Our first full day of our cruise was to be spent in the port of Nassau in the Bahamas. As we awoke, the ship was approaching Nassau. We could see the port ahead of us on the view from the bridge on the television. We got dressed and went upstairs to Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast; since the buffet was on the upper deck of the Disney Wonder, we had some great views of Nassau, so we took the opportunity to take some pictures after we ate. While we were back in our stateroom, Captain Henry came over the loudspeaker and gave us a rundown of when we should be back on board. He said that we could go ashore on Deck 1 at the Forward end of the ship. He said, "If you don't know which end that is, it's the pointy one."

Nassau as seen from the upper decks of the Disney Wonder.

Once the all-clear to go ashore was given, we made our way down to Deck 1 Forward so that we could go ashore. On our way out, we picked up a shopping guide that had a map of the recommended shops. Once we walked up the dock, we had to walk through a customs building that also had several booths set up for vendors. A steel drum band was playing inside. As we walked out the other side, there were several women offering to braid hair, and several men offering taxi rides. We passed these up and headed for the shops.

The Disney Wonder docked in Nassau. The lifeboats were being tested during the day.

For a while, we stayed pretty close to the shopping guide we picked up on the ship, but we also tried some of the shops that weren't on the guide. We really weren't interested in jewelry or alcoholic beverages, which were the main things on the guide. Our favorite store was Del Sol, where everything they sold changes color in sunlight, so we found some things to buy there. We walked through the straw market, which is like the flea market back home. Most all of the vendors sold an assortment of T-shirts, souvenirs, and bags. Many of the bags featured hand-woven designs. After looking through the straw market, we made our way back to the Disney Wonder, passing by children who offered to sing us a song, sell us a flute, or escort us to the straw market, each for a dollar.

A typical street scene in Nassau.

After showing our ID and having our card scanned, we were back on board the Disney Wonder. We had decided to eat lunch on the ship instead of in town, mainly because eating on the ship wouldn't cost us anything. We decided on pizza from Pinocchio's Pizzeria, and we followed that with some ice cream from Scoops. We waited a while for our food to digest, and then we went to our stateroom to change for the pool.

Of the three pools on board, we decided on Quiet Cove. The Mickey pool is for kids and includes a water slide, the Goofy pool is for families, and the Quiet Cove pool is for adults 18 and older. Consequently, Quiet Cove was usually, but not always, the least crowded of the pools whenever we would walk by. The pools were much smaller than we had imagined, but there was usually still enough room for everyone. The small pool size makes sense considering that in desigining the ship, space was a premium. There were many more people sunbathing around the pool than there were people actually in the pool.

The Quiet Cove pool aboard the Disney Wonder. This picture was taken early in the morning, the only time of day when there weren't many people around. The three signal flags on the pool deck are the letters "DCL" for "Disney Cruise Line."

After swimming, we returned to Nassau to walk around for a while. Instead of going to shops this time, we decided to get away from the shops to see more of the city. While walking around we saw several American restaurants, including McDonald's, which had a banner up celebrating the 30^th anniversary of independence in the Bahamas from British rule. We were interested in the several churches that we passed as we were walking. The television channel giving information about Nassau stated that there were several churches around, so we weren't too surprised to find so many. It was interesting to explore a new city, especially one in a different country. But the temperature was pretty high, so we eventually had all of the exploring that we could take.

One of the church buildings we ran across in Nassau

We boarded the ship again and went to our stateroom to cool off for a few minutes. Then we walked up to the Walt Disney Theater. In this theater they have stage show productions, but the theater can also show movies. This theater holds many more people than the Buena Vista Theater, so they show featured movies that will attract larger crowds here. Earlier in the day was the first showing of Pirates of the Caribbean, but we didn't make it for that one. But we did make it to a showing of Finding Nemo. We had already seen this movie in the theater at home, but we had wanted to see it again, and it was nice to see it for free on the ship.

The Disney Wonder in the port.

After the movie, we went back to our stateroom to shower and change clothes for dinner. Before dinner, we went to meet Captain Henry, who was greeting guests in the lobby of the Walt Disney Theater. It was fun to get to meet the captain of the ship, who gladly posed for pictures with our cameras as well as for the official photographer. We then did some shopping before our dinner seating time.

Our restaurant for dinner tonight was Animator's Palette. As we went in, everything was black and white, including the walls, the pictures, and even the servers' clothing. As the meal went along, some of the pictures would magically change to color, and the large paintbrushes that served as columns would also change color. Eventually, all of the servers left, and the "main show" started, which featured all of the pictures, as well as the walls, coming alive in color. Then the servers entered, and their vests had all changed to color from black and white. It was a fun touch to the restaurant.

Before and during dinner, they paged a certain guest from a certain stateroom several times, asking her to call a particular number on any phone. I wonder if someone was left behind in Nassau?

After dinner, we went up to Deck 10 to view the party that had just started at the Goofy Pool on Deck 9. The characters were featured for part of the party. Then Teresa, the cruise director, said it was time for the main feature of the party, fireworks at sea! After she had us all count down, the fireworks were launched from another boat that was sailing along beside us. Appropriately enough, the first part of the fireworks were set to the musical cue "Fireworks" from The Little Mermaid, and the rest were set to other songs from the movie. It was fun to see fireworks at sea, bringing a fun end to a fun day.

Fireworks at sea!

Nassau was an interesting experience, especially for those of us who hadn't been there before. Everywhere we turned, there seemed to be someone looking to sell us something or offer some service, all for some money. This was a little unnerving at first, although we eventually got used to it. Shopping was fun, and I understand that there are good deals to be found. But since we don't shop much for the things we saw there, I couldn't really compare the prices to those back home. Once we had gotten away from the main street of shops, we also were away from all the streetcorner sellers, taxi drivers, hair braiders and such. This gave us a chance to explore the city a little more freely. We enjoyed comparing things to what we are used to back home, such as how brightly the buildings are painted, and how narrow and busy the streets are. Overall, Nassau was a fun experience. But we also enjoyed the ship experiences of swimming in the pool, watching a movie and seeing the fireworks. So at every corner during our day, there was fun to be had.

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