By IANTHIA SMITH, Guardian Staff Reporter

ianthia@nasguard.com

Some cruise ship passengers sailing into The Bahamas said they are enjoying every minute of their paradise filled vacation.

The happy campers said the minute they step off of the ship, they walk into what seems to be a new, enchanted world.

According to the May to October 2005 Cruise Visitor Satisfaction Report that was compiled by the Research Department of The Ministry of Tourism, the tourists made some favourable remarks via a questionnaire that addressed the visitors' shopping, security, straw market, bus, taxi and restaurant experiences among other tourism encounters. While there were some visitors who weren't too much impressed with what The Bahamas had to offer, there were few negative criticisms.

According to such report, 83 per cent of the cruise passengers indicated that they had done some form of shopping, 26 per cent of them thought that the shopping experience was "excellent," because the prices were good, the salesclerks were friendly and nice, and they had found everything that they wanted.

While three per cent of the cruise passengers thought that the shopping experience was "not so good," claiming that the prices were too high, the shopping experience was too negative and "too many people bothered you."

An online article written by a cruise ship tourist who visited The Bahamas recently, highlighted her "bad" experience while in the country, claiming that while some parts of her trip was "picturesque," there was a lot she was not prepared to handle.

She complained about how "impoverished and disgusting" Nassau was, the locals who roamed the streets and tired to sell drugs to tourists and the way she was "immediately attacked by vendors with knock-off designer bags and cheap T-shirts."

But this might be an isolated case, because according to the Cruise Visitor Satisfaction Report, 67 per cent of cruise passengers interviewed, liked the friendly people in Nassau and Paradise Island, 34 per cent liked the helpful people that they met, 22 per cent felt safe here in The Bahamas, while numbers continued to rack up for other favourable comments on the country's architecture, landscape, relaxing mood and world famous beaches and weather.

The tourists even praised the highly criticized public transportation system, with 23 per cent of the cruise passengers who travelled in a bus/jitney expressing that their experience was "excellent."

Forty-two per cent of tourists said their bus/jitney experience was "good" and 15 per cent said their bus ride was "ok." However, a tiny few making up only four per cent, said it was not so good.

The report broke down the tourists' comments in 15 tourism driven sectors, from which encouraging results for the tourism industry was gathered. The tourists' taxi, security, beach, restaurant, casino and even their hair braiding experiences, proved why The Bahamas has been dubbed one of the happiest places in the world.