Nassau and Paradise Island

We were able to get off the boat again on Day 3. this was our long day on shore, we pulled in about 9 am and were going to be "parked" until 11pm. So, we had plenty of time to get some sightseeing in.

There were no scheduled excursions for us, our plan was to "wing" it. We set out to head to Nassau just to see what we could find.

We found "Captain Kirk" who promised to show us some good spots in the city and to take us over to Paradise Island to see the Atlantis.

Our first stop along the way was "Tasty Teas" where we were met by Sasha, she is 86 years old and it was her birthday that day. She told us all about the teas they sold there and their medicinal properties. We bought some, we figured if she looked this good at 86, we needed her secret.

Our next stop was a beach. It was pretty empty and this is where I drew a line in the sand. I have wanted to do that for a long time and finally had my opportunity. I even took a picture to prove I could do it.

My line in the sand

Moving on, we stopped at John Watlings Distillery. Our tour guide here was a young man, pretty sure he was less than 86. Probably 84. He said we could ask questions along the way and if he knew the answer he would tell us and if he didn't, he would make something up. That led to much skepticism about anything he told us. However, he did tell us that there was usually one cell phone a day that ended up in the well. This was a small operation but they offered a chance to purchase rum at the end of the tour.

Next stop was a t-shirt company. It was a store, not a market type shopping experience. There were some very nice ladies who worked here and we purchased a few things.

Along the route, Captain Kirk pointed out places of interest in Nassau. He had told us up front the tour was about 2 hours, so we went pretty quickly. He took us to areas of the city where the rich lived and to the poorer areas (probably never the poorest) and the in-between. There were two hospitals there in the city. One was a public hospital where you would wait to be seen for not less than 12 hours, unless it was an emergency. The other hospital, which took payment of either cash or insurance offered much quicker services.

The Bahama Parliment

He then took us up to Fort Fincastle and the Watertower. We just walked around the area. The fort was built to look like a ship. Near there was the Queen's Staircase. The history there was interesting. Slaves started building or digging the stairway and during the process the queen abolished slavery. The freed slaves returned to complete the job which ended up being 65 steps. When the queen died, her reign had been 64 years so the city paved over one of the step so that it matched the number of years of the reign of the queen. And that, is how I heard the story. If you look it up online, it may vary a bit.

Fort Fincastle

From there, we headed over to Paradise Island which is where the famous Atlantis is. We spent about a half an hour in the hotel, long enough to go to the "restroom" and the casino and then walk around the outside back to the vehicle. Certainly saw how the other half lives. We crossed the "Sidney Poirtier" Bridge. He is of Bahamian descent (who knew?).

Captain Kirk returned us to the port and we headed back to the ship.

This was the night we would see Plumb and Danny Gokey in concert. Kathy and I got in line while Renee and Leila went to dinner. I wanted front row seats and so we started waiting way sooner than we could if we did dinner. Here are some shots of the concert, I can't bring the sound from the concert to you, but it was pretty awesome.

There was a paint session by Jared and then a concert on the pool deck that night. I will tell about those events on my next installment. You are probably tired of reading this by now anyway!!

Well, We Got On the Ship!

When you and 3000 of your closest (or soon to be) friends board a ship at the same time, there is sure to be chaos and confusion. Why oh why did revolving doors cause such a disruption in a normal life? Well, for one, if the door is stopped due to there being so many people crammed in it, that can cause an issue. Or, better yet, if you have no idea it is a revolving door and you think it is a ride, like an elevator. The door was stopped when I approached it, the floor where the door was was different than the rest of the floor, the section of the door that was going out to the pool area was crammed full of people and someone said, "Wait, let more people get in before you go." So, thinking it was a ride of some sort, we crammed more people in. Finally, the door began to turn and when we arrived pool side, it was a huge epiphany, "Oh, that is a revolving door, as in, an everyday normal, run of the mill, revolving door...nothing too complicated!" It took a really long time on the ship for that to become normal.

(I tried to put a video in, but it won't let me...sorry)



I know my last installment was about getting on the ship. I cannot remember what we did after we finally found Leila.

Leila had found a seat at the Jordan Feliz and Zach Williams concert. She was fine, we knew she would be but we worried about her anyway. Funny thing, we told Plumb (Tiffany) that we were sisters and there were four of us, but we had lost two.

She sadly said, "Oh, I'm so sorry." But we explained, just lost them on the ship, not lost them to death. It was a pretty funny moment. Be careful when you tell someone you lost someone else, they may misunderstand.

Speaking of losing, I have not yet found the $5 I was promised at the start of the cruise. I am wondering if Larry will ever get change.


I cannot remember if we heard a concert on the pool deck that night. We may have, but I cannot recall who it was.

So, let's say, Day 2!

We got up and went to breakfast. This was the day we could get off the ship and head to Freeport. We had not scheduled any excursions and just decided to go to the market right at the port and see what was happening there. We thought about venturing into the city but never really made it that far.

 We bought a few items and Renee and I got a braid. Kathy and I got a can of pop (as we call it here in the midwest) from a street vendor. He was hilarious. The pop was free, the price of the straw was $1. Somehow, he made $1 whether you wanted the straw or not. He had a line though and it made us laugh, "Don't let dehydration ruin your vacation!" His pop was cold and he had Dr. Pepper. It was sugar sweetened and I couldn't drink the whole can because of how sweet it was. But, I was not about to get dehydrated!!

Getting on the Ship

So, getting on the ship ended up being about one of the funniest events of the whole vacation. One thing about cruises, you can be on a ship with 3000 or so other people and either never see someone more than once, or you see the same people over and over again. You have to make friends in the line going in so that you have someone familiar when you are on day three or four!


I didn't know this rule at the start of the trip, I kind of just made it up because of what we experienced during the coarse of the cruise.


When you start in line to get on the ship, it all begins with many many lines of people in a serpentine that seems to go on forever. This line is just to wait to go through the checkpoint for security. When we finally got to the x-ray machine and metal detector, we had to wait for Leila to get through due to her pacemaker. We waited several minutes for that before proceeding to the next serpentine line to wait to check in with the cruise line. When I stepped back into that line, I noticed the same couple was right in front of me who had been right in front of me before. I thought we had taken a long time with Leila. I commented to them that is was like a person who speeds to get to the red light at the same time as you. We chuckled and then began introducing ourselves to each other and sharing where we were from, etc. As we talked and walked through the serpentine line, all of the sudden we were in front of them. Larry asked me how we got in front of them. Kathy told him that I was sneaky and I just befriended people to get ahead of them in line.
 Larry said, "See that guy up there?" as he pointed to the third person from the front of the line. "I'; give you $5 if you can get in front of him." Game on!!!




I bent over and climbed under the straps dividing the lines and popped up in front of another couple. They didn't see where I had come from and I just started chatting, introduced myself, asked where they were from, etc. I kind of looked back to see what the "group" thought of my antics. They were all laughing hysterically. I then kindly explained that I had butt in line on a dare and that I was really with that group of laughing people.


They seemed unimpressed with the whole event and then when we got just up to the opening to be called to the window, the man (and I never got his name) said to the security person, "Ma'am, this woman butt in the line!" as he pointed to me.




The woman looked at me sternly and said, "You, go stand in that corner!" We all got a good laugh at that. Larry never came through with the $5, well, actually, he did. I'll explain that later in the story.


We got on board. We found some food. We sat by the pool and just started enjoying the whole thought of being on a ship and on vacation; looking forward to seeing multiple artists perform. That night, on the program was John Crist and Steven Curtis Chapman. When we were able to, we went to our cabins to get ready for dinner. We had a lot to learn about the rules of cruising and how to navigate the concerts, etc.

We went to formal dinner in the dining room and were sat at a table with three other couples, ten at a table, not great for conversation. The couple next to me were a bit back woodsy and she did not converse, if a question was asked, he answered it. The other two couples kind of conversed amongst themselves and it wasn't the greatest of dining experiences. But, we moved on. We realized when we got done that time was tight to make it to the concert in time and get a descent seat. So, we discussed skipping formal dinner then next night in order to make it to the concert in time.

Somehow we got separated between the concerts. One was at 7pm and the next at 9pm. Kathy and I went looking for Leila and Renee, we found Renee who was heading for the cabin, but we never found Leila. We assumed she found a seat in the concert of Zach Williams and Jordan Feliz and since we had looked and looked for seats to no avail, we opted to go sit at the pool and wait for something to happen.


While we were sitting there, there was a group of people across the deck from us. They started calling out to a guy, "Hey, Danny!!" The guy was dark haired, glasses, beard...for sure Danny Gokey. after all, they called him Danny. So, I decided to go ask. It was not, but it was Plumb's manager and she was sitting right there near me, he pointed her out. Since Ryan had seen her in concert and said he really liked her, I wanted to tell her that. We began a conversation which lasted probably 30 minutes and she just poured herself into our lives and ministered to us in such a special way, it was truly providential that we were there with her. She prayed with us and shared her life and trials that she had gone through and just ministered to us in our need. It was so incredible and great that we missed a concert in order to be ministered to in such a meaningful and genuine way.

Jared Emerson painted on the pool deck. So, we watched that.