Is Atlantis worth it?

[newmommie77]

We r doing NYE cruise and am wondering if Atlantis is worth doing or if we should just stay on ship. My dd7 loves water slides but HATES the cold so I am not sure.

[racingfandj]

I didn't want to be in the Bahamas in the winter and not get in the water, so we ordered wetsuits. Here is one I ordered for my DD. She's worn it during swim lessons where they swim in a cold indoor pool and complained about being hot.

http://www.aquagear.com/aqua-sphere-stingray/

[carpenta]

We have been in Atlantis in Feb. and the water is perfect. Around 80 degrees. The sun is still very warm. Atlantis is great and we are returning this Feb. on the Dream. Well worth the money IMO.

[tinytinkmom]

Originally Posted by racingfandj

I didn't want to be in the Bahamas in the winter and not get in the water, so we ordered wetsuits. Here is one I ordered for my DD. She's worn it during swim lessons where they swim in a cold indoor pool and complained about being hot.

http://www.aquagear.com/aqua-sphere-stingray/

I second the wetsuit idea! I wore a long sleeved wetsuit top over my bikini at Atlantis & I was just the right temperature!

[ZoneOrr]

I was so hyped up in going to Atlantis and it was nothing like I thought. It's okay... I guess it's one of those thing you can say you've been too....

[Avery's mom]

We went to Atlantis with DCL in October and LOVED IT! My DD9 is not the biggest water slide fan, however, we all really enjoyed the 'rapids river' the most. We didn't want to leave

Go and have a great time!

[misslissa]

We stayed at Atlantis last year for a week in February and it was beautiful. Not cold at all, and we had our 5 month old in the pool. As a day excursion, I don't think I'd pay for it though, seems like a lot of money. My hubby and I don't really like waterslides so we only each went on the rapids which WAS very cool and then otherwise spent our time in the pool which you could do anywhere. I guess it really depends if you would spend that on ANY waterpark, I wouldn't.

[Kimosabe]

We did the Atlantis excursion last year and wished we had not gone for a few reasons:
(1) expensive (obviously, we knew that ahead of time);
(2) unrequested tour starts off the excursion -- they want you to see the property in hopes that you will return, so they give you the LONG tour of the resort before finally getting you to the water park area (there were people who cut off through a shortcut and skipped what we later realized was this long tour, so if you go, I would suggest breaking away from the group early!);
(3) every cruise ship has an excursion there at the same time, so it was painfully crowded (to be fair, this was late July when water parks sound a little more refreshing!);
(4) bottled water = $10 (take your own!);
(5) didn't seem like there was much quality time to spend exploring the water park area before we were having to pack up and go back to the ship (but again, the pre-tour didn't help with that!); and
(6) make sure your child is tall enough to ride the fun slides -- we had DD6 and DD9 and we quickly realized they were too short to ride the "good" stuff (again, shame on us for not researching ahead of time). DD9 could ride a couple of things, but DD6 had to spend all of her time in the kids' area, which while fun for her was not big fun for us parents who had to divide and conquer so that at least DD9 could have fun. To be fair, our girls are both fairly petite for their ages, so height might not be a concern, but check online and try to find any height requirements before committing.

All in all, Atlantis is quite impressive, but I think it might be better to go there as a vacation destination unto itself rather than as a cruise ship excursion. As a home base for vacation, you would have much better control over your schedule (i.e., can avoid the cruise ship visitors).

[neg58]

We recently went to the Blue Lagoon dolphin day, but on the same water shuttle were the 'beach day' people. The beach is much smaller than Castaway Cay, but looked clean and fun. there are some blow up slides and trampolines, but I think you have to pay a little extra for those. We really liked the ride to the island; about 30 minutes.

Just a suggestion.

Nancy

[scootch]

Originally Posted by ZoneOrr

I was so hyped up in going to Atlantis and it was nothing like I thought. It's okay... I guess it's one of those thing you can say you've been too....

For us it was the WOW factor. We have gone twice(thru Comfort Suites) Recently did a 7 night Fantasy Eastern Caribbean and my dd's were oh so bummed that we were not going back. We absolutely love it. Someday I will fly there for a 4-5 day trip and never leave the resort

[majermom]

I guess we missed some of it. We were escorted from the dock in these run down mini busses. Then when we got there, they gave us a general tour of the place. They specifically pointed out which areas/pools were off limits to Disney cruisers. And to be honest, by the end of the tour I couldn't remember which was which. My son doesn't really like ocean swimming because he doesn't like the salty water. After spending some time on the beach, he started eyeing up the BIG swimming pool area directly across from the ocean beach we were on. We gave in and went across. It was huge... and very beautiful. Overall it was nice but not as great as I thought it would be from what I saw on TV. I don't even remember them showing us the area with the waterslides ect. Maybe we booked the wrong package for that? That was December 2011.

[Four Swampers]

We loved Atlantis, but we went on our own: we rented a room at the Comfort Suites next door. Check-in takes a little while, but the room includes full access to Atlantis waterparks. You won't stay the night, as the ship leaves that day, but for about $200, you can get a family of four full access to Atlantis. That is a lot cheaper than DCL's tour price.