Wandering around Nassau

Janie slept in so J. R. went up for breakfast on his own in Windjammer. The kids had an 8:00 excursion meeting time for their trip to Aquaventure at Atlantis so the adults didn't see them before they left. Janie got her own breakfast and then she and J. R. met in the Solarium, where Janie took advantage of the empty hot tub while J. R. got some sun and did crossword puzzles.

After a quick shower and a morning drink, J. R. and Janie decided to leave the boat. That decision was quickly regretted as they encountered the gauntlet of taxi drivers, excursion peddlers and other locals. While we understand this is how they make their living, it is overly agressive and makes us not want to visit their city. We found our way to the Del Sol and bamboo sheet store, dodging pamphleteers and people selling knock-off handbags. We wanted to eat at the Bahamian Cookin' restaurant but they were not open until 11:30. Janie popped into a jewelry shop looking for gifts, but the prices were too high and the woman tried to sell her on some cheap-looking local stone. She did find a necklace and pendant in her price range and we bought that. We also picked up a six-pack of Tortuga rum cakes for home.

Bahamian Cookin' still wasn't open after 11:30, so we opted for Lukka Kairi along the water front. We started with an order of delicious conch fritters. Janie struck out twice, as the restaurant had no plantains and no chowder, but the fish tacos she settled on turned out to be fantastic. J. R. had pineapple glazed wings, which also were quite good. We finished our meals and dodged the taxi drivers again and returned to the boat for some more sun and drinks.

Afternoon on the Ship

At 1:00, we played "What's That Logo' trivia in Schooner Bar, where we tied for first, missing only four total. One of them, for the WB Network, J. R. would have gotten but the picture page provided was hard to read. One we had never seen before, but turned out to be the logo for Chuy's restaurant, one of our favority Mexican places. When we returned to Chicago and went to Chuy's, we saw the fish with glasses all over the menu but still wouldn't have called it the restaurant's 'logo' as it doesn't appear on their signage. For our troubles, we earned a pair of RCL keychains.

Janie went to take a nap and J. R. hung out in the Solarium where he ran into the kids who had returned from Atlantis and were looking for pizza. They sat and talked for awhile and then we all headed to Schooner Bar for Disney movie tunes trivia. Janie joined us and between her and Alex, they missed only two questions. One was debatable as it was the theme from Disneyland Park and not a movie and then other Thomas had correct originally but changed his mind after talking to Alex. We won a set of RCL medals for our trouble.

We ordered more drinks and hung around for Star Wars trivia, which Thomas almost aced. He missed only one question but someone else got a perfect score for the win. That was enough trivia for us for the day so we skipped Classic Rock and headed back out to R Bar in the Centrum to listen to the music.

Shows and Dinner

The headliner show was Paul Boland, an impressionist. J. R. doesn't like impressionists but the family decided to go to the show anyway. He was reasonably funny in the beginning, but his show took a wrong turn when he did the Elvis impression and decided to gyrate in front of a female guest. Then he encouraged the guest's husband to do the same to another woman. We hoped both couples had been approached before the show and had agreed to this. Thomas said the guy could have gotten his face punched if he had chosen the wrong man to mess with and we agreed. The show also ran long so Thomas, Rebecca and J. R. left right at 8:30 to head to dinner. The others joined shortly after.

Service was much improved and the assistant server actually brought J. R. iced tea without asking and Becca her nightly Shirley Temple. We still had an issue with food being delivered to the wrong person and Alex and Thomas had to swap their meals. Not sure why Jorge had such a problem with this. We noticed the wines were now being delivered by a woman instead of by the assistant server, so maybe RCL realized having him run and get them was screwing up their service. There were more than a few empty tables so we wondered if people were skipping dinner or if these were My Time tables not being filled.

Post-dinner, we went back to R Bar for another drink. Becca called it a night and the four adults went up to the Viking Crown lounge for a few more drinks. One by one, we each headed to bed, with Janie and Alex being the last stragglers rolling in around 12:30.

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