Day Two: Nassau, Bahamas on RCL Wonder of the Seas, January 2023
January 8, 2023
We had never planned on getting off at Nassau. We used to own property there and are no longer fans.
I didn’t sleep well at all due to knee pain – only 2 hours, 15 minutes.
A first look at Atlantis on Paradise Island. Back in the day Paradise Island was known as Hog Island but that didn’t do much for tourism.
And the Paradise Island lighthouse
! did take lots of pictures of docking. 2 Carnival ships, NCL Escape, Independence of the Seas and us. I never figured out who we docked in front of, below left.
Some building developer took the time (and money) bo construct a building that looks like a cruise ship.
This was a very low-key day partly because of my knee pain. After breakfast in the Windjammer, I took a nap in solarium.
Back for lunch in the Windjammer I told Tom we should pay less in port fees because we weren’t disembarking in most of the ports. He said we were eating more on board so it should average out. Hmmm.
I started Pender work. Even though we’re supposed to have this super-fast Starlink service, the video download was very slow as was audio upload.
As always, Tom had a meeting in the MDR at 3:00.
It was fun to see people trying to get back onboard on time
This tour boat brought people back really late – I assume it was an RCL excursion or we wouldn’t have waited.
It was a Formal Night – I have no idea why they do those on port days instead of sea days.
We went to a show called “Tap Factory” which I assumed (remember that? https://youtu.be/LfvTwv5o1Qs) would be like Fred and Ginger? Or the Nicholas Brothers?
The Tap Factory was less tap dancing and more drumming and acrobatics but still a great show.
Dinner in the Main Dining Room was “French Night” we didn’t go, partly because we didn’t want to dress up for Formal Night and also because we had reservations to the inTENse Aqua show.
A friend had told me that she loved this show so much that she has a cabin on a future cruise that she chose just so she could watch all the shows and rehearsals from her balcony. Tom told me it was the best show hs has ever seen. Luckily, we have reservations for a second night, too!
From RCL: The judges’ scores are in… and it’s inTENse, the awe-inspiring athleticism and mesmerizing technology are cranked all the way up in this AquaTheater production —only on Wonder of the Seas℠. This high-energy show brings next-level intensity to everything from pool plunging to tightrope teetering and beyond. Shift all your expectations of what entertainment can be into high gear and prepare for the maximum performance level of inTENse. The only question is, are you ready to push the pedal to the metal?
Our show was slightly different but this is the basic performance.
Blue, blue water.
Tonight we head back north to CocoCay
At Sea, Wednesday March 5 ~ Panama Canal Cruise
Weather Forecast: Sunny High 81 / Low 77
Sunrise 6:32 am / Sunset 6:06 pm
From the Navigator: After passing the Santaren Channel, Coral Princess will alter to an easterly course as we enter the Old Bahama Channel, which lies between the Great Bahama Bank and the Northern coast of Cuba. We will continue to follow the north coast of Cuba before rounding Punta Maisi at the eastern end of the island. We will then pass through the Windward Passage which lies between Cuba and Haiti.
I woke up about 8:30 and took a shower in that tiny shower stall. A removable head shower would be better in tight quarters like that.
Tom was reading on the balcony. He’d brought me coffee, a croissant, banana and yogurt. Nice!
After a bit of me writing this, Tom napping, we went up to Horizon Court for real breakfast. We almost always sat looking out the windows over the bow. It was such a nice view.
We wandered around a bit and went to the Wheelhouse where I’d planned to join the Princess Pop Choir. Tom was going to wait but ended up knowing all the songs so he’s singing with us, too 🙂
We’ll have rehearsals every sea day and a final show the last night. James, the leader, said we’d get special pins to wear. Oooh!
Our songs, complete with choreography, will be:
Oh, What a Night
Waterloo
Isn’t She Lovely
It’s Not Unusual
We Are the Champions (might not be in the final show)
Sweet Caroline
We Will Rock You
We will be wearing black and white (where have I heard that before?!?) and our pins.
I have some black shorts with me but I didn’t think that they were performance-ready so when we were walking around later, I bought some black capris (and a *few* other things)
We talked to one of the young crew members, Hannah from Southhampton. We’d seen her at the show last night. Turns out she lives right up the street from James but they’d never met until this cruise.
After choir, we wandered around a bit, toward the atrium and into a couple shops (see black capris, above) , watched a bit of “Goofy Golf” and ran into some folks Tom knows (Jim and Rosie). Goofy Golf consists of hitting a golf ball down a stairway with a right turn and hill at the bottom. The ball was supposed to go into a plastic cup…eventually.
Back to the cabin for some reading and email, Then I decided to go out to a deck to read, instead.
We sat by the Lotus Pool for a while, then out on the deck. I think I rested my eyes in both places.
It was formal night but I didn’t feel like going to the bother so we just got a bit more dressy, but nowhere near formal.
We ate in the buffet, anyway, and the main meat offering was roast lamb. Yummy!
We were a bit early for the show, but there was a string trio playing in the Wheelhouse across the hall. We went in there – they were playing Mozart, Vivaldi, Ravel, Strauss but the thing that got to me was when they played Astor Piazolla’s Oblivion.
Several years ago, Alice and I were talking about skating and I mentioned that several of the skaters were using the music of Astor Piazolla. She’d never heard of him so I played some of his music over the phone for her. She immediately fell in love with his Oblivion and ended up buying the music for herself.
I couldn’t believe that this little group was playing this, another reminder of my Alice.
There are several versions of Oblivion on YouTube, none with string trios, so I liked this the best since it showed off a violinist:
We went into the show in the Princess Theater – it was completely full – so we sat in the 3rd row. It was wonderful. The show was called What a Swell Party and featured music of Cole Porter – how can you go wrong? I was just amazed at the talent the singers and dancers have.
After the show, we went out to see what was running on MUTS. It was the end of Jobs and we stayed for the rest of that and into the beginning of the next showing.
After getting a glass of ice water, we went back to the cabin. A reminder that we change our clocks forward tonight.
Lots of promising activities tomorrow, including choir practice.
And, on TV tonight – Great Expectations. I loved that book. The movie (2012 version), not so much.
I read about a paragraph of mine (Pigeonwings) before I fell asleep.
