I wonder if they sell cold medicine … - part 1

We woke up early again, before 6am and after peeking out the veranda door, we decided to go back to bed for a while. Shortly after 7 we got up, took showers, got dressed and at 8am we walked down to Royal Palace for breakfast.

Many people were already getting ready to go on excursions, but we have been to Nassau quite often and we just wanted to get off the ship for a little shopping, so we were in no rush. At the restaurant we were taken to a nice table at the side, handed a menu and told that a server would be right there. And he was. The assistant server asked what we wanted to drink and came over with pastries, which we declined. But we were both served some coffee and some water

and a few minutes later we had placed our order with the main server. It did not take long and our starters were served. We usually order the same items whenever we do breakfast and today was no exception. Tom had ordered the

Swiss Bircher Muesli, a Muesli with Raisins, Shredded Apples and Yogurt, while I had gone with my favourite breakfast starter, the

Mornin’ Tug Boat, fresh blend of Strawberries, Bananas, Almonds, Raisin Granola and Low-fat Yogurt. We have tried both dishes on all four ships, but the ones on the Dream are the very best. They were as tasty as we had remembered them to be. Starters done, we were served our breakfast. Tom had ordered an all in

Three – Egg Omelet with Peppers, Onions, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Ham and Cheese, while I had opted for my cruise staple breakfast, the

Traditional Eggs Benedict, Toasted English Muffin with Grilled Canadian Bacon served with Poached Egg topped with Hollandaise Sauce, grilled Roma Tomatoes and link Sausages. Perfect start to the day. Well, kind of, as at that time I realized that my nose had started to run a little. Wonderful, here we were in the Bahamas and I was feeling like a cold was taking a grip on me. But at that time I didn’t give it much thought, because as soon as we had tipped our servers and had gone outside I felt much better. We walked back to our room, applied some sun screen, grabbed our bags and off we went to deck 1 to disembark. It only took a few minutes and we were off the ship and on our way into Nassau.

Tom had selected a few geo-caches he wanted to search for and so we marched towards the center to look for them. Didn’t take too long and we had found one of them and were on the way to the next one.

This one took a little longer because we had to solve a riddle first, to find the correct location of the cache. But soon we had found that second one as well

and all we still wanted to do was to do some shopping. But before we started shopping we stopped by the local Starbucks, got some

Black Tea Lemonades and asked for the internet access, which was printed on the receipt and walked up to the second floor seating area. We sat there for quite some time, checking email and catching up on social media, while slurping our tea. Again, I started to feel like I was coming down with a cold, but as soon as we were outside again the feeling was gone. Odd! Once we had finished our drinks we set out to buy the few articles we wanted.

First off we were searching for another stapler.

We had all of our FE gifts all packed up and the thing we had forgotten was the stapler, so as in years before we were in search of a stapler. At a tourist office we asked if they could point us to a special store, but they had no idea what we wanted and therefore were no help at all. So we did our own research and we knew there was a supermarket right opposite the Tortuga Rum store. So this is where we went. We looked everywhere and on the way out, out of the corner of his eye Tom saw some office supplies and low and behold they had a stapler. So we walked up, but the sales rep decided to ignore us. After we had been standing there trying to get her attention, another employee took pity in us and shouted at her. Well, that finally got her attention and got us our stapler. One thing down, a few more to go. Next stop was the Tortuga Rum shop right opposite. Right when we went in they offered some rum cake to sample and that is always something nice. So we took our sample, then looked for some vanilla extract that they sell and that is pretty nice and Tom even got some Vanilla rum for our friend who looked after our house while we were gone. And finally we found a liquor store, where Tom could get some local beers. Years ago my aunt had sent me a London shopping bag, which is very sturdy and we keep it in our Owner’s Locker box, but always take it with us on cruises, as it makes a great bag for shopping.

So we put everything in there, then walked through a few souvenir shops before heading back to the ship.

We got back on, scanned our cards and went through the metal scanner. Our shopping went through the scanner as well and they told us that they had to hold the rum bottles until we disembarked. No problem. Tom had to hand them his card and they noted everything, gave us a slip of paper, which we subsequently lost and off we went.

Finally at our room I let us in, it was all nicely done up and we went right to have a shower after sweating for a few hours at Nassau. And after showering it was way too late to have lunch at Royal Palace, so we decided on ordering some room service grub.

When I called I also let them know that we still hadn’t ordered our Platinum present and would they bring us a bottle of sparkling wine, which they told us they would, but it would arrive a little later than the rest of our order. We sat on the veranda while waiting and Tom noticed that one of the staterooms opposite of us on the Carnival Liberty had an Austrian flag. Unfortunately we never saw anyone on the balcony or we could have waved to fellow Austrians. Within 20 minutes there was a knock at the door and a server brought our lunch.

He put it all on the small table in front of the couch, then was tipped well and we were all in for our relaxed lunch. And since it’s vacation and ice-cream melts fast, we started our lunch with dessert, a delicious

Mickey bar. And then we indulged in the rest of our food. We shared a

Caesar Salad, Crisp Romaine lettuce, Baguette Croutons and creamy Caesar Dressing, the

Crispy Chicken Tenders served with Barbeque Sauce, the

Buffalo Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese and Honey Mustard Dip and finally the

New York Steak Panini with Caramelized Onions and Horseradish. It was quite a bit of food, but we were hungry and not much was left in the end.

To be continued ........