Oasis of the Seas - Bahamas

Our first port of call was at the docks of Nassau in the beautiful Bahamas.  I had been here plenty of times before and the stop was short. Nancy and I planned to go ashore for lunch but it was cloudy when we arrived and it looked like a chance of rain. Normally, I would have checked the weather on my phone but I did not have service for the whole trip. Th cruise line wanted $19.99 per day to get Wifi access. I did not need my phone that much.

Although partly cloudy, I enjoyed our entrance into the Bahamian port.
Nassau in the Bahamas
Before docking, we needed to turn the ship 180 degrees. I did mention the ship is 1187 feet long....there was not much leeway on either end as the ship turned. The first picture is looking East toward Paradise Island and some of the resorts there. The sun was still rising...
Nassau docks and Paradise Island on left
I was able to capture a picture of Senor Frogs (yellow roof) and the resort there....
Nassau Resort with Senor Frogs on left
At halfway through our turn, I was able to photograph the dock we would be using. The ship is actually longer than the dock so they have added extensions for the mooring bollards to tie off the ship.
Nassau dock; we would be on the left side
Paradise Island reminds me of Merritt Island in Florida; it tapers off to a thin slice of land with a few houses. There were lots of damages to some of the houses from hurricane Matthew. I love the color of the water in the Bahamas.
Tip of Paradise Island in Nassau from deck 16
We were so high on this ship the seagulls would fly below us. I caught this one in flight....
Seagull flying by Oasis of the Seas in Nassau Bahamas
They have improved the looks of the customs and entryway to the city of Nassau.
Nassau Welcome Center near the docks
Since we were not going to go ashore, we decided to investigate the ship some more. There is a lot of artwork throughout the ship and there is actually an art gallery on deck 4.
Sculpture on the Oasis of the Seas
From deck 15, I took this picture of Central Park looking toward the stern. Our balcony room is on the far left, three decks down.
Central Park on Oasis of the Seas
There was a large Christmas tree located on the Royal Promenade on deck 5. A lot of formal photos were taken here.
Christmas Tree on the Royal Promenade
Other Christmas decorations were located throughout the Promenade including these large snowflakes. The skylight is one of the openings to Central Park on Deck 8, Sorrento's is where we got pizza slices a few times as a snack.
Large snowflakes above the Royal Promenade
There was an English Pub called the Globe & Atlas where I got some beers. In the evenings, a guitar player from Jacksonville was playing music and taking requests. He was actually pretty good.
Outside the Globe & Atlas Pub on the Promenade aboard the Oasis of the Seas
Nancy also caught some photos of Nassau as we were docked.  The people behind her are playing miniature golf. You can see it is still cloudy and it did rain a few times while we were there.
Nancy taking a photo of Nassau from deck 15
I was having trouble with my auto-focus on my camera and was testing it out. I took this picture of my Bloody Mary with a manual focus.
BJ's Bloody Mary
Another photo of the Royal Promenade...
Birds and snowflakes in the Royal Promenade
I told nancy I liked to watch the workers as the ship was ready to leave. Our scheduled departure was 3 PM and everyone was supposed to be all aboard at 2:30 PM. Near 3 PM, they removed the rope off the stern. Looks like a tough job.
Very large Rope being removed from bollard in Nassau
Usually, the cruise ships leave on time, but after three we started hearing names being called on the on-board intercom.  Telling certain people to show up at Guest Services. Each guess gets a Sea Pass that is used as your identification for everything. They scan your photo onto it and as each person leaves the ship, your name is scanned into the system. When you reboard, it is scanned again. I guess these people were missing.
Then we saw a man driving a large golf cart back to the entrance to the docks.
Large golf cart with a few stragglers
Nancy called it the crazy cart. Again and again, he would speed off and pick up two or three more people and bring them back to the ship. I told Nancy that when I sailed in April of this year, I saw a couple get left behind in Nassau. I guess we had some leeway because we did not leave until 3:05 PM. Thank God for the crazy cart guy saving these people a long walk.

At 3:06 PM, we were off the dock and on our way. I took one last picture of Nassau docks at we riled up the clean water of the Bahamas.
Oasis of the Seas pulling out of Nassau in the Bahamas
Tuesday we would be at sea and we would arrive in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands on Wednesday morning. An outside view of the Royal Promenade from between the elevators...
Royal Promenade entrance on the Oasis of the Seas

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