Family Cruise - Part V

Family Cruise To The Bahamas
Part - V

         Refreshed and ready for the final excursion the following day, we all had an early breakfast at the Garden Buffet as the ship docked in Nassau, Bahamas. We had tickets to tour ‘Discover Atlantis’ for a couple of hours. We knew we had to walk quite a distance along the bright colored pier in order to get transportation somewhere ahead that would take us to Paradise Island. After the tour in Atlantis, we were to be dropped off at the tourist shopping area, and again had to walk the rest of the way to return to the ship. All those going ashore had to be back on the Norwegian Dawn no later than 1:30 in the afternoon. I knew we had to use our time wisely. But, there was a lack of communication as to how we were to proceed. In the back of my mind, I thought it strange that we practically strolled off the ship with just a handful of passengers getting off so early in the morning. Of course, our key card was swiped as we passed the threshold to the open muggy air.

         Already it was hot, and I struggled along with my family to walk the distance to the transportation area, wherever it was. We would stop every so often to take pictures. I just followed along and had no idea if we were to take a ferry or a bus for the Atlantis tour. At one point, we came upon a young teen crying her heart out. We gathered around to comfort her. She had become separated from her family and was so frightened. I turned my head and noticed a group of people in the distance standing by an open gate. They were no more that 300 feet away. I could make out one woman, who wore a long black skirt. I asked the girl if her mother had on a long black skirt, and pointed in the direction of the group. Without a word, but still crying, she ran the distance to join her family again. Well, we were happy for her. If we hadn’t come upon that girl in distress, she might have strayed further away from her family. I found out later that if we had followed the girl in the same direction she went, we would be in the shopping area.

         But we must have taken a wrong turn. We came upon uniformed men with rifles, some in camouflaged outfits and some in army khakis. They were just milling about talking to one another. They were polite, but were no help at all when we questioned them. We walked through a business district. It was still early in the morning, and so there were no strollers out yet. We did stop a lone walker and asked him where the ferry was and he pointed down to a narrow cement road with a steel fence facing the water. Exhausted, I just collapsed into the nearest bench. At that point, we didn’t know what was going on. There was no ferry there, just fishing boats. So we decided to turn back. Then we noticed the little golf cart sized vehicles. We were able to hail one, and the driver took us back to the area where we left the ship. After Dan tipped the driver, we noticed a crowd standing outside of the ship. Now we were on the right track. It was time to get to a bus that would drive us to Atlantis, but, unfortunately, we had to walk the same distance again to get to the waiting bus.

         As soon as we boarded the vehicle, I collapsed in a front seat. There was lively music coming from the radio. By the time we arrived at our destination, about 15 minutes would pass. The driver pointed out some official buildings in the area. He gave us a brief history of his Country and told us that the inhabitants of Nassau were proud people, but were strongly religious. I was wondering what their houses looked like. Then our driver talked about the Atlantis Hotel. He mentioned that one or more of our Presidents stayed there, President Bush, maybe? He said a night’s stay at the hotel was $2500. Now that was a little out of my league.

         We were left off at a building and then greeted by the tour guide. He took us through the halls of an ornate building in order to get to the grounds on the other side. Some of us slipped upstairs briefly for a badly needed break in a restroom. Then we caught up with the tour guide again, and found ourselves outside in the sun. The grounds were gorgeous. The beautiful Atlantis Hotel was just across the water from us. We took turns taking pictures of each other with the hotel and its surroundings as background. I daydreamed briefly of swimming in the magnificent pool that curved through rocks and beautiful plants and trees with a waterfall to splash under. It looked so cool! We did notice some people from the hotel swimming about in the pool. They certainly appeared to be enjoying themselves.

         It was awe inspiring to walk through the aquarium and look at different species of fish, especially dolphins. We strolled through glass tunnels that were under water. Surrounding us were giant stingrays, sharks, schools of fish, and other strange species of the marine world. We had our camera ready to snap pictures of all the wonders to behold. At times, the sun’s rays filtered through. In some places of the glass tunnels, it became very bright and you could see the fish more clearly. When we were in the underground passages or dark rooms, I quivered when I saw monster jellyfish in one tank, and large scavenger giant lobsters in another. Ugh! Sometimes, I lagged behind the others in order to rest my aching legs. I was doing a lot of walking, but I managed to forge on through the tour with only myself to listen to my complaints. Roseann and I would sit on the cement foundation of an exhibit whenever we could. Of course, lagging behind the others made us miss some interesting things that the tour guide was talking about. He was telling us about the history of the sunken Atlantis that occurred thousands of years ago. I noticed replicas of the underwater suits that were worn then, and they were not too different than that worn by present day deep-sea divers. The museum did a fair job of duplicating remnants assumed to be from Atlantis.

         That part of the tour was over. We then went through a large gambling casino to inspect spectacular paintings and gold colored sculptures on the ceilings and walls. I noticed that the Casino was fairly empty, so I sat at a slot machine whenever I could each time the tour guide stopped to talk about something else. Another visit was made to the restroom, and then we were outside the building again. The bus took us to the tourist shopping area.

On to the final chapter - "Family Cruise - Part VI"