New York, New York

NYC is my home port. I live about an hour outside the city so I did not go on an excursion, but it is really easy to get to this port. A couple days in NYC at the beginning or end of your trip can be quite entertaining. Note...if you can get picked up away from the pier, your ride will thank you. If you have to meet right there, your ride will be directed to the lower level at Pier 88 luggage drop off. There is nowhere for them to stop and wait.

Norwegian Escape

Only some of the elevators go to the top decks (17-19). This is noted on the wall above the elevator door. Only one goes to 19, but it is worth figuring that out as that is where the private hot tubs are.

Great Stirrup Cay (Cruise Line Private Island), Bahamas

This was easily my favorite stop on this itinerary. Great Stirrup Cay was really nice. A perfect beach day compressed into one locale. I did the eco boat tour where they brought up sea life for us to see and hold (conch, starfish, sea sludge, etc). Then I did a little shopping at the small market. I still had time to play in the waves a bit, though the water was too murky for real snorkeling. There were bars where you could get drinks with your keycard or fill a water bottle. The buffet was limited but very good. They had a grill station set up closer to the beach and a taco bar. They even come around with popsicles and drinks while you are waiting for the tender back to the ship. (I admit that was a tedious process as many people tried to leave at once when there was a tropical shower.) It would be wonderful if they built a dock on this island so they did not have to tender, but the tender process was not that bad. It was easy to get between the tender and the ship. It was really rocking when we went over, but the tender crew took good care of us all.

Port Canaveral, Florida

I did the airboats in FL, and it was fun but a little too much time at the preserve. We saw lots of gators from the airboat. That was fun. Then we went to a little roadside preserve/zoo/historical center. There was not much history (recreated artifacts), lots of gators, and some animals in small cages. We got to hold a small alligator and watch the big ones get fed. But we could easily have done all that in half the time we spent there.

Nassau, Bahamas

Nassau was fun. It is a tourist trap and makes no bones about it. I did the land and sea tour. The host on the boat made that part fun. It was a nice way to see the area. The land portion was not as good. We stopped at the fort and saw the Queen's steps (which have been paved so they are just a set of outside stairs) and ended at Atlantis for a quick casino/mall trip. You could either meet the driver back at the doors to Atlantis exactly on time or they would assume you wanted to stay there and leave without you. I am glad I did the tour since it gave me a nice overview of the area, but one of the other tours I have seen might have been more interesting on land. As to the "pushy, aggressive, rude" vendors. I did not see any of that. I was approached by a couple of vendors while at the fort, but I just smiled and walked on. I actually had more issues with the other ship passengers when trying to get through the port market than with the vendors. They were the ones blocking the way and pushing. (You need to walk through the market to get to the port gates and it seemed like no one wanted to get back to their ships.)