We woke up to beautiful sunny skies on day three of our cruise. Unfortunately, we also woke up at 5:30 am to the sounds of engines roaring and anchors falling. We were docking in Nassau early. Way too early, actually.
We may as well get up
After trying repeatedly to get back to sleep and having the noise of the lines, thrusters, and anchor going every time I tried, we finally decided to get up, get dressed, and go to breakfast. After the lackluster breakfast of day two we decided to try out the Imagination Dining Room. You have to make a reservation on the Hub app for breakfast in the dining room, but it’s so easy. You just click on Make Reservation, it will tell you an approximately wait time, and then it will notify you when your table is ready. It’s only taken a couple of minutes to get a table so far.
The Imagination Dining Room isn’t the same as the dining room you eat at dinner time. This one is deck 8, midship. We were shown to table 208, and the wait staff were already waiting for us. I have to say that the wait staff, and all the staff on the Elation are top notch. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. I ordered eggs, bacon, and hash brown potatoes. Plus, a yogurt parfait. You have to try one, they are so good. He had scrambled eggs, bacon, and French toast. I would recommend eating in the dining room over the buffet. Everything here is fresh and hot and delicious.
Going into Nassau
We’ve been to Nassau a couple of times and it’s not one of our favorite ports, but we decided to go into town and walk around. Nassau is building a new port, so it’s kind of a mess now. Lots of construction going on. As you go down the pier and walk into town you’re going to find a lot of men trying to get you to take a tour with them. If you’re not interested, just say no and keep walking. If you cross the road by the port and go back one block, you’ll be on Bay Street. That’s where you’ll find most of the shopping. There’s also a small market across the street as you leave the pier. They had a lot of small trinkets. Remember not to buy any conch shells, the ship won’t usually let you take them back aboard.
On Bay Street to the right you’ll find a larger Straw Market halfway down the street. You’ll find a lot of vendors selling various items. Remember that you can try to bargain with them to get a better price. This is a new Straw Market. When we first came to Nassau years ago they were set up in a tent. Their market building had been demolished in a hurricane.
Also down this street you’ll find various sizes of souvenir stores, restaurants, bars, and cruise ship stores like Diamonds International. There are also little alleyways between the first two streets. One of them had a grocery store where you could buy snacks and cold drinks. Just walk around and explore.
If you get off the ship and turn immediately right and walk for about 15 minutes, there’s a free beach. We’ve never been there, but it’s near the Margaritaville Resort. It’s called Junkanoo Beach. I hear that you have to pay for chairs, but you can walk the beach for free.
And that’s about all we did in Nassau. You can also do excursions from your ship in Nassau, some of them looked like fun.
Back to the ship
We only spent a couple of hours in Nassau. I collect magnets from each port, so that’s the only thing that I bought. Then we headed back to the ship. First we had lunch. The buffet on this ship is small without a lot to choose from so I went to the Blue Iguana Cantina and got a burrito, which is another good choice on the ship. It’s sort of like Moe’s, you order it the way you like it. You can also get tacos, in a bowl, and I think, chimichuras with whole wheat or Jalapeno wraps. Then I did some exploring. The new Disney Wish was docked right beside us to I had to take a look at it. I’d love to be sailing on her. And then I worked on my blog in the cabin.
Here are a few more photos from Carnival Elation…
Dinner and an early night
We got to dinner in the Main Dining Room promptly at 6 pm and sat at the table for ten that we had sat at the previous evening. I’m enjoying having table mates for this cruise. It’s always enjoyable. We have one couple with us who dressed up as the Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts for Halloween and this day they were dressed up as Pirates. Lots of fun, they clearly love Halloween.
I had the Grilled Beef Tenderloin with green beans for my entree, very delicious! For dessert I had some sort of baked pineapple, but it was pretty small. Wish I’d gotten something else. I still haven’t had the Chocolate Melting Cake with Ice Cream, or a banana split.
Another couple at the table had just come from the MSC Meraviglia, and we both agreed that the food on Carnival has been so much better than MSC’s food. I was sure to tell the Assistant Maitre’ d’, Hengky that. They’re doing a good job! You won’t leave hungry.
Since I’d been up very early for the last few days, I decided to make it an early night and relax in the room. There really weren’t any shows that I was all that interested in anyway. Tomorrow is Princess Cays and I’m pretty sure we’re going to be up early again.
The Quiet Cruiser 