Norwegian Cruise Lines has their own private island in the Bahamas and it’s called Great Stirrup Cay. Each of their cruises to the Bahamas spends one day here and today was our day. We took our time heading down to breakfast because we thought there would be a wait before we could get to the island. The cruise ship can’t directly sail to the island so what happens is that tender boats take the guests from the ship. These boats can hold up to 450 passengers. I was expecting some type of rubber dingy where only 10 people would fit in. Today was the first day that we experienced a line. It took us approximately ten minutes to get onto the tender boats. I was expecting a much longer wait. The ride to the island only took 5 minutes.
With a possibility of 2000 people being on the island, you need to get there early in the day to get the prime spots. There are many loungers and beach chairs that were on a first come, first serve basis. There were even rarer hammocks that were quickly taken up. But Karen and I didn’t care. We realized that we would not survive the entire day in the hot baking sun. Therefore we made an executive decision and rented their two loungers with cabana. That was the best $30 we’ve ever spent.
We quickly headed into the turquoise water and it was a perfect temperature, and perfectly clear. The beach was pretty busy. I would guess that probably half of the ship was there. Most people tended to stay close to the shore. But if you swam past them, it was great. We saw lots of fishes out there and we didn’t even have snorkel gear. The water was so clear that you could see right through to the ocean floor.
We went back to our cabana and then decided that we should go and have some lunch. Norwegian provides a BBQ lunch where they had hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, various cold salads and lots of fresh fruit. It was yummy. There are plenty of activities on the island, including beach volleyball, parasailing, kayaking, snorkelling, blow up water slide, and even shopping in a small straw market.
When we got onto the island, we saw a hut that was offering beach massages and I decided to spend some of my birthday money (thanks Darren and Allison) and have a neck, shoulder and back massage. Boy did I ever enjoy that. The only way to have a massage is with the sun, sand, a gentle breeze and Caribbean music.
I stumbled my way back to the cabana and we headed back into the water. In the distance, there was this very large dark cloud and every so often we would see lightning. At one point, there was this one big crack of thunder and everyone was ordered out of the water. You should have seen how fast people decided to leave the island. About a half hour later, the lifeguards said we could go back in. Now we practically had the water to ourselves.
We left the island around 4pm and headed back for a refreshing shower and a late afternoon lay down.
We had our last dinner on the cruise tonight and it was a good one. We ate at Crossings restaurant, and had a window table, with a direct view of the waves behind the boat, as we left the Bahamas, and cruised towards Miami. Karen and I each had the scallops for an appetizer. I went with the roast turkey and Karen went with the flounder. After dinne, we went outside to catch the sunset.
Before we went to the show in the Stardust Theatre, we hit the casino where Karen turned $1 into $32.10. We came back to the room to discover a towel gorilla.
No picture of the towel monkey?!
Awesome sunset pictures!