Bahamas Cruise - Carnival Sensation - Freeport, Bahamas - Day 2

For the 2nd day on cruise, I woke up in the Bahamas!! The cruise ship had already docked at Freeport, Bahamas.  One by one, we all got ready, had breakfast, and then started heading off the ship around 10:35/40 am.  Let me tell you that for this cruise, I did not get any excursions through Carnival.  Instead, I had researched a little bit before the cruise and asked my uncle who had taken this cruise before on what we could do at the port.  From my research, I found out that there is a resort called The Grand Lucayan Resort which has a beach and there is a 3rd party company Ocean Motion who have water activities on that beach which we can buy for much cheaper price than what we would pay at the cruise excursions.  With that in mind, when we got out of the ship, there were already local taxi drivers there ready to take you to Port Lucaya Marketplace which is just across from the The Grand Lucayan Resort.  The round trip ride was just $10/person, so we got on to one of their 10-passengers van.  We had a female driver, Geneva, who was very nice lady.  She dropped us off at the gate of Tennessee Bay Casino (which is next to the resort), we paid the round trip fare to Geneva and in return, they give you a pass which you present back to the agent at the gate whenever you want to head back to the ship.  That simple!

After getting our pass, it was just a short walk to the resort next door.  The resort has an all-day pass for non-guests for $15 which allows you the access to the beach and all their facilities such as pools, cafes, etc.  Make sure you bring the beach towels from the cruise since the resort does not provide them for free (you have to pay for them).  The resort has a free wi-fi!!  My brother and I wanted to do parasailing, so we started looking for the Ocean Motion guys where we could get that going.  We headed to the right side of the beach and found an agent of Ocean Motion.  He told us that their website shows $70/person for parasailing but he would give us a deal for $60/person.  In either case, it was going to be a good deal for us.  He also said if we wanted to do jet skiing, it was $60/30 minutes/2 people which is not bad deal.  We signed up for parasailing and headed on a boat to get to the dock where they had parasailing gear (just little bit away from the beach).  There was an option for 1 person/2 people/3 people parasailing and we just opted for all 1 person, that way each of us get to go alone!! This was the best experience we all had.  I didn't time it but we were up in the air for quite some time (maybe 7 minutes) and it was so beautiful and peaceful up there!! You can see the ocean clearly and even the surface underneath the water you can see clearly!! I was high enough to see a good view of the island!! Beautiful indeed!! We got back to the shore and wanted to relax a bit, so decided not to do jet skiing.  We relaxed a bit under the shade and then wanted to check out the resort's infinity pool that I had read about in the reviews online.

The Grand Lucayan Resort in Freeport, Bahamas

Relaxing under the shade, and still beautiful view!!

The beach, the white sand, the crystal clear blue water

After relaxing for a bit, we headed to the far left end of the beach where there was the infinity pool.  We reached there and it was worth walking that extra distance because the pool was nice!! It wasn't that deep and you have a good view of the beach from the pool.  We chilled in the pool until it was time for us to head back.

The Infinity Pool @ The Grand Lucayan Resort

The taxi driver had told us to be back by 4 pm and we wanted to stroll in the marketplace little bit, so we headed out from the resort around 3:15 pm and went to the marketplace across the street.  I personally felt that everything was kind of expensive in the shops, so just looked around and then finally we caught the taxi to get back to the ship.

This was really a tiring day since we walked a lot on the beach.  It was also a tanning day since it was crazy hot and the sun was upon us the entire time!!  But the day was not over yet.  This day also happened to be the elegant night on the cruise which means we all dress up and take bunch of fancy photo shoots around the cruise where they have different/elegant backgrounds set up for us.  We got on the ship, took shower, and got ready with our formal dinner outfits!! Headed out to take pics and then off to the dining room.  We were starving and attacked the bread and butter like crazy :P...haha.  We had to wait until our main dinner came, so we just fed ourselves to the readily available food which was bread & butter!! Don't worry, we finished our main course meal as well :).

Today, for entertainment, we had magic show which was going to feature at 10:30 pm, so before that we had some time on hand, so my brother and I tried our luck in the casino.  I can't remember right now, but I think we lost while playing Roulette. The magic show was  interesting and entertaining.  With that, I called it a night and went to bed.  This was a great fun and adventurous day and I will always remember it!!  The next stop is Nassau, Bahamas, so stay tuned for more stories!!

See ya!!