This is more for my own records and to make sure I don't ever lose my vacation notes, but if you're interested in hearing about our week in the Bahamas, read on! Just don't say I didn't warn you when you're still reading 20 minutes later! ;)
Friday, August 2nd
We left our house about 20 minutes late, so we decided to park in the parking garage right at the airport terminal so we wouldn't have to worry about catching a shuttle. $18 a day, but SO WORTH IT to be in covered parking and literally right across the street from the terminal.
Our flight left DFW at 10:35am and we landed in Nassau just before 3:00pm. We caught a taxi to our resort (Breezes) and checked in. Kisha, the lady who checked us in, was so sweet! We got to our room and saw that there were two double beds and not the king size bed we requested when we made our reservation. We called the front desk and the lady who answered told us that beds are not guaranteed and basically there was nothing she could do for us because there was nothing else available. Umm... okay... Not to be a diva, but I didn't come on vacation to sleep in a bed smaller than my bed at home.
So we went back downstairs to see Kisha and she fixed it for us :) We upgraded from 2 double beds to a king bed, and from a parking lot view to a pool/partial ocean view. SCORE! Much happier :)
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| The view from our new room (pool to the right, beach and ocean to the left) |
We hit up the pool grill for lunch (hamburgers and fries) and grabbed a frozen drink from the pool bar then walked around the resort and explored a bit. It was a little bit older, but still decently nice. It was an all-inclusive (which is why we picked it) so we grabbed another adult beverage on our way back to the room. We had dinner in the main buffet dining room and hung out in the piano bar for a couple hours before bed. I expected the piano bar to be a lot more lively, but it wasn't as exciting as you'd think, which was a bummer.
Saturday, August 3rd
We woke up around 8:15am, and had breakfast in the buffet. I stayed Paleo for breakfast with hard boiled eggs, sausage, and some fruit. After breakfast, we even went to the fitness center and ran 2 miles on the treadmill!
At 10:30am, there were "sailing lessons" down on the beach so we checked it out. Turns out it was private "lessons" (if you can even call them that) with the Hobie Cats.Basically, if you wanted to take the Hobie Cats out on your own, you just had to go out once with a water sports instructor to show you how to do it and let you practice before they turn you loose. All I have to say is that I'm glad we had done it before because that guy didn't show us a dang thing! We ended up not ever taking it out again though because there was zero wind all week :(
While we were on our "instructional" Hobie Cat ride, Joel spotted a sting ray! When we got back, we hung out at the beach and swam in the ocean a little bit until Joel got stung by something. He thought it was some sort of water bug bite, but when we got back to the room and really looked at it, you could tell his leg had been stung or bit about 15 times! I'm pretty sure it was a sting from a jelly fish who got caught between Joel's swimsuit and his leg and when he couldn't get out, he stung Joel pretty bad. Thankfully, it wasn't a big deal and Joel was fine that afternoon.
After that ordeal, we decided it was time for some lunch so we hit up the buffet to see what kind of lunch options they had. Turns out the buffet is pretty extensive! Lots of great options every day. I had teriyaki pork ribs, sweet potato fries, and some fresh pineapple. I'm calling that a Paleo lunch as well! (Other than the desserts... they had an entire table of bite sized desserts every meal, so Joel and I
It was only day 2, but we were already getting a little cabin fever being stuck at our resort. Our place was perfect if you want to lay around the pool or beach and eat and drink all day. But we're a bit more active than that and tend to get restless when there's nothing to do, so we decided to book a side trip.
After doing a little research, we found that we could either get a day pass to Atlantis ($140 each for full access to their waterpark, restaurants, aquarium, etc.) OR we could just book a room at the Comfort Suites next door for $375 which came with a two day pass for each of us. We decided to go with the latter, so we booked a room online for Tuesday night and made plans to spend Tuesday and Wednesday on Paradise Island.
SIDE NOTE: if you are planning a last minute beach vacation for sometime between September and Christmas, you HAVE to check out Atlantis. They are running a ridiculous special then and you can get a room in their Beach Tower for $117 a night! After tax, it's less than $1000 for an entire week! (For comparison, one night for 2 adults in the Beach Tower is normally $700+ after tax.) And if you're staying at Atlantis, you get full access to the CRAZY COOL (and NOT just for kids) Aquaventure (waterpark) and the aquarium (we did it twice), and there is tons of shopping and restaurants on the premises as well. Their promotion says kids under 12 eat free too, so check it out! Joel and I already can't wait to take our kids there some day. And no, I was not paid by anybody to promote Atlantis or this crazy good deal. It's just really THAT good... End rant.
After we booked our mini vacation within a vacation, we headed back outside and got a couple drinks at the pool bar then laid out by the pool and relaxed until dinner. We went out to the beach to try to see the sunset, but since we were set back in a cove on the north shore, it set back over the island behind some buildings.
Not the ocean sunset I was looking for, but it was still GORGEOUS!
We had dinner reservations at 8:30pm at one of the restaurants on site, "Garden of Eden". It was the cutest place! Inside was couples' seating only, with a love seat at each table. I had crab cakes, lobster chowder, a filet with potato wedges, chocolate cake, and coffee. YUM! It was a really good dinner and great atmosphere in the restaurant.
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| Chocolate Cake |
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| Crab Cake |
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| Steak, potato wedges, and veggies |
We didn't finish dinner until after 10:00pm, and we were exhausted, so we decided to skip the show that night. We could hear it from our room though! It was the Junkanoo Bahamian show, and if I could go back, this is the one that I would NOT have missed.
Monday, August 5
We slept in until 9:00am then went to the buffet for breakfast. I stayed mostly Paleo with an omelet, sausage, and bacon... and I also had a small pastry. We took a long walk on the beach (Joel found a starfish!) then lounged by the pool and on the beach until lunch time. That was when I decided to jump OFF the Paleo wagon and have pizza for lunch! Sadly, it wasn't even that great :(
After lunch, we went kayaking! We paddled pretty far out in search of another sting ray, but we didn't find any. We did find crazy people driving parasail boats and jet skis that almost ran us over though, so we headed back to short within about half an hour and did the whole lazy-day-on-the-beach thing again until it was time for dinner. I may or may not have gotten so wrapped up in my book that I forgot to reapply sunscreen... Oops. Side note: if you haven't read "Redeeming Love" before, stop what you're doing and go buy it. Now. It's a FANTASTIC book!
Needless to say, I got a decently bad sunburn. I guess that's what happens when you wear 8 SPF... We stopped in the little store in the hotel and bought some after sun lotion (normally $6 at Walmart, but on special at the resort for only $14.95!!!) and some 30 SPF for the rest of the week.
We grabbed a quick salad in the buffet for dinner and walked down to the beach to get some pictures, then headed back to the room to watch TV and relax.
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| Check out those |
After all that sun, I was EXHAUSTED and didn't feel like doing anything but laying in bed and relaxing the rest of the night. It was also conveniently the same night as The Bachelorette season finale... Funny how that worked out...
Please don't judge me for watching 3 hours of The Bachelorette and After the Final Rose while on a beach vacation... During commercial breaks we ran (literally) to the lobby bar for drinks and packed our bags for our Atlantis adventure the next day!
Tuesday, August 6
We got up around 8:30am and grabbed breakfast in the buffet. I had Caribbean French Toast, which is basically normal French Toast but with extra sugar on top! Delicious.
I ended up repacking everything for our Atlantis trip into one big suitcase so we could use our backpack for sunscreen and towels at the water park. Once that was settled, we grabbed a taxi and took a 15 minute ride to Paradise Island.
Check in wasn't until 3:00pm, but the Comfort Suites was nice enough to let us "pre-register" and then lock our bags up in their storage room. Pre-registering was basically completely checking in and just not getting a room key. They gave us our vouchers to get Atlantis wrist bands and across the street we went!
We got our wrist bands quickly at Atlantis and immediately hit the aquarium. We saw sting rays, sharks, Nemo fish, starfish, sea horses, and a huge Manta Ray! His wingspan was probably at least 10 or 12 feet. It was crazy!
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| Joel staring down the sting ray |
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| Nemo!!! These guys were less than 2 inches long. I had no idea they were so tiny! |
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| Sea horses just hanging out. Look closely and you'll see three of them! |
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| Manta Ray |
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| The Manta Ray from above |
We made it through the shark ride once before it started lightning and they pulled everybody out of the water. I wish I could have taken pictures of the water park, but obviously I left my phone in the locker. The shark ride was my favorite. You climb up the Mayan Temple and the ride starts at the top. You're in an inner tube and you go through a dark twisty tunnel through the temple until it spits you into a glass tube that goes through a shark tank. You literally float through a small square glass tunnel within a big shark tank. There were sharks swimming all around our tunnel. It. Was. Awesome.
After they pulled everyone out of the water, we hung out next to the rides for about half an hour thinking the rain would stop soon, but it didn't so we decided to get lunch while we waited. We grabbed a quick bite at the pool grill, and the pools opened up about an hour later. It was still raining so we had a blast running around the water park in the rain! We hung out in the hot tub then did the shark ride a few more times and a couple other rides before it started lightning again, and this time we decided to call it quits and head inside.
We quickly realized that we didn't plan very well and every restaurant we wanted to go to required reservations. We finally decided to suck it up and just make a reservation to eat super late. We ended up with a 9:00pm reservation at Seafire Steakhouse. We killed time walking around the resort and casino (and saw Kyrie Irving playing blackjack!), walking around Marina Village shopping center, getting a glass of champagne at a hotel bar, and buying $19 worth of candy in the candy store.
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| Drinks before dinner |
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| Yes, there are TWO lobster tails on that plate! |
Wednesday, August 7
We woke up around 8:15am and ate breakfast at the hotel then checked out of Comfort Suites and headed back to Atlantis for round two. Comfort Suites was nice enough to keep our bags again until we were ready to leave Paradise Island later in the afternoon.
We went to the Dolphin Cay, which is a manmade beach area where they have trained dolphins. You can pay to swim with them! We were going to do a "shallow water interaction" with them, which is basically just petting them and hugging them and taking pictures (as opposed to actually swimming with them) but literally as we were booking our spots, somebody else took one of the spots leaving only one spot left for that day. We decided we just wouldn't do it at all if we couldn't both do it together, so we went souvenir shopping instead.
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| Marina Village - so cute, right? |
The lazy river had several parts that were not-so-lazy. We went through mini rapids, and there was one stretch that was basically a wave pool that propels you along! Towards the end, there was an exit off to the side where you go to get on an actual tube ride, so we did that. It put you onto a conveyor belt which took you up to the top of a big tower, then you go down a SUPER STEEP drop and through a fast tunnel ride! It was a long wait, but it was a blast! We did that ride again before leaving for the day.
We changed back into normal clothes and walked through Atlantis one more time. Joel bought a cigar for that night, and we both got ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. What better way to end a hot day, right?!
We got our stuff from Comfort Suites and said see ya later to Paradise Island. After a quick cab ride back to Breezes, it was time for a refreshing frozen adult beverage before dinner. Since it was Wednesday, we obviously had the pasta bar for dinner (shout out to all my Pasta Night friends who get the reference). After dinner, we walked out to the beach and Joel smoked his cigar while we sat out under stars. It was a perfect last night in paradise.
Thursday, August 8
We started the day just like every other - up at 8:15am, breakfast in the buffet, and a 3 mile walk on the beach. This time, we saw a family of sting rays swimming along the shore!
We grabbed one last drink from the pool bar, then headed back inside to pack up and check out. We ate lunch at the pool grill (Joel's favorite, even though he always got hamburgers) then headed to the airport. We got back to Dallas around 6:00pm and were SO glad we decided to splurge for the parking garage right at the terminal. It made leaving the airport so much easier! We hit up Raising Cane's on the way home, and thus ended our fabulous Bahamian vacation. Until next time..
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| Our view from the deck - last glimpse of the ocean! |
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