Around 10:30, we made our way over to Rubis and fueled up so when Wednesday rolled around, we could just head out of Atlantis with the Grasshoppers and not have to worry about stopping for anything. At Rubis, Denise saw a spotted ray. I wondered if it lived in these waters and was the same one we saw in the Atlantis Marina years ago.
As the fuel prices rose in the US this spring, we started to worry about what that would mean for us and anticipated the marine diesel prices this summer. At Rubis, we wound up paying just a little less per gallon than we did at the end of July 2022.
Once we filled up, we made our way to the Atlantis entryway canal. It was about 11:30 when we got there, but the dockmaster told us the people in our slip were preparing to depart, so we sat just outside the entryway for 30 minutes watching the boats and looking for animals. We got to see a sea turtle surface quite a few times. Didn't get to dock until 12:05.
Tied up. Checked in. Slip 1. Literally the furthest slip from anything. Lots of steps in our future! Ben said we could call the marina staff on the VHF and they'd come drive us.
Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise came with us to get wrist bands, then went to the casino for a bit.
Carters did a bunch of slides and the River Rapids (best "lazy" river in the world!!!) Last time we were here, Roo was too little to do anything but the Rapids River, so she couldn't wait to get down all of the other slides, especially the Serpent Slide which ends in a tunnel surrounded by all kinds of sharks.
Walked through the area that we don't spend a lot of time in- the beach, the Coral Pool, and got to look at some of the tanks along the way.
Found our Cartermaran sticker from 2022! Can you find it?
Came back for dinner on the boat, then the kids and Ben walked for ice cream.
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Ben called the marina office a little after 8:00 am for dock pickup and had the marina office call for a cab. Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise left for the airport with their conchs in tow. Bringing them through customs was a debate they had before leaving. Uncle Paul wanted to leave them with us to bring to them when we return at the end of July. Aunt Denise thought they brought them back just fine last time. Turns out they should've left them here. TSA said they can't have them in their carry-on, but they could have them if they checked their bags. Uncle Paul did not want to check bags, so he said that TSA now owns them for resale. (Don't tell Honesty!)
Ben did maintenance on the boat engines. I threw the guest bedroom sheets into the laundry, sunscreened everyone, then took the kids to the water park. I kept my phone in a water bag and noticed that toward the end of the day it had a moisture alert, so I set it out- charger port side facing the sun. Thankfully, it dried out pretty quickly!
Roo decided she was ready to try The Leap of Faith slide. This body slide is almost a straight down drop through a tunnel in the same shark tank as the Serpent Slide. Moose, being the only other one of us there to have done this slide, decided he would take her while Bear and I waited to take video of her drop. He didn't initially want to go, but as he got closer to the top he yelled down that he would go right after her.
Hattie's test results that we were waiting on came back, so Ben had to run back to New Providence/Nassau. He docked the tender by Honesty, and picked up her new antibiotics, to replace the current ones.
The kids and I came back to the boat with 30 minutes to spare (just enough time for a quick shower and to make guest bed) before the Grasshoppers arrived.
We walked to Shake Shack for dinner and enjoyed looking for and watching the manta ray, spotted ray, tarpon, and other large fish. For some reason, Atlantis lit off a ton of fireworks while we were eating. Roo thought it was for World Ocean Day and I explained to her that that would be contradictory to the type of celebration World Ocean Day would be. The display of fireworks was very loud because they were just outside of the restaurant, and lasted a long time. We did not enjoy them.
We walked back through The Dig, which is an underwater viewing area of all sorts of tanks. There were jellyfish, lobsters, grouper, sharks, etc. One of the lobster tanks was a tunnel, so when we looked up, we saw a lobster with all kinds of orange eggs under her tail. We couldn't believe how many there were!
Once we were back to the boat, I had just about 20,000 steps for the day! I walked back and forth to the waterpark area 3 times, and that was in addition to the steps through the waterpark.
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Ben woke us up at 7:30 am so we could all eat, get into our suits, and get sunscreened. The park opened at 9, but most rides didn't open until 10. We all stuck together for one run on the Rapids River (we were there before it opened and we one of the first ones on!) before the kids ditched the adults for some more thrilling slides. We ate lunch and then did a little more together.
We walked back to toward the boat, but stopped along the way scoping out restaurants for dinner. We also got to show the Grasshoppers the Predator Lagoon and Tunnel. There was a very mobile (albino?) sawfish that Lori and I enjoyed watching. Any other sawfish we had ever seen had always just been laying on the floor. This one swam over us in the tunnel and was moving all around the tank.
Ben started working on the boat, using parts he ordered and had the Grasshoppers bring with them. The rest of us reapplied sunscreen or put on UPF clothes and went back to the park. Keith, Lori, and I just did the Rapids River over and over while the kids went together, again, on the slides.
Moose, Lori, and I were the last ones off the Rapids River. First ones on, last ones off. That was exactly how we wanted to spend our day. Time well spent.
We gathered all our stuff and met Ben at the marina pizza restaurant. All of the outdoor tables were occupied and we had to wait 30 minutes for our 3 pizzas to be made. We played a guessing game of which table would be done first and got one with a few minutes to spare before the pizzas were ready. Lori and the kids were busy eating all of the not-honeysuckle, honeysuckle flowers in the bushes next to our table.
After we ate, we walked back to the heart swing for a few photos. Sasha and Keith stopped for a drink at Shake Shack. My crew wanted Ben & Jerry's, so we decided to meet up there. Once the Carters got there, the line was so long, and Roo and I decided we didnt even want anything, so she and I walked back to the boat to shower. The Grasshoppers and the rest of the Carters caught a Cirque de Solelil advertisement parade. Ben was told that the marina staff leave at 8 pm, so the Atlantis Hotel people would be able to give him a ride to the slip instead. When Ben walked there, they told him no, so the 7 of them all wound up walking back to the boat too.
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