Quite possibly the longest Sensation review ever!

[VentureForth]

Facinating stuff. We've been to Nassau on RCL, but I'm a bit anxious about what to do in Freeport. We leave on the Sensation in 6 weeks!

[allenee]

Really enjoying your review.

 

Been on the Sensation and going again in December.

[arucruzn]

This thread is almost falling off to my 3rd page, so I am bumping it up!!!

I am anxiously waiting new posting, since I will be on Sensation in a few weeks. This is a great review !!!! Keep it up...

Any ideas on what to do in Freeport is also welcome... Been to Nassau more than I care to count, but figure we can do something new in Freeport?:confused:

[jleiwig]

After the tour of the city, he made is way back out to the cruise ship. We passed the newly built brewery where they brew Sands beer. Past the power plant spewing smoke into the air, and past the refineries and storage tanks finally back to the pier area. We enjoyed his little mini tour so much that we each tipped him $5 extra for it as we exited the van. A quick run through Bahamian “customs” and we were back on the pier headed toward the ship.

Since it was still fairly early, the photographers were still outside the ship. The wife and I took the opportunity to have our picture taken at one of the spots, since there would not be people in the background of the picture. We then entered the boarding area of the ship to wait our turn in the security line. My wife had some trouble with the metal detector due to some metal in her shoes, and they made me take off my hat and sunglasses again, but other than that a quick boing and we were back on the ship officially. We didn’t purchase any liquor this stop so we didn’t have to stop and check it in.

There was an elevator waiting for us, and it was at that point that I realized that only one elevator actually goes down to deck three. It is also dependent upon which side of the ship you are moored; if the ship is moored on the port side, then the first starboard elevator will go down to deck three, and vice versa. After figuring that out, we headed up to our staterooms to drop off our stuff, put our money back in the safe, and get ready for some lunch.

We had lunch again in the lido buffet, the theme for this meal was Mexican. The food again was good overall, but not outstanding. After lunch the in-laws wanted to go back to their stateroom for a nap, and my wife wanted to lay out by the pool and read a book. As we walked back past the pool, I realized there was no way I would be able to read with the music blaring like it was. It seems that they really turned it up loud in Freeport. I told the wife that I intended to stay in the stateroom and read a book, which needless to say left her less than thrilled.

[jleiwig]

She changed into her swimsuit and headed off to do her thing and I laid down and read a book until about 4:45 or so. My wife returned about that time and said she wanted to watch sail away from the harbor. We headed back up to the lido deck to sit in the aft area that overlooks the serenity deck. I took out our camera and realized I had left the battery on the charger in the stateroom. The wife ran back to the stateroom to get the battery while I held our spot at the table. What seemed like ages later, she returned with the battery and my mother-in-law in tow.

It turned out that my mother-in-law had not napped, but had decided to attend the Nassau shopping presentation in the Fantasia lounge. So she regaled us with what shopping she was going to do in Nassau. Apparently they had her believing that if the shopping guide was in the store then they were going to get better deals than if they tried to negotiate on their own, so she was going to be shopping for a lot of jewelry on the island and had marked out four specific shops she planned on purchasing jewelry in.

We were moored directly across the pier from the Bahamas Celebration. While it was an older looking ship, it appeared sea worthy and the people on the deck were having fun. I have no idea about other areas of the ship, but the deck area looked really nice.

At that point I was really hot, tired, and had a slight headache. I asked my wife to get me a soda from the bar right inside the double doors and she refused saying that it was closed since lunch was over. I normally would have gone and gotten it myself, but we had decided just to buy the unlimited soda sticker for her card only, so she had to go get the soda. Ten minutes later after watching about twenty people come and go some with ice cream cones and others with drinks I again asked her if she would go get me a soda since it was obvious they were not closed. After arguing back and forth for a couple more minutes she finally relented and went and got me a soda.

[jleiwig]

Of course this put me in a bad mood, and it put her in a bad mood because no one likes to admit when they are wrong. So we sat there with her mother and waited for the sail away in silence. Right on time, we saw more than felt the ship begin to move away from the pier. The side thrusters imperceptibly pushed us out into the middle of the harbor where we did a slow 360 degree turn to point us out of the harbor into the channel. When the props kicked into gear that was a small shudder from cavitation, but it soon leveled out and off we went. Following us out of the harbor was a large container ship that was interesting to watch the two tug boats work a carefully orchestrated dance to get the ship into the channel without running asunder.

We watched Grand Bahamas Island and Freeport retreat into the distance for probably ten minutes, then decided that it was time to return to our staterooms to get ready for elegant night. My wife showered first since it would take her longer to do her hair and put on her makeup. I showered after her, and I was having difficulties getting my tie to look right. I finally got so frustrated that I ripped the tie off and said I wasn’t going to wear it. Of course this lead to argument number two of the day, and elegant night was not off to a shining start. We headed off to pick up her parents for her stateroom when I realized I had forgotten my wedding band.

Still being less than happy I told her to give me the stateroom key, and then took it without saying anything else. I ran back to the room to get my ring and decided to try once again to get my tie looking just right. I finally succeeded with a perfectly executed full Windsor knot that looked stunning if I do say so myself. As I was walking back up to the atrium I saw my wife and her parents up on the Atlantic deck and heard my wife say that if he wants to be a baby and stay in the stateroom we’ll go to pictures and dinner without him.

Being deeply hurt by hearing this and still mad, I decided to duck up the stairway to the promenade deck. I got up to the promenade deck and sat down at a bench by the window near the café. As I sat there pondering life, love, and marriage I saw many nicely dressed couples with women in cocktail dresses and men in suits and ties. I got more depressed and hurt watching them all take what I assumed were wonderful pictures together, so I decided to head down towards the dining room and wait in the atrium for my wife so that we could set things right and try to salvage the night. I waited out in front of the Fantasy dining room for about fifteen minutes and never saw them.

[jleiwig]

I decided to get in line for the dining room and when it came my turn with the hostess I saw my wife and her parents already eating. I became so mad at this point that I told the hostess I wanted a table for one as I would be dining alone this evening, and even though they were clearly uncomfortable by my choice since the rest of my party was already seated and dining, the accommodated my request. I was seated next to a nice young couple who appeared to be on their honeymoon. I ordered the baked stuffed white mushrooms for my appetizer and the tender roasted prime rib of American beef au jus.

I honestly have to say that neither was really that good, but it could have been the mood I was in. The prime rib was mostly fat all over, with very little edible meat. I thought that the flat iron steak I had the previous night seemed to have a better flavor and the au jus sauce was just really off putting to me. I should also mention that service on this side of the dining room was horrible, and I’m not sure if it’s because I was dining alone or what, but I only had my water glass refilled once the whole time I was in the dining room that evening, and that was only after I had to ask for it. The waiter also never brought the dessert menu out to the couple next to me, only asking them if they wanted the featured dessert of the evening.

As I was finishing up my steak, my wife decided to show up and tried to have a conversation with me. I was still really hot at this point and did not want to make a scene in the dining room so I told her I wasn’t interested in speaking to her at that time. Of course that didn’t work for about 5 minutes as we had this same conversation over and over again. She finally told me that if I wanted to stay married to her that I had better come out into the atrium and speak with her. I told her to leave as she was making a scene. The nice young couple beside me were obviously uncomfortable, and if your reading this I apologize now.

My wife finally left and I ordered the warm chocolate melting cake for dessert. Now that is a dessert I could get used to every night! As I was finishing up my dessert, my wife returned again and stood there. I finally asked her if she would like to sit and she did. I told her to order food if she wanted and after she ate we would talk about things if she liked. Of course she refused to order food saying she was too upset to eat, so I just sat and stared at her. She finally decided to order something after the waiter asking her a third time if she would like to order something. Luckily the nice couple next to us had beat feet out of there, so we could discuss things in a semi hushed tone.

[jleiwig]

By the time she was finished eating, things were going in a somewhat better direction so we decided to get our picture taken together. The only one I was interested in was the picture of us on the stairway, which was the only one we took. After that we retreated to the seclusion of the funnel deck and sat on a bench directly behind the whale tail. We hashed out our problems and just agreed that we were different people. We each had different issues, but basically it boils down that sometimes we neglect each other and each others feelings. Moral of the story is that even though it may seem like a problem, don’t be pig headed and ruin cruise elegant night for your wife and the couple seated next to you regardless of who’s right or who’s wrong or who’s feelings are hurt.

We finished off the evening by visiting the internet café because something had happened with our tour we had booked through Island Marketing LTD. We had booked the taste of Nassau historical island tour through Island Marketing LTD, and either they never sent a confirmation or my mother-in-law mistook it for spam or something and deleted it. That point is still debatable at this juncture with no hard evidence either way.

Anyway…after spending $30 for 30 minutes online looking at their site for a phone number and on the forums for a phone number to attempt to call someone, we gave up and decided to just get off the ship as soon as possible and try to find out some information in port. We retired to the room and decided to share the chocolate and strawberry plate that my wife had ordered for me for sweetest day.

We set the alarm for 7:00 am as that was when the ship was supposed to dock in Nassau and fell asleep, ending this less than perfect evening. We awoke to the alarm, looked out the window and we were already in Nassau and it was raining! People seemed to already be exiting the ship, but since it was raining, we didn’t rush to get showered, dressed and headed to the buffet for breakfast.

We ate breakfast, and then once we made sure that the father-in-law actually had the required documentation to get off and back on the ship, we were ready to go off the ship. We were docked at the first pier, closest to Festival Place. The Glory was docked next to us, backed into her berth, and later in the day, the Triumph would appear as well. We didn’t waste time figuring out the right elevator this time around and just took the elevator down to the fourth deck and then the stairs down to the third deck.

[jleiwig]

When we got off the ship we were once again hounded by the photographers, but who would really want their picture taken in the rain? We bypassed that and started walking in the rain to Festival Place. It’s a pretty good walk in dry conditions, but in the rain it seemed much longer to get to immigration. Right outside of Festival Place/Immigration is where the taxi hawkers started. I was surprised that they were let out onto the pier, but I guess they must have paid a fee or some other sort of bribe to get out there.

Inside Festival Place we headed directly to the information desk, which is the first thing you see when you enter the building. Of course no one there had ever heard of the tour or of Island Marketing. Finally someone told us to ask another guy who was on the phone. Once he was off the phone we repeated our story, and he said the only thing he could recommend was to check outside the gates down where the “union” guys were. This was a bit confusing at first, but apparently the taxi drivers have some sort of informal “union” run by a select few.

We walked past all the hawkers, out past the horse drawn carriages, and down the sidewalk a bit near where the police had a small stand on the sidewalk. No police were in site, but we asked every tour operator along the way if they knew of this tour or of Island Marketing. No one knew anything, and one of the “bosses” of the “union” said that if such a thing existed he would know about it. About that same time we ran into a nice lady who ran the excursions for the port authority. She seemed to be an American lady, but she was working for the Bahamian government per her badging. She also had never heard of anything.

At this point everyone but I was thinking we had been swindled out of our reservation and that this didn’t actually exist. Since I had read about others taking this tour, I thought the mistake had been on our end, but I was still genuinely surprised that no one had heard of it. I did kind of get the feeling that if I had slipped someone a five or ten dollar bill I would have had the information I needed. All of Nassau seems like that really, a somewhat shiny veneer over a very seedy exterior.

[jleiwig]

So with all hopes of a tour dashed, we were sitting along the seawall trying to come up with a plan of things to do. With no other information available to me (I had left it at home since we decided on this tour), we decided to just look at the shops around the pier. At that moment the rain decided to stop and a rainbow appeared. We got some great pictures of the rainbow, where it looked like it ended right on the deck of the Sensation.

We first tried to locate Starbucks because my wife and I wanted some good morning drinks. We went back and forth along the edge of the street following signs that pointed one way and then another. Finally after asking the third shopkeeper where it was she told us that they were closed, and either were moving to a new location, or closed permanently. She wasn’t sure which. Another great blow to the morale, but still undeterred we marched on. We stopped in the Harley store and I got my t-shirt and shot glass. We checked out all the small shops along the pier and then headed up to Bay St. where all the major shops were located.

Now if you’re a shop-a-holic then at that point you were probably in heaven. Directly across from us was John Bull which carried all the more affluent brands such as Rolex and Cartier and such. Up and down the street were about 50 different jewelers, with smaller tourist shops sprinkled in liberally. The mother-in-law hit her first jewelry store of the morning and the wife wanted to check out the cosmetics store at the end of the building that had MAC and other brands. I was just happy to get into some AC because the rain had made things downright steamy.

We exited the cosmetics store and headed back towards the first jewelry store, but the in-laws were no where to be found. We wandered around a bit and finally found them in the Diamonds Intl. store next to John Bull. My mother-in-law was negotiating for a pair of earrings for her daughter-in-law for Christmas, and I believe she had her down to $250. The Carnival shopping guide stepped in at that moment, whipped out his big loupe, and said $220. The clerk agreed, and my mother-in-law bought them.

[1timecruiser]

OMG...I am laughing hysterically at your review, as I appreciate the honesty and wit that you are detailing so vividly. I have had my share of "issues" while on vacation with DH, so I know how things can get out of hand and overblown quickly. I'm glad that you were able to sort it out by the end of Elegant night, but I have to admit eating dinner alone was a bit much but very funny.....:p

 

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review....

[Two-Step]

It turns out that they were already up and were almost ready to go. We headed over to their stateroom. When we got there, my mother-in-law said she had gotten the note under the door, but couldn’t understand who would have wanted them to meet for drinks. As the southerners would say it was a bless her heart moment, along with a silent thought as to what nursing homes were available upon our return.

 

 

:) Belly laugh thanks!!! :D

[jleiwig]

Now I don’t know much, but I doubt the earrings were $750 to begin with, and I also don’t think that the shopping guide helped out all that much. Honestly I think it’s all more of a smoke and mirrors thing to sucker gullible people into impulse purchases. It seemed to me to have all the markings of a sleazy used car salesman type deal. In the end, the mother-in-law was happy and that’s all that matters. They moved on to the next jewelry store in line and the wife and I headed to the next touristy shop.

We asked the shopkeeper where we could find a restroom and a cold bottle of water, and she told us to head to Subway on the corner of the next block. Well there was no Subway shop there, but there was an ice cream shop, and next to that was a Bahamas Subs shop. We went into the Bahamas Subs shop and lo and behold it was indeed a Subway. They had a few items that were different, such as sweet Hawaiian bread for the subs and jerked chicken, but other than that it was like the millions of other Subway shops in America. We paid for our bottles of water first since they wouldn’t let us use the restroom without a purchase, and then made our way back to find the in-laws.

On the way back I noticed the pirate museum another block up. I had really wanted to visit this attraction since it sounded neat, but the wife vetoed that as she didn’t want to waste $12 admission on silly pirates. The in-laws had made their way to another Diamonds International shop down the block (I think there were 4 total in a 3 block area) We skipped out on that and moved on down to the duty free liquor shop. Along the way we passed what is to become the new straw market. The building was very impressive in size and stretched a whole city block back down to the pier. They were sheathing the room this day. Next to the new straw market the temporary tent was still set up with the vendors. We went into the straw market from this side and I must say it was quite an experience.

The vendors were packed into this tent like sardines. There was hardly enough room to walk down the isles and if someone stopped to look at something the whole line stopped. I didn’t see anything even remotely interesting and to be honest, the straw market at Our Lucaya had more variety than this one did. I did notice that there were only a few vendors who had the purses out on display.

[jleiwig]

I guess we hit the market at their lunch or breakfast time because only a few were interested in trying to mob us. If you looked at something for a long time most everyone would say something to the effect of “You like that? I’ll make you a deal on it.” They would then start haggling with themselves, which I found amusing. One woman I just stared at while she haggled herself down to selling me a picture frame for $6 originally $12. I told her no thanks and she seemed to get really offended that I wouldn’t buy it at her best offer.

We moved on back out the backside of the market, now facing the pier. There wasn’t much to see in this area, so we cut back through the market in a different isle and made our way to the duty free liquor shop. Inside they had about a million Cuban cigars and all kinds of liquor. We were looking for something made locally that you didn’t usually see in the states. We settled on a bottle of Ole Nassau 151 rum. Back out of the shop we finally ran into the in-laws. The father-in-law had had about all his wallet could take of jewelry shopping, so they decided to buy a bottle of liquor to take back to their son and we headed back towards the pier. On the way back we stopped at the Tortugas store and purchased some rum cakes for us and bottle of spiced rum for some friends.

That being done we headed back through Festival Place and back to the ship. After we were screened through security, we had to tag our Liquor and get a receipt for it. They told us it would be delivered to our state room on the last night of the cruise. We headed up the elevator to our floor, went to our respective staterooms and deposited our purchases. We then headed up to the lido buffet for lunch. Caribbean was the theme of the buffet this day, and nothing looked appetizing to me so I decided to try out the Mongolian grill.

There were three choices of sauce and three choices of meats. The sauces were black bean, Szechwan, and another hot sauce I can’t recall. Meat choices were beef, chicken and salmon. I had the black bean sauce with beef and chicken. I also added broccoli, mushrooms and a bit of cabbage to it as well. I was excited to try it, but once I did I thought it just wasn’t that tasty. I settled for a piece of pizza and a grilled corned beef/pastrami sandwich on wheat with mustard and cheese from the deli.

[rkbeaux08]

Never been on the Sensations but felt like I was there. We went to Freeport and Nassau on the Triumph last Nov.

[mavis2222]

First a little about us. Besides myself, this trip included my wife, and her parents. We were driving to Port Canaveral from Southern Ohio. This was my first cruise and my wife’s 3rd or 4th cruise. Her parents have been on 7 cruises previously, but no one had been on a cruise in the past 10 years or so.

 

Our trip started out by leaving Ohio around 6 am, Saturday Oct 16th, with me behind the wheel. A thirteen hour trip was a head of us, as we were stopping in Lake City, Florida for the night. This would allow us a leisurely 3 hour drive the following morning to the port. A quick stop for breakfast at Mickey D’s and we were on our way down I-75 with my wife in the passenger seat, and the in-laws snoring in the back seats (this would be a recurring theme the whole trip)!

 

Due to the 70 mph speed limits, and a general lack of traffic that early in the morning we quickly made it through Kentucky and almost all of Tennessee by lunchtime. We stopped at O’Charley’s for lunch in Chattanooga, TN. It was here that I finally realized that I was on vacation! What made me realize this? I got my first Y’all of the day! There is something to be said for that southern hospitality, and having to remember when you ask for tea that it be unsweetened.

 

After a delicious lunch, and a quick check on the college football scores of the day, we were again on the road headed south. Georgia passed by with some interesting sights, including lots of cotton harvesting going on. None of us had ever seen anything like this, so it was neat to see. Georgia was also where we ran into our first traffic snag of the day. Georgia Tech was playing at home, so there was some minor congestion there. Add to that the normal crazy driving in Atlanta, and I thought my wife was going to hyperventilate. Naturally, the in-laws were snoring away in the back seat completely oblivious to the dangerous dance of man and machine going on around them (Again!).

 

We then ran into additional congestion in southern Georgia due to the Georgia National Fair going on this same weekend. This was also the first State Highway Patrol sighting in three states as well. A blessing or a curse of budget restrictions? Depends on your driving speed I guess.

 

Yep, I live less then 2 miles from the exit 277 north of Atlanta. I know Atlanta traffic well. I have to pass through downtown every time I go to Fla.

You guys passed right by where I live. (Acworth, Interstate goes over a bridge on lake near my house).

[jleiwig]

The in-laws again wanted to take a nap, so they headed back to their cabin. The wife and I agreed to sit out by the pool, as it seemed they had turned the music down a couple thousand decibels compared to Freeport. However when we were leaving the buffet, they were putting a cover over the pool and closing it down. When asked, no one knew why they were doing it or how long it would be closed. Even the officer in his fancy white uniform was less than helpful, just shrugging his shoulders and walking away.

We decided to head back to the cabin, where the wife quickly fell asleep and I read the rest of my book from the previous day. About 6 pm I woke the wife up for dinner and we called to see if the in-laws were ready. Turns out they were, so we again headed up to the Fantasy dining room. We again had Gianina from Peru as our waitress who was as awesome as usual.

For appetizers I had the fried mozzarella with mixed greens and the old fashioned chicken noodle soup. My wife and mother-in-law of course had the black tiger shrimp cocktail as usual. The father-in-law and mother-in-law had the assorted garden and field greens salad as well. For my main course the wife and I had the grilled chicken breast over fettuccine. The mother-in-law had the sweet and sour shrimp, and the father-in-law had the flat iron steak. For dessert the wife and I again had the warm chocolate, this time with a double order of ice cream. The father-in-law tried the tiramisu, and the mother-in-law did not order a dessert.

For once in the dining room I was completely amazed by all the food I ate. What I had of the mozzarella that my wife didn’t steal was very good. The chicken noodle soup was very good, and the fettuccine pasta was absolutely out of this world. I told Giannina that I wanted to have a copy of the recipe, but I don’t think that she thought I was serious as she never brought it.

We returned to our staterooms to get ready to go back out again since we would be docked until 6 am the following morning. We debarked again, stopping to take pictures of the ships now that they were all lit up in the darkness. We took the first taxi driver we saw on the pier up on his offer to take us to Atlantis as this is what my wife and I had been looking forward to the whole trip. After verifying that it was $4 per person, we walked out of Festival Place and waited while he brought his mini bus to pick us up.

[jleiwig]

The drive over to Atlantis was pleasant in that Nassau pretty much rolls up the sidewalks after 6 pm. There was very little traffic, and once we crossed the bridge over to Paradise Island it was a whole different world. Atlantis is very well illuminated at night, and the drive up to the entrance was spectacular with tons of lights dotting the path and highlighting the palm trees. The driver dropped us off at the entrance near the Pegasus fountain, and we stopped so I could capture a picture of my wife against the fountain.

Once we stepped through the doors of Atlantis it was like we were in a whole different world. To me it was very similar to stepping through the doors of the Bellagio in Vegas, but with a tropical flair. We took some pictures and made our way down the stairs where we encountered the Dig. We walked along the outside of the dig looking at the fish, where we came to a spot where there was a kiosk. No one was there and there weren’t any ropes blocking the way, so we entered into the Dig aquarium.

I have to say that this was the highlight of the Nassau trip so far. The Dig seemed to go on for a mile. We took more pictures here than anywhere else. Whom ever did the design for the Dig did a fabulous job coming up with other worldly designs. I would have to say that I would have paid to see this aquarium during the day, and it would have been worth the price of admission. We followed the Dig until it lead us out to the beach, where I took a picture of my wife with her toes in the sand for posterity.

We walked back through the Dig and through the gift shop of the Dig. Now talk about sticker shock! A simple brass ornament for our tree was $29, so we passed. The postcard that my wife bought was $2.50! We left the gift shop thinking that Atlantis obviously wasn’t the place for someone with limited funds. We entered the casino and that thought was proven correct. They had very little penny machines for the wife, and many of their slot machines were $1 or $5 slots. The tables seemed to be where the most action was, but I didn’t feel like wasting any more money.

[jleiwig]

We each gambled away $20, mine again going much quicker than the wife’s since I rarely play penny slots and usually stick to quarter slots if I’m playing them. I wandered around checking out the Dale Chihuly installations, and noting that many of them needed a good dusting and possibly some Windex. I finally found the in-laws after they lost their gambling, and we set out to find the wifey. After searching all over the casino and getting slightly worried we finally found her stuffed into a corner slot where no one would ever find you.

We then headed out of the casino and down towards the marina. I had heard about the millionaire’s row of yachts lined up, but I guess that must be only during the day as there were no mega yachts lined up in the marina. Disappointed in that we headed back to the entrance to get a taxi to take us back to the ship. Security was quick and painless as most everyone but the partiers were already back on the ship. We rode the elevator back up to our room, deposited our stuff, and decided to do some shopping on the ship.

We headed up to the Bijoux Turner store where my wife purchased a pink Pashmina scarf and I purchased a tie. We then went to the galleria shops where we purchased a brass Christmas ornament, and some gifts for our nephews and friends. We also headed up to the promenade deck to check out our formal night photo. We ended up purchasing the photo of us together, and one of my wife solo. We were quickly blowing through our onboard account, so we waited in line at the guest services desk to check our balance.

That done, we headed to the casino where my wife gambled some more, but I couldn’t handle the smoke in the casino, so I left to finally order the birthday cake to be served after dinner the following day. By that time it was time to head up to the deck for the deck party. We found a seat by the pool (which was still covered over, only now the hot tub was as well). We all got our drinks and sat around taking in the atmosphere and listening to the reggae music that was starting. At a little before 11:30 they opened the midnight buffet and we feasted on tacos and empanadas. Thoroughly stuffed and tuckered out we returned to our staterooms for the evening.

[jleiwig]

Once in the stateroom my wife decided that she wanted to wake up in time to watch sail away from Nassau. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea but went along with it and set the alarm for 5:30 am the following morning. It seemed that about two minutes after we went to bed we were again waking up, and it was raining again! We headed up to the lido deck, grabbed some hot chocolate in the buffet and headed back to our favorite secluded spot overlooking the serenity area.

We were shortly joined by a group of young girls who had decided to take full advantage of Nassau’s drinking age at Senior Frogs. According to them it was still “last night” since none of them had been to bed yet and they talked about what time they were going to get up “tomorrow”. They then loudly and drunkenly proceeded to discuss how one of their friends had made out with an older married man with two children, but that was ok because they did not have sex. We also were regaled with tales of how one of them puked and passed out on a boose cruise excursion and had to have buckets of water thrown on them to wake them up and wash off the puke.

Luckily for us they moved on, and it was just my wife and I back there to watch the sail away from Nassau. Right on time, the ship started to back up out of her berth and move out into the water where she again spun 360 degrees and started to head out to sea. While I wasn’t exactly happy to be up at the buttcrack of dawn, we did get to watch the storm front roll in and out, and watch a line of other cruise ships waiting to pull into port after we pulled out. We were going to head back to bed, but at that point they started putting out food for the buffet, so we waited around until it was out and then had breakfast at the buffet.

After breakfast we went back to the stateroom and set the alarm to wake up in time for the 10:00 am bingo. We had to be present for the free cruise drawing or we would have probably slept in longer. After waking up, showering and dressing we were feeling semi-human and met up with the in-laws to head to bingo. This bingo they were playing a coverall and it was $1000. Mid game they drew for the future cruise. Our ticket wasn’t even close, but a guy a row ahead of us one. He seemed fairly relaxed with the whole thing which kind of ticked me off. If I had one a free cruise I would have been jumping with joy and acting a fool.

[atinys]

i am totally loving your review.. I was on Sensation in Sept and I miss her sooooooooooooooooooooooo much.....

 

thanks for the memories

[rkbeaux08]

I love to read and this is great reading. Hate to see it end.........

[alwayshappytocruise]

Suggestion for your next review...don't refer to your wife as "the wife" or your in laws as the "in laws". Names are so much more personal...esp. without posting pics. Also may I suggest you keep any future tiff (hopefully there won't be another one) between you and your lovely wife because, to be quite honest, if I had read that you posted this on-line I wouldn't be sticking around.

My DH and I have had a couple of tiffs while cruising but if I knew he was talking about in on-line i wouldn't be a happy camper.

Just my $2 worth as 2 cents isn't worth anything and I know i am on a soap box!!

[donaldsc]

First a little about us. Besides myself, this trip included my wife, and her parents. We were driving to Port Canaveral from Southern Ohio. This was my first cruise and my wife’s 3rd or 4th cruise. Her parents have been on 7 cruises previously, but no one had been on a cruise in the past 10 years or so.

Our trip started out by leaving Ohio around 6 am, Saturday Oct 16th, with me behind the wheel. A thirteen hour trip was a head of us, as we were stopping in Lake City, Florida for the night. This would allow us a leisurely 3 hour drive the following morning to the port. A quick stop for breakfast at Mickey D’s and we were on our way down I-75 with my wife in the passenger seat, and the in-laws snoring in the back seats (this would be a recurring theme the whole trip)!

Due to the 70 mph speed limits, and a general lack of traffic that early in the morning we quickly made it through Kentucky and almost all of Tennessee by lunchtime. We stopped at O’Charley’s for lunch in Chattanooga, TN. It was here that I finally realized that I was on vacation! What made me realize this? I got my first Y’all of the day! There is something to be said for that southern hospitality, and having to remember when you ask for tea that it be unsweetened.

After a delicious lunch, and a quick check on the college football scores of the day, we were again on the road headed south. Georgia passed by with some interesting sights, including lots of cotton harvesting going on. None of us had ever seen anything like this, so it was neat to see. Georgia was also where we ran into our first traffic snag of the day. Georgia Tech was playing at home, so there was some minor congestion there. Add to that the normal crazy driving in Atlanta, and I thought my wife was going to hyperventilate. Naturally, the in-laws were snoring away in the back seat completely oblivious to the dangerous dance of man and machine going on around them (Again!).

We then ran into additional congestion in southern Georgia due to the Georgia National Fair going on this same weekend. This was also the first State Highway Patrol sighting in three states as well. A blessing or a curse of budget restrictions? Depends on your driving speed I guess.

 

Does this have anything to do with the cruise?

 

DON

[erinmarie424]

OP - keep the review going just the way it is. I think it's a hoot!