An ongoing adventure of travel and living while using a wheelchair. Tim has been disabled from birth. Darryl is his father and caregiver who travels with him.
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Well, we landed in Nassau with little to do and really nothing planned. The one, good wheelchair accessible shore excursion...a glass bottom boat tour...was cancelled due to lack of interest. We were offered a tour of Atlantis, the giant resort and waterpark nearby, but that would have cost us almost $500. But, when the world gives us lemons, we make lemonade. Nassau is a wonderful place for a pub crawl.
Watch the Video!
Our first stop was a hot, uphill hike to John Watling's Rum Distillery.
This old plantation sits on parklike grounds up above the town. A great house commands the land, with the distillery in a barn out back. We take a little self-guided tour before going into the bar to sip the very tasty and expensive rums.
The rum is good and gives us the inspiration to hike back down the hill to the water where we find the Bamboo Beach Bar and Tiki Bikini Hut. We're hot and hungry from the long walk so we split an order of fries. Tim has a lemonade, a local Kalik Radler beer for Letty, and a Kalik Gold for me. I'm not one for the super sweet tasting radlers (like a lemon shandy in the States) but the cold Gold really hit the spot on that hot day. Next, we walked down to a better part of the beach and had delicious Bahama mamas at Gloria's on the Beach, a little bar shack on the sand that had a wooden deck I could get Tim's chair on.
They also had a drink called the bitch slap, which was advertised as the "strongest drink on the beach." Letty strongly suggested I should skip that one. Our last stop was the Pirate Republic Brewery and pub back by the cruise ship dock. Here, we had a very good mug of cold kolsch beer, brewed on premises. The server, seeing that my wife wasn't really having a great day, treated us to several shots of John Watling's rum on the house. Nicely liquored up from our day in Nassau, we wobbled back on the ship to rest off the buzz before our nighttime activities. Cheers! Darryl Musick Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved
Last night, Tim and I went to the excursion counter on board Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas to see if we could find a wheelchair excursion for today's port visit in Nassau. We were waiting to talk to our new friend from Chile but he was stuck trying to explain to a woman why her 16 and 14 year old kids could not be turned loose on an excursion in a foreign country without an adult chaperone.
She was having none of it and the conversation was growing more heated...on her end...by the minute. Another crew member came out to help us.
Watch the Video!
Four Days of Cruise in Ten Minutes
As we'd suspected, out of the dozens of excursions available, none were wheelchair accessible. Except...! Yes, a tour of Atlantis and it's waterpark could be arranged at $45 per person. We were about to go ahead and sign on the dotted line when he added "we just have to arrange for a wheelchair accessible van. That will be an extra $199."
We'll just have to see what kind of trouble we can get to by ourselves.
After yesterday's pandemonium at the breakfast buffet, we decide to take our morning meal in the main dining room. There's also a buffet here, a much quieter one, plus you can order from the menu.
It's good, not outstanding, but will get us a good start to the day...whatever shape that will take. We don't know, yet, what we'll be doing in the Bahamian capital of Nassau.
Nassau is a docking port so the tender issue is not an issue here. We roll off the boat and are soon walking out of the terminal into the heart of Nassau. There's a park nearby, across from the legislature building, where we find a shady bench to check out our map of the are.
There are a lot of shops, restaurants, and bars here. I see an ad for an historic rum distillery so we strike out in that direction, which at least gives us a destination to reach, while seeing what lies along the way. The answer to that question is not much. We do browse a couple of shops but quickly lose interest in that.
It's Sunday morning May 13th, though, and the distillery is about a half mile away, up a hill. The Bahamians are a friendly bunch, I'll give 'em that...many cars would go by, see us walking up the hill, and yell out a hearty "Happy Mother's Day" to my wife.
The first time, she didn't understand what was being said through the thick Bahamian accent and you could see the look on her face that she was about to take offense. I explained to her what the gentleman said and she quickly corrected to give him a sincere thanks.
As we walk up the hill, a couple of churches have just finished their Sunday services and the parishioners are heading down the hill. Choruses of "Happy Mother's Day" are showered on my wife as they walk by.
The streets are narrowing, the heat oppressing, the hill steepening, and...just when my family is thinking I've completely lost my mind...the sign to the John Watling Rum Distillery.
We walk into this old plantation with it's great house fronting the distillery barn. There's a 75 foot deep well, dug by slaves hundreds of years ago, that provided the company with fresh water.
A staff member comes out and gives us a little shot of frozen pina colada which really helps to cool us down. We head into the bar to do some tasting but the rum itself is way too expensive to take home. You can read and watch all that in our Nassau Pub Crawl post and video (coming this Sunday).
One of the staffers told us of a quieter street to go down since the one coming up was getting pretty busy. We file out of the distillery just in time...four large tour buses are now disgorging their passengers as we leave.
As we head back downhill towards the water, we come across an old cemetery.
We wander around, it's seen better days, and take in some of the tombstones while a lone gardener takes on the unruly vegetation with a weed whacker.
Some potholes, a few stray dogs, and some piles of rubbish later, my wife is getting that look on her face, "this place is not what I expected." True. Central Nassau has a pretty run down quality about it like some of the border towns in Baja.
We have a light lunch on the beach and I'm hoping our little pub crawl will brighten her spirits. She soldiers on but is not really enjoying this port of call.
Later, back on the ship, she dives into packing the bags to get off this boat..we've taken to jokingly calling it the 'rust bucket' because of maintenance issues this ship does have...and won't consider the evening's entertainment.
Tim and I let her be and we head to the ship's atrium where, on this final night of the cruise, the crew has a parade of flags honoring the many, many countries the staff here hail from.
It's quite a sight and you can tell the crew really puts their heart into it and are proud of their homelands. A real celebration of the human diversity that we all share.
It was a wonderful way to end what would really end up being a fairly mediocre cruise.
As we wait the next morning with our duty free rum box (an order the duty free store screwed up, causing me to work to get a refund with the line when I got home) in the forward lounge for our call to disembark, Tim is eager to exit his first and probably last cruise.
Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved
Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved
Over the past few years, we've been focusing on tropical destinations in the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and more. For now, we're turning the chapter on that particular kind of trip but have come to some conclusions as to our favorites among the destinations we experienced.
Here is our list of tropical beach destinations, from our least favorite to the best.
NASSAU, BAHAMAS - Run down, very little wheelchair accessibility, about the only thing we could do is visit the bars. As the late, great Merle Haggard said, "I think I'll just sit here and drink.
JAMAICA - Yes, it's beautiful and has some amazing beaches. The nightlife is wonderful as can be the food. Wheelchair access at the hotel was extensive but away from it, hardly existed.
Over a quarter century ago, my wife and I went and had a grand time but that was also before we became so wheelchair aware. This time, it stood out in relief as we went to attractions that promised to be accessible but were not when we arrived.
Add to this the incredible knot of trying to navigate immigration and customs upon arrival and the hotel not giving us near what we paid for of what was promised turns us off of the Island of Irie.
Twice was nice but a third time is not in the cards for us.
MAUI - On the other hand, I am willing to go to Hawaii again it's just not high on our list right now. Since it's in the U.S., access is good (not great). Scenery is wonderful as are the many beaches.
What keeps it placing higher is the exreme high prices you have to pay for basics when you get there and a 'barely tolerated' attitude towards visitors when you're there. It's a beautiful place but I can't really call it too friendly. Several trips have re-inforced that feeling though there are a few friendly faces here and there, enough to make me not strike it off the revisit list completely.
COSTA RICA - I want to like this verdant Central American destination better but something's just keeping it from rating higher.
It has wonderful access (better that Hawaii in some cases), enough that wheelchair users can actually take part in some of the eco adventures like zip lining and canopy tours. Public buses and many taxis are also wheelchair friendly and accessible rooms are not hard to find.
On the down side, the beaches on the Pacific side are not at all what you'd expect from a tropical beach paradise...the water's muddy and the sand more like wet dirt. While the vast majority of the people are friendly, helpful, and honest, there's a pretty big slice of people who live to rip you off from car rental counters, zoos, and dishonest tour operators.
The buyer really has to be aware in Costa Rica.
Would I go back? I wouldn't rule it out but instead of a beach vacation, I'd rather go there for the volcanoes and rain forest experiences.
PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO - Ah, Puerto Vallarta! Lovely city, great beaches, miles of jungle, wonderful food, a great variety of nightlife, incredible hotels...what's not to like?
Nothing, actually. It's a perfect destination...if you can walk. If you're in a wheelchair, obstacles abound.
We came here almost every year when Tim was young and it was not as big a deal to lift him over the obstacles but he's grown bigger and heavier, and I'm older and more decrepit. It's just not possible anymore.
I hear PV is getting more accessible but from what I can see, it's just not quite where it needs to be to get us to come back, yet. I would really love to go back. It is almost perfect, otherwise.
PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - This one could be technically a tie between the next entry. Wonderful place, extremely friendly people, gorgeous beaches, excellent service, great food, drink, and nightlife. Accessible where it needs to be.
The only downside is that Punta Cana is rather far from any other parts of the Dominican. Would love to be able to visit the historic sites and go to a few baseball games without having to spend hundreds on a taxi to get there.
ST. CROIX, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS - My personal favorite on this list. What's not to like? Friendly people, outstanding accomodations (especially the Buccaneer Hotel), good (but not great) access...it is part of the USA, after all, and the ADA applies...great food and drink, spectacular beaches, and fun, accessible attractions. While access could be a bit better...we could not find a boat that could accomodate us no matter how much we and the concierge tried and the old Cruzan distillery couldn't be done in a wheelchair...we did find more than at other destinations as far as attractions go. Cruzan couldn't be done but Captain Morgan allowed full access at their facility. The waterfront in Christiansted...the main town...is fully accessible and even the jungle bar with the beer-drinking pigs had an access ramp. The accessible room at the Buccaneer was nothing short of fabulous. There's still a way to go, transit is very spotty and there are very few accessible taxis, but from the incredibly warm people, outstanding service and stunning beauty make this a great destination. And with that, we close out our latest tropical chapter here at The World on Wheels. We're going to point our spotlight at other destinations for awhile but I'm sure we'll be back to a couple of spots on this list at least. Darryl Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick All Rights Reserved
