On Tuesday we woke up at the port in the Bahamas. This is a port that we have been to on several occasions but to be honest it has not always been our favorite. It is a location that you go to on the way to St. Thomas, etc. But since we had planned on only doing a five day cruise we decided that we needed to make the most out of the Bahamas this year. As we pulled into port they were inspecting the life boats, not sure I have ever seen inside the actual life boat so decided to take a quick snapshot of what it looks like in there. As we come off the ship who do we run into other than Funship Freddy. Samantha would not take her eyes off of him. Even while standing in line for the bus to come pick us up she watched him like a hawk and then would just start dancing on her own in the middle of the sidewalk.
Usually we walk around for a little, maybe go to a beach and then head back to the ship and enjoy the ship to our self for the day when we are in the Bahamas. Instead this year we decided to do the Atlantis Aquaventure which gives you access to everything available at Atlantis (except Dolphin Cay). Our trip started with a quick bus ride over to Paradise Island. Samantha knew something was going to be special about this day as soon as she got in the bus. No car seat and they have handle bars just like the pooh ride at Disney.
As soon as you walk into the Atlantis complex your mouth drops. Our day started with a quick tour of the facility, they could not show us all of it as it would have taken all day. We then decided to go to the aquarium prior to doing the water activities. Two reasons...one in case Samantha was to get tired and take a nap, we did not want her to miss it...and two to beat the crowd assuming most others would be doing the opposite. The funny thing is there turned out not to be a crowd, I did not have to wait in line once to ride any of the slides. In the aquarium she had fun pointing, talking to, and looking at all the fish. Samantha loves watching them swim...no dolphins...but fish swimming none the less. We then headed out to the swimming pools. They have so many swimming pools that there is never a crowd in any one pool. You usually see one or two couples off in their own little oasis. Samantha loved the kiddie pool with the water park. We had so much fun playing that daddy forgot to make sure to take pictures of all the different activities available at the waterpark but I got a couple shots in there.
We then headed to get a bite to eat which was included in our ticket (the food at this place is rather expensive as is everything on Paradise Island) so it was nice to have that free meal ticket when ordering. After lunch Samantha fell asleep and Grandma, Grandpa, and Paige all decided that daddy could go play on the big boy slides. I think I hit just about everyone of them there. My favorite slide was the Leap of Faith water slide which is a 60ft almost vertical drop from the top of the temple through a tunnel submerged in a shark-filled lagoon. Two years ago on the Amazing Race there was a couple who refused to go down this slide and had they done so they had a one in three shot at a million dollars and I did it for free. On the bus ride back we heard that they actually had to close the ride down because someone came out of the ride and actually flipped out of the slide only to have to walk down the temple. They were pretty strict about how you were to go down and even doing it the correct way you felt your butt come off the slide during the ride down.
We decided to walk around the Marina and do a little shopping prior to heading back to the ship where we ran into Mine Games. She is a 164 foot Trinity Yacht that had a boat bigger than ours on the third level. The price when the Yacht originally sold was over $31 million dollars and is available for rent if you are ever in the Caribbean and looking for somewhere to stay with 10 to 12 people. It is likely one of those things if you have to ask how much it is to rent you probably can't afford it.
On the way back to the ship we stopped by the market and found Samantha the cutest straw Nemo purse. So we had to pick that up prior to heading back to the ship. Once back on the ship we grabbed dinner at the buffet as we had missed early formal dining. Then it was time for the deck party. I do not recall ever being in port late at night where you could get off the ship so I ran down to snap a couple of shots of the ship at night and then came back up to enjoy the deck party with everyone. We got Samantha in her pajamas and she feel asleep so we decided to call it a night and found the stingray had followed us from the aquarium to our room.
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