New cruisers - Carnival Fascination - 01/10/09

[OhioGriffiths]

Hello all.

This is mine and dh first cruise. We dont have a whole lot of cash for excursions so I was wondering if any of you had suggestions on which ones would be the best one to do. We port out of Jacksonville for the Bahamas.

 

Thanks! :o

[Carnival Platinum Cruiser]

Hello all.

This is mine and dh first cruise. We dont have a whole lot of cash for excursions so I was wondering if any of you had suggestions on which ones would be the best one to do. We port out of Jacksonville for the Bahamas.

 

Thanks! :o

 

You could take the taxi to the beach around the Atlantis hotel or pay $20 per person to use the Hilton hotels beach facilities, pool which is walking distance from the ship.

[NCTribeFan]

Are you going to Key West/Nassau or Nassau/Half Moon Cay?

 

If HMC, you won't need any cash. It is a beautiful beach and Carnival provides lunch. It's a perfect day to just lay on a lounge chair, soak up the sun, have a refreshing swim, and do as little as possible.

 

We just walk around Nassau. There's a very long thread on the Bahamas board (under Ports of Call) with lots of beautiful pictures. That inspired us to do the walking tour last December. Printed a map from one of the travel websites (Fodors, probably), walked up to the Fort and down the Queens Staircase. Then just wandered the shops along Bay Street and through the Straw Market.

 

Tip: get lunch inside the port terminal building. All the way down (as you're leaving the ship) are a couple of booths (unfortunately, just outside the restrooms). We had the most fantastic grouper fingers with white rice and plantains. It was slow going, but worth the wait.

 

Link to my recent review...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=891443&highlight=

 

My Webshots page with links to my photos and the capers...

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/NCTribeFan

[OhioGriffiths]

We are going on 5 day Nassau/Half Moon Cay :D

[NCTribeFan]

You picked a good one! Unfortunately, we really didn't have much sun on the 2 sea days, but I don't lay out and bake all day, anyway. We had beautiful weather in both Nassau and HMC.

 

I booked that cruise specifically to return to HMC. I'd been twice, but it had been 2 years and it was every bit as fantastic as I remembered.

 

My review is long, but I hope you get a chance to read it and look at the photos.

 

It was a great cruise. If I didn't already have 2 longer cruises booked for 2009, I'd go again. As soon as possible!