Adventures in Cruising - Day Two

Happy birthday to me... in Nassau!

We woke up as the ship was docking in Nassau. It was hard to sleep with the captain doing donuts in the water! After breakfast back up at the buffet, Scott and I headed to the pool. We were in the hot tub until I started to feel hard-boiled, and then got in the pool. Considering it was about 75 outside, the 80 degree pool water felt almost like bath water.

After showers and getting ready, we headed out to explore Nassau... for all of an hour. After all, how much "braid your hair, lady?" "need a taxi?" "want a carriage ride?" can two people handle? We returned to the ship to dump our cheap booze purchases back in the room, and then had lunch at Triton's (mmm... pumpkin soup...) before heading off to our glass bottom boat excursion.

The boat ride was fun, but I doubt I'd book it again. The first 25 minutes was a tour of Nassau Harbor, pointing out a lot of celebrity houses. We saw Oprah's, Michael Jordan's, Barry Bonds', a Saudi Prince's, etc. And after every lame joke in the script, the lady on the microphone would say "yeah mon," which I said for the rest of the cruise.

Out at the fish-viewing site, we were herded down to the bottom deck of the boat. They made a point of saying that this was a protected area and snorkeling, fishing, and littering were punishable by fines and jail time. I took about 30 pictures, and they all turned out like this. I've found that most fish look exactly the same from above.

We noticed that the fish were swimming back and forth from one side of the boat to another, and assumed that there were feeders underneath. It wasn't until we went back to the top deck that we noticed one of the boat staff throwing handfuls of Cheetos into the water. So let me get this straight: I'll get thrown in jail for swimming with these fish, but it's ok to feed them deep-fried cheese puffs? Riiight...

Back onboard the ship, I was looking forward to that night's stage show: The Golden Mickeys. This is the only show onboard that I haven't seen on previous cruises. Actually, it was pretty much just a Disney cartoon love-fest. The Golden Mickey is an award handed out in categories like "best female warrior in 13th century China." Lots of favorite Disney tunes made it really fun to watch. Oh yeah - and Tarzan. Tarzan made the show really fun to watch!

Dinner Friday night was in my favorite restaurant from previous cruises, Triton's. I had escargot, deep fried camembert, and four-cheese rigatoni, with creme brulee for dessert. And I was rather disappointed. The pasta had blue cheese in it. Who puts blue cheese in pasta?? And my creme brulee tasted great, but must've been sitting too long because the top wasn't crunchy any longer.

I did, however, get a special birthday dessert: I didn't eat it because the red stuff on top creeped me out a little bit. The best we can figure, it's a giant petit for. I know the picture is dark and blurry, but trust me - it was beautiful. The white on the top is a white chocolate scroll with the ship silk-screened on in dark chocolate. Oh yeah - and I now have a new "today is my birthday" button to add to my collection.

Despite the disappointments of the day, and the fact that my cold really sucked a lot of energy out of me, I proclaim 27th the Best Birthday Ever.