Day 2 Nassau
The seas calmed during the night, with only a slight rolling back and forth it kind of helps put you to sleep. But, late into the night I woke up hearing a constant clanging noise; it turned out to be the coat hangers in the closet banging into each other. I believe I read a post about this on these boards, but I forgot about it. If you have empty hangers in the closet, you may want to take them down and lay them down on the floor of the closet.
On a side note, someone in another posting mentioned the wind on the first night. Keep in mind that the ship has a long haul that first night, from Port Canaveral to Nassau. My recollection from the bridge monitor on the TV is that we were traveling about 20 kts (over 20 mph)
the fastest I saw all cruise. So, theres going to be some wind just from the ship moving that fast.
DW and DD15 got up about 6:30 to go for a run on the ship on deck 4 2.5x laps = 1 mile. We couldnt figure out how to set the alarm clock (duh), so I had to use my Blackberry as the alarm. Once they returned from their run and cleaned up, we headed to Cabanas for breakfast around 8:00. This time we knew to wait to be seated; I guess the other option is to go outside (it may be that you can pick your own seat there).
It was windy in Nassau. We got off the ship about 9:00, and had our own plans for the day: walk around downtown a bit, visit the straw market, and then take the #10 bus (jitney) to the Sheraton at Cable Beach. We spent about an hour walking around before we got on the bus to the Sheraton. The kids each got small straw bags with their names sewed on them. Some folks in the straw market are very inviting and helpful, others just sit, waiting for you to buy something. I prefer to deal with someone who shows an interest in selling something, so we ended up finding a nice lady who was glad to help us, and customize her products for the kids. I didnt feel that anyone was overly pushy, but if they saw you looking at something closely, that certainly gave them a signal to try to close the deal.
We found a #10 bus just behind the straw market. $1.25 fare, which is paid when you get off, and the driver does not provide change). It was about a 15-20 minute ride out to the Sheraton. We arrived at the front desk to get day passes: $25 per adult, and $12.50 for each child, so $75 for all four of us, no food/drink included. The Sheraton has two nice pools and a nice beach area with lounge chairs. Towels are available in the pool area, so we picked up four and took them out to the beach. Despite the wind, the beach was still warm and comfortable, though there really werent very many people on it maybe 20-30. There are no watersports such as snorkeling, jet skis, etc. Its just a beach with some nice chairs. There are servers who walk up and down the beach, and a few trinket sales people, but not in a hounding nature at all. One issue I found with one of the pools is that the Sheraton activities director plays music, sings along on a mic, plays some games, etc. at the pool; its rather loud. We preferred something quieter, so we sat at the beach for awhile. Later we moved to the other pool, which was quieter, but still within earshot of the activities director at the other pool. After a while we went to the bar area to order some sandwiches for lunch: about $16 for an 8oz burger. We split a burger, some chicken tenders, french fries, and some sodas. Total bill about $35. After 2-3 hours, I think we were bored, and ready to move on. So we caught the #10 bus right in front of the Sheraton, to go back downtown for some t-shirt shopping, etc. If I had to do it again, Id probably skip the Sheraton, opting to sit around the pool at the ship instead, where my lunch would already be paid for. Or, perhaps I would book something more active, since we were to have a beach day at CC the next day.
We got back on the ship around 3:30, so that gave us a little time to sit at the pool, have a snack, let the kids see what was happening at their clubs, etc. Main seating was 5:45, so between 4:30-5:00 each day we were heading back to the cabin to clean up and get ready for dinner. I noticed several crew members (probably from several of the ships in port) in the little shopping area that you go through, betwen the ship and the city of Nassau. They were all sitting along the wall with their laptops. I later learned that there is free wireless internet in that area.
Tonight was optional formal night, so we dressed up little bit to take the opportunity to get some family pictures. Our family picture at my in-laws house was taken when DD15 was one, so we figured we were past due. There were 3-4 different back-drops available, and of course some character picture stations in the atrium, too.
Our dinner was at Royal Palace, and was very nice. Our server pointed out many of the details of the décor, including the symbols on the backs of each chair. Our regular assistant server, Gustavo, from Mexico was with us tonight, having been ill the night before. Our service was much quicker tonight; one thing a little different was that there was a third server (not the head waiter) who took our order tonight. I got the idea she was just helping to move things along, as tables became ready to order. I believe I had the salmon tonight, which was very good. Im not one to get too hung up on the food there are several choices, and all that we ordered were well prepared and presented. I also noticed at least one, maybe two vegetarian offerings each evening I didnt order any of these, so I cant remember what they were.
One thing I became fond of each night was a different sundae flavor offered each evening. I believe tonights was a strawberry shortcake sundae; last nights was a bananas foster sundae. There was a cookies and cream sundae one night, and I believe the last night was some sort of pineapple (I passed on that one). Another good selection was a sampler trio a smaller serving of three of the desserts offered. Of course, I asked our server to bring a couple extra desserts to try.
The ship left Nassau around 7:00pm, as we were finishing our main course. The distance between Nassau and
Castaway Cay is just over 60 miles, so the ship was traveling at a very leisurely pace. From the bridge report, I recall speeds less than 10kts, and sometimes well below 5kts. So it was a very calm ride from Nassau to CC.
Tonight we finished dinner well before 7:30, so this gave us some time to wander around before the 8:30 show. We went to shutters to take a look at some pictures. I like the new library system; its much more organized and presentable than previous methods of scattering pictures all over the area for you to find. Instead, all your pictures are gathered together in your own library book on a specific bookshelf. This made it easy to sort through all our pictures, and simply turnover those that we didnt intend to purchase. Then we could come back, look through all the keeps in one pile, and look at the discard pile one last time to be sure we didnt want any of those. You scan your KTTW card to find the location of your book. While Im on the topic of Shutters, the pricing is $20 for one 8x10, or $20 for qty 2 5x7s. They also have packages: $150 for 20 points, $250 for 40 points. 8x10s are worth 2 points each, and 5x7s are 1 point each. You can mix, match, and order extra copies from the touch-screen, to come up with the number of prints (or points) you need. A CD of all your photos is $250, but includes no prints. If you want prints in addition to the CD, you buy them at half-price. Later in the week we opted for one of the print packages, only.
The show tonight was Villains, featuring Hades as the main character threading the entire story together. He was funny, and broke the invisible pane several times to interact with the audience, and even had some fun with the sign-language interpreters.
Following the show, we went back to the room to change into something more casual. The kids went to their clubs for the rest of the evening, returning around midnight. We adults went to see Jeff Civillico in D-lounge. Jeff is a very funny, juggler, billed more as a physical comedian. Again, in Disney style, even though the audience was all adults, the show was kept at a PG level. The show lasted about an hour, the lounge was SRO, so we stood against wall near the sound room we didnt get there until almost 10:30, the start time.
After the show, we walked by Shutters, where we were surprised to see that our pictures taken earlier in the evening had been developed and filed in library. A stop at a couple shops to look for from souvenirs, and we were ready to call it a day. Tomorrow is Castaway Cay.
Fountain in Royal Palace Dining Room
View from our Verandah as we pulled into Nassau
Straw Market
View from Sheraton pool area
View of Atlantis from Deck 12
It sounds even better than we had imagined.
From your DD's report it sounds like she is going to have a ton of fun 
