We arrived in Freeport early, got some breakfast (another delicious omelette) and then disembarked. We got in the line for our excursion of the day, Deluxe Beach and Shopping. Basically, we got on a bus and they took us to Our Lucaya, which is a Radisson resort, a beach, and a shopping market that had a bunch of stalls with local merchants selling their wares. The package included the ride and rental of some beach chairs and towels on the beach. The others in our traveling group actually got a taxi to this same spot and then did some of the watersport activities, which cost much less since the taxi ride was only $5 per person. Having never been here before, we now know we could have done this cheaper, but since we did not know and this was our first cruise, I'm OK with booking the bus package the first time through. We spent four hours on the beach, walked around the shopping area for a little while, and then got back on the bus back to the ship. Shore time in Freeport is limited, 7am until 1pm, so this was a short excursion.
The beach seemed similar to what you would find on Key West, which is not the Key known for its beaches. The water was clear but not super clear, the swimming area and sand area was pretty small, and boats kept coming right up to the shore to pick people up for banana boat rides, dolphin viewing, parasailing, and so forth. This was quite distracting and prevented any good swimming in the water. Cin brought goggles and a snorkel and did not use them much as the environment just was not good for it. There were also a lot of folks walking around, selling jewelry, shirts, etc, and it seemed like one would come up to us every five minutes or so. After the beach, we went to the shops and saw pretty much the same stuff in most of them, all generic stuff with BAHAMAS stitched on to them. Ugh. After the bus ride back, we went to another collection of shops right at the cruise port. Cin almost bought a Coach bag at a really good price until we decided it was almost surely not real. Oh well.
All in all, Freeport was a major disappointment. The beach was nothing to write home about, the shopping lame, and the whole experience a big let down, especially compared to Nassau. One of the very good things was the bus driver on the way back, Ernest, who went by Teddy Bear, who sang most of the way and was really quite good. Good show, Teddy Bear.
Once back on the ship, we did a bunch of reading and relaxing in the room. Today I finished up Cell by Stephen King. It was pretty good and very similar to almost all of his other books that I have read recently. Dinner was pretty good…I had two good salads and then some Mahi Mahi, which was pretty tasty but kind of dry. Cin ended up getting a pasta dish, which she seemed to enjoy. Dessert was a chocolate cake, which was very rich and very delicious. After dinner, we headed to the casino and spent some more time at the roulette wheel, where I played on $20 for a long time but ended up losing it, and Cin won at the table and also on a quick-win raffle ticket they had. After the casino, we caught the 11.45pm comedy show and this guy was hilarious. Well worth staying up for. After the show, we headed back to the room and went to sleep, already under way back to Baltimore. One more full day at sea and this vacation will be over. Too short…way too short.
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