This morning started out great. I woke up around 7am to watch Norwegian Sky pull into Freeport, Bahamas. It was pretty overcast today and really windy so I’m sure a lot of people hung around the pier and didn’t try to go out to the beach. In fact, it was raining off and on all day.
I took my camera with me on deck and filmed some of the docking procedures and then went to grab some breakfast on the aft deck before getting off the ship.
What is Freeport like? It’s an industrial port with a lot of maritime commerce. All the beaches, resorts and activities are a good 20 to 30-minute drive away. The ship cleared customs around 8am and at 8:15 I was on shore looking for some wi-fi. I found it at a place called Seaman’s Sports Bar.
The wi-fi wasn’t free there, it was $5 an hour but if you justify going into town in a cab and having to pay, you could get about four hours of internet time for what the ride into town would have cost. The sports bar had a variety of beers, frozen concoctions, liquors and mixers, surprisingly all priced fair – a beer cost $4.
It didn’t take long before Carnival Fantasy joined us and that little bar was hopping. For lunch I headed back on the ship to check out the dining areas. There was four venues open for lunch: Garden Café (buffet), Longboard (sports bar), Il Adagio (Italian pizza joint), and Great Outdoors Café located aft deck (where I had breakfast this morning).
I wanted to put the dining through the test so I went to the aft dining venue first and grabbed a burger, not a lot of people and very quick. Went to Garden Café where the meat carving station, wok, salad bar, desserts, soups, and hot food was – it was a mess. There was a line all the way out the door to get into the buffet line and from standing in line to getting to my table took 19-minutes. By no means am I complaining but my thoughts were if this was a port day, what is the line going to be like on a sea day? This cruise doesn’t have any sea days on the four-night sailing (thank God). So yeah, Garden Café line was awful and whoever designed it clearly wasn’t thinking of passenger flow and there’s way to many areas of mass congestion.
After lunch I got off the ship and did a walk around of Freeport and checked the little shops out. There’s a little more there than I remember. A lot of people really think Freeport sucks but it doesn’t. If you know where to go, it’s not a bad little port stop. The whole “sucks” part falls back on the person for not doing research and checking out the beaches, all-inclusive resorts offered, diving and so on.
All aboard was at 4:30pm for a 5pm departure. The gym is located on deck 11 forward on this ship and is really nice, offering guests a great view. They have personal trainers available in there but I just did my norm, ran three miles and pigged out (totally defeating the purpose).
I opted for the buffet tonight instead of sit-down dining and it was okay. Again, the food really hasn’t impressed me on this ship. The food was cold at the buffet and really just looks blah. They do have ice-cold milk available for breakfast, lunch and dinner – thumbs up!
The Deal or No Deal interactive game that Norwegian has on their ships is awesome. It’s just like the popular TV show but everything is interactive. You have to pay $19.99 a card and you follow along at your seat with a bingo-like card.
Tomorrow is the private island of Great Stirrup Cay. Norwegian has really enhanced the island … stay tuned.
