The last day of our cruise on Independence of the Seas takes us to Nassau, Bahamas for a short visit.
It's always odd when you only spend a few hours in a port, and the timing of the port times stand out when we are only in Nassau from 8am to 2pm. It also limits what you can do.
Since we didn't have a ton of time in port, we didn't book any shore excursions. The plan was to treat it like a sea day and stay onboard.
First and foremost, we all took this opportunity to sleep in after a busy couple days at the beginning of the cruise.
We managed to roll into the Windjammer at 10am for breakfast, followed by a visit to Cafe Promenade for a morning coffee.
My wife and I took our coffee down to deck 4 and outside to the promenade deck. While it's hot and humid out, if you can sit in the shade with a breeze, it's quite comfortable.
Maybe it was the caffeine, but I started getting an itch to do something and get off the ship for a little bit. So we grabbed our stuff to take a short walk around Nassau.
Your best bet when visiting Nassau is to have some kind of a tour or activity planned, as the area near the pier is a rather large tourist trap of shops and bars.
Read more: Best things to do in Nassau on a cruise
Just walking off the ship, you could see the progress the port is making to upgrade everything. The pier and port area are in the process of being completely upgraded, which is a multi-year effort.
We started off doing a little bit of window shopping at the various souvenir stores.
We stopped for a drink at my favorite bar, Pirate Republic Brewery.
They had a limited amount of beer today, so I decided to try their hard seltzer since I like Truly.
It was good, but too much of a seltzer taste compared to Truly, so I think next time I'll stick to whatever beer they have available.
We made our way back to the ship and I got exactly what I wanted out of our visit: a short excuse to walk around port for a bit.
Back in the cabin, I had one thing on my mind now: a nap.
Independence of the Seas departed Nassau right around the time I got up, and I made a quick run to the Windjammer for a late lunch.
My wife went with my oldest daughter to see the Broadway musical, Grease, while I napped/stayed with my youngest daughter in the cabin. I would have enjoyed seeing it, but naps are serious business.
After my nap, I went up to the Diamond Lounge to have a drink and spend a few minutes up there.
One of the many fabulous benefits of being at least Diamond in Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society is access to a dedicated lounge for Diamond, Diamond Plus, and Pinnacle Guests. It's kind of like their own clubhouse, meeting place, and bar wrapped into one.
On Independence of the Seas, it's located on Deck 14 near the Viking Crown Lounge and it has great views. Plus, there's a nice outdoor part to it as well.
Dinner tonight was at Izumi hibachi, which is always a popular restaurant on almost any ship that has an Izumi location.
Food was great, and the kids enjoyed the experience. If you want to dine at hibachi, you definitely want to make reservations as early as possible. With the dining package, I recommend going immediately after you board the ship to get a reservation.
After dinner, it was back to the pub for music for one last evening.
Overall, we had a great time on Independence of the Seas. Three night cruises always feel like they go by so quickly because of the fact it's only a few days, but it's better to have cruised quickly than not to have cruised at all!
Weather was great, sea conditions perfect, and the ship itself was lovely. The crew members did a great job of taking care of us, and I hope we can do another weekend sailing sooner than later.
This wraps up my live blog here, but Allie will be live blogging in a few days from Odyssey of the Seas in Europe, and I'll be back with another live blog on Allure of the Seas from her new home in Galveston next month!
Thanks for reading and all the wonderful comments!
