Mildly Entertaining

Maintained in great shape, and the efforts to renovate the services on the island were well received by the guests! Schedule all of your shore excursions for this port, as you will be sorely disappointed with Nassau!

Swimming with the pigs excursion was a great disappointment as the tour lists five hours total, but is misrepresented. Customers are taken to "Pearl Island" which is an extremely narrow strip of dirt with ONE unmaintained cement walking path with room for two people to walk side by side only. The toilet accommodations are akin to porta potties, with doors shortened to the point of open viewing to the activity therein. Passengers are expected to either sun on the limited number of chairs available, use the worn paddleboards/canoes or swim in the limited bay area (which appears to have nothing like the amenities at Coco Cay). Expected to be waiting for your boat transfer to yet another strip of dirt for the swimming with the pigs activity, you cannot be late, but the driver may just "forget" to pick up your party for over a half an hour as was what happened with our experience, as everyone was waiting in the very hot sun. With the tour scheduled during the lunch hour, we were only then told was a 45 minute "swim," which left customers questioning how the tour and the same time lunch were to occur if both coincided. The answer from a member of the staff was that we should have eaten earlier, and needed to meet our leaving shuttle on time, no exceptions. So, customers ate breakfast on the ship, between 7-8 am before the tour, then were expected to eat a 10:30 am lunch? Not happening... When the shuttle boat finally arrived, the passengers were taken around the neighboring island, and expected to walk a boarded path, single file, to where the pigs were housed in a wood pallet enclosure, crowded, in the searing heat, awaiting snacks. The tour operators then gave each customer a clear plastic cup with 3-4 pieces of cut apple, with a wood skewer and directions to feed the pigs, before entering the water themselves with large buckets of food and mush. Naturally, the pigs swam to the tour operators, and customers had to chase down the pigs to even feed them, winding their way around the staff who held a pool leaf strainer to pick up feces in the water. The shores of the "island" were extremely rocky, so be warned, and wear water shoes to prevent cuts and scrapes. The event is called swimming with the pigs, but should read, "get in the water to feed 3 apple pieces to pigs, then get out" It was after this brief encounter that the water shuttle was directed to bring the craft to the exact area where the pigs were, noting we didn't have to walk the boarded path back to the opposite side, though no explanation was given for why that direction wasn't chosen prior. Back at "Pearl Island," guests headed towards the "buffet" lunch which consisted of placing foods (mushy brown rice with scant beans; soaked vegetable blend of cauliflower/carrots/zucchini; one chicken drumstick; and a few pieces of what was to be fried fish, with the outer portion falling off due to the boiling effect), from the chafing dishes, onto paper plates. The drink consisted of plastic cups, half filled with luke warm water, and the direction to only take ONE! Terrible. Many passengers waited to board the cruise ship to obtain actual food. One passenger asked for ice from the bar, and was given it, but when another approached a few minutes later, was told that they charge $1 for the same product! And yes, that comment was indicative of the staff on "Pearl Island" who were seen drunk, making comments to people walking the cement sidewalk, and having no sympathy for time constraints. To Celebrity: please seriously consider another off shore tour and place of such, as "Pearl Island" was a total BOMB!