3 generations and we all survived! Wonder - Jan 13, 2017 - Galveston to Bahamas - Completed

[ukintheus]

To top off our exhausting day, tonight was pirate night and so we had a Palo reservation. Paul hadn't ever experienced pirate night on the ship, but he said he was happy to miss it. His wife had asked me to try and get a photo of him with his bandana on but he wouldn't. Our reservation was originally for 6:30 pm, but I had called to ask for it to be moved to 7 pm given our delayed departure time from the island. We all got ready and were there right at seven. Let the feasting begin!

We had pretty much demolished the antipasto plate before I remembered to get a photo. You'd think we hadn't eaten for a week!



I had asked for the Palo Limone Basilico, and had asked for it to have more basil in it than the one the night before. It was good with little strips of fresh basil in it, although this photo looks like I've drunk about 10 of them it's so fuzzy!



The fireworks went off at about 8 pm tonight as they did the pirate show between the two seatings. We could hear them, but didn't see them.

I got the shrimp and calamari. Scott had got this last time and I was very envious of his, so it was time to make up for that. It was every bit as good as I had hoped it would be.



Susana brought us the veal pasta (Caramelle di vitello) and the mushroom risotto to all share. I don't usually eat veal (I'm one of those where it's not OK to eat baby cow, but it's OK to eat everything else despite it's cuteness ), but I have to admit to it being really tasty. Susana explained the name is because they are shaped to look like caramel candy wrapped up.



The palate cleanser is really good, and I always want to eat all of it because it's so tasty.




Mum had the Dover Sole and Susana did a great job with filleting it table side. I don't think there was a single bone left in it. She looks very serious here though - that made me laugh when I saw the pictures.





Scott and Susana always have to try to get a pixie dust photo - this one came out great I thought, maybe even the best so far.



Except for Mum's Dover Sole, I think the rest of us got lamb, although someone may have snuck a filet in there. I know Scott and I got lamb and it was delicious as usual, one of my favorites on the ship.



Our rose petal count to cover spills was looking pretty good tonight.



Almond souffle for dessert really hit the spot and I much prefer it to the chocolate one. I don't know why it isn't on the menu yet, but I think they offer it to everyone.



Someone got this, I think it's tiramisu, but I can't remember. My guess is that Susana just brought it for Mum to try, as she knows Mum loves tiramisu.



The rose petal count went up a bit after dessert but all in all not as bad as when it's just Scott and I. I guess that shows who the slobs are!



Then it was time for photos. Somehow we never can focus on photos of people until we are sufficiently stuffed.



We tucked Susana in with us and got one of the other servers to play cameraman.





A really cute photo of Mum and Susana looking at photos. Mum loves the new feature on iphones where a movie is captured at the same time you take a photo, so they move. She took more photos on this trip than all our others combined!! (P.S. At the table behind us was the band from Tiana's as it was one of their birthdays.)



We all enjoyed our meals and ate far too much, but it's always a fun time with Susana and we've never had a bad meal in Palo yet. We left the restaurant at about 10 pm and when we got back to our cabin we had this guy waiting for us. Very piratey!!





Scott and I went straight to bed when we got back as we were exhausted from our very busy day. I think it was around 11 pm when I turned out the light.

 

[FSU Girl]

Paul is a huge trivia fan, HUGE, as in really competitive and so we were all duly prepped and ready to do battle. The questions were fairly tricky, but one was “Where was the first regular radio broadcast from?” Well…we all looked at each other with glee!! The first radio broadcast was from a small village (Writtle) near our home town of Chelmsford by a guy called Marconi, and he then moved his broadcasting to Chelmsford. Our home town is called “The Birthplace of Radio” – we had this one in the bag!! And how many people on a Disney cruise would know that??? What?!?! We were beside ourselves with our superior knowledge! In fact, we become known as the giggle group, because we were laughing so much for all the answers. So, we didn’t do great on some of the other answers (Paul said he would have done better if he had been playing on his own. ) Then came the time to get the answers. Answer to the question on the radio broadcast was….(drumroll please)…………New York….huh? what did he say?? Seriously?? We demanded a recount, we demanded to google it, we called foul!! But the final answer was…that’s the answer that’s written down and that’s the final answer. We were robbed!! Still recovering from the shock of the answer (and trust me, Paul brought it up many times that week, and probably will never truly get over it) we went over to Azure to play The Feud. It was another fun game and was played a little differently than the last time we had played it, which was nice, and we all enjoyed it.

Great Trip Report! I can totally relate to this trivia bit. On my cruise we were doing a trivia game where they would tell you a quote from a movie and you had to provide the actor who said it and which movie it came from. The question that got everyone in the entire room upset was from the first Harry Potter movie and was said by Richard Harris, who died after the first movie. The answer written down said it came from the third movie. I got into an argument with the guy who had never seen any of the movies and said if it's written down that's the answer. He only decided to give it to us when the entire room began to protest.

 

[bcwife76]

Haha, you look thrilled to be in the water in those photos! I found it VERY chilly at CC - while the outside temperate was fine the water was colder than I was expecting and it took a LONG time to get used to. Not sure my dh or I ever fully submerged ourselves!

Ah Palo dinner....so lovely.

Haha, I love how at the end of the night the bulk of the rose petals are on one end of the table....wonder who was sitting there....hmmmmm???

 

[ukintheus]

Great Trip Report! I can totally relate to this trivia bit. On my cruise we were doing a trivia game where they would tell you a quote from a movie and you had to provide the actor who said it and which movie it came from. The question that got everyone in the entire room upset was from the first Harry Potter movie and was said by Richard Harris, who died after the first movie. The answer written down said it came from the third movie. I got into an argument with the guy who had never seen any of the movies and said if it's written down that's the answer. He only decided to give it to us when the entire room began to protest.

That made me laugh! It must have been funny to have the whole room protesting!! As it was just us, we didn't stand a chance. We laughed about it all week though.

Haha, you look thrilled to be in the water in those photos! I found it VERY chilly at CC - while the outside temperate was fine the water was colder than I was expecting and it took a LONG time to get used to. Not sure my dh or I ever fully submerged ourselves!

Yes, it was too chilly to really enjoy it, but at least I can say I got in. That's one of the drawbacks with sailings from Galveston going to CC - it's usually too chilly for us.

Haha, I love how at the end of the night the bulk of the rose petals are on one end of the table....wonder who was sitting there....hmmmmm???

It was one person, and said person blames it on a kamikaze fork that got away from him.

 

[bcwife76]

Oh sure, blame the fork. It can't ever been the knife or spoon can it?!

 

[JessicaMason]

Great trip report!

 

[ukintheus]

Great trip report!

Thank you! I need to get busy on Nassau day.

 

[ukintheus]

Day 5 - Tuesday, January 17th - Nassau

We were scheduled to dock early at 7 am and I woke up at 7:10 am and all was quiet so I I rolled over and went back to sleep. We finally got up at 8:10 am and took a peek outside and sure enough we were docked, with a Royal Caribbean ship next to us. Scott, Paul and I went up to Cove Cafe for some coffee before heading to cabanas.

Cuteness in a cup.



Cabanas wasn't too crowded, although there were a lot of people getting ready to go on excursions. Scott and I both got pretty much the same thing, except he went with the asapargus. It's an English thing to like the grilled tomatoes I think.





I had decided to book a private tour for Nassau and had found a recommendation on Trip Advisor for Sandra Ferguson Taxi & Tours. I'd contacted them a few months before and spoken to Sandra's daughter and given them a rough itinerary of what we wanted to do. About a week before the cruise they sent an email with directions to meet them outside the port entrance, across the street at Via Cafe at 10 am. We got off the ship at about 9:40 am, there seemed to be a steady stream of people getting off but it wasn't very busy.



There were scheduled to be 5 ships in port today, so it was going to be another busy port day in Nassau.



We made our way through the somewhat chaotic port exit, and easily found Sandra, who told us to call her Sexy Sanny (I'll just call her Sanny here, this trip report can't take an overload of sexy ). She took us to where she had parked her car, which was just around the corner from the port so we didn't get caught up in all the crazy port traffic.



I was pleasantly surprised that her van looked brand new and was really nice. It had dark gray or black carpet and I felt bad even putting my dusty feet on it as it was so sparkling clean. I had actually forgotten what I had given them as our tour, but she had it all down and we began by heading up to Fort Fincastle and the Queens staircase.

Scott was riding shotgun in the front, so he was tasked with taking photos whenever I yelled at him that there was something I wanted a photo of, like this guy! I just love their police uniforms. It reminds me of the old English police uniforms, but they were blue.



Sanny dropped us off at Fort Fincastle and told us that she would meet us down at the bottom of the Queen's Staircase at the exit in a parking lot. On our last visit to Nassau with Mum and Maureen we had done the Sea & See Tour from DCL and it said that you went to Fort Fincastle and The Queen's Staircase, but you didn't get to actually even see the staircase! I was determined that they would see it this time but I wasn't sure if Mum would be able to do the stairs. My memory was that there were over 100 but evidently my memory isn't that great because there's only 66 Going down wasn't going to be a problem for Mum so it all worked out. I said all that, to say this...LOL Sanny would have just taken Mum with her in the van if she thought she couldn't do the stairs (in case anyone is considering it.)

We paid the small fee to get into Fort Fincastle and had one of the local guides tell us the story.



There is not much to see inside, but there are great views. There are two small sets of stairs to negotiate. The first one is going into the entrance, and they are quite narrow so you have to wait for people coming in/out. The second set is if you want to get up to the top to really get the good views and again it's quite steep with small steps, but there's only about 5 or 6 of them so we all made it.







We were only at the Fort about 10 minutes and then we walked down the hill to the top of the Queen's Staircase. There was a policeman there, who didn't say a word, but we did eventually get a smile out of him.



We stood and listened to the history from this guy before climbing down. I'm pretty sure is the same guy we listened to last time we were there and he is quite a character.



There weren't a ton of people here but some were doing it the other way around, and climbing from the bottom to the top - at least we got that part right! The waterfall was working (I don't remember it from our last trip here at all, but that isn't saying much.)





Proof that we all made it.



This is the gorge that the staircase was cut into.



Suckered a stranger into taking a photo for us and it came out really well!



More photos looking back towards the staircase. I haven't mentioned it yet, but we had the most beautiful day, the weather was absolutely perfect.





We met Sanny exactly where she said she would be. Next stop was the rum cake factory. I admit I'd totally forgotten I'd asked to go here! This is a photo off the internet because I forgot to take one, but there are a couple of rum cake factories in Nassau, so throwing this out there.



It was a busy place but we all got a couple of samples. It was really good so us ladies all had to make some purchases. Turns out the guy that owned the place was from the UK, the midlands somewhere, but I'm forgetting where. We chatted to him for a little while - very nice guy. Here's the kitchen, which is right off the main shop area.



They bake different flavors on different days of the week, but everything was very fresh and I think I preferred them over the Tortuga cakes from Grand Cayman.

Next stop was Atlantis. First time for us to go over to Paradise Island.





Sanny dropped us off and gave us some directions on where she would meet us. I hoped that Scott had paid attention to them as it all sounded like double dutch to me!



We took a lazy walk through these walkway areas. It's definitely a beautiful resort.







When we got to the double doors in the photo above, the guys told us that we had to have wristbands to get in there, but that was where Sanny had told us to go we thought. Anyway, we made a right and continued walking.





We found ourselves at a side door to the casino so we went ahead and went in. It was pretty smokey and we didn't stop to gamble. Paul said that it didn't compare to Las Vegas at all. It's been so long since we've been to Vegas, I wouldn't know!

This glass piece has to be a Chihuly. It was in the casino.



Right outside the casino was another one and it was conveniently by the loo.



We made our way past the super expensive shops, deciding not to spend $1000 on a purse today, it would have been too much hassle to carry it around. When we got outside there was a minute of confusion while we looked for Sanny, but she soon saw us and so we bundled back in the van.

 

[ukintheus]

Next was a quick stop at a place called the Cloisters. When I had added it to the itinerary I didn't realize that it was a private place, but apparently if you just stop to take a quick photo it isn't a big deal. It is used for weddings and private parties and is really beautiful.









This is the view down to the water on the one side.





And this is the view down to the road and across (Sanny was parked right behind this wall on the road - you can see the top of her car).

 

[ukintheus]

When I booked this tour I had originally thought we would do Fort Charlotte as well, and then as time went on I had waffled on that idea somewhat and was undecided. After all that we had already done this morning, I decided we should nix Fort Charlotte. Sanny was happy to go with the flow and she drove us around a bit explaining things and then took us to Fort Montague and the beach that is there.

Mum decided to stay in the van while we took a quick look around. You couldn't get in the fort at all, but you could walk around it.





It sits at the other end of Nassau harbor, basically the complete opposite end from the cruise pier. You can see Atlantis in this photo looking back toward the cruise pier.



This was the small beach area.





You can barely see her, but my sister decided to dip her toe in the water. She said it was cold.







While we were gone, Sanny had gone to a stall set up in the parking lot and got Mum some fresh coconut. It was very kind of her and it was very good. Two days in a row for fresh coconut!



Hi! Not sure why this photo was taken but it made me laugh.



It was a fairly brief stop at the beach area, we were there for about 15 minutes. While I'm on the subject of coconut (sort of), I should mention that Sanny didn't charge us any extra for the bottled water she had in a cooler for us, or for Mum's coconut. I figured she would tack it on at the end, but she didn't.

Next stop was John Watling's Distillery!







Sanny took us in to try and find us a guide and we waited in the entry way.





Unfortunately, right as she found us a guide an entire tour bus walked into the entrance and basically we were now at the back of the queue. Oh well. Here is the guide. He had a very cockney (London) accent when he was talking to Sanny but as soon as he got on the staircase to begin his official "guide" talk, he had this weird posh English/Bahamian accent. It was very funny to us, we all looked at each other and tried not to laugh.



The tour was free and it was pretty basic. He took us out of the old house and over to the new warehouse/distillery.



This was a hand carved fresh water well that was part of the original property. It looked deep and despite the railings, I wasn't keen to get too close of a look. It was kind of creepy!





The tour continued in the warehouse, but to be honest I couldn't hear a thing the guide was so far ahead. I can tell you that they make rum there! They did have some small barrels that had a hole cut in the side that had rum in various stages of distillation that you could smell. None of them smelled particularly nice.





Of course the tour ended in the shop, and although you could get some free samples, we decided to go ahead and try a couple of things from the bar. Maureen got the best drink by far, a pina colada in a fresh pineapple. She said it tasted as delicious as it looked. We should be able to get these every day, life would be a lot more fun!



Paul and Scott got a couple of the rum flights and also two rum punch drinks. They thought it would be funny to put them all in front of Mum.



While they were getting those drinks I went and bought a bottle of single barrel rum from the shop. We tried it when we got home and it's a really spicy rum, but very good.

 

[ukintheus]

We had about an hour left of our tour and Sanny took us around to see a little more of the island. These are some photos we took along the way.









I had done a bit of research on a place for lunch if it looked like we would have time. We really didn't at this point, as it would have been very rushed, but Sanny said she had time for us to add another hour to our tour and so we went to the Cricket Club for lunch and invited Sanny to come and eat with us.

This is another photo I got from the internet, as we were all so busy looking at the cricket pitch that I forgot to get a photo. Paul and his son are VERY into cricket so I figured it was a good place to go.



It's not a glamorous cricket field by any stretch of the imagination, but now Paul can say he's been there.



The menu had a good combination of English and Bahamian food.



It sits right below Fort Charlotte, so it was perfect as we could sit and enjoy saying we'd seen it, without having to walk around it. Perfect!! I'm all for seeing a sight while I'm eating and drinking (although I had a diet coke and now I have no idea why I would do that . )



The boys both got a Bahamian lager.



I ordered an appetizer of Conch Fritters for everyone to try. I know that Paul did, but I'm not so sure about Mum and Maureen as neither of them are seafood lovers at all. The fritters were pretty good and had a good amount of conch chunks in them. A lot of fritters have such small pieces you wouldn't know the difference between it and a hush puppy.



Paul got the chicken salad....nice one Paul.



Mum and Maureen split the fish and chips, this is a half portion after they'd already split it.



And Scott and I got the Bahamian red snapper. It wasn't quite what I was expecting and I'm not a big lover of trying to dissect bones, skin, eyes etc. but I put a brave face on it. My sister commented later that she was impressed that I didn't flinch at all. I loved the rice and peas and plantains.

This is grilled.



And this is steamed...but that's the only difference.



We had a really pleasant lunch sitting and chatting on the second floor balcony of the restaurant. Sanny told us some stories about her adventures as a darts champion of Nassau! She plays for the national team and goes all over playing darts. She was good company and I would highly recommend her to anyone. She gave us the best day we have ever had in Nassau by far. The cost was $70 per hour and given that there were 5 of us it didn't work out to be too bad.

We were dropped back at the port at about 3 pm and we made our way back to the ship. We decided to not bother looking around any of the vendors at the port as it was really busy.

We got a couple of quick photos on our way back.



This one is terrible, but it made me laugh so hard that I had to put it in here. We look 1) tired, 2) fed up and 3) ready for the photo to be over with.

 

[ukintheus]

After getting back on board we all sat on the veranda for a little while. There was another trivia session in the Navigator and so we all decided to give it a try.

Here's an artsy photo for you that I took as we were walking into After Hours.



We decided to divide and conquer on this trivia and have a couple of answer sheets going.



So we weren't awful at Brain Teaser trivia, but we weren't the winners either. The separate answer sheets were a complete waste of time as we always ended up talking about the answer before writing it down.



With our brains sufficiently teased we went back up to our cabins to watch sailaway. We were just pulling away as we got there.







The people from the Royal Caribbean ship waved goodbye and we waved back. It's such a funny tradition really when you think about it. Byee....byeeee.... to complete strangers.. ha ha. Maybe it's just me?



We all decided to hang out on the verandah while we sailed out of Nassau. Scott snapped some pictures with his good camera. I elected to use my phone for most of this trip but I'm somewhat regretting it now because the quality of the pictures isn't great, but it sure is handy. Annywhooo...back to the "good photos".







It was shaping up to be a really pretty sunset tonight.



Seeing as it looked like it was going to be a picture perfect sunset, I forced everyone to take some photos of us together. Scott had brought his tripod along just so that we could try and get at least one or two good group photos, and we aren't good at doing the professional ship photos - our attention spans aren't anywhere near long enough. They didn't come out too bad considering it's like herding cats just to get all 5 of us in the same spot, at the same time, and looking in the same direction (yes Mum, I'm talking about you .)



Then the funny thing is, the sunset got even prettier...



... and I made everyone do it all over again.



After the stress of having to take photographs, the boys wanted to go and play backgammon (aka drink beer). Mum and Maureen went with them and I stayed in the cabin for a little while and got caught up with my trip report as I was doing a horrible job of keeping up with it and my notes were at least a day behind.





I went down to meet them at about 7 pm. There was an 80's Music Trivia scheduled for 7:30 pm that we were all interested in. Scott has been really good at it in the past and so we thought we might be able to be somewhat decent at it.

The boys were both pretty good at this one.



In fact they were so good, we got 49 out of 50 and were the winners!!



These 4 reusable bags were our prize. Take a good look at the photo of them because that's all that's left. I forgot them under my chair at dinner and they were never to be seen again, although everyone in the group kept reminding me that I could go and ask for them at guest services...which I never did. You get what you pay for on the tour guide extraordinaire folks.



Tonight we were in Triton's for dinner so we waited a little while before going over there so that we wouldn't have to wait in line. A quick snap of the phone booth outside Crown & Fin on the way for good measure.



Even though it was a rotational dining night and cruise casual, we had the Captain's Gala menu this evening. Dinner was pretty non eventful really with the exception of Mehmet (our head server) coming over and asking everyone for their cabin numbers. It turns out they had JUST figured out that we had asked for our own table earlier in the cruise and were trying to figure out who should be where.

I only have photos of what I ate, so my assumption is that Scott either had the same, or couldn't be bothered to take photos.

I had the shrimp for appetizer and the lobster for main course, both were good, and I prefer the sides that come with the lobster now. I didn't care for the weird rice/bean thing they have served with it the past.





And here are some more just delightful photographs of such a happy family dining together....ahhh the memories. This just cracks me up.



At least we were smiling/grimacing, but it wasn't much better.



Our servers decided to amuse us all with a crayon trick tonight. Our three table mates seemed to enjoy it and even though Paul managed to half solve it by throwing a roman numeral in there, we had to be given the answer in the end.



I got mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert, and it was pretty good, their vanilla and strawberry beat it though.



I've not mentioned our table mates much because there wasn't much to tell . They were very quiet, and not easy to make conversation with, although we did engage in polite conversation every evening. I'll leave it at that.

We were finished with dinner just before 10 pm. The dining team came and were talking to Paul as we were leaving about "the table situation" but we told Mehmet to just leave it as is. We felt it was too awkward to try and change this late into the game. We all went back to our cabins after dinner. This little guy was waiting for us...so stinking cute!!



His brother, who doesn't wear sunglasses, was next door.



Scott was really tired and went straight to bed but I got a second wind and couldn't sleep so I sat out on the verandah reading my book and drinking a glass of wine. It was really relaxing listening to the waves and watching the stars. I think it was about midnight when I went to bed.



I also took this photo, it was of the new (to us anyway) coins for pirate night. They've changed the design on them - I like it!

 

[kid-at-heart]

Paul and Scott got a couple of the rum flights and also two rum punch drinks. They thought it would be funny to put them all in front of Mum.

Looks like something we would do to my mother (age 90).

I ordered an appetizer of Conch Fritters for everyone to try. I know that Paul did, but I'm not so sure about Mum and Maureen as neither of them are seafood lovers at all. The fritters were pretty good and had a good amount of conch chunks in them. A lot of fritters have such small pieces you wouldn't know the difference between it and a hush puppy.

Yum! Love Conch fritters. Or any type of fritters.

Mum and Maureen split the fish and chips, this is a half portion after they'd already split it.

Hate "little green peas" although the rest of the plate looks very good. Classical conditioning, psychology class, association of little green peas with mean little girls named Cathy from 2nd grade. Yes, there is a story there but it is a long one so we need to sail together for me to share it.

... and I made everyone do it all over again.

Absolutely great photo! Needs to be framed.

Mehmet

So glad to know Mehmet is still on the Wonder. Unless I am thinking of the wrong person, he was our head server the first time we sailed. He made us feel so welcome. He had a daughter about the same age as our daughter, his daugher was on the track team for her high school, I think. I hope we see him again on our next cruise.

 

[tennesseemo]

Just as funny to read about it as it was to live it Such a fun group to travel with!

 

[bcwife76]

What a great tour you were able to take in Nassau! Geez, two rum flights for your mom, atta girl

 

[st0nehedge]

Loving your trip report!

 

[RockyMtns]

It's fun to read through your report and see what you all did on the exact same cruise. It is very different from our trip!

 

[mandymouse]

Hey Jenny

Finally I've logged in and caught up

Wow! What a start to your cruise ! Galveston looks so spooky in the fog. Such a shame that you had to stay overnight in port then miss Key West. I would've been so disappointed too as we love it there, but we too would've had a 'go with the flow' attitude, as there's no point getting stressed about things that are beyond your control

Loving all your pics Palo Brunch looked amazing, and is one of the main things I miss about DCL

Haha, loved the day that Scott and Paul had a session, and even funnier that you weren't impressed It just reminds me of that day after your excursion (where you had been drinking rum punch all afternoon) and afterwards on top deck of the Fantasy we spent a few hours getting squiffy

Great pics from Castaway Cay, another DCL perk we miss along with the Konk Koolers

It looks like you had a great day in Nassau. We've never ventured away from the port area, but it looks like you had a fun packed day

Looking forward to your next installment

 

[Kari0180]

Enjoying your report, it's funny to see that we did several of the same things, we were in many of the trivia contests that you were and we also dined in PALO on pirate night, but we were there a little earlier, can't wait to see what you guys do next!

 

[TestingH2O]

This little guy was waiting for us...so stinking cute!!

I have never seen penguins before. How cute!