We were Bahama Mama's for Mother's day

Both of us woke at 06:30, but went back to bed until 08:00. I don't know about mom, but I had visions of chocolate, not sugar plums dancing in my head. As you can see from the pictures below, they had beautiful ice carvings, and every kind of chocolate delight you could imagine.



We let the chocolate wear off, and took our time going to breakfast- 09:00 in the Dining Room. Met some more new people, these ones from western USA, who were telling us about the big wedding that took place on board just prior to our arrival. Everything was late, and the wedding and reception were to be finished by 13:00 to allow the non-sailing members of the wedding party (most of them) to get off the ship before we were allowed on. He said that they were all still waiting on the dock at 12:00, and that there were more than a few nerves from the mothers of the bride and groom. They finally were ushered on the boat about 12:10, two hours after the ceremony was scheduled to start. He and his wife had arrived early, because usually you can go aboard even as early as 10:00 so you can get a head start. This time it backfired, and they were forced to wait until everyone else arrived before they came on board.

We walked the deck and found it very breezy, and then went to the shopping show in the "Singing in the Rain" lounge. Went to dinner at the Windjammer- actually just had roast beef and salad, still full from breakfast. The ship was due to dock at 14:00, so we changed and went on deck to watch. Took a picture before we actually docked, and you can see the breezes blowing our hair around. Right after docking, we joined the other hundreds of people to get off the boat at our first port of call, Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. I couldn't wait to see the palm trees and had mom snap a picture right on the first piece of land with trees, not 20 feet from the ship.




We met Joan, Arlene, and Betty and Milt, who were trying to get a group together to go on a little sight seeing trip with a private taxi. We gathered up Cecil and Jean and with mom and I, we had 8. We convinced a taxi driver to take us around the island, and give us some history, for $20.00. He took us around, took us to the markets (the bigger market was closed on Sunday), and then came back for us afterwards. His name was Earl, and he gave us his card with his telephone number and e-mail address. Godet is his last name, and he has a big family on the island. His mother and sisters and brothers, and at least one daughter living there with her two children. He was a wealth of knowledge. I did not know that the Bahamas was privately owned, and that most people in the Bahamas live in Freeport- Grand Bahamas is the largest Island (90 miles long, 6 miles wide) of the more than 700 Bahamian islands, with 70,000 of a population, and 50,000 of them live in Freeport. He said there is a 60% mark-up on cars, and that food is expensive, but there is no income tax, sales tax or property tax. Schools are run by the state or the churches, all the kids have to wear uniforms, and there is no university. They have to go to the states for that, usually living with family members- that's what Earl did, and his daughter, who is a teacher. He said they need nurses and teachers all the time, but wages are comparitively low. Teachers make $27,000, and he said his daughter was always being supplemented by him. They have divided the industrial area from the residential area, and the beaches are all free- no-one can own them. We got to the market at 15:20, shopped for about an hour. I bought a lovely shell necklace, but every shop had the same things, and they called you into the shop and put on a hard sell. This was our first experience with the bartering system, but not the last. We told Earl to come back at 17:30, as we wanted 2 hours to shop but he knew better. He arrived at 17:00 to find us all sitting on a bench waititng for him. I snapped some pictures from where we were waiting for Earl, showing the walkway around the market, and 4 stores- as you can see they all carried much the same thing, lots of trinkets, t-shirts, etc.




Earl deposited us back at the ship at 17:15, and we shopped at the shops on the terminal for a little while, and then went back on board. We found Basil in the process of cleaning our room, so we dropped everything there, washed hands and faces, and went to the top deck to explore- played a little shuffleboard, and waited for the windjammer cafe to open (18:30) because we were so scruffy we couldn't go to the dining room. This was the only time we went there for supper, so don't know if they always did, but they had tablecloths and roses on all the tables, and there seemed to be a lot of chefs around. In the day time, for breakfast and dinner, we picked up our own silverware and there were no tablecloths on the table. As we left, Carol and Jerry and mom and I left at the same time, and we had noticed the sun had gotten blood red, and was close to setting. As we watched, it dropped right behind the horizon so quick, the man standing beside us didn't have time to get his camera ready- what a beautiful sight. From then on, we tried to get the sunset, and took many pictures with varying success. We had a chance to watch the boat sail away from the top deck, and come through a narrow little channel- it was lovely, with the white sandy beaches beside us and the lights twinkling around us.
We went to the photo galery and looked at our formal pictures, but had to hurry to get to the theatre- a lively musical number by the Grandeur of the Seas singers and dancers. Went to bed early so we could get a good start at immigration in the morning- will be in Key West at 07:00 and they want all of us "aliens" to go to the lounge at 08:15 sharp to obtain our passports, get them stamped, and then hand them in again.
More adventures ahead, stay tuned.