Destination Review: The Bahamas

I was so excited about going to the Bahamas. Even while working with a tight budget I found a bunch of stuff we could do... in Nassau.


The first time we sailed to the Bahamas we had a stopped in Freeport and then Nassau. Our kids were with us this time and we were very excited to take them on their second cruise! This cruise was pretty last minute which meant less time to save for spending money. :) Freeport is an industrial port. Where we docked, there isn't really anything to do right off the ship. To do anything away from the port, you would need to book an excursion through the cruise line, or make plans to take a cab wherever you were going to go. I was really looking for free things to do as much as possible. There's a small shopping area off the ship, which we did take time to look around a little bit. We also took advantage of a couple photo ops before getting back on the ship for the rest of our day in Freeport.

Through my research I had found a lot of history in Nassau. I came across a map for a Walking Tour around the town that hit key areas and thought it would be neat to try it. There were a couple things on the map that I wanted to find more than others, but in the end, our adventure didn't take us to any of the locations. I had intended to print the map out and have it ready to use, but events leading up to our cruise prevented that from happening so we set out on our own.
Sometimes you can research for months and in the end none of it matters. Venturing out into an unknown city can be exciting, but also nerve-wracking. We did not feel that walking around Nassau was anything but exciting. We never felt like we were in danger or in a place we did not belong. The locals were all extremely nice. That doesn't just go for the people who were selling things near the pier. Even as we got further away from the main tourist area, there would be locals that we passed that would give a nod hello, or a friendly greeting. A couple asked if they could help us find something. We enjoyed our self made walking tour very much. Even with all the hills. Wow, Nassau is hilly! My kids were troopers. We promised them some well deserved beach time if they could hang in there until we found at least one fort. We were looking for Fort Fincastle, but instead came across Fort Charlotte. We learned that Fort Charlotte was named for King George's third wife and also that it was never used in battle. It's the biggest of the three forts on the island, and sits up on a hill overlooking the ocean to the north of the island.

If we were to walk directly to Fort Charlotte from the cruise pier, it would be a little over 1 1/4 miles. We did not go directly there, though. :) We were walking a few blocks inland and between the pier and Fort Charlotte we passed many old, but beautiful buildings. Some were government buildings, also a couple churches, and of course residential houses.

We walked past an old graveyard. It was very overgrown, but so pretty. Because we had turned around so many times by this point, I'm not sure I could find it again. I'd be interested in researching some more to find out more about it.

After we finally made it to a fort and spent some time walking around outside of it and on top (we weren't able to explore inside) we made our way back down the hill. We were walking back to the shopping area at the pier, along the sandy beach and along the water's edge whenever possible. We weren't able to play in the water yet because we didn't have our swimsuits on, but just being able to put our feet in the water definitely helped to cool us off after so much time on the roads and in the hot sun.

Before we got back on the ship we walked around the straw market for a little bit. From there we walked the two or three blocks to the shopping area at the pier and looked around for a few minutes. Then we eagerly went back to our ship for some lunch. Lunch was fast as we were anxious to get back to the beach. Junkanoo Beach is about 3/4 mile from the pier and it's FREE! I love a good, clean, and free beach in the caribbean!! We set up our towels and quickly got in the water. It was a great place to spend the afternoon while in Nassau. We weren't approached by anyone once we were settled. As we first got to the beach there was an older kid selling handmade bracelets. We bought a couple and that was the last we saw of anyone trying to sell anything. Our kids loved playing in the water, snorkeling (we saw a few fish, but it's not a rocky beach so there weren't any real colorful fish), and building sand castles.

We had such a fun day! Far too soon we were getting back on the ship to get ready for dinner.


Our most recent visit to the Bahamas only included Nassau, as a part of a cruise Scott and I went on with my best friend and her husband. Before the cruise, Darby and I had spent time talking about the things we would like to do. In Nassau, I was hoping to see some things that we had missed when we were there with our kids. At the same time, I wanted to make sure Darby and Marc would enjoy the day too. Darby and I made a small list of things to see and once we were off the ship, the four of us started walking to Fort Fincastle. It's about a half mile walk to get to the bottom of the hill that the fort sits on. To get up to the fort, you can take the Queen's Staircase. Though, we accidentally came from a different direction, so we didn't see the Queen's Staircase until after we had walked around the fort for a little while. We did not go inside, but it was a neat experience to just look around the area. There was also a decent view of our ship from up on the hill.

After walking around we found the top of a staircase and were about to make our way down when a local started to tell us about the history. I had read about this happening so I continued to walk after hopefully politely saying no thank you. But I know he kept talking and Marc stayed to listen. Most times they are looking for a tip so if you choose to listen to what they have to say, giving a couple dollars would probably be appreciated. We spent some time in the walkway at the bottom of the staircase. It's really quite beautiful!

When we left the Queen's Staircase, we decided to just walk around the town a little bit and then finish up with some shopping near the pier. We had talked about walking to Junkanoo beach but when we got back on the ship for lunch, we decided we would just stay on and have some nearly empty ship time. While we didn't spend much time off the ship, I was happy to cross another historical site off my list of things to see in Nassau.


I have really enjoyed our visits to the Bahamas. Sometime I'd like to venture further in to Freeport. As for Nassau, there's still a ton of stuff I have seen in my research that I have not seen in person. I definitely look forward to another visit some day!

Destination Review: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Grand Cayman is a special kind of beautiful to me. When I first thought about the island I imagined gorgeous beaches and colorful fish. I quickly learned there was much more to it than that. Before beginning our time, we first had to take a tender boat from the ship to shore. The ship will drop anchor a short ways from shore because there is no cruise pier due to protecting the coral reefs surrounding the island. The tender ride is only about 10 minutes, and personally I like it. I have heard others that don't care for the process though. Possibly because it's time taken away from the day. Especially if you have to wait in line. Or maybe because since it's a smaller boat, one might be more prone to sea sickness. I'm not sure. I think it's fun though.

The first time we went to Grand Cayman was in 2009. Our plan was to take the tender boat in, after dropping anchor nice and early, and then do a little exploring before going to this snorkeling place I had heard about. What actually happened, was that nothing had truly prepared me for just how beautiful Grand Cayman really was. We spent the whole time in port walking around. It just might be the most beautiful island I have explored or shopped on. Everything was bright and clean. The locals were so friendly!

Eventually we got hungry so we decided to try out Margaritaville. I had a delicious turkey wrap with some sort of jerk spice sauce. I can't remember what Scott had. After we finished eating we went up to the second floor where the water slide started and saw a neat view of our ship.

We didn't end up making it to Eden Rock Diving Center. (The blue building in the picture below. The picture was taken from the ship.) It sounds very official, but really, if you're not interested in hiring someone to take you out to a dive site, you can just drop your flip flops and hop right into the ocean to snorkel along the reef. It's completely free! Well, it's free if you take your own snorkel gear. Otherwise you can rent it from the dive shop. I promised myself that we would make it to this place whenever, not if ever, we visited Grand Cayman again.

We got so caught up in walking around and shopping that we were among the last couple tenders to get back to the ship. It was a seriously wonderful experience!


Our next visit was when we sailed with my brother and his wife. I knew I wanted to be sure to make it to Eden Rock. It's free and within walking distance of where the tender boats dock. Perfect! Eden Rock is about a half mile walk. It can be a short walk, but if you get distracted by things to photograph like I do, it can take a little longer... :)

When we finally made it to Eden Rock we found a place that was out of the way, put our bags down, and eagerly got into the crystal clear water. Among the coral we saw small colorful fish. I've heard amazing things about snorkeling at this site. We did see some beautiful things, but I think if we had hired someone from the dive shop, they could have taken us further out and there would have been so much more. I do not regret our choice though. We spent hours snorkeling along the coral edge of the island. We even saw a school of squid swimming within arms reach of us!

Snorkeling is hard work and after a while we all realized how hungry we were. We decided to walk back towards the main part of town, stopping along the way for more pictures, and went to a restaurant called Breezes. We were able to get a small table for the four of us on the deck overlooking the shops and ocean. There, we shared some yummy nachos and a little down time before doing some tourist shopping.

It was a long and tiring day, but so wonderful that I just didn't want to leave! We waited as long as possible to get in the tender line, which of course made for a longer line, but that's ok. It was a quiet ride back to the ship. I think we were all resting so we could be prepared for the activities onboard that night. :)

Our third visit in the spring of 2016 was great! Scott and I decided to take our son and daughter back to Eden Rock so they could have their first snorkel experience in a location we knew we enjoyed. We walked from the tender pier to Eden Rock, stopping for photo ops along the way.

We rented snorkel vests from the dive shop for $6 each. As we were putting our gear on it started raining pretty hard, so we also rented a locker, which was $5 for as long as we were there, to store our stuff. It continued to rain for 15 or so minutes, but that didn't stop us from snorkeling. It was actually pretty neat to snorkel in the rain! There are two different ladders to get into the water, one of them had a ton of sea anemones among the coral which made it a little nerve wracking to get in. We used the other ladder after that. There was still anemones in the coral, but there wasn't as much coral by the other ladder so we could stand in a few places. Swimming away from the ladder the water gets deep pretty quickly. There were a ton of fish. We didn't even have to swim very far out. The lady that helped us in the dive center said we should see some really great ones further out by the buoys where the diver's boat anchors. I went out ahead of my family and didn't really see anything. I saw the most fish about half way between the ladders and the buoys. It may be different from day to day though. The seal on my waterproof case was leaking so I didn't get any good pictures. It was very disappointing because we saw some really pretty fish! Before leaving we watched a water spout form over the ocean. I had heard about these, but never seen one. It's neat, but also disconcerting. It dissipated almost as quickly as it formed.

Around 11 we decided to go shopping. Most of the shops are fairly expensive (in my opinion) but there's good stuff. My favorite place to shop is the craft market. The vendors are friendly and the prices aren't terrible. It is located on the main street that goes along the oceanfront, between the pier and Eden Rock.

Lunch was at Breezes. I had hoped to introduce the kids to conch fritters but they weren't in season. Instead we got Market Catch Ceviche (SO GOOD!!) and Jerk Chicken Poutine (Delicious!). The two times we have been to Breezes service was a bit slow, but the food is yummy. So if you're not in a hurry, it's a good place to eat. Plus, there are seats outside which we love.

After lunch we shopped a little more before getting back on a tender boat back to the ship.