We sailed all through the night and arrived in Freeport, Grand Bahama at 8am. I had no sense that the ship was moving while I slept. We went down to the Garden Cafe buffet and enjoyed our breakfast outside, at the back of the boat on Deck 11. Leaving the boat was painless, with no waiting in line.
Karen found somebody called Smiling Pat on TripAdvisor that offers tours of the island. We were supposed to tour with Pat but unfortunately she was all booked up. She sent a man named “Nugget” instead and Karen and I had our own private tour of the island.
The first thing we noticed was how hot and humid the island was. Nugget said he’d never seen a day when the temperature went over 94°F. Well guess what, we hit 94°F.
While driving to our first stop, Nugget pointed out many interesting things about the island. We saw the Grand Bahama shipyard, the Freeport Container Port and the quarry where they mine limestone.
Our first stop was Paradise Cove where Nugget dropped us off for a couple of hours. You know when you see those pictures of the Bahamas how the water is bluey/green. Well it’s true. We had such a great time just floating around, in the crystal clear water, which was a perfect temperature to cool off from the heat.
After he picked us up, we toured around Freeport. We stopped at a small local market where Nugget said we should try conch. I wasn’t feeling that well but Karen enjoyed a Bahamian local dish called conch salad. The woman running the stall was called Barbara and she was so funny. She explained and showed us how she took the live conch out of the shell always hoping to find a pearl. She said she’s found many pea sized pearls but not the big one yet. Conch salad is made up of raw conch chopped up pretty fine with onions, peppers, tomatoes and the juice of lime and orange. Karen really liked it. Barbara was so kind enough to give Karen the huge beautiful pink conch shell that her lunch came in as a souvenir.
We toured around the island some more where Nugget pointed out a huge castle belonging to the man that owns all of the KFCs and Burger Kings. You should see this place. Yes … they do KFC, Burger King, Wendy’s and Domino’s. The other thing he told us was the “Pirates of The Carribean” parts two and three were filmed on Grand Bahama. He then took us by the Black Pearl that was parked in front of someone’s house.
Our last stop was in Port Lucaya. He dropped us off and we toured around the Marketplace. It was so hot that we would try and find some shade whenever we could. The beach there was the same turquoise shades, and so beautiful.
Nugget picked us up around 4pm and took us back to the Freeport dock. We promised him that we would be back again.
I had a quick nap before we headed down for dinner in the Crossings dining room. Tonight Karen had the ceasar salad and Lobster and Grouper extravaganza. I too had the ceasar salad but went with the grilled chicken with mashed potatoes. Our server said it was mandatory to have dessert so I went with the raspberry sherbet and Karen had the international cheese platter.
We headed back to our room where we sat out on the balcony enjoying a quiet evening, before heading down to the Stardust Theatre for another evening of entertainment. Tomorrow … it’s a shopping day in Nassau. Get out the credit cards!
Sounds like you’re having a great time and not getting seasick. I’m glad! Don’t you love NCL?!!