Sweet Escapes: Sandals Royal Bahamian

Sunday

After 70 nights at 9 Sandals resorts over 22 years, Ron and I finally earned our free week vacation! We just had to decide where to take it. We thought about Grenada or Curacao, but the flights were terrible, so we ended up choosing our “home away from home”, the Bahamas.

Our plane landed at 1:10 and by 2:30, we were checked into our room at Sandals Royal Bahamian. We’d booked a West Bay Oceanview Penthouse room, which was on the top floor of the West Bay Building. Our room had a 4-poster king bed with comfy, white bedding and a great view of the West Bay pool, the pier, and the insanely blue water. I don’t think I could ever get tired of looking at that water. Pictures just didn't do it justice.

Once we’d unpacked our bags, we went down to the Coconut Grove. Sandals Royal Bahamian had gone through a major renovation a couple of years ago, and I was looking forward to seeing all the changes that had been made since we stayed there in 2009. The Coconut Grove was the area of the resort that had changed the most. The theater and pizza oven had been replaced with a large open space where the nightly entertainment was held. There was also a new outdoor bar with swing chairs and two food trucks – Coco Queen, which served Bahamian snacks like conch fritters and conch salad, and Sweets ‘n’ Tings, which served coffees, pastries and crepes. Other than the Coconut Grove, the updates to the resort were mostly cosmetic. The big pillars around the pools and the statues of Greek gods and angels were gone. The buildings had been painted in lighter colors with touches of pink and aqua all around the property. It looked fresh and modern.

Coconut Grove

Dragon in the Coconut

For dinner that night, we decided to eat at Gordon’s, the seafood restaurant out on the pier. My swordfish steak was overcooked, but the location and the sunset were perfect. After dinner, we went to Mr. B’s Bar for drinks and ended up chatting with one of the bartenders, Garen. When I said I wanted something refreshing and not too sweet, he made up a cocktail for me with Bombay Sapphire, thyme muddled with lemon, and a splash of tonic water. He even gave it a name – Old Thyme. :-) Before going to bed, we stopped by the food truck to pick up cookies and a glass of milk for Ron. Vacation was off to a good start!

the view from dinner at Gordon's

Mr. B's Bar

Monday

In the morning, we ate at Tesoro, the Italian restaurant that had a buffet at breakfast. There were several little kitties that hung around outside Tesoro, so I saved a couple of pieces of bacon for them. As we left the restaurant, we kept hearing meowing. Finally, we discovered the source. One of the kitties had climbed onto the roof of Kimonos, the hibachi restaurant, and was stuck. We tried to coax it down with my bacon, but the cat wasn’t having it. Before long, a small crowd had gathered under the cat, trying to figure out what to do. Someone went to ask a grounds keeper for a ladder, and Ron and I wandered over to the Coconut Grove. When we came back a little later, the cat was on the ground and eating the bacon. The Great Cat Rescue was over!

one of the restaurant greeters

Our plan for the day was to take the boat over to Sandals Cay. The main beach area at Sandals Royal Bahamian is small, but the resort has a private island called Sandals Cay about half a mile offshore with plenty of room to spread out. The first boat to the island was at 10 o’clock, and by 9 o’clock, there were already people lining up on the pier! We decided we’d better go ahead and get in line. The weather was supposed to get rainy later in the week, and we wanted to make sure we made it to the island at least once. It turned out that we really didn’t need to get in line so early. The boat held a lot of people and there was a second run at 10:15.

Once we got to the island, we explored a little before deciding where to park ourselves. There were so many options – a pool with a swim-up bar and cabanas, thatched palapas on the beach, puffy bean bag chairs, hammocks. We chose two shaded lounge chairs on the back side of the island close to the pool and restaurant. It was gorgeous with the sunshine lighting up the water and turning it a hundred different shades of blue. We could hear music playing from the pool area - Eric Church’s “Hell of a View”. It sure was! We stayed on the island until late afternoon, swimming in the pool and the ocean and having lunch at Aralia House. The seafood risotto at Aralia House was one of the best things I ate all week. Delicious!

That night after dinner at Tesoro, we went to the Coconut Grove to see the entertainment, a fire show called “Fire in the Grove”. We found some chairs right next to the stage area, which I thought would be great for getting pictures. But once the show started, we realized we were a little too close for comfort! Was it really a smart idea to be that close to people who were swinging around balls of flame? I started practicing “stop, drop and roll” in my head. It was a great show though, and the dancers did an amazing job. I would just sit farther away next time. :-)

Tuesday

Tuesday was the day for our Exuma Cays Island Hopping excursion, an all-day powerboat ride to the Exumas, a chain of tiny islands south of Nassau. We’d done a similar powerboat tour in 2013, and Ron and I agreed that it was one of the best things we’ve ever done. This time, the tour also included a visit to Big Major Cay to see the world-famous swimming pigs and a stop for snorkeling at Pablo Escobar’s sunken drug plane.

At 7:30, we met in the lobby for the bus ride over to the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal, where we boarded the boat and met our crew, Captain Keith, Jasmine and TJ. Then we were off, speeding through the crystal-clear water to our first stop at Allen Cay to feed the rock iguanas. It was hard to believe, but the water was even more beautiful in the Exumas than in Nassau. After about an hour, we got to Allen Cay where the iguanas were waiting on the beach or sunning themselves on the rocks, looking like miniature dinosaurs. Jasmine handed out lettuce leaves so we could feed them. Some of the larger iguanas came right up and nibbled the lettuce from our hands. We made sure to save a few leaves for the smaller, shyer ones.

Our next stop was at Compass Cay, a protected harbor that was home to a group of nurse sharks. As we approached the marina, Captain Keith told us that the sharks were docile, but we still needed to follow some ground rules. “Don’t put your hand in their mouths. I shouldn’t have to say that, but someone did it, so I have to say it.” People never cease to amaze me…

The last time we went to the Exumas, I specifically chose an excursion that did NOT include sharks. I’d seen pictures of tour operators wrestling the sharks, which seemed like a terrible idea for a lot of reasons. But our shark encounter wasn’t like that. It actually reminded me of the sting ray encounters we’ve done. TJ got into the water with us and showed us how to touch the sharks as they swirled around. Their skin was pebbly, kind of like the bottom of a swimming pool. They really were docile, but since their sense of smell was better than their eyesight, we kept our hands out of the way when TJ fed them fish. :-) I wasn’t expecting to like swimming with the sharks so much, but it turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the day. Very cool!

TJ with the sharks

We made a brief stop at a sand bar for photo ops, then rode on to Big Major Cay, otherwise known as Pig Beach. No one knows exactly how the pigs got there, but they were probably put there by farmers from a neighboring cay. When the farmers came over by boat to feed them, the pigs learned that boats meant food and swam out to meet them. Eventually people found out about the swimming pigs, and they became a tourist attraction. Before we got to the beach, Captain Keith once again went over the ground rules. He told us that the best time to interact with the pigs was when they were in the water because once they got onto land, they were more aggressive. Also, the pigs liked to bite butts. :-)

As soon as we anchored at the island, the pigs started swimming our way. These were not little pigs. They were 200-pound hogs! And yes, they really could swim. It was so funny to see their floppy ears and curly tails sticking out of the water as they swam up to our boat. We jumped in the water and swam around with them for a little while before making our way to the sand. I decided not to feed the pigs and mostly stayed in the shallow water trying to keep my butt out of biting range. I did get the chance to hold one of the little piglets though, which was very sweet. Seeing the swimming pigs was an unforgettable experience, but I have to say that the sharks were better behaved. :-)

Here they come!

Lunch was at a little restaurant on Black Point Cay called Lorraine’s Café – chicken, peas and rice, meatballs, and grilled vegetables served buffet style. We were now 80 miles south of Nassau and had a long ride back. As we sped along, Jasmine pointed out various islands. “That island belongs to Johnny Depp. That island belongs to Stephen Spielberg. That island belongs to a Saudi Arabian prince.” How do you go about buying an island in the Bahamas, anyway?

After an hour or so, we made our final stop at Pablo Escobar’s plane. The drug-smuggling plane had crashed off Norman’s Cay in 1980 and sat in shallow water just below the surface. We could see the plane’s propellers covered with coral and the door lying on the sandy bottom. Fish swam in and out of the windows. It was probably some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. What a fantastic day and what an amazing tour!

By the time we got back to Sandals, it was five o’clock and we were tired and wind-blown. We showered and went to dinner at the Queen’s Pearl Pub, because it seemed like the most casual option. After the long day on the water, everything on the menu looked delicious. I had corn chowder, mozzarella cheese sticks and cottage pie. Ron had bangers and mash. We watched the sunset and then went to the Coconut Grove for the show but were falling asleep on our chairs, so Ron picked up his milk and cookies from Sweets ‘n’ Tings and we headed to bed.