beach is for public use. The water here was heaven! Just like a pool .. totally worthwhile.

We stayed and enjoyed for a while before taking the bus back to downtown. Did some shopping and then back to ship for late lunch & to freshen up before taking the $3 water taxi to Atlantis.

We got lucky this time at Atlantis, it's huge and I'm sure we only covered maybe a 3rd of the property. We were able to walk thru the Coral Towers to the Conference center and somehow ended up finding a tunnel (next to the HIBISCUS LAGOON) that leads to the beach & no one bothered us. We walked around quite a bit and no one bothered us -- last year we got stopped at every turn!

We absolutely loved the Reef Lagoon, the Stingray Lagoon & the Royal Ray Lagoon. We walked around the walkway that lead to Paradise Lagoon, finally got the casino (won $88 played with only $1.00) and we got to do The Dig this time (no one was charging when we got there & so we walked right in). Going back to the ship, we took a $4 taxi from Atlantis.

Overall, we paid less than $10 person for the day (and I won $88 to boot!)

- $1.25 each way to Cable Beach: $2.50 round trip total

- $3.00 per person water taxi to Atlantis

- $4.00 per person taxi from Atlantis back to ship.

Nice!