First Stop on the Norwegian Sun-Bahamas

While life aboard the Norwegian Sun was amazing, I couldn’t wait to start arriving in our ports of call. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long. After our first night at sea, we woke up heading into Nassau, Bahamas.

We arrived in Nassau at about 8 a.m. It was sunny, warm and just overall beautiful. We were in the Great Outdoor enjoying breakfast and there were a lot of passengers on the deck watching us dock. Next to us was another Norwegian boat and on the opposite side of that was the massive Caribbean Oasis of the Seas. Massive might even be an understatement.

We had an excursion planned for the day: clear kayaking and snorkeling. Our tickets were left in our door the first day on the ship, so we were all set. The excursion started at 10:30 so we had a little bit of time to kill before we had to meet up with the tour leader. Once we were given the all-clear to get off the boat, we high-tailed it down and spent some time wandering the streets of Nassau before we had to meet up with the group to take a small boat ride to the snorkel location.

It was a bit of a walk once we got off the boat, but the weather was beautiful. It was sunny and warm and all kinds of perfect. We walked through the customs building and out to the street where we were bombarded by taxi-drivers, hair-braiders and small shop-keepers. Known for their straw goods, we stopped a booth of a woman who had created a lined basket with Dora on it. Our youngest is a Dora freak so we picked one up for her. We haggled a bit and got the price down. She even put her name on it.

We knew we were getting close to the meeting time so we made the journey back to the location on the tickets and got our wristbands for the excursion. A quiet, young Bonhamian man led us to a catamaran docked not too far away. We were given a life jacket and shortly after everyone was on the boat and we were on our way. We travel across the bay area we were in and down the coast lined with houses owned by Oprah, Tiger Woods, the Atlantis owner and others who have lots of money. We were taken to a shallow area just before coming to the open seas.

It was incredibly windy. The owners of the company gave us a quick lesson in how to kayak and how to snorkel before dropping the boats in the water. Being the first in line, we were the first in the kayaks. The first few minutes made me nervous. Right side, left side, he has to steer, we have to power through the wind, the waves are taking us in another direction, what do we do! But a short time later, we had figured out how to go up and down the reef area with easy.

The idea was that we would kayak for a half-hour or so and then we would make our way back to the boat and we would be able to snorkel in the area for the remainder of the time. Or, if we dumped the kayak, we would just go back to the boat and grab some snorkel gear. However, once we got the hang of kayaking, we decided to stick with it.

Once the time was up, we made our way back to the boat. We were actually the last kayak back to the boat after being the first ones off. Our boat captain took us for a scenic ride along the shore on the way back, pointing out all of the famous homes.

Once back on land, we had a few hours to kill so we did a little shopping. We picked up some shirts for our kiddos as the Del Sol store, where the clothing turns colors when it comes in contact with the sunlight. We debated on some bamboo sheets from Cariloha, but we hadn’t brought that much cash ashore with us and had left our debt cards on board as well. We walked around a bit, just taking in the scenery of the Bahamas.

We walked down a street with a Burger King, and with our tummies a little rumbly, we considered a Whopper, but with all that free food back on the ship, we decided just to pick up some rum cake and head back to the boat. We bought a big one and little one, the latter of which was devoured before we even got back to the port. We picked up a few Christmas ornaments on our way back to the ship, but ultimately, we were back on board before the all-aboard call.

We went up to the restaurant area and had some pizza while looking out over the Nassau port. We then headed up to our room, took a last look over the city and had a little nap before we took to the seas.

And this time, that wasn’t going to be as smooth.

The waves were incredible before we even left the port. We were told to prepare for 15 meter waves and to “Secure our belongings,” which was a little scary. I was starting to have visions of being thrown around the ship! It started to seem a bit like a movie. We continued to lay in bed taking in the waves and watching a little bit of junk TV while we waited to dinner time to approach. My husband started complaining of a sour stomach. He said he wasn’t feeling sick, just not right. Immediately I decided to give up one of my seasick patches. He laid around for a bit while and still felt sort of bad. I was having flashbacks of our honeymoon when he got food poisoning. This couldn’t be happening again.

After a little bit longer, he seemed better and suggested we go to the main floor and pick up a pack of bottled water to have in our room and then have a drink at the Windjammer Bar, where he had visited the night before.

By this time, I was getting sick of the waves and what it was going to be. As we strolled through the boat, we saw that in the galleria area, they had secured the clothing racks to the walls with tape and put away anything that could fly. The vomit bags had reappeared on the stairs. My OCD could not handle this. We stopped at the front desk to ask a few questions and I asked a really helpful man by the name of Trevor what the weather conditions for the night were forecasted to be and if this rocking and rolling was normal. I told him as a first-time cruiser with a bit of anxiety, it was making me nervous. He offered me pills for my stomach. I told him that I wasn’t feeling sick, I was just uneasy. He called the bridge (where the captain hangs out) and we were told that we should experience some relief from the waves by about 1 a.m.

Ah, sweet. Just what a person with some OCD tendencies needs, a goal to focus on. I felt better about things so we headed over to get our water from the cafe. The guy manning the cafe, a seasoned cruise employee, was complaining of feeling a little ill. We had to get out of there! We grabbed our water and headed over to the Windjammer Bar. iPads in hand, we planned to play some Angry Birds and I wanted to document our trip so far for my journal and work on captioning the pictures I had taken so far.

In the Windjammer Bar was a man who could barely move he was so seasick. His wife was coaxing him to take some Dramamine or eat a green apple. I gave my husband “the look.” The one where I think the world is going to vomit all over me and I might die. He suggested we find somewhere else to go, but I decided to try and let it go. I played some games and enjoyed a Coke while he had a beer. While he enjoyed the peace and quiet, I strolled the gallery of pictures that had been put up of our stop in the Bahamas.

I wish i could show you these pictures. I look pregnant. And in the one form the Bahamas, I look even more pregnant. What the heck? I assure you, I am NOT pregnant. So we decided not to buy them, and that I need to face the camera directly to avoid looking pregnant.

After my husband felt recovered enough to eat, we went down to the Four Seasons dining room. He had a steak, which was overly done, even though he asked for it not to be. I had the roasted chicken breast. He had a spring roll appetizer, but I didn’t have one. We had the cinnamon apple pie for dessert, but it was lacking. I think it was lacking sweet apples, but it was okay.

After we ate, we decided to head to our room and try to get some sleep. We watched more junk TV. No kidding. The amount of junk TV we watched really needs to be a post of its own. I did some reading. We hung out just waiting for 1 a.m. to come and the hopes that the strong seas would die down.

Rumor has it that we are fortunate we didn’t go to the show in the auditorium or even have dinner earlier as people were just very sick in very public places. So while it sounds lame that we just hung out, it was necessary.

For the record, I woke up at 1 a.m. and it was still pretty rough, but it definitely died down before I woke up at 7 a.m. for our first full-day on the boat!