Norwegian Getaway, 11/29 - 12/6 NASSAU, BAHAMAS

Nassau was a complete Charlie Foxtrot. I had a van scheduled (and paid for) to take us to Atlantis, and join up with the rest of the agents for a tour/site visit. Gerard Lewis (Courteous Transfers is the company) was supposed to pick us up at 11am. The company came highly recommended and I can't for the life of me figure out why. We were downstairs about 10 minutes early and waiting in the designated spot. Now, I understand Island time, so I wasn't too concerned when he wasn't there at the stroke of 11. But when I finally called him (at international roaming rates) around 11:20, and he was surprised and embarassed that he had forgotten us, I was not too happy. But he assured us he would be there in no more than 30 minutes. So, no big deal. But then 30 became 45, became 60. At 12:20 I decided to walk across the street to VIA to find a decent wifi signal, get some work done, and forget the tour. As I was crossing the street, I heard the esteemed Mr. Lewis calling my name. So, what the heck. I figured I had missed the original tour, but didn't think I would have an issue taking a later one, as I have heard Atlantis does pretty much non-stop tours.

 So we climbed aboard the scariest POS van I've seen in years, and headed to...the gas station. Yeah. Gerard needed gas to get the 4 miles to Atlantis. Fortunately, he did have a dollar for the bridge toll. We got out at Atlantis, and headed in. First stop was at Guest Services, who had no idea what tour tickets I was talking about, but did give me the wrong directions to the ticket office. Which can't be reached by wheelchair. So I perched Steve on the steps, and went down to talk to them. They had no idea what I was talking about, but they did call Guest Services to confirm that no one on the whole property had any idea what I was talking about. And here's the thing: I paid a nominal sum for this deal a couple months ago. At one point the organizer said she would be sending an email with meeting times/places for the tour. Then there was an email that we would be given our tickets/times at the cocktail party Sunday evening. At the cocktail party it was explained that we would be meeting at some other time/place to get our tickets/times. And the organizer told me, personally, that I could go to (I THINK), the Reef Tower to get my tickets/tour. It could be she said the Beach tower. But in the end, it doesn't even matter, because we checked with the Reef Tower, the Beach Tower, The Royal Tower and the Coral Tower. I am pretty sure those are the only towers available, and none of them had a clue what I was talking about, nor had they heard of the organizer personally, her company name, or the Norwegian Getaway. At this point I don't even remember waht I paid , but it's not important, as it's trivial compared to what I paid for the van to get here, so I could log a couple miles pushing a wheelchair around several miles of hotel lobby. All in all it was over $100 completely pissed away, as at this point (about 2:30, I just called Gerard back and told him we were ready to go back to the ship.

 He showed up relatively promptly. Put Steve on the lift and it wouldn't go up. Given the condition of the van, I wasn't terribly surprised. With much fanfare, and some weird story about telling someone he would charge their battery for them, Gerard set about removing the battery from his van, and replacing it with one sitting by the front seat. So, yeah, if you ever wonder whether you should do business with this company, consider that they carry extra car batteries in the front seat. But eventually he got the van restarted and the lift operating and we made it back to the port without a stop for fuel. Finally got back onboard around 3:30, and Steve was too tired to eat. I on the other hand, was famished. So I put him down for a nap, and headed to O'Sheehans for some wings and some fish and chips, which never fail to lift my spirits. I was joined there by one of the people in the Reunion group who of course asked if we had gone to Atlantis. I gave her the quick version and changed the subject. We chatted for a bit, and I went back upstairs to check on Steve. He was still feeling tired, so i left him and went on a quick spin to get some pictures around the ship.

Dinner tonite was LeBistro. We toyed with the idea of going back to La Cucina or Teppanyaki, but in the end decided to stick with the plan and hit each one of the alternative dining venues. When we got to LeBistro, a couple new friends, Kim and Karen were there, so we joined them at a table for 4. Dinner was good (although the rack of lamb is still too small a serving, requiring 3 starters), but the conversation was better. Looking back on it, during the whole week Steve and I only dined alone twice. We had Kim join us at Illusionarium, Lisa and Karen at Moderno. At Ocean Blue we were alone, and again at La Cucina. We were joined by the lovely family from Chicago at Teppanyaki, Cagneys was a whole group dinner, and now, Kim and a different Karen at Le Bistro. And with the addition of Karen, only half of us were travel agents, so the conversation was actually just normal stuff!
So, yeah...I had the rack of lamb, with the grilled asparagus, onion soup and the salade gourmande (with the smoked duck in it) to start. Steve did the grilled asparagus and Cocquilles St Jacque before the grilled swordfish entre. All were excellent, although just one more chop, to make it a 1/2 rack instead of a 1/3 would be good. IMHO.
Dinner took us well over two hours, and we knew debark and get home would be a loooooong day, so we turned in early.
I also assumed getting a transfer to the airport and then to our day room hotel would be a major hassle, and I was not dissapointed.
But that's a story for a different day.

Overall, I am going to give this cruise an 8. Most parts were a solid 10, but a few things were just too bad for words. So...yeah.

I'll let you know how the get home day works out.