3 Night Wonder, Anniversary Cruise - Taking the whole family along! (Pictures added)

[devalsam]

Great report! Can't wait to hear more. We are going on our first cruise (4 night land/3 night sea) the week after Thanksgiving and I am loving hearing about what your daughters liked. My DDs are 8 & 9.

 

[vllygrrl]

Great report! Can't wait to hear more. We are going on our first cruise (4 night land/3 night sea) the week after Thanksgiving and I am loving hearing about what your daughters liked. My DDs are 8 & 9.

Hey, devalsam! We'll be on that trip with you!

 

[devalsam]

Hey, devalsam! We'll be on that trip with you!

That's awesome!! This is our first cruise so I'm very excited but also a little nervous. Have you been before?

 

[frdeb1999]

Wonderful so far! Love all the pix!

 

[graybunch]

Loving the trip report! Can't wait to hear more. We will be doing our first "Disney" cruise in October.

 

[lasmickey]

We were up early on Friday and I couldn't wait to get up on deck and watch us pull into Nassau. We got ready and headed up to deck 9 for breakfast, and were amazed that we were docking already! The day was beautiful and we had a nice breakfast sitting out in the sunshine. We met up with DFIL and DMIL and found them ready to head to shore; however, they wanted to wait on DSIL & DSIL BF (who hadn't even made it to breakfast yet), so we told them we were going on without them. I don't know about you, but I HATE standing around waiting on someone, especially on my vacation! After a quick trip to the room to gather our day bags, we headed down to deck one and were happy to find them letting people off the ship already.

I must admit, we weren't exactly prepared for our trip into Nassau. We hadn't booked any excursions, as we just planned to do a little shopping and then head back to the ship. I am usually someone who plans things to DEATH, but for some reason, I hadn't given much thought to this day. I didn't attend the shopping talk, and I didn't even get a map of the recommended stores before leaving the ship! So off the ship we go, with no plans, and were immediately confused as to where we should start or which direction to head. Of course we were accosted by the numerous people wanting to take us on tours via taxi, on horse and carriage, etc. As we approached the end of the walkway, and had dodged all of the tour "operators", I suddenly realized that it just might be a good idea to take some kind of tour to familarize ourselves with the city. We made a quick decision to take a horse and carriage tour and were immediately whisked into a carriage and were on our way. It was a nice tour around the city, and it was just what we needed to help us get our bearings. After our tour, we were ready to do some shopping, and felt comfortable in knowing where to go. We hit the key tourist places such as Del Sol, etc. And of course no trip to Nassau is complete without a stop at the straw market. When we had pretty well satisfied our shopping desire for the day, we started back to the ship.

At this point, I must warn you, our trip turns ugly for about the next hour or two... My husband is a volunteer firefighter who loves to collect shirts from fire depts in all of the cities we visit. So of course he mentions that he would like to find the fire station before we get back on board. He asks several locals where we might locate the station and the majority tell him that it's located about 3-4 blocks up a side street. Now by this time, it's hot, the kids are tired of walking, and they just really want to go back and swim. We stop in a nice air conditioned store on the corner, and DH tells me to stay put in the nice, cool store and he will quickly walk to the station, purchase a shirt if they have any available, and be back in about 15 minutes so we can all go to the ship together, and off he goes. DD's and I look around for about 15 minutes, but the store is small and we are starting to get dirty looks from the lady at the counter since we are not buying anything. I decided to go stand outside, as DH should be returning any minute now. There is a shaded corner where the storefront comes out farther onto the sidewalk than the other stores on the street, so I stand the girls in the shade and proceed to stand in the sun so DH can find us upon his return. Another 15 minutes pass, and still no DH. I begin to get irritated, but assume the station is probably a little further than we have been told, so I am not worried. After I had been standing outside for about a 1/2 hour, my mind begins to wonder. DH has now been gone for 45 minutes. He should be back by now. I have this nagging fear that begins to creep into my mind. Perhaps he has gotten lost (he's not the best with directions). I decide to ignore the fear and continue to stand there with my two DD's in the hot sun, with no place to sit down. We had not brought our cell phones on shore with us, as we didn't really think we would need them, afterall, we were going to all be together, right? So we have no way to contact each other. I walk over and look up the street to see if I can see him coming. Of course not. Now it's about this time that approximately 6-8 local men begin to congregate around me and DD's and have a lively conversation in their native language, of which I don't understand a word. They don't seem threatening; however, I'm standing in a foreign city, with my two young DD's, my purse contains a large amount of cash, and I have no idea where DH is. Yes, I begin to panic! I have no idea what to do at this point. Do I walk back to the ship and ask for help in finding DH? Do I walk around the island in hopes of running into DMIL & DFIL and seek their help? By now, DH has been gone about and hour and 15 minutes, and my mind is running wild. Has something bad happened to him? How much longer do I continue to stand here and wait? I don't want the girls to know how worried I am, so I suggest to them that we slowly walk back toward the ship and that Daddy will catch up to us. My heart is racing, my thoughts are filled with the worst possible scenarios, and I can hardly contain my fears. We begin to walk ever so slowly, looking in each store window we pass in hopes of seeing DMIL or DFIL. We had walked about 1/2 block when DD (8) says "there's Daddy!". OMG! I have never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life!! Of course I was a bit emotionally stressed at the time, too! So I was quick to point out that if I wouldn't have been so happy that he wasn't dead I just might have killed him myself!! I couldn't contain the emotion any longer, and I actually broke down and cried. I finally was able to calm down to hear what had happened. It was a bit farther than he had realized, but not too far. The fire dept. and police dept. are in the same building. Once he explained why he was there, they made him go through a "security check". They did have t-shirts and were willing to sell him one. He only had a $50 bill with him, and they made him stay at the station while they went to get him some "american" change. He was basically locked inside the station until they returned with his change. He knew that I was going to be worried and/or furious with him, but he had no way of letting me know what was going on, and no way to get out until they let him out!

By this time I just wanted to get back onto the safety of the ship and forget that I had ever been to Nassau! We boarded and the girls wanted to go swimming. I kindly informed DH that he could take them to the pool while I had some quiet time to myself to calm down and relax a bit. Of course he knew it wasn't really an option, and graciously did as I requested. They left and I spent some time walking around the ship by myself and reflecting on the past couple of hours. After a short while, I headed to the pool to let DH know that I was ok, and we agreed to forget about it and enjoy the rest of our vacation.

Ok, sorry for the last few paragraphs, but as it was a large part of our day in Nassau, my trip report really wouldn't have been complete without it!

My next installment will be much better - I promise!!!

 

[pjstevens]

Wow, you had quite an excited day!!!! (NOT!!!) I'd of said the exact same thing to DH if he'd done that. Glad you had some 'you' time and got to unwind and hopefully were able to 'forget it' and enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

[rmdavis]

I am thoroughly enjoying the trip report. keep it coming. And on a side note as a firefighter myself I can completely sympathize with your DH and his excursion to find a shirt, and thanks for sharing that, now I know that I can go find one whenever I do go on a cruise.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[wilma-bride]

What a worrying time for you and your DDs - congratulations to you for managing to hold it together for their sake and also for not killing your DH when he returned

I know what you mean about not hanging around waiting for people while you're on vacation - I am one of these impatient people anyways and I can't bear the thought that I'm wasting minutes of my precious vacation waiting for other people to sort themselves out.

 

[vllygrrl]

That's awesome!! This is our first cruise so I'm very excited but also a little nervous. Have you been before?

Boy I'm a slacker! Nothing to be nervous about - this will be our 8th cruise (2nd on Disney), and DS4's 4th! I figure, if we survived the "rogue wave" that hit the Norwegian Dawn in 2005 , everything else is easy! I am someone that gets motion sick very easily (ferris wheels!) but have never had more than the slightest discomfort on a cruise. We love them!

 

[wilma-bride]

Still waiting patiently for an update

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

Still waiting patiently for an update

Me too! I hope everything's ok & you're just having some summer fun!

 

[jenseib]

I almost got through the first page. Great report. I love detailed ones.
I am going to ask questions when I think of them,so I don't forget..
Who did the inlaws get their rental car from, and then did that company shuttle them back to the raddison. Does it cost more to take the raddison shuttle to the port, or is it some package? Is there other shuttle times as well. I know DH wil not want to go over and just wait another 45 minutes before getting checked in. How much is the Raddison, on average, and did you book with them direct or go through a site like hotwire?

So you can buy autograph books right at the terminal? And when Minnie cam out did she sign them and could you take pictures?

 

[jenseib]

A few more popped into my head!
When you baord, do you bring on your carryon as well or do they bring that to your room too? How early do you normally get into your room? I am jsut wondering if DD will want to swim right away, and we may need to have the suit and/ or an extra change of clothes.