Never again will I sail from New York in February!
Last minute cruise
Well, it was a relatively last-minute cruise… Typically I like several months to plan. We already had a Western Caribbean cruise in the works in April, and this one we started planning in December for a Febrary departure. I got a call from Norwegian’s Casinos at Sea offering me a comped cruise, but we had to take it before May 1st. Seeing that we already had the other one planned for April Vacation, we threw this one together for Febrary Vacation. It was on the NCL Escape, which was our first time on that ship. Funny thing is, our April cruise was also on the Escape.
This was a 7-day Bahamas cruise departing from New York. The itinerary had two days at sea heading south, a day at Port Canaveral, a day in Nassau, and a day at Great Stirrup Cay, and then 2 sea days heading back to New York.
Our son wasn’t joining us on this cruise, so it was just my wife and I. He stayed home, and with it being February in New England, I put him in charge of driveway detail, making sure that we came home to a clean driveway should we get any snow (and yes, snow as forecasted).
Embarkation
While I usually like to park in Weehawken and take the ferry back into Manhattan, we ended up spending the small fortune and parked at the port. This kinda sucked, because we ended up on the roof of the pier, with our vehicle completely exposed to the elements. Oh well.
Having used Casinos at Sea to book the cruise, at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal they have a dedicated line. I was able to use my Boarding Group #1 placard that I snagged from a previous cruise.
It was nice getting on the ship. We had an interior cabin and didn’t splurge on the Free at Sea beverage package and didn’t go with the Vibe Beach Club. We knew that it would be cold for the bulk of the trip. With the cold weather and no drink package, the Vibe just didn’t make sense. While I did miss getting my drink on, it was the right call. I did bring 2 bottles of wine aboard (but only drank 1).
Leaving New York was as usual fantastic, even though it was drizzling and in the 30s.
The first sea day of the cruise warmed up a little, but still it was very obvious that it was still February. It was chillier than we’d ever seen at sea, and the seas were definitely more active than they are later in the spring. We didn’t spend much time outside, and the Atrium was packed. We thoroughly enjoyed the things that the Escape has to offer that the Joy does not, like the Supper Club and Choir of Man. Howl at the Moon (The dueling piano show) is also time very well spent. My only complaint of the Escape is that it would have been nice if they had an Observation Lounge like the Joy has on Deck 15, but the Escape doesn’t have one…
We also signed up for a wine tasting session, which was informative and fun. I highly recommend it (especially if you don’t have a drink package)!
Port Canaveral
Our first port of call was Port Canaveral. Two very popular excursions are the Kennedy Space Center and a trip to the Orlando theme parks. Visiting the Kennedy Space Center is a fantastic way to spend the day. There is so much to see, and it is very educational. I highly recommend it for families, as even kids have tons to check out. We had previously visited it, and did some sort of “Behind the Scenes” bus tour which included a tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building, so we decided to skip it. Besides, there was a SpaceX launch scheduled for later that day, so we figured that it would be an absolute zoo.
Heading to Orlando to me seems like a waste. It is NOT close to Port Canaveral, and by the time you get there, you’re not going to have much time to accomplish much of anything at any of the parks. So we skipped that too. Since there’s not much to do in the immediate port area, we grabbed an excursion that included transportation and a day pass at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront Hotel. The weather was around 70F and high overcast, but it was way better than the 20F that it was back home. It was pretty neat seeing the formations of pelicans gliding up and down the beach, which is something that I haven’t seen in several years since my parents owned a place in Palm Coast, FL. I definitely forgot how effortless they soared.
On the shuttle that we took to the property, we were told that the driver would take us anywhere we wanted to go, so we took advantage of the offer and had him drive us to Ron Jon Surf Shop, which we passed on the way to the beach. I honestly wasn’t really sure what to expect. The place was huge, and all we ended up grabbing were a few souvenir t-shirts.
Right next door to Ron Jons is The Florida Key Lime Pie Company. My wife is a HUGE fan of Key Lime Pie, so this was a “have-to” on our list. Me? I’m not a huge fan. I’ll gladly eat a slice, but it’s something I can take or leave. I think I’m more of a chocolate cream kinda guy.
We each grabbed a slice and hung out on a picnic table on the Ron Jon property. I did see this pretty cool bird picking around in the grass that I didn’t recognize. It turns out it’s a White Ibis.
The shuttle driver gave us his phone number and asked us to give him a call when we were ready to be picked up. Turns out it was an answering service, and was forced to leave a message. After 20 minutes or so of no response, we bit the bullet and walked back to the hotel. It was only about a mile or so. It was flat and pleasant. After being stuck on a ship for a few days, even though I was kinda grumpy about it, the reality was that I probably needed to get my steps in.
The hotel has a restaurant, and by this time it was after noon, and we had worked up an appetite that the key lime pie didn’t satiate. It’s funny… this trip was a little over a year ago, and I remember the bar that we walked by that had a fresh coat of polyurethane, but I cannot for the life of me remember what we ordered. I’m pretty sure that we had margaritas, and maybe some coconut shrimp? It was good but pricey. Nothing spectacular.
As the afternoon wore down, we saw people packing up at the beach and figured that we should try to fight the crowds to get back to the ship. There already was an enormous line. I think that many of the ships that were in port that day offered excursions to this hotel. I didn’t see any other NCL Towels other than ours. Most of the people using that beach had Royal Caribbean towels. If I remember correctly, the RCL ship in port had an earlier all-aboard time than the Escape, which explained the crowds waiting to head back. The shuttle was basically a 12-passenger van, and there was only one of them. After waiting around for about an hour and not seeing the line move too much, we just called for an Uber, which was the right plan!
SpaceX Launch
Once back aboard, we grabbed a snack and headed up to deck 20, above the Vibe Beach Club, which on the Escape is a public, open area that not many people seem to know about. It was a great vantage point to watch the launch. Sunset was at 6:15pm, and the rocket launched at 6:21pm. I’ve never seen a night launch, and while this one doesn’t really qualify. However, since it was overcast, it was definitely getting dark and I had no idea how the brightness of the rocket would mess with my camera settings. To keep things easy (since it was going to happen quickly), I had it set to automatic. Probably a bad idea. I was shooting constantly and never really grabbed an amazing picture. My wife shot video on her phone, but I cannot find that at that moment. If I can dig it up, I’ll add it back here when I can. It was pretty neat watching it vanish into the clouds. There was a break in the clouds almost directly overhead, and I was fairly certain that the rocket would make another appearance. I was ready for it.
I packed pretty light for this trip and didn’t bring a huge camera bag full of glass. I think I just had like a 28-300mm lens that does lots, but nothing well. It’s a lens that I have since retired, since I don’t seem to ever be able to get a great, clean shot beyond 150mm. At this point, I’d rather lug around a few lenses if it means I’ll get better shots. The real test will be on my upcoming Alaska cruise in August. I can’t wait! I’ll be bringing my Sony a77, and I’ll have a 16-50mm f2.8, an old Minolta 70-210mm f4 beer can, and a Minolta 500mm f8 Reflex mirror lens. My son likes photography as well, and we seem to fight over it constantly. I decided for this trip it would be best if he had his own camera, so I bought him an a99. He’ll be bringing that along with a 28-75mm f2.8, and a Minolta 80-200mm f2.8.
Nassau, Bahamas
This was the first time I had ever been to the Bahamas, and we had the whole day to explore. We were pretty cheap on this cruise, and we didn’t take any excurions. The ones that we were intereted in were either Cable Beach or Cabbage Beach, but I didn’t feel like we had time to relax at the beach and also explore Nassau, which I really wanted to do. We decided to just walk around, and we had found a fantastic walking tour video on Youtube from a guy who cruises to the Bahamas all the time.
We pretty much followed his advice exactly. This was the route:
His route includes the Queen’s Staircase, Fort Fincastle, the Government House, the Greycliff Cigar/Chocolatier, Umbrella Lane, Heritage Shoppe and Village Artists Studios, National Art Gallery, John Watling’s Distillery, and Junkanoo Beach.
We did alter it a little. After Fort Fincastle, we took a short jaunt down East Hill Street to head over to Mortimer Candies. My wife and I both love food, and we really enjoy trying local foods that are new to us. Often times when traveling, we’ll head into a convenience store to buy local snacks that we simply can’t buy at home. In Nassau, we were lucky, as we were able to check out this great little shop that’s been around forever.
Mortimer Candies
I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about getting off the beaten path in Nassau, as at the time there were travel advisories issued for Nassau, and it wasn’t recommended to venture too far behind the hill. It was broad daylight, and we encountered no issues at all. In fact, it was maybe a quarter mile from the path that was recommended to us.
There were a few other customers in the shop, who appeared to be regulars. The shopkeeper was dealing with them as we were browsing. Once everyone else left, the employee approached us. She was fantastic, taking the time to explain the history, showing us photos on the wall, and explaining all of the different colors and what they meant. I found it amazing that they made candies in the colors of the Bahamian flag, and that they were given out in the airport.
It is these kinds of interactions that I really love when traveling. In some way, I envision myself pretending to be like Anthony Bourdain, spending the time to get to know locals, and relish in the foods that they take pride in; the foods that bring us all together. Today at least, it was “mission accomplished.”
There really weren’t any other major standouts in our walking tour, everything else was pretty well covered by the videos we watched. Speaking of the video, it mentioned that ending the walk with a stop at Junkanoo Beach was good, as well as possibly saving some time to head to the Fish Fry to grab something to eat. We ended up abandoning the tour before the Art Gallery and John Watling’s Distillery. The plan became getting something to eat and grabbing a bus or taxi to visit Baha Mar resort.
My wife had been to Nassau as a child, and she had memories of visiting a resort called the Crystal Palace. She had memories of her family walking a seemingly endless road (with her two very young sisters at the time) from downtown Nassau to the resort. They were all tired, hangry, and there apparently was some drama. She retold me this story on the ship, adding a few details. Of course, this resort is long gone, and has been replaced by the enormous Baha Mar Resort, a huge, posh mega-resort and casino which is very similar to Atlantis on the Cabbage Beach side of Nassau.
We cut back to the port and checked out Junkanoo Beach. There were about a billion people there from the cruise ships, and there were tons of vendors, loud music, and it wasn’t really something that either of us really wanted to deal with, since we like to relax at the beach. This beach seemed anything BUT relaxing, so we decided to head further down the road.
I don’t really know why, but for some crazy reason I was too cheap to take a taxi and was convinced that we could just grab a public bus. While there were very few actual bus stops on West Bay St. heading east out of the port and Junkanoo area, I was told by a local that we could just flag down a bus driving down the road. The one bus we saw was full. They mentioned that other busses would be following, so we continued walking. We walked and waited for what seemed like forever! We saw plenty of busses, but they were all heading in the opposite direction.
We were hot, cranky, and hungry, which was hysterical because we basically accidentally re-lived a memory from my wife’s childhood. We figured we’d just grab a bite at the Fish Fry, which is basically just a collection of small eateries. Most were closed, and my wife got roped in by a random guy that escorted us to an open eatery. I can’t remember what I ordered, but the drinks! Another memory of my wife was that of Goombay Punch, a Bahamian soda that doesn’t quite have any comparison here in the U.S. Good News, this dive of a place had it! We each drank a few cans and took two home with us for our son to try (you know, since he was on winter driveway detail back in Massachusetts).
I have to admit; the stuff was pretty damn good! I wish that I had brought more home with us. Goombay Punch is a Coca-Cola product, but it is not made or distributed anywhere other than the Bahamas. Even shops that sell international foods can’t seem to get it. So, definitely try it and bring some home. I swear, if I was the guy in the video we watched and went to the bahamas almost every weekend, I would definitely bring some home and sell it on Ebay or Amazon or whatever. I definitely think there’s a market!
After our lunch, we headed back in the direction of the cruise port. There was a taxi driver who said he’d take us to Baha Mar for $20. At this point, it was after noon, and we still wanted to explore the cruise port and the Straw Market. We really didn’t have much time to spend at a resort that was still quite a ways away, so we very politely declined.
As we were walking back, the very very far end of Junkanoo Beach was pretty nice. There were no crowds and no vendors. The cruise ships were still in the distance, but directly in front of us was this great lighthouse.
The port area has been completely re-done fairly recently, and all of the shops and vendors there are very good. From what I hear there is a pretty strict vetting policy, so one doesn’t have to worry too much about being pestered by random locals inside the fenced in area of the port. Outside that fence, however, it can definitely seem like the Wild West. We first noticed this as we left the port for the day and ventured past the taxi stand, where just about everybody there insisted that we use their services.
The Straw Market, which is definitely worth checking out, is outside the fence and again in the Wild West. Just be ready for it and you should be fine. Nassau is definitely NOT Bermuda…
The actual Port property is within the red box. The Straw Market is located in Green.
We just browsed through the Straw Market, but we did pick up a wooden chess set for my son. We were able to haggle it down to a pretty reasonable price, which was good because it honestly was pretty cheaply made and wasn’t worth nearly what they were asking. In the port area, there seemed to be much nicer products, and we grabbed a beautiful shell Christmas ornament along with a Bahama flag pin. We have several framed boards which we display pins from every place we visit and had to add to our collection.
We got back on the ship and recharged a little, just in time for sunset. One of the great things about the Escape is the public sun deck on Deck 19, one can venture all the way to the front of the ship. On the NCL Joy, this area is restricted as it is part of the Haven. The sunset was fantastic!
Great Stirrup Cay cancelled
We had dinner that night in the complimentary dining venue Taste. In the middle of dinner, the Captain made an announcement stating that, due to the weather, they were cancelling our stop the next day in Great Stirrup Cay, and we were just going to head back home. At this point in February of 2024, the pier that they were building at Great Stirrup Cay hadn’t been completed, and it was a tender port that was often cancelled if the seas weren’t dead calm. It honestly seemed like about half of the ships attempting to visit the island weren’t able to. It never really made sense to me, since Great Stirrup Cay was the first island ever privately owned by a cruise line, but the last to actually build a pier. …but I digress.
On a positive note, since we couldn’t visit Great Stirrup Cay, they refunded our port fees. Making the best of it, we used this refund to have dinner at Moderno Churrascaria. We have eaten at several Fogo de Chao locations (Boston, NYC, etc). and figured we’d give it a try. Usually, we stick to Le Bistro and Cagneys when it comes to Specialty Dining. The market table (salad bar) was very similar in the fact that it offered an enormous selection. The meats were decent but were definitely lacking in flavor since the ship obviously cannot have a traditional Brazilian wood-fired pit.
I was looking forward to a nice relaxing day at a fairly tropical beach in the Bahamas (especially since we never made it to Baha Mar and kept walking past Junkanoo since it was a zoo). But, we can’t control the weather, and I knew that it was always a 50-50 shot that the port would get cancelled. So, not the end of the world… We could still enjoy the extra day at sea soaking up the sun in a lounger.
Unfortunately, that never really happened. Maybe I assumed incorrectly, but I figured that since we had already planned on leaving the Bahamas the following day, we’d linger in the south in the warmer water for that day that we missed the port at Great Stirrup Cay. Nope! We went to bed that night, and when we woke up the following morning and I checked the TV for our location, we were already well, well north of the Bahamas. The ship was making great time, travelling around 24 knots and the outside temperature was already in the 40’s. Ugh!
So we spent the next three days heading further and further into the cold, completely unable to enjoy any time outside. Believe me, we tried! I brought long pants and a sweatshirt since it was February in New York, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Between the cold and the wind, trying to enjoy any time outside was impossible.
All-in-all, even with 4 of the 5 days at sea being too cold to enjoy, we did have a good time on the trip and I’m glad that we went. I was able to use the time aboard to feed the casino, so there will be more free cruises in the future.
I wish that we were able to see the Fleetwood Mac Rumors show at Syd Norman’s Pour House. We tried both times to get in but the line was horrific. I did get in and had a spot in the standing room section, but we didn’t really feel like standing. Since we were heading back on the same ship in April (2 months later), we figured that we’d just make the time to see it then. We did, and from what I hear, now they offer the show in the main theatre. It’s a good show and worth seeing in the theater if you must, but I think it’s best if seen in a small, intimate venue. Pro tip, while you’re seated and waiting for the show to start, avoid the line and take turns heading out to the bar across from the venue. It’s the Italian specialty restaurant, and they make a MEAN espresso martini. Just sayin!
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