Pink Boas and Pirates commandeer Vision of the Seas to Bermuda!

[Darkwolfe]

Nassau... I had fairly mixed feelings about going to Nassau. The last time I was there was on an ill-fated honeymoon on my first cruise. So needless to say, the memories are not all that great. However, I learned to step back and do a mental reset on things and opted to reach Nassau with a fresh mindset and see how it went from there.

 

In truth, I was pleasantly surprised. Nassau is, of course, just as busy as St Thomas and can get fairly rowdy at times. I noticed that I didn't have to fend off unwanted "free souvenirs" this time and there was a noticeable drop in wanna-be pickpockets. I did spot one casing my grandmother, but she (yep, was a female) noticed that I had spotted her action and reversed course quickly. That was it. Last time I was there, I had one hand in a pocket all the time.

 

There were a fair number of police in evidence keeping an eye on things. Far more than before. That being said, I kept a weather eye on the crowds and we proceeded to enjoy the day without too many concerns.

 

So, I'd say Nassau has improved a great deal in the last few years.

 

Approaching Nassau

P1000491 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

P1000493 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

The colors in the water were very nice, despite the clouds moving in.

 

And old friend to many Royal fans was in port with us both here and at Coco Cay.

 

Majesty of the Seas

P1000492 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Harbor traffic

P1000499 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Thanks to all that have put up with my slowness on this review. The world has been a tad more challenging than normal since we got back. I'll keep plugging away until it's all here.

[Darkwolfe]

Once again, plans for the day were simple and since the weather looked like it wanted to storm all afternoon, it was a good thing we'd decided to skip making it a beach day.

 

After customs cleared the ship, the three of us headed for shore and a bit of a walk. I'd been wanting to go nose through the pirate museum and it turned out to be a fairly well done setup. It's rather dark, but on a muggy day, the air-conditioning was welcome.

 

By the time we got there, Mimi was ready to sit down for a few minutes. So a convenient bench was found.

 

Outside Pirates of Nassau

P1000517 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Then a few moments later we encountered this character at the museum entrance. Apparently I had dome something I shouldn't according to this guy.

 

Roaming Pirate

DSCF1745 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Whoops!

DSCF1743 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

But I got my revenge on the scalawag a few moments later....

 

Tables Turned!

DSCF1747 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Normally I don't interact with street performers too much. But this guy had us laughing hard in a hurry. What was odd though, he didn't ask for a tip. I got our tickets for the museum, went to go drop him a five at least and he was gone! Never saw a tip bucket for him either. I'm fairly sure he works for the museum so you might encounter him there. That might be why he wasn't worried about a tip too.

 

So as not to spoil the show, i'm only sharing one picture from inside the museum. They do allow pictures of all sorts, but not video. Go enjoy, we did!

 

Inside Pirates of Nassau

P1000518 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

[janeyzee]

Outside Pirates of Nassau

P1000517 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

 

Loved all the photos, especially you holding the pirate at gun point. We met our guide for the True Bahamian Food Tour right across from the pirate place and we loved the stone tile design in the plaza (shown in your photo). We also chatted with a pirate at the entrance, he graciously let me use the restrooms inside before our food tour started, but thankfully he didn't make me get into the stocks!

[Darkwolfe]

Loved all the photos, especially you holding the pirate at gun point. We met our guide for the True Bahamian Food Tour right across from the pirate place and we loved the stone tile design in the plaza (shown in your photo). We also chatted with a pirate at the entrance, he graciously let me use the restrooms inside before our food tour started, but thankfully he didn't make me get into the stocks!

 

Jolene and Mimi were just cracking up at that point. We all had a very good laugh then.

 

Seems like the whole area around there has been spruced up a good bit since I was there last. It is a good change.

[Darkwolfe]

A few more shots around Nassau before we move on to CocoCay.

 

Pier

P1000557 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Street Scene

P1000515 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

A bit of storefront color

P1000558 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Not all perfect obviously, but the vacant lot was the worst thing I saw that day and that's pretty minor.

 

Nassau Water Taxi

P1000551 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

These look way safer than the ones that were running the last time i was here.

[Darkwolfe]

Weather anyone?

 

P1000550 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

Three pools decks in one picture. Sort of.

 

Majesty of the Seas

P1000564 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Majesty after dark

P1000568 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Last of the Sovereign class ships in the Royal fleet. Don't expect her to be in the fleet for more than another year or two.

 

Heading back to Vision

DSCF1767 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

Needless to say, I'm working on shedding some pounds now.

 

Just a few moments after this picture, the skies opened up and we got thoroughly rained on. All part of a day in the Bahamas.

[Darkwolfe]

Coco Cay is what you'd expect really. Just a kicked back beach day. Vision and Majesty were sharing the island this day. Which made it a relatively crowded island but nothing horrible.

 

The buffet lunch is nothing to write home about. Just burgers and dogs and not even hot for the most part. Jolene took a nap on the beach for a little bit after we'd walked around some.

 

Next time I go here I'm going to far end of the island away from the crowds for the morning and will plan to be back on the ship by lunch.

 

That being said, we did encounter a lemon shark, a needlefish, and an Atlantic stingray before the crowds built up. That's why I'll head for the far side. Better chance to see some wildlife.

 

Here's a few shots around the island on a cloudy day. It was still quite pleasant.

 

Gulls looking for handouts

DSCF1798 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

It's Thataway!

DSCF1799 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Local Lizard (Anole)

DSCF1805 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

 

Vision through the trees

DSCF1808 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

[Darkwolfe]

Wrap up-

 

Once again, my apologies for taking literally a full month to get this finished. Those that stuck with me, thank you very much!

 

Returning to Fort Lauderdale- We opted for the walk off departure early that morning. There was a bit of a line, but nothing horrible. Except the leaving the ship bit. That part always stinks.

 

We had a 10:30am flight home and we made it with plenty of time to spare. Most ports I'd not recommend that, but Fort Lauderdale is the exception to the rule. Mimi had later flights due to her last minute joining of the party and she elected to use the bus again. Worked out fine for her.

 

Many reviews previous had hit some real negatives that we did not see. And I see from short reviews coming back out now, things have improved from earlier. I do tend to be more a "glass half full" type when it comes to cruising, so some things that bother others I may not even notice.

 

There were chair hogs, plenty of them. There were still chairs available around the pool. Didn't bother me any, though I am certain some others got irritated.

 

The food was good and only the cream of mushroom soup was a serious disappointment. Royal obviously heard the grumbles about not having the honeystung chicken on boarding day since it was back and fantastic.

 

Our tablemates were great fun too. In addition to the three of us, we had these three as well:

 

P1000573 by Wulfgar28, on Flickr

Bill and Monica, yes there were jokes, but they started them. And Rob there on the right.

 

Bill and Monica were Emeralds like us and Rob is a Pineapple.. uh Pinnacle! (Stole that one from Rob, don't blame me! :))

 

Conversation was good every night. You had a New Yawker from Queens, one from Minnesota originally, a Californian, and the three of us from the Midwest. So diverse discussion was the rule and all had a good time.

 

Vision keeps getting interesting itineraries and Jolene has said she's pretty sure Vision is my favorite ship. Well, so long as she is cruising interesting routes, I'll be back aboard. Next time on Vision is January 11, 2016!

[janeyzee]

Wrap up-

 

Once again, my apologies for taking literally a full month to get this finished. Those that stuck with me, thank you very much!

 

Loved the whole review, pictures were excellent and all of your descriptions were great too. Thanks for doing the review. It gave me something to look forward to every couple of days!

[JamesEM]

Thanks for the reports and photos.

[Agutaya]

Thanks for persevering to the end. I appreciated each post especially as I knew how busy ypu were while preparing each post. Glad to hear Vision was in good shape.

[cruiselife4me]

Great review! Haven't cruised on that class pf ship yet but it sounds like you had a great time. Love the boas!

Edited July 21, 2014 by silver_cloud

[Robkat]

DW, thanks so much for taking the time to do this review. We are on the same cruise in September, and now, after reading your review, we are even more excited ... if that's even possible!:)

You talked about getting a ferry/bus pass in Bermuda. We know that there are 1- and 2-day passes available. We also read about a "package" of 15 tickets you could buy, for $30, that could be used on either the bus or ferry, with no time restrictions. We thought those sounded like an ideal thing, but the. We read that this particular package wasn't available for purchase at the dock (only the day passes were) and that it was only available at the Hamilton dockside.

What did you get for your travels and would you be able to tell us whether we can still buy the 15-ticket book at the ships pier at the Royal Naval dockyard.

Thanks for your help and for all the good info!:)

[flpenguin]

DW, thanks so much for taking the time to do this review. We are on the same cruise in September, and now, after reading your review, we are even more excited ... if that's even possible!:)

You talked about getting a ferry/bus pass in Bermuda. We know that there are 1- and 2-day passes available. We also read about a "package" of 15 tickets you could buy, for $30, that could be used on either the bus or ferry, with no time restrictions. We thought those sounded like an ideal thing, but the. We read that this particular package wasn't available for purchase at the dock (only the day passes were) and that it was only available at the Hamilton dockside.

What did you get for your travels and would you be able to tell us whether we can still buy the 15-ticket book at the ships pier at the Royal Naval dockyard.

Thanks for your help and for all the good info!:)

 

We were on the same cruise to Bermuda in June-we bought tokens at Dockside for the ferry which were $4.00 each(cash only) and then took the ferry to Hamilton and bought the coupon book of 15 coupons for $30-good for both the bus and ferry-again cash only-worked out for us-we took the bus to Crystal Caves and then to St. George and bus back to Hamilton to catch the ferry-we were a family of 4. We had to buy 1 token for youngest to get back on the ferry but kids are discounted to $2.75 I think.

[Darkwolfe]

We were on the same cruise to Bermuda in June-we bought tokens at Dockside for the ferry which were $4.00 each(cash only) and then took the ferry to Hamilton and bought the coupon book of 15 coupons for $30-good for both the bus and ferry-again cash only-worked out for us-we took the bus to Crystal Caves and then to St. George and bus back to Hamilton to catch the ferry-we were a family of 4. We had to buy 1 token for youngest to get back on the ferry but kids are discounted to $2.75 I think.

 

Did you have the same feeling about the caves that I did?

[flpenguin]

Did you have the same feeling about the caves that I did?

 

I didn't actually go to the caves since I have bad knees-my husband and daughters 18 and 12 went-it was the main thing the kids wanted to do on the trip-kids loved it-my husband said wasn't necessary to do both but like I said we had the kids get to pick something they wanted to do.

[Darkwolfe]

I didn't actually go to the caves since I have bad knees-my husband and daughters 18 and 12 went-it was the main thing the kids wanted to do on the trip-kids loved it-my husband said wasn't necessary to do both but like I said we had the kids get to pick something they wanted to do.

 

You have it right for the knees. Mine aren't the greatest, but I can still climb some.

 

Get the kids out to Carlsbad once and the island caves suddenly aren't all that great. FYI, Carlsbad has an elevator for folks that don't climb well.

[Sailor_Sally]

Great review ! Thank you !

[Justmekaren918]

Just N. of Springfield MO they have a train that will take you through a vast structures of caves!

[Darkwolfe]

Just N. of Springfield MO they have a train that will take you through a vast structures of caves!

 

Sort of. It's an electrified jeep with some trailers behind it. I drive past their road every time I go to Branson.

[HagarHorrible]

HIGH SEAS to you David & company!

 

Enjoyed revisiting our trip by zooming though this thread. I got to watch out for Mimi as we took same bus to airport and what a gem she continued to be.

 

Glad you got your medical condition worked out and look forward to bumping into you on another adventure, Hagar (a.k.a Rob, a.k.a. green pineapple)

[Darkwolfe]

HIGH SEAS to you David & company!

 

Enjoyed revisiting our trip by zooming though this thread. I got to watch out for Mimi as we took same bus to airport and what a gem she continued to be.

 

Glad you got your medical condition worked out and look forward to bumping into you on another adventure, Hagar (a.k.a Rob, a.k.a. green pineapple)

 

It all worked out pretty good in the end. I did email you Rob, did you get it? Been a few weeks now.

[HagarHorrible]

or it was mistakenly tossed, but that is a rarity. Always glad to hear from fellow cruisers but as I mentioned, am not on these boards much since I seem to forget how strict they are about agents.

[CountessP]

Darkwolfe,

 

Was just introduced to your thread by others who are taking this cruise in weeks to come. I am so glad you had a good experience. We all look forward to a relaxing week at sea, and it's so nice to hear success stories.

 

A few questions if you don't mind.... I know that Bermuda is an hour ahead of us here on the east coast. Does the ship go by local time when docked on Bermuda? Do they leave at 3PM Bermuda time, or ship time, whatever that may be?

 

Also, do you recall the times of the shows? Wondering how to arrange our anytime seating for dinner. Anyone know where I can find the daily schedule for the shows?

 

And you might have already mentioned it, but best party place in Bermuda, for evening drinks and maybe a bit of dancing???????

 

I love that you saw a lemon shark in Cocoa Cay. Snorkeling? Where do I go and how do I get there. Do they have a tram, or you just walk to the end?

 

Thanks a heap for any info!

[Clarea]

...Also, do you recall the times of the shows? Wondering how to arrange our anytime seating for dinner. Anyone know where I can find the daily schedule for the shows?...

There is no web listing of shows for Vision. There are usually two shows per evening, timed to be convenient to traditional dining times.