Ben and Libby's Happily Ever After - Day 10 - Exploring Nassau!

[oh_darling]

Day 10 - Tuesday 25th October 2016

Exploring Nassau!

We woke up this morning and I hopped over to the window to throw back the curtains and check out our view We had an amazing view of Nassau and we were mega excited to spend the day exploring this beautiful island!

We were awake at 8am and heading downstairs for breakfast at Cabanas by 9am, with a quick selfie before we left!



Our first breakfast at Cabanas was even more amazing than lunch the previous day if you can believe that!

Mine mmmmm



Benji’s



We were relatively restrained with one savory plate each but then Ben was finished but I needed something sweet…enter the winning breakfast combo of a chocolate doughnut and a chocolate pancake with maple syrup. I was absolutely stuffed after enjoying these beauties!



We finished up and headed downstairs to make our way off the Dream and onto Nassau. Due to the threat of the Zika virus everyone was required to sanitise their hands and put mosquito cream on which they provided on little tables as you left the ship. Sanitised up, we headed towards Nassau which was INCREDIBLY windy as there was a kind of crazy wind tunnel created between the two massive cruise ships. So yeah, lets just say my hair did not survive and I had to repin it as soon as we were safely out of the tunnel.

We headed towards Festival Place which is the bit everyone always says is busy and generally not very nice. We were super prepared for this as we’d read so many trippies, and it def wasn’t as bad as we expected it. Yes it was busy and quite stressful with people shoving stuff in your face and shouting at you to buy their wares but we just kept our heads down and headed through as quickly as we could. Before long it opened out to a clearing and it was absolutely fine! We just carried on saying no to everyone (grumpy!) and I got really upset about a horse that was super skinny and looked in awful condition but we weren't sure what we could do so we carried on I get really upset when I see stuff like that and it affected me for the whole day

Anyway. So we were through out into the clearing and things calmed down a bit which was great, and we both said to each other it hadn’t been as bad as we’d expected! We strolled up Bay Street which is the main shopping area. We peeked into the straw market but didn’t fancy anything, and then we didn’t really go in any shops as it was all ‘designer’ (I use the term loosely) and we aren’t really into that, we didn’t come to the Bahamas to shop and we wanted to see cool Bahamas stuff! Enter The Pirates Museum! I saw a sign for it, mentioned to Ben and we were both like, yep! We had plans that day to visit John Watlings Rum Distillery and The Fish Fry but it was way too early for both rum and fried fish, so we decided to visit the museum. We’d seen it online but hadn’t planned to go, but as we were really into Black Sails at the time (awesome show about pirates on Amazon) our pirate obsession was all-encompassing and it just felt like the right thing to do.

We headed over and it was slightly rudimentary, we just strolled in and asked a woman how much entry was and she said $13 which we felt was fine so handed over the dollah. Seconds after we went into the actual museum we realised we had no idea if she worked there and no idea if $13 was a. The right price or b. A good price! Never mind eh!

So we headed in and I instantly felt that we’d made a terrible mistake. It was, what’s the word… retro. On first impressions it looked like a display in a local museum that had been put in as a placeholder in the 70s and never touched again. I’m talking creepy wax models with eyes that follow you around the room, fake grass, tinny atmospheric pirate sounds piped out the speakers and everyone’s favourite museum highlight, taxidermy. However. It actually was a really great little museum. Once I’d got over the fact it wasn’t the Natural History Museum, I began to enjoy it’s weirdness and quirkiness and we had a great time! We were actually there 1.5 hours hahaha so it must have been good! Although this was mainly down to watching Black Sails I think, because we were reading all the plaques about the pirates in the show like ‘oooohhh do you remember when they showed that’ or ‘ooohh Jack Rackham looks just like he does in the show!’

For your viewing pleasure, some photos of our Pirate Museum experience.

We think I took this as the plaque talks about alcohol...we can’t think of any other reasons hahaha!











I got really excited at the end because they had a section on modern pirates and Hook is one of my favourite movies of all time



We stepped out of the museum, blinking in the bright sunlight, and ready to find some rum. We consulted the handy dandy map of Nassau which I think we got on the ship (?), and headed off blindly towards what we hoped was the Rum Distillery.

It was a fair trek and the weather was mega hot, so we were both pretty sweaty and fatigued by the time we finally reached the distillery. It was up the top of a very steep hill as well which was an added element of fun. We passed some Americans () who were walking down (lucky buggers) and they were like ‘It’s worth the walk!’ which did make us determined to get there!

It was so beautiful though! And pretty easy to find really, so that was good. It was an absolutely stunning house that we later found out dates back 225 years! We took some photos outside and then headed in!









You can do guided tours and self-guided tours, and we were fully prepared to do our own self-guided tour so we picked a spot in the first room and got going. But then! A girl said she was just starting a free tour and would we like to join! Yes pleassseeee! She also gave us a shot each of pina colada which were BEYOND refreshing and just what we needed after our strenuous walk.

Free shots!



The girl's name was Sidney and she was incredible! There were 6-7 of us on the tour and she gave us the most amazing walk through, so charismatic and knowledgeable. She took us all through the house and explained about the history of John Watling who we were surprised to hear was a pirate! So the house had nothing to do with him, but the rum company who used his name started using the house as their headquarters in Nassau. She took us down to the actual distillery too and showed us the different methods of how they make the rum, and we got to sniff 3 different barrels which had different aged rums in! The last one was SO STRONG! Legit nearly fell over after smelling it. But it did smell amazing haha it just took my breath away! It was so interesting learning all about the process! Normally we just pour rum into diet coke and get the hell on with it so we loved the tour as we’re big spiced rum drinkers. Loooooveee a Morgan’s Spiced, coke and lime! Ahhh I’ve got many a happy memory of nights sponsored by Morgan’s Spiced….actually, not so much memories but deep, deep regrets...

Anyway. Our tour ended up in the gift shop #standard but tbh we were sold and wanted to buy some anyway. However, although the rum itself wasn’t too expensive considering how it’s made, it was too expensive for us and we decided to pass and save our pennies we were gutted but felt like we should be sensible, plus we’d have to carry it round all day which wasn’t ideal. Given by how skint we were by the end of this wedding/honeymoon/cruise extravaganza I think I can safely say I have no regrets here!

Although we didn’t have $50 for a bottle of rum, we most definitely had $6.59 for a rum flight in the distillery bar! (are you impressed by the level of detail here, I wrote down the price!) Pretty cheap we thought, we tried 1 of each of the 3 rums they make.



They were all too strong for me and even though I only had a sip of each I honestly was starting to feel a bit drunk, especially on top of all the barrell sniffing! Ben then ordered a rum lemonade cocktail which we shared (VERY unusual for me) in the little bar area while we people watched. Perfect!



We restroomed and then it was time for our John Watling's experience to come to an end but not, however, before we’d tipped Sidney! We weren’t sure if it was the done thing at all but she’d been so amazing we wanted to let her know how grateful we were, and how special she’d made our experience. COuld we find her? Could we heck. We walked all around the estate in the blazing heat looking for her but eventually had to accept she must be on lunch or summat. We did see her colleague though who had flirted with her while she was doing the tour which was exciting. We asked him where she was and he said she was on a break so I gave him the tip and asked if he would give it to her from us. He said he would...whether he actually did or not will remain one of life’s great mysteries, but I like to think he did.

Phew, what a busy morning we’d had already! After all the rum I was getting to the stage where I needed some conch, and I needed it NOW.

As we left the estate I snapped a couple more pics



They filmed some of Casino Royale here!



We headed down towards Junkanoo beach in search of the Fish Fry, a cool collection of shacks and stalls we’d read about which apparently housed the best conch fritters and conch salad on the island. Junkanoo is the popular bit of the beach and to be honest, was not our scene at all. Which was fine as we’d Googled it pre-holiday and had already reached that conclusion. It was crazy busy with loud dance music pumping out and lots of attractive tanned people in small swimming costumes. No thanksssss. We also didn’t really want to lie on the beach all afternoon which seemed to be the most popular slash only activity. They did have some good sounding cocktails being paraded conveniently by barmen which we were tempted to purchase for the road, but we didn’t fancy getting too close so we carried on our merry way. As we walked along the pavement it started to get much quieter and it was lovely and peaceful as we got closer to the Fish Fry It was super windy and quite far but we were prepared for this, and obviously the scenery was gorgeous! We did see quite a bit of hurricane damage though which was sad

[oh_darling]

When we reached the Fish Fry it was super cute, lots of brightly coloured stalls and I felt like we were seeing some authentic Bahamian scenery

Example of brightly coloured cuteness



We got accosted by all the people working in the restaurants who were paid to drum up business which I found quite tiring, as it really put us under pressure and we knew where we wanted to eat. Hello, I’ve been planning this holiday for 3 years! They’re only doing their job though so we understood and we did talk to them though as we didn’t want to be rude haha, but we eventually made it to the restaurant I’d read was the best, the Fry Brothers. Unfortunately it was boarded up, we think because of the hurricane! I was gutted!

Time for Plan B! Our mate Elvis (#namegoals), a particularly persistent recruiter who had accosted us multiple times during our hunt for the Fry Brothers, looked chuffed to bits when we headed back to him. We said he’d won us over and we’d like a table for 2 please. He was all ‘you won’t regret it’ etc etc and I was excited for the beautiful sea views and amazing menu he’d promised us. However, the restaurant was gross once we were inside! It was really dark, it smelt weird and you couldn’t even see the flippin’ sea! Why would you lie to us Elvis, why!? I wasn’t having any of that so we marched back out the restaurant, passing Elvis with a curt ‘Nope’, and went back to the only other restaurant we had thought looked good. We sat outside and ordered drinks but it was absolutely mental with flies and wasps and I was honestly losing the will to live, so we asked if we could sit inside which luckily was totes fine.

So even though our vision of sipping ice cold beer on a cute little stall outside a Fish Fry hadn’t materialised, quite frankly after all the dramz I was just thrilled to be sat down somewhere with a drink and the promise of an impending delivery of any food. While we were still sat outside our waitress bought us out a shot of...something! Neon orange vodka or something, it was lush and we downed them stat.



SO! Lunchtime on Nassau. Benj ordered a Kalik beer, from the Bahamas



...and I ordered one of the greatest drinks I’ve ever had, a Sky Juice.



I’d read about these online and I was pretty psyched to finally order one. Condensed milk, coconut cream and gin. Awwww yeaaaaaaaa. I know it sounds pretty gross but it was honestly life-changing, I was so happy! It was massive too! Like 2 x tins of condensed milk hahahah oof dem calories.

Here’s the menu and the name of the place in case you’d like to visit yourself!



Handsome date



Me getting stuck into the old Sky Juice



For food I was obviously getting conch fritters, a national dish of Nassau. Benj perused the menu but then, and i was NOT expecting this, said he’d like to try the conch fritters with me. ! Now Ben is vegetarian for ethical reasons and has been, without exception, since he was 18. However, he said he was on honeymoon and on a once in a lifetime trip, in this amazing authentic Bahamian restaurant, and he wanted to try the fresh conch that had been caught by hand this morning (we saw them catching them as we walked to the restaurant!) I was so proud of him and honestly remember thinking how happy I was to have married this flippin’ awesome man. It might seem like a small thing to some, but for him to just be like, this is what I want to do in this moment and I don’t care what anyone else thinks, I thought was pretty damn cool So we ordered 1 x conch fritters and they took aaggeees to come, so long in fact that Ben ordered a conch salad while we were waiting haha! This is also a national dish, not something I was dying to try but Benj was very much in the moment and said we needed to at least try it!

So the conch fritters finally rocked up and I have to say what a flippin barg, $3 for 10 massive ones.



These were really really good too, super hot and fresh out the fryer, not greasy at all but with chewy chunks of conch in there. Ben really loved them! He always says he doesn’t miss meat at all but if he had to say he missed something it would be fish. He’s never had scallops so we had a whole conversation about how conch compared to scallops and I said scallops are a lot softer and silkier so that was fun! But the fritters were really good and we polished them off no problem, just in time for the salad to be delivered!

Now this I wasn’t so keen on, just because it was super spicy and I’m a spice wuss! It was also very limey and it tasted like a sort of Mexican ceviche to me. Ben loved it though!



Once we’d finished we paid up, $50 ish with tip for 2 beers, 1 sky juice, 2 conch fritters and 1 conch salad. This was an amazing lunch and I have really good, vivid memories of it.

It was about 3pm by this point and as we strolled back towards Junkanoo, we decided we’d seen all we’d wanted to in Nassau and we would head back to the ship.

We did stop for a paddle in the sea though; I love this photo Benj took of me!







Overall, I really REALLY loved our day in Nassau. We’d always known we weren’t going to go to Atlantis all day like lots of people do, and we also were adamant we wanted to get off the ship as we had another sea day already. We did a lot of research on the island as so many people say it isn’t worth getting off the ship but we really wanted to explore and get a feel for it, which I think we did I’d recommend all 3 of the activities we did, definitely the rum distillery though!

Some shots of the ship as we boarded



That sky though!

When we got back on board we realised we hadn’t bought a single souvenir to remember our time on Nassau haha, oops! Well, apart from our slight headaches from all the day drinking #skyjuice. We headed back up to our room to enjoy a couple of (additional) drinks on the verandah before getting ready for the evening. Our wine wasn’t chilled though, nightmare, so we ordered room service ice! LOVE that! However, we then realised we needed a corkscrew too! So Ben called down and asked if they could bring us one with the ice hahaha which they said was fine!



It was taking ageeesss though and our window of opportunity to enjoy a drink on the verandah was dwindling, so Ben took matters into his own hands and cracked open the bottle of Prosecco we had bought! Genius. We did get our wine and corkscrew though, don’t worry guys.

Yay!



We left the room about 6, this time with wine in glasses from our room! Aha, we’re getting the hang of this!



The show tonight was Villains Tonight which I FREAKIN LOVED! I thought it was hilarious, the guy playing Hades was so so funny and I was proper lolling all the way though, I think it might have been my favourite show!





After the show we went over to diner at the Enchanted Garden. As we walked in we mentioned to the manager that we’d requested a table for 2 and it was absolutely fine, we got led to a gorgeous table for 2 that was set apart on a little raised area and I was so happy! The whole process was mega smooth and we didn’t see our ex-tablemates at all YAY!

Our new servers came to say hey and they were so lovely, we had Christian and Kimberley (who was Scottish!) and then our ex server Nigel came over to say hi which was the sweetest thing!

Dinner here was at the same high standard as the previous evening. We started with the bread service, Multigrain Loaf and Country Current Bread with Chickpea-Garlic Purée



For ,my starter I OF COURSE chose the North Atlantic Lobster Ravioli: With roasted Garlic and sweet Basil scented Tomato Juice




So, so good!

Benj chose the Cucumber Garden Roll: Filled with Julienne of Carrots, Bell Peppers and Zucchini, flavored with Cilantro and dressed with White Shoyu and Lemon Dressing which was really nice and really creative I thought.



We both got the tomato and basil soup with crispy croutons mmmm Heirloom Tomato Soup: With Sour Cream, Croutons, and Basil



For my main course I was stuck between a couple but eventually chose the Caramelized Sea Scallops: With Roasted Asparagus, Sun-dried Tomatoes, and Pearl Pasta, garnished with caramelized Leeks and Veal Jus Reduction which I was really pleased about, as they were gorgeous! Quite light too which was well needed after the foodextravangza that was this cruise! Fresh from his foray into eating seafood and our conversation about scallops vs conch, Benj asked to try a piece of scallop! The verdict? He prefered the conch! He says he doesn’t see what all the fuss is about! DOn’t worry, I had words.



There were a couple of yummy sounding veggie options but Benj went for the Glazed Portobello Mushrooms: With Brown Lentil and Parsley Sauce and Sun-dried Tomato Cream Drizzle



Although we were both pretty full, we obvs got dessert because, dessert. I got the Warm Sticky Date Pudding – served with butterscotch sauce, vanilla ice cream and phyllo crunch



And Benj pushed the boat out and got the sampler which he was VERY excited about Sweet Temptations – A trio of Sacher Torte, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Esterházy Cake





And with that, dinner was done! I really enjoyed our meal here - the food was fabulous and we got lucky with a great seat in this gorgeous restaurant. I loved the ambiance too, it felt really relaxed and romantic. Loved!

It was about 9.45 by the time we left the restaurant and we were both crazy tired. We had a brief browse in the shops, saw a whole bunch of stuff we wanted, and then headed back up to our stateroom and to bed!

And look what greeted us before we opened the door, an amazing Halloween sticker!



And when we opened our door. How perfect is this. Flippin’ eck I love Disney!



What a perfect day Tomorrow - Castaway Cay!

[Goldia]

The tour around the rum distillery sounded fun, especially with the little pina colada and the rum flight and then the rum and lemonade all before lunch! Ha ha, you're on honeymoon after all so why not. I'm glad your planning and researching paid off in Nassau and you had a good time.

[Hels80]

Another fabulous day! Also love that photo of you having a paddle. Stunning!
Looking forward to the rest. X

[oh_darling]

Originally Posted by Goldia

The tour around the rum distillery sounded fun, especially with the little pina colada and the rum flight and then the rum and lemonade all before lunch! Ha ha, you're on honeymoon after all so why not. I'm glad your planning and researching paid off in Nassau and you had a good time.

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Haha yep it was a boozy day! We shared the flight and lemonade though, doesn’t that count!?

[oh_darling]

Originally Posted by Hels80

Another fabulous day! Also love that photo of you having a paddle. Stunning!
Looking forward to the rest. X

See more...

Thanks so much lovely! So glad you’re enjoying

[Excitedx4]

What a great day, the food looks amazing! I'm with you on the hook film reminds me so much of being a kid and feel so sad that robin williams and bob hoskins are gone! Looking forward to tomorrow instalment

[EJSakaAnna]

Sounds like a fab day Libby, with lots of delicious foooood xx

[mick]

That was a lovely day

Joan

[princess1706]

Loving this trip report, another fab day and that photo of you is amazing!,