Our First Stop - the Bahamas

Less than 24 hours after embarcation, our first stop on our Caribbean adventure was Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Eleuthera is the largest of the Baham islands.

Since this was our first excursion of our first cuise, we were unsure as to how do we get from the ship TO our activities and how do we get BACK to the ship FROM our activities.
I need not have worried. Note: Marina left most of the worrying and navigation to me. As it turned out, all we had to do was follow directions and be literate (follow the signs).
coming_ashore the view from the ferry
we took a ferry from the ship to the Island. The cruiseline has a private beach at the south end of the island. Our excursion for the island included a day at the private beach. We rented a clamshell (to protect Kevin from sunburn), floating chairs so we could sit in and float around in the water, and, because marina had never been on a kayak before, a two-person kayak.

Left - 'Our' ship waiting for our return.

Right - Marina checking for sharks

Marina - enjoying 'our' beach.
Kevin Chillin

Kevin Chilin and enjoying watching Marina
Marina in a kayak Marina with hat, stretching her legs.

The interesting part of the excursion was getting Marina into a kayak. To faciliate maneuvering the kayak and to alleviate Marina's concerns, we rented a two person kayak. Kevin sat in the back no - not because he was checking out Marina in a swimsuit, but because the stronger passenger should be IN the back - that's my story and I am sticking to it. Marina was nervous as there were individuals on paddleboards and other kayaks and every time we got close (close being defined as 'other people on the same beach'), Kevin had to reasure her we were fine. (and steer the kayak away from others). Marina handled the experience well. Kevin was (like on a galley of old) called out a cadence "Right, Left, Right, Left" to keep us paddling in sync or to steer us away when we got too close to others for Marina's comfort.

Once we got off the ferry (from the ship to the island), we just followed the signs (and directions from the crew that preceeded us ashore) from the dock to the beach. There was a bridge to the private beech. Once there, there was a building where we presnted our tickets for the days' activities (clamshell, beach chairs, kayak.) We set up and settled in to enjoy our day.

Lunch was provided buffet style and there was sufficient food to satisfy even Kevin's appetite.

There were even vendors provided so we need not even leave the beach if we wanted Souvenirs. Sine marina had forgotten her hat onboard th ship, Kevin (via a vendor) acquired one for her.

To get back TO the ship via the ferry, we just followed shigns directing up to our ship. There was a line (the ferry shuttled back and forth to and from the ship) but the line movee rapidly once he ferry docked. to preclude passengers from accidentally boaring the wrong ship, we had to present our medallion to a scanner (remember me mentioning the medallion). So IF we were trying to sneak aboard the wrong ship, that would be prevented. As we were in a foreign country, our iendities were checked (facial recognition) and our bags scanned before being allowed to board the ferry. These processes (facial recognition and bag xrays) were followed at each stop. Our medallion was scanned again once the ferry brought us to the ship (checking us back onboard.)

The meticulous process of getting us To our excursion, the signage once on shore, and getting us back on board did much to alleviate Kevin's concerns about going ashore for excursions.

Our itinerary

Our cruise itinerary consisted of:

Our Journey