Vacation of the Bahama Baby: Days 5 & 6

The last days!!

On Friday September 2nd, we had our last Port stop in Nassau. By this time, we decided it made more sense to skip the room service coffee and go directly to the buffet for coffee with breakfast so we could get off the boat and into Nassau at a decent time. As always, we made it to the buffet before everyone else so we get first pick of the breakfast and seating!

We were off the boat and in Nassau around 8:30 and took a taxi to Atlantis (first we got goober the marocca that is in the picture!) . We made the decision beforehand that we weren't going to pay the $300 american to do the aquarium and water slides of Atlantis because it wouldn't be thoroughly enjoyed by Logan at his age. But we still wanted to check out the resort and the public beach.

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We were able to walk around the smallest amount of the resort... basically to get to the public beach, get a Starbucks, and access to very fancy shopping in the resort (you can see these shops in the first pic! Versace, rolex...). We walked around the small area that we were allowed to for the 45 minutes that Logan napped then headed to the public beach.

And on the way to the public beach, we were approached by some hustlers who literally escorted us to the beach so that we would pay money to use their lounger chairs, umbrellas etc. There were so many of them. Actually we were approached at first by them, went back to the hotel so Logan could nap and when we went back we had already made a plan to say no because we weren't going to stay long! We had some shopping to do in Nassau..

This is along the way to the beach from Atlantis. There is a man walking with us when I took this!!

This public beach is right beside Atlantis private beach. It was pretty and blue with white sands (as all of Bahamas is!) but the current was crazy. You can see it in the waves in the picture.

We weren't able to spend much time in the water because of the undertow and we were afraid for Logan. Good thing we didn't pay to use the umbrella and lounge chairs! The hotel in the back is Atlantis!

After a not so great experience of being hustled, not having any loungers or umbrella and 20 min on the undertow beach, we took a taxi back into the shopping area by where the ships were docked.

This is definitely when we actually started to enjoy Nassau. It was a weird availability of shops.. souvenir type shops where you get your Bahamas t-shirt and then a Gucci shop. And there were so many people on the streets with little books to lure you into their store and get "name brand" handbags!

Lots of little side walk areas like this one too with extra shops and food! All the shopping we did in Nassau was basically for Logan. Logan's Bahamas shirt, bracelet (on his ankle in this pic!), a handmade wooden turtle toy, and his morroca. It was a hot humid day, so Goober went shirtless because we felt bad having him in a t-shirt!

In the shopping area with our ship n the back!

Ok, so we did a little shopping for ourselves. Cheap beers! In Nassau they had to be covered up in a paper bag. We got 4 for like $10 american (it was going to be like 0.50 cents more for 2 more but we had no place to put them!). One was lemon. It was delish. We got the Kalik brand... it seemed to be the most local one!

It was the straw market that we ended up getting a lot of Logan's little souvenirs to take home. We were approached while walking down the street by a Mother who had her little girl with her and it was hard to say no because of the little girl! We ended up getting the t-shirt from her (we wanted one anyways so we thought we'd support her since she was supporting a fam!). Just a regular price of $10 american. We found they didn't barter down much in the straw market. We fully left a couple of cute sailboats in a bottle that would have cute for Logan's room because they wouldn't go down in price!

We went back to the boat before the deadline time (which was 4:30pm). And we all took a joint family nap in our room! It was a sleepy afternoon. But when we woke up because the boat was being noisey leaving the port, we could hear a woman yelling from the dock... she missed the ship! And she was with her son! The cruise ship will actually leave you behind if you miss the time... so crazy!

I honesty dont remember if we went to the buffet before our nap (lunch) or if it was after... But either way, we brought food to our room that day and this was it! I think it was lunch and we grabbed it before our nap because we didn't eat in Nassau...

And when we woke up, we went to the pool/splash pad deck as usual so goober could get more splash pad time in on his last day.. it was his favourite part of the vacation so we had to go everyday! And we got this shot of Atlantis from the pool deck.

We discovered when we were wandering around that evening that there was a big watch sale in the shops area on the cruise ship on that night. It was later than our usual "back to our room" time, but we did it for the one night to get a good bargain! We both got new ($25) watches and I got a new nine west purse with a clutch for under $50! pretty sweet deals.

A long night for the goober monster and when we got back to the room, we got our final nightly picture with the towel art! This was the last night on the boat and it was the night our toilet broke. Not fun to have to do our nightly pee run before bed in the public washroom (on a completely different deck!). It appeared that our bedtime (which was 10-11pm) was when all the nightly entertainment wad finishing up too. I was in my jammies and everyone else... was not.

Saturday September 3rd

And Saturday morning we got our last on the balcony family shot just as we were pulling up to Miami. We got back to Miami around 9am and got all packed up to leave the boat! We went to breakfast early as usual and thank goodness we did because when I went back for more coffee around 9am, EVERYONE on the boat was having breakfast! Getting off the boat was actually a pretty smooth process and Logan did well in the stroller waiting to get off. Self carrying luggage is the quick way to go! And things actually continued to go smoothly that day. When we got off the boat, we caught the shuttle to the car rental place then got our car rental by 11am! And our rental was the exact same car as ours: the murano.

We had a hotel booked for that Saturday night in Fort Lauderdale but we planned to spend the day going to Miami beach and doing some shopping. It wasn't far to get to Ocean Dr and South beach from the car rental place. We found a parking spot (a long process) then started walking around! Logan was napping since the car ride. That kid makes travel SO easy!

This is the pathway leading up to South beach. While Logan napped away in his stroller, we headed to check out the beach. And were advertised to by airplanes pulling banners... one reminding to use repellent for Zika and another for Trojan. We were so sold on both thanks to those productive advertisements!

And walking along the massiveness that is Miami/South beach! So cool how wide the beach was. There were little kiosks at each of the streets that run perpendicular to the beach so you know how far you are walking too. We stopped at one of the kiosks for $4 water.

This is walking along Ocean Dr. So many restaurants and outside the restaurants were servers trying to get you to go into their restaurant. We skipped out on the dining because its expensive and not worth it considering that Logan could be awesome and sit through it, or be cranky and want to leave immediately!

But we did stop for some Pinkberry! We had never been and I'e seen so many movies and shows with Pinkberry so I wanted to try it. It was a pretty standard froyo. Logan woke up in the ice cream store and was a fan.

After Pinkerry, we ehaded back tot he car and toward some shopping outlets in Fort Lauderdale near the hotel we had booked. BUT Logan was crying so hard it gave me a panic attack and we ended up stopping at a random strip mall to give him a bottle and calming him. We decided it wasn't very Logan centred to shop and decided to just make a stop at the Wal Mart for supper and snacks and go back to the hotel.

It wasn't the best of all the hotels we've stayed at. But it wasn't the worst (there was the time there was a band aid in the bed at a cabin (cabana) in Chile!). Ok.. it may have been close to the worst though. I woke up with a sore throat and I was sure it was because of the stale musky air at the hotel. It was a Days Inn which are usually good. Not this one. We stayed at the hotel, leaving at 4am for the airport (which was so easy with the rental car) and flying into Detroit Sunday morning (the 4th).

And we made one last stop in the Sterling Heights area at a Meijer to get these! Detroit gear for the fam plus some beverages to go with. I may not be the biggest football fan but i'm a fan of matching family fanwear!

Our last taste of vacation was this rum cake that we got in Nassau. These were a popular tourist item to get at all the stores so we thought we should probably get one. We had the sister over for supper once we were home and shared with her! It was quire rummy and delicious. Rachel was disappointed she couldn't have some too!