Carnival Liberty- April 2017- Post Four
FRIDAY, April 21st- Nassau, Bahamas:
[Archived from April 2017]
We woke up by 8am, and my fiancé headed to guest services to let them know about the clogged sink (going on hour 19 at this point) while I got ready for the day. When he got back, we headed to the Main Dining Room (MDR) for the breakfast. I’ve always wanted to eat in a fancier location than the lido deck, so I was excited to finally have time to try it out. It was fine, just like dinner last night, there’s food to eat and a good number of options, but I feel like I might have worked up the idea of MDR breakfast so I didn’t find it as fantastic as I expected it to be.
By 9:30am we were on the Serenity deck watching the Liberty head into the Nassau port. Our arrival time was slated for 10am, and once everything was said and done and we received the message that it was okay to debark, it was probably closer to 10:10, but no big deal! We were doing our own thing in Nassau and didn’t plan to be the first ones off or have an excursion to get to, so we took our time collecting our stuff for the day and were off the ship at 10:45am. We took a few pictures around the port area and headed straight to Junkanoo Beach.
The aft of the Liberty with our room circled in green. Great views out of the back!
Clearly it was very sunny in Nassau!!
A (hopefully quick) backstory on Junkanoo: This was my 4th time at Nassau and I had never successfully made it to Junkanoo before, even though it had been in the plans two others times- it just never happened. I had read for years about how to get there and the instructions never made it seem too far. It probably didn’t take more than 15 minutes to get there, but there were a lot of twists and turns to make it there, maybe partially due to the construction going on near the Senor Frogs area, but I certainly thought it was a much straighter path than it actually was. Thankfully there are signs and as long as you know which way to start heading and have a good mental picture of where you are in relation to the beach, you should be able to find it without much problems. As a side note, I feel as though the sidewalks were pretty small, so it was hard to pass slow walkers without side-stepping into the street. Just a general observation.
Upon getting to Junkanoo Beach and looking for the Tiki Bikini Hut, I became very confused- where was the hut that I had seen in so many pictures and reviews? I must’ve clearly looked confused because a guy came up to me and asked what I was looking for, to which I responded “Tiki Bikini, but I don’t see it!” The guy ended up being a pretty great resource, as he worked for Tiki Bikini and said they were doing construction and were definitely still open and having a great time, and lead us over to a few tents with tables.
He asked what sort of deal I was looking for, and I said that online I had seen that there was a deal: $30 for 7 beers, 7 shots, and an umbrella. He said that they didn’t have that special anymore, so we went back a few times haggling offers and prices. I probably made the mistake by saying I was willing to pay $30, because I might have gotten a great offer for less, but oh well. In all of my cruises, it was my first true experience buying something and haggling for it, so it was certainly a learning experience! The deal that we finally settled on was BETTER than what I wanted: for $30 we got 8 beers, 8 shots, and umbrella, and a mixed drink. WOO-HOO!
So we paid our $30 and the guy asked us where we wanted our umbrella placed. We picked a spot and he and another worker started digging a hole to put the umbrella pole in. The umbrella was partially broken so it spun around in the wind, but it stayed upright and provided us shade and was overall totally good for our needs. The worker also brought over a bucket of 4 beers to start us off and we were ready to enjoy a beach day by 11:15, only 30 minutes after getting off the ship. We had a great day there. The sun was playing hide-and-seek part of the day, but the temperature was still nice so no problems there. They had quite a crowd as an NCL ship had pulled in after us and brought a large population of people to the town. There were many different group games and competitions going on throughout the early afternoon, along with music playing from speakers.
I think this is a view from on top of the dock at the Tiki Bikini Hut beach. You can see the ships in port as well as the construction which unfortunately blocked some good views:
[Archived from April 2017]
We woke up by 8am, and my fiancé headed to guest services to let them know about the clogged sink (going on hour 19 at this point) while I got ready for the day. When he got back, we headed to the Main Dining Room (MDR) for the breakfast. I’ve always wanted to eat in a fancier location than the lido deck, so I was excited to finally have time to try it out. It was fine, just like dinner last night, there’s food to eat and a good number of options, but I feel like I might have worked up the idea of MDR breakfast so I didn’t find it as fantastic as I expected it to be.
By 9:30am we were on the Serenity deck watching the Liberty head into the Nassau port. Our arrival time was slated for 10am, and once everything was said and done and we received the message that it was okay to debark, it was probably closer to 10:10, but no big deal! We were doing our own thing in Nassau and didn’t plan to be the first ones off or have an excursion to get to, so we took our time collecting our stuff for the day and were off the ship at 10:45am. We took a few pictures around the port area and headed straight to Junkanoo Beach.
The aft of the Liberty with our room circled in green. Great views out of the back!
Clearly it was very sunny in Nassau!!
A (hopefully quick) backstory on Junkanoo: This was my 4th time at Nassau and I had never successfully made it to Junkanoo before, even though it had been in the plans two others times- it just never happened. I had read for years about how to get there and the instructions never made it seem too far. It probably didn’t take more than 15 minutes to get there, but there were a lot of twists and turns to make it there, maybe partially due to the construction going on near the Senor Frogs area, but I certainly thought it was a much straighter path than it actually was. Thankfully there are signs and as long as you know which way to start heading and have a good mental picture of where you are in relation to the beach, you should be able to find it without much problems. As a side note, I feel as though the sidewalks were pretty small, so it was hard to pass slow walkers without side-stepping into the street. Just a general observation.
Upon getting to Junkanoo Beach and looking for the Tiki Bikini Hut, I became very confused- where was the hut that I had seen in so many pictures and reviews? I must’ve clearly looked confused because a guy came up to me and asked what I was looking for, to which I responded “Tiki Bikini, but I don’t see it!” The guy ended up being a pretty great resource, as he worked for Tiki Bikini and said they were doing construction and were definitely still open and having a great time, and lead us over to a few tents with tables.
He asked what sort of deal I was looking for, and I said that online I had seen that there was a deal: $30 for 7 beers, 7 shots, and an umbrella. He said that they didn’t have that special anymore, so we went back a few times haggling offers and prices. I probably made the mistake by saying I was willing to pay $30, because I might have gotten a great offer for less, but oh well. In all of my cruises, it was my first true experience buying something and haggling for it, so it was certainly a learning experience! The deal that we finally settled on was BETTER than what I wanted: for $30 we got 8 beers, 8 shots, and umbrella, and a mixed drink. WOO-HOO!
So we paid our $30 and the guy asked us where we wanted our umbrella placed. We picked a spot and he and another worker started digging a hole to put the umbrella pole in. The umbrella was partially broken so it spun around in the wind, but it stayed upright and provided us shade and was overall totally good for our needs. The worker also brought over a bucket of 4 beers to start us off and we were ready to enjoy a beach day by 11:15, only 30 minutes after getting off the ship. We had a great day there. The sun was playing hide-and-seek part of the day, but the temperature was still nice so no problems there. They had quite a crowd as an NCL ship had pulled in after us and brought a large population of people to the town. There were many different group games and competitions going on throughout the early afternoon, along with music playing from speakers.
Our setup for the day!
Pretty sure this was the NCL Escape that joined us about two hours after we arrived:
Pretty sure this was the NCL Escape that joined us about two hours after we arrived:
We bought some conch fritters and they were super tasty. It was also my first time trying them so clearly I realized what I had been missing for so long. YUM! I don’t think we were ever bothered by people while relaxing except for one time a lady asked if I wanted my hair braided, I politely declined, and she continued on down the beach. Walking to the beach felt a little unsafe at times just because you’re walking near traffic and on unknown streets, but once we were there, I felt really safe and didn’t worry about much for the rest of the afternoon. If you’re looking for something fancy and upscale, this isn’t the place for you. If you’re looking for a beach with drinks, food, music, games, and a place to enjoy the sun, I would totally recommend Tiki Bikini Hut!! Maybe by the time you make it there, they’ll even have re-built their hut! We definitely plan on checking it out again if our travels bring us back to Nassau. For much cheaper than cruise prices, we enjoyed many drinks and certainly felt fantastic after our 3-4 hour adventure there.
I think this is a view from on top of the dock at the Tiki Bikini Hut beach. You can see the ships in port as well as the construction which unfortunately blocked some good views:
Our second stop with the Hawkeye flag- Junkanoo Beach in Nassau, Bahamas:
Link to Next Post: Friday, Continued
Link to Next Post: Friday, Continued
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