Cruise to the Bahamas - December 2009

I recently had the opportunity go to the Bahamas with my family on the Royal Caribbean line. I booked my trip 18 days prior to sailing from a “one-day sale” that Royal Caribbean offered. The downside of booking at the last minute is that there are not many cabins left to choose from.

The Majesty of the Seas is the smallest ship of their fleet and it has recently been renovated.  Our accommodations were “ocean view” on deck 3, which was a very small room with a porthole. (I consider it small when I do not have a nightstand on my side of the bed.) Not that you spend much time in your room. However, I would suggest a “deluxe” ocean view or balcony for future travel. 

The Majesty of the Seas does have a sports deck and the rock-climbing wall.  However, it lacks having specialty restaurants (due to size).  It does have a “Johnny Rockets” and “Sorrento’s Pizza” if you get tired of the dining room or Windjammer café (buffet).

Which brings me to the point of “My Time Dining”.  We could not get this service due to the lateness of booking.  According to the restaurant manager, you can book a table each day between 6:00- 9:30PM or you can just arrive between those set hours and be put at a table with other travelers.  We would prefer this service as some days we had late boarding and other days we were hungry earlier than our 8:45PM seating.

We had three stops on this 5 day cruise: Nassau, Coco Cay, and Key West. In Nassau, our first stop, there were two streets of shops. This is where you can get the famous picture of the policeman directing traffic standing on a box.

At the end of the downtown streets is  Senor Frogs.  And next to Senor Frogs is the Hilton.  It is a beautiful pink historic building with a private beach.  On the other side of the Hilton is a public beach.

After shopping, we went to Paradise Island, which is connected to Nassau by a bridge.  You can take a $3.00 ferry (each way) for a 10-minute ride to the island or you can take a taxi. You can buy your ferry ticket right on the pier.

The main feature of Paradise Island is the Atlantis Resort, which was developed by Sol Kerzner after he bought the island in 1994.

If you take the ferry, plan on doing a lot of walking. You dock at the Marina Village and you walk through a very nice shopping area.  We headed for the Atlantis Resort because we were told that you could see a portion of the aquarium in the lobby of the hotel for free.  It was worth the walk.  The aquarium had schools of various fish and a few large stingrays.  I would highly recommend paying to see the inside of the aquarium, also.

You cannot see much more of the Atlantis grounds without a day pass.  The day pass is currently priced at $110.00.  We tried to see the water slides, but there are guards at every door.

We were told that all the beaches in Nassau/Paradise Island were public, which may be the case, but access to most of them is private.  

We had lunch in the Atlantis Grill (outside the casino and lobby) across from the luxury yachts parked there (oh, to have that much money).  The restaurant offers hamburgers, salads and sandwiches.  The food was very good and the staff was pleasant.

We had to walk through three towers in the Atlantis to get to the door that led to the public beach.  The path to the public beach is on the far side of the Riu Palace hotel. If you want to stay close to the Atlantis and have all your meals included, you might want to stay there at the Riu. It has recently been renovated, but it is very small in comparison to the Atlantis.  The Riu Palace is literally right outside the Convention door of the Atlantis Resort. It only has one building of rooms which all have balconies.  You would still have to buy a day pass to access the Atlantis Resort swimming area.  (For a family of 4 = $440.)

Our next stop was supposed to be CoCo Bay but the waters were so rough (you could only tell by looking out the window, the ship was smooth) that they could not tender onto the island. So we ended up having a day at sea. Most people laid by the pool.  You need to find a chair by 10:00 AM on a day at sea if you want to sit with your family.

The third stop was Key West.  They have quite a few shops there.  The famous shopping street is Duval Street.  There are no upscale shops, but rather a large variety of tourist shops, restaurants and bars.

You can tour Key West Island by foot, or take the Conch train or the Old Town Trolley. If you just want to walk it, you can see most of the historic homes such as the Hemingway House, Lighthouse, Truman museum, and all the shops.  

If you take the Conch Train as we did, it is 1.5 hours long and you cannot get on and off at leisure.  It was $29.00 a person.  My personal opinion is that they could do the trip in one hour at a lower price. The island is pretty small and after you have seen a few homes, they all begin to look alike.  The nice thing about the train is that is open-air.

If I had it to it again, I would take the Old Town Trolley because you can get off and on for the same $29.00. When you are near the Truman museum, Ernest Hemingway home, or the Southern Most Point in the US, you can get off and take pictures.  However, note that if you book the Old Town Trolley on the ship, the tour is one hour and you do not have on and off privileges. You can only get on and off if you book online or buy your ticket at a booth in Key West. You can book either the train or the trolley from a ticket booth on shore about two blocks from the dock.

I only had the opportunity to see the Westin Hotel on the Marina and the Crowne Plaza on Duval Street. The Westin was very nice looking from the outside.  It is right next to the docking of the cruise ships however.  The Crowne Plaza is right in the heart of the downtown.  Neither hotel had a beach.  (Note: Key West is not known for their beaches.) 

Back on the Majesty of the Seas, we skipped the dining room and ate at Johnny Rockets for a change of pace.  There is a cover charge now plus a charge for drinks. RCL started the cover charge because so many people were wasting food.  I can certainly see that happening.  We got a lot of food for our $4.95, but having skipped lunch, we ate it all! Our waiter was so nice and even though we were the only ones in there at 6:00PM, they did a little “Macarena” dance number for us. 

Because we ate early, we had a fun evening of playing “Name that Tune”, watching Karaoke and playing “Quest”.  We even fit in time for the comedian in the theatre.  They had two comedians on this trip and they were both very funny. 

On Christmas Day, we learned that you had to be out at sea because the port workers have the day off.  Our last day was again very leisurely.  For the children, they had Santa in the theatre and he handed out presents. We spent the whole day on the sun deck. In the evening, they had a holiday menu for dinner.  It was time to repack, hand out gratuities and pay for your pictures.

Normally, the last morning, we would get up early, have breakfast before 8:00AM and be off the ship at our scheduled time.  This year because we had gotten fairy lazy, we skipped breakfast and went to our assigned station at 8:45AM.  On the way to the station, there were donuts, coffee and water, so we didn’t really need breakfast after all.  It took about a half hour to get off the ship and claim our bags and get on a bus.  It took another half hour to load the bus, drive to the airport (MIA) and unload the bus.

Note:  If you arrive in Fort Lauderdale for a ship departing from Miami, be sure and book the cruise ship’s transfer.  It is a good 30-45 minute bus ride.

If you arrive in Miami for a ship departing from Miami, take a taxi.  It takes less time and the airport is not that far from the pier.