Nassau....Unsafe?

[Maddysdaddy]

As with a poster above, we were in Nassau on Good Friday, and also had booked day passes at the Hilton.

 

After reading all of the posts on CC about how dangerous and unsafe Nassau is, and how you'll be hassled by vendors and people selling drugs, I had prepared myself and my family for the worst.

 

Have to say that the walk to and from the hotel was absolutely fine. Yes, there were vendors trying to cajole us to come in to their stores, but a "no thanks" worked just fine. Quite frankly, I found the vendors much, much pushier in St. Maarten (an earlier cruise), than in Nassau.

 

Of all of our port stops, I always felt the "safest" in St. Thomas (not that I have felt particularly unsafe in any of them), but had a very illuminating discussion with our Kansas ex-pat server at a restaurant we stopped at for lunch, who told us about how unsafe the island became after dark, with all of the gangs/drugs and corrupt police officers.

 

All that to say that no matter where you are, if you stay in busy areas during daylight hours and keep your wits about you, you're probably no less safe than being in any major North American or European city.

[JT888]

Are safety and Zika virus still a big problem in the Bahamas? We are thinking about going to Nassau.

 

 

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[tgms]

This response, like others on Cruise Critic when the OP asks about port safety, isn't particularly helpful. Phrases like "not impressed," "run-down and sketchy-like," and "not a fan," with no specifics to illustrate them, are simply opinion. And "armed men with guns," redundant though the wording is, might actually make folks feel more secure, rather than less so...

 

The provocative mention of a " very scary episode," is the only potentially helpful one, but not of no value without elaboration. Please explain what happened so as to provide the OP and the rest of us some truly useful (if anecdotal) information.

 

A year late, but I got an email tonight that I evidently subscribed to this and saw the new reply tonight--and also your quote late as well. Not hiding, just don't come on cruise critic much. Have not cruised much at all. I'll be interested to hear if people think it is safe lately.

 

 

As for our "scary episode" the most I will elaborate is that it involved witnessing a bloody brawl/crime in Nassau in 2008.Our safety was very much in jeopardy at time time (as well as with other tourists and this included families and young children). By the grace of God, we got out unharmed. Not a fuzzy, warm experience. This was prior to our cruising so I went back full well knowing what it was like in Nassau and having stayed at the resort--which was fine. That is why we had no interest to leave the port--but we thought we'd walk around and see if there were any shops, etc. there (at port) worth looking at. There were definitely armed guards that day with guns strapped on their back---I don't know if something happened that day or if that was preventative, but we did see them (inside the gates). I can see how some would think that was a good thing and some a bad thing. It made me feel nervous. I had a different perspective after seeing the crime years before. I also had a teenager with me, making me nervous to keep him safe as well. So, as a middle age woman who had the prior experience---I am not fond of the area. If we cruise again there, I will not get off the ship--period. However, I will say that every day is different and every person is obviously different. Had we not had the bad experience in 2008, I would feel very differently about it if I went and it was a beautiful day and we had a great time. Everyone's experience would be different.

 

Case in point---we were on the Serenade cruise when water (pipe) damaged the cabins. We were in a room unaffected and had a great cruise. The worst we knew about was an elevator not working. The next day we hear nightmare stories of those whose cabins were unusable and how awful their experience had been. We had power in our room but others didn't. We had an awesome cruise. Another person would say it was awful. I feel like the ports are the same way---different experiences.

[KatNiss Houston]

I am a 42 year old widow and just cruised to Nassau with my 21-yr-old son. We had never been before, and we did get warnings in the Fun Times and overhead announcements about increased crime and staying in groups and guided tours. Regardless, we got off the ship and walked through town on our own walking tour. Many others did the same, including women alone, older couples, families with small kids, etc. We hopped on a jitney not knowing where we were going really, went to Cable Beach to a secluded free beach alone, walked all over the place on our own. We encountered nothing but friendly and helpful locals everywhere. We went over to the fish fry and had lunch, walked around downtown to the Government House, Queen's Staircase, Fort Fincastle, etc. Vendors offered items for sale, but were not overly pushy. It was perfectly fine. We saw a few police officers, but none had guns.

 

On our tour in Freeport, I did learn that things were really tough for a while. After the hurricane slammed them, the islands were shut down for about 6 weeks completely. No ships could come in - very limited supplies, no tourism dollars, no work. They took a big hit. Most families lost the roof over their heads - literally. I'm sure if you visited shortly after that disaster when people were in such a time of desperation and buildings were needing to be rebuilt, perhaps your experience may be significantly different.