Harbourside March 14-21

[stein97]

On Friday March 13 we were notified that the kids school was closing and my office was requiring me to work from home. My Brother-in-law texted and said he had room at Harbourside!!! 12 hours later we were flying to Bahamas.

Airport was the same TSA lines seems to be moving good.
Our Plane was 3/4 full, when we first boarded everyone pulled out their Antibacterial wipes. As you walked down the row everyone was wiping down their seats, that plane smelled good!
Once we landed Nassau airport seemed the same as usual. Customs asked if we were in any HOT zones (China, Italy, etc...)
Our Taxi was a GMC Suburban, the driver said the person who booked him never showed. There was 6 of us and he charged us $80.

On Saturday Harbourside seemed full, there was about 4 groups checking in.

Sunday we were off to Atlantis! Our normal spot is by the rapids entrance, we grabbed 6 seats and umbrellas. It was at this point I noticed that the crowd was not a crowd.

Monday is when Atlantis started to reduce its staff and resources. The outer snack shops closed down, and some pools closed as well. I asked a supervisor and he said all the restaurants near the center pools will be open. Later in the evening we went to see what was playing at the Theater and you guessed it CLOSED.

With the Theater closed we saw that Atlantis started to play the movies at the pools. Monday was at the Coral, then they closed the Coral Pool. The movies moved to the Royal Baths which was pretty good.

Tuesday we went downtown, Sharand Bastain drove us. I asked him about the 4 Cruise ship in the Harbor, he said they were empty. He thought they were being cleaned as one or two had left the port over the weekend
Downtown I'd say 1/4 of the stores were closed, 1/2 the restaurants were closed. We decided not to walk down to Fish Fry, seeing that it could have been a waste of time. We ended up at Conch N' Kalik Bar & Grill, Tommy met us on the street and was trying his hardest to get us to come over. What can I say, my kids wanted WIFI, food was not bad at all and the drinks were good.

Wednesday & Thursday
Curfew went into effect 9:00 pm to 5:00 am
Bahamas news channel was explaining how there was 1 coronavirus case. a 61 year old had gotten it from her daughter who was traveling. I believe 3 people were quarantined but only 1 showed symptoms.
That being said, the news in the Bahamas gave a lot more information then WGN did.

Margaritaville was quiet no bands.

We also noticed the following closures:
THE BATHS COLONNADE POOL
CORAL POOL
SUN & ICE
PISCES
FRANKIE GONE BANANAS
POSEIDON'S TABLE
LAGOON BAR & GRILL
THE VILLAGE BURGER SHACK <-- I think was closed.
Atlantis store in Marina Village

Friday
Casino Closed at 9:00 am
Shuttle Service suspended
All restaurants outside the resorts are take out only
The following places were closing early each night.
CARMINE'S
VIRGIL'S BBQ
MURRAY'S DELI
THE POINT RESTAURANT & BAR
MARINA PIZZERIA

Basically Friday we hung out at the Harbourside pool and ate at The Point.

We met a family who had just sailed from Florida and were moored in the Marina. They had said there are 14 Cruise ship anchored at sea, they indicated it was a weird sight to see.

Saturday Sharand picked us up to go to the airport. Downtown Nassau seemed like a ghost town, there were almost no cars on the road. The Airport was fully open, while I didn't go to each restaurant there it did seem like it was business as usual. Starbucks was closed, but Dunkin Donuts was open!

TSA & Customs was the same, no issues, lines were what you would expect.
Most flights were leaving early or right on time, so we were hopeful that we would home soon.

We got on the plane, wiped our seats down, and then it happened. We were delayed............

Pilots 1st comments was "Sorry but there seems to be some confusion, we are not authorized to leave. We have the people in Dallas taking care of this"
Pilots 2nd comment "Folks the confusion about leaving has been resolved we are just waiting on updated flight plans"
Pilots 3rd comment "Folks we just have to enter our new course in the computer and we can leave, for some reason we are not allowed to fly over Indiana"
Pilots 4th comment "We will be pushing away and taking off right away"

We pushed from the gate and literally took off!

40 minute delay at the gate, the pilot made up 20 of those.
Our Airport was empty, it felt like we just landed on the red eye.

Here are a few pictures

 

[SteveS1]

Thanks for the great detailed report .. I have plans to arrive April 24 and looks like for now at least Delta is still running a daily flight from jfk. sounds like unless things change we may need to cancel.

 

[stein97]

I am betting Harbourside will be open, I'd call over to Atlantis and ask what is open.

Don't get me wrong Sun-Wed was awesome, no crowds. There was a group of 20 people going down the Leap of Faith all afternoon. No waiting on anything! But Thursday we noticed they cut back on ride attendants. So that's when the fun started to end.

 

[CPNY]

I am betting Harbourside will be open, I'd call over to Atlantis and ask what is open.

Don't get me wrong Sun-Wed was awesome, no crowds. There was a group of 20 people going down the Leap of Faith all afternoon. No waiting on anything! But Thursday we noticed they cut back on ride attendants. So that's when the fun started to end.

Wow this is a great detail much appreciated. Sounds like how it was being there for HC Dorian. I was supposed to be there today and I just cancelled Memorial Day week. I did book Labor Day week and 4 night in June. I’m sure by then travel will resume. We cannot be shut down for months.

 

[Ken555]

We cannot be shut down for months.

You had to write this?


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[okwiater]

We cannot be shut down for months.

You had to write this?

He's right of course. Staying shut down for months might be a great idea epidemiologically, but economically it's unsustainable. If it happens, you won't have to worry about having restricted options since the resorts themselves and even Vistana could very possibly be shuttered.

 

[CPNY]

You had to write this?


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Absolutely I had to write this. We cannot be shut down for months. I’m trying to be optimistic about it. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m not saying disregard a virus and resume life as normal with this virus around in a few months. But if cases begin to decline and death rates are low by may you will begin to see life resume. Of course there will be precautions with social distancing still being adhered too. I live in nyc where I have the most to fear, being in contact with more people on a daily basis than some come across in their entire life. We cannot be shut down for months more than 2..... I’m hopeful by mid May we are emerging from this with warmer weather bringing decline in new cases.

 

[CPNY]

He's right of course. Staying shut down for months might be a great idea epidemiologically, but economically it's unsustainable. If it happens, you won't have to worry about having restricted options since the resorts themselves and even Vistana could very possibly be shuttered.

Not to mention those unable to pay their rent. If people stay home and keep cases down we can emerge from this sooner rather than later. As cuomo said, it’s a wave and will eventually break. We have to slow the rate of spread and our health system can handle it. As long as our Health system doesn’t get overloaded we can emerge sooner. We cannot be shut down for months, we will emerge soon, we will reduce the spread and beat this soon is my hope. We cannot be shut down for months so everyone must play their part. I’ve even the biggest advocate for staying at home and not socializing. So I did absolutely say we cannot be shut down for months which is why I’m doing my part to make sure we aren’t and I URGE everyone to do their part as well.

 

[stein97]

Wow this thread went dark!

If I had a cheap place to stay in Nassau I would still be there until my kids had to return to school.

Right now there is 1 inches of snow outside!

 

[Ken555]

Absolutely I had to write this. We cannot be shut down for months. I’m trying to be optimistic about it. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m not saying disregard a virus and resume life as normal with this virus around in a few months. But if cases begin to decline and death rates are low by may you will begin to see life resume. Of course there will be precautions with social distancing still being adhered too. I live in nyc where I have the most to fear, being in contact with more people on a daily basis than some come across in their entire life. We cannot be shut down for months more than 2..... I’m hopeful by mid May we are emerging from this with warmer weather bringing decline in new cases.

Waiting to May *IS* “months”.


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[CPNY]

Waiting to May *IS* “months”.


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When I say we cannot be shut down for months I mean several, more than 2.... through the summer. We have the possibility to not be shut down more than 2 months if people stop running to the beaches in Florida and California. If everyone does their part we will get back to a level of normalcy sooner than later.

We will emerge by the summer but the virus will re-emerge in the fall, when it does, I don’t see us closing down again. The media will be focused on an election. As I said earlier in the post you quoted, we cannot have a complete shut down for more than 2 months.