Florida-Bahamas Cruise - Day 4 - Nassau, Bahamas - 12/12/23
I woke up very early, and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I started checking my email before starting my daytime routine, and was unsure about going to the dining room again for breakfast. So I dawdled and went to the buffet.
After breakfast, I bought a couple of cheap watches and found that one of them didn’t work. I’ll have to return it before the end of the day. (Where did I put that tiny receipt?) Getting back to the room, I found that the steward had made the bed - and I proceeded to take my nap. When I got up, I checked my email and social media, finding that someone posted about the cruise I’m taking. Seems like the cruise line’s app is now reporting that instead of the cruise line’s private island, we’ll be in Miami tomorrow. No one knows what’s up yet. As I left for lunch, the room steward handed me some papers - Miami is our next port due to weather conditions at the private island. This meant, we will have to be processed by US Customs before doing anything else for the day. AARGH!
As I noted in an earlier post, the buffet is open for lunch until 2:30 pm. Today, the buffet was relatively empty when I arrived, but there were no utensils to be found. I snagged the last set available in any of the usual places and proceeded to have a totally forgettable lunch. I’m not sure if this is always the case when it’s 20 minutes before closing, as the ship was performing a mandatory crew safety drill. This time, they were practicing (from what I could tell) what they needed to do if there was an accident/emergency that forced the ship to limp back to port. From what I could tell, a good number of the ship’s crew were participating in this exercise, as there were fewer staff than usual manning the public food and drink venues.
I gazed at the light show in the promenade before going to the theater to hear a performer doing show tunes. The singer was very good, but not up to the hype given to us by the cruise director. My next stop was at the cruise line’s steakhouse. The value of the meal was very good, but I’ve had better steaks on both NCL and Princess. (I’m not knocking the steaks on this ship. I’m noting that the head chefs on the other lines have better eyes for good beef being bought en masse.) I must note that the waiter didn’t get my wine order correct. I asked for a Merlot (which is on my plan) and not a Malbec (which is not), then in the end got a Zinfandel. It did go well with the steak, but I was not in the mood to delay my wine service any longer.
My next stop was to exchange the faulty watch, so I killed 45 minutes waiting for the stores to reopen. After a minute or two, I had a new, working wristwatch I could wear with gold jewelry. Then it was back to the theater to see a comedian (Dave Konig) do his act. For the first 20 minutes, he didn’t get much of a laugh from me. But when he started a bit about a fictional “Bronx Airlines”, he got me laughing. (Think of Mafia enforcers running an airline, and you’ll get the idea this gag is built on.) It was a nice way to end the evening.
