Dr. No: I was curious to see what kind of man you were. I thought there may be even a place for you with SPECTRE.
Bond: I'm flattered... I'd prefer the Revenge department.
The best way to understand your competitors is to meet them face to face. Form a
DCL perspective, our first chance to do this arrived when we pulled into Nassau. Specifically, Im referring to those three ships over there in the distance
But Im getting a little bit ahead of myself here. First Things First
Welcome to Nassau!
Well
thats the post card image of the Bahamian capitol and largest city on New Providence Island. From a cruisers point of view, the first thing you encounter is the Nassau Light sitting somewhat forlornly on a spit of land at the far west end of Paradise Island.
There once was a stand of trees and a small lightkeepers cottage out there as well, but Mother Nature and Hurricane Floyd saw fit to erase those little details (and remind us all of just exactly whos really in charge here). Beyond the Light, is part of Colonial Beach and off in the distance is fabled Atlantis (somewhere Ive not been yet, but Ill tell you more about it latter on). Paradise Island shelters the north-eastern corner of New Providence Island and creates a fine natural enclosed harbor for the city of Nassau.
Once our captain had the Dream safely in the main channel of the harbor, he spun her abound 180 degrees and started backing into our assigned slip for the day on the Prince George Wharf.
Being as this process is done fairly slowly (and for obvious reasons), we had a little bit of time to take a real good look at the other ship in port that day. Nearest the shore and Rawson Square was the RCCL ship:
Majesty of the Seas
A veteran of the Caribbean trade and one of the oldest vessels flying the Royal Caribbean Lines flag, Majesty has been plying the waters since mid 1992. Originally one of the largest cruise liners afloat, she has long since been surpassed on that scale. That is not to say that this is a bad ship (not by any stretch). A major overhaul in 2007 just added to the original charm of this grand dame which offers three and four day sailings out of Miami.
As we continued backing toward the wharf, we started to get a better view of the sisters that were going to be tied up on either side of us today
These were a pair of older Carnival Cruise Lines ships:
Carnival Sensation and
Carnival Fascination. The third of eight sisters, Sensation has been working the waters since 1993 and currently sails three/four day cruises out of Port Canaveral. Fascination is one year younger and offers similar itineraries, but calls on Jacksonville as her home port.
Since I was standing on the port side aft on the Dream, I got a better look at the Sensation as we were backing into the slip
First off I noticed that during the last referb, Carnival had added a number of verandas to the ship (which originally only offered sea-view windows or portholes).
A look onto the Lido Deck shows some additional lounging areas and some palm trees that have been added for atmosphere and a bit of shade around the main pool area.
Toward the stern
more veranda cabins (a total of 96 were added if I read it correctly) and a completely reimagined slide and water playground replacing what was once a wading pool.
Heres a closer look at the slides
I can certainly see where the kids would be enjoying that little upgrade. Very similar updates were made on board the Fascination (maintaining the sister feel of the two ships).
The only other craft tied up at the Prince George Wharf that day were the two largest ships in the Royal Bahamas Defense Force: HMBS Nassau (P-61) and HMBS Bahamas (P-60).
These two patrol vessel, were actually built in the US by Moss Point Marine of Escatawpa, Mississippi (now VT Halter Marine) and were delivered in 1999. Generally these boats are used for coast guard duties, but ironically it is rare that they ever leave Nassau (so youre likely to see one or both of them while in port).
Looking on up the wharf toward town you can see Festival Place
Truth be told
This is as close as well be getting to the city today. Now I still plan to discuss Nassau itself (and at length for that matter) in the next post, but Ive been here a couple of times before and we had a very different plan in mind for today.
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Bugs: Duck season!
Daffy: Wabbit season!
Bugs: Duck season!
Daffy: Wabbit season!
Bugs: Duck season!!
Daffy: Wabbit season!!
Bugs: Wabbit season!
Daffy: Duck season!!!
Bugs: Wabbit season!!!
Daffy: I say it's Duck season, and I say, FIRE!
Ummmmm
yah
I know thats not actually Disney, but where as Walt always understood magic, the folks at Warner Brothers innately understood funny. Most of their humor is still relevant and the jokes have aged well. The same can not be said for the vast majority of modern comedians (with a few notable exceptions and Ill be discussing one of them in greater detail in an upcoming bonus feature, but youll have to wait on that one for a while yet). Anyway
my purpose in digging up that little bit was to point out that it actually is Duck Season.
Aqua Duck season that is
The folks at DCL have a runaway hit on their hands with this little bit of Imagineering. A water rollercoaster
on a ship
brilliant! Now, as one might expect
something that brilliant is also bound to be popular. And youd be right to expect such. There is one particular way to get on The Duck without having to stand in an epic ride queue (that is actually a bit sparse on themeing). That would be to ride while most everyone else is off the ship. This was our plan for today. As I said earlier, wed all been to Nassau before (and honestly, its not that big a deal), so we decided to save our excursion dollars, and spend the morning aboard the fabulous Disney Dream while most of the other passengers were heading off toward the various excursions on and about New Providence Island.
Now that Id enjoyed watching our heroic crew bring the Dream into port, I went ahead and filed up the mugs Id been carrying around all this time and headed back down toward our cabin. On the way I noticed that the CMs in charge of the Aqua Duck were going about the process of prepping our main attraction for the day
When I got back to the cabin, Tamara was just about ready, but Max was pretty much still sprawled out in his rack. Hes a good kid but also a very typical teen, which means that he and morning dont cotton to each other all that particularly well. Ehhhh
Its his vacation too, so we told him wed just bring him back something from Cabanas and he could snooze a bit more if that was his plan. So its off to breakfast we go. Cabanas was already pretty busy by this time as folks were grabbing a meal before heading off to their destinations at Atlantis, or a dolphin encounter, or the myriad of jewelry stores along Bay Street. We bellied up to the bar and picked up the good stuff (now that we knew where to find it) and enjoyed a fine leisurely meal. Afterward, we grabbed some pastries for Max, collected up several extra cups of the very fine Tropical Mix juice (to be stowed in the cabin fridge used later on as a mixer), and headed back down to Deck-9. From there we picked up our swim/sun gear (and the boy) and journeyed back up to Deck-11 with the intention of grabbing a bit of prime real-estate.
Once out on deck, we found that a few more folks then originally anticipated had decided to join us and remain aboard the ship this morning. Disney Lesson #1 re-re-re-learned
get there early!. Actually it wasnt that bad. We found a group of lounge chairs in a nice shaded spot underneath the Deck-12 walkway. They just happened to be facing away form the pool area and toward the ships over look. This would have been excellent if the view out the windows would have been of Nassau, but from where we were docked; our view was of the starboard side of the Carnival Sensation instead. Well
whatcha gonna do? What we decided to do was take turns hitting: The Duck
Oh wait
I think I just head a question form someone in the back there. Ummmm
yah
you, over there in the corner
what was that again? Why take turns? Was that the question? And a good question too. OK here goes
Its because, proper cruise ship etiquette is that you shouldnt ever save tables or chairs by just tossing your stuff on em and then walking away to enjoy other amenities. There are enough spots if we all share, but
not if we all start laying out a permanent clam. If youre going to hold on to a couple of chairs, someone should be there using them. If thats inconvenient or too much trouble then you should take all your stuff with you and find a new spot later on. Being up deck first gives you the pick of the litter, but not a deeded right of possession (unless youre rude
and a good number of folks are unfortunately).
There is also another reason that we took turns on the Aqua Duck; the rafts only hold two people at a time anyway. After a bit of wrangling, I convinced Tamara to go with Max for the first run of the day (cause thats what ya do), while I stayed around the camp, chilled out and tried to take a couple of pictures.
Funny thing about trying to catch a photograph of something that is in motion
it often doesnt turn out all that well. I was watching for them to hit the first loop that swing out over the side of the ship, but when the shutter clicked, this was all I got
Well
that is Maxs foot at least. OK, once the raft goes down the two main hills it then shoots straight through the forward funnel and then starts back down the other side of the ship. So I lined up to try it again and
RATS! Blurry pictures are a common problem for us novices with simple point and shoot cameras. Surface it to say
we may not have gotten good pictures, but we certainly had a great time on the coaster. Later on Tamara was able to get a little bit better picture of me on a solo run
But after that we just didnt really worry about it any more. Pictures! We dont need no stinkin pictures
we were having too much fun ridding on the thing to worry about such travails.
