Cruise day 4 Freeport (Port Lucaya)

Tuesday Night we booked an excursion for our next stop Nassau Bahamas. We wanted to go on the Glass Bottom Boat tour, where you get to go over the reef to see the fish, and they take you over a shipwreck too. I was excited to go on the tour but on Wednesday, as we got ready to leave the ship, a piece of paper was slid under our door telling us that our tour was canceled by the tour company due to rough seas. So we finished getting ready and headed down to the excursion desk to see what else was available. When we got there we found out that all the water excursions were canceled and the only things left were ones we weren't interested in so we decided to just leave the ship and see what we could see. I had read online that Nassau was pretty much nothing. It is a very industrial port, with just a few tourist trap type shops. If you want to see anything, you have to go into Port Lucaya, a 15-20 min bus ride away. They have little vans that will take you in for $5 per person each way. So we crowded in with 13 of our new best friends and made our very squished way to Port Lucaya. We didn't know what we wanted to do, so we headed off towards the free beach and shopping district. Once on the beach we met lots of ladies selling necklaces and offering to braid hair. I did want to get my hair braided, but not until we had explored a bit so we waved them off. Then we met Tino, he was trying to get people to ride on his "banana boats" inflatable rafts that look a whole lot more like the space shuttles rocket boosters than a banana. He offered to take us on a hour to and hour and a half ride around the beach and through the canal for $25 per person. It looked pretty fun, and was less than we had paid for the glass bottom boat so we decided to go for it. Jon signed us up while I changed into my swimming suit. We got life jackets and stowed our stuff on the speedboat that would be pulling our raft. We met Antone, our driver and climbed aboard our raft with 2 other couples. It was a very bumpy, and thrilling ride around the coast. The "rough waters" lived up to their name and we were bounced all over the place. It was so awesome! After we had been going for a while all the sudden Antone stopped the boat. Then he peered very intently into the water. Then, without warning, he dove over the side of his boat, clothes and all! We all looked at each other like "what the heck!" Then he popped back up and tossed a GIANT orange star fish into the boat. He towed us over by our rope and told us a little about the star fish. He said he had spotted it as he was driving along and that he could sell it when we got back to the beach. After about 20 or 30 min of bouncing on the waves Antone stopped again to point out Millionaires row, where many movies stars have homes. Then we went into the Canal, a manmade waterway that is lined with million dollar homes. We stopped by the Dolphin encounter place, where we watched the dolphins being fed and then we went to see a boat that was abandoned in the waterway. Antone said that it was a stunt ship from the 2nd and third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Since it was abandoned we were able to climb aboard and explore. We also had the chance to jump off the side into the water. The other couples were too wussy to do it but first Jon and then I jumped off. It looked WAY higher when you were standing on the side of the boat than it did when you weren't. It was awesome I got to walk the plank on a pirate ship in the Caribbean ocean! After the pirate ship we all piled back into the speedboat for the ride back. Antone let me drive the boat for a min until we left the Canal, then he accused me of being a "woman driver" and took the helm back. Jon sat on the prow of the boat the whole way back, looked dangerous, but he had fun. Back on the beach, we changed back into our clothes and then I got my hair braided. I got fought over by two ladies, since I had spoken to both of them while waiting for the banana boat ride to be ready, but they worked it out. I haggled the price with Saundra and got her to do half braids on me for $20. I would have gotten pictures of her braiding, but my camera batter ran out after the boat ride. We didn't do much else though, we were both tired from the ride and just as my hair was done it started to rain so we went back to the bus stop and got there right as a van came in. We rode back to the boats and then went and took naps for a few hours before dinner and more dancing. We became pretty well known around the boat as "the dancers" we got stopped often by people who asked if we were "the dancers" and to compliment us, it was neat! I liked being "famous". It was an awesome day in the Bahamas. I am kind of glad that our tour got canceled, because I don't think the glass bottomed boat would have been as exciting as our banana boat ride!