Blue Lagoon Excursion in Nassau?

[lori saxman]

Hello All! Just got my shore excursion guide today for our upcoming 3 day Wonder cruise.

Anyone ever do the BL beach day excursion? I have been to Nassau before and opted not to do an excursion. After reading other's thoughts on shore excursions in Nassau, we are really considering the Cable Beach thing. I am really not insterested in anything else in Nassau, but thought blue lagoon sounded good.

would love to hear your thoughts

 

[musicgirl]

We did this one in June of 2002 and really enjoyed it. It is about a 45 min. ride on a boat over to the BL. There is an inlet with shallow calm water. This is very nice if you have young kids.

There is also an area to snorkel in. You walk in from a beach area. It is very rocky, so I wore my water shoes because it was hard in the fins and I don't like to walk barefoot on "unchartered" areas! I'm a little weird about that.

Lunch is basically a bbq. The food is fine, nothing spectacular. They do take pictures that if you want are $10, but you must buy it right then.

A ferry returns at 2 and 4. We went back on the 2.


Have fun! Lorie

 

[jwann]

I'll second musicgirl's summary. We also had small children (5 & 8). We did the sting ray encounter there and though it wasn't as cool as the "stingray city" in Grand Cayman it was still fun. We enjoyed the lunch and the fruit punch was extra tasty. The beach and water are calm and there are palm trees to rest under. Personally, we enjoyed Blue Lagoon better than the Atlantis beach day -- we've done both. The one drawback is the 45 min. boat ride as it takes a chunk out of your day.

 

[suzanp66]

We just got back from the May 13th 3-night cruise. At Nassau we did the Dolphin Encounter which includes the Blue Lagoon Beach Day. It was the BEST day ever and well worth the money. The beach is absolutely beautiful and was perfect for my children. They are 7 and 4. We took the 4:00 ferry back and would've loved to stay longer.

 

[SCOTTOHIOCPA]

We have been to BL 3 times. The most recent was on the April 18th Wonder sailing. I was somewhat disappointed this time, and I plan to do Cable Beach or some other beach on my own next time.
Here's what happened to us, hopefully it's not normal:

First, we met in Wavebands at 9:15. Sat around wavebands until 10:00. Walked out onto pier, stood for 15 minutes, walked further down pier, stood for 15 more minutes, walked over to ferry boat dock, stood around 15 minutes, then finally boarded. Arrived at island at 11:30. (Some people even had to wait another 1/2 hour until the second boat came since the first one was full...at least we made the first boat). The boat doesn't have a live band playing island music anymore either, just a tape deck.

Tried to go snorkeling at one of the 4 snorkeling areas. The lifeguard came and told us ALL of the snokeling areas were CLOSED. We were only allowed to snorkel in the small man made lagoon. The water is only 2 feet deep. If you just want to sit on the beach and let your kids play in some shallow water, this is OK, but I really like to snorkel, so I was bummed.

Lunch was your typical school cafeteria quality hamburgers or a hot dog. You could also have a rum punch poured out of recycled milk jugs (I counted on the alcohol killing any germs).

My kids, ages 11 and 6 liked playing in the water and on the beach, so they did enjoy it. Overall, it was OK, but I would rather save $100 and just go a beach on my own next time.

 

[suzanp66]

SCOTTOHIOCPA - sorry you didn't enjoy your day to the fullest.

When we took the ferry on May 14th there was a live band playing. They were really good (my husband even bought their cd). They had all the kids up and dancing, it was a really good time. I guess we got really lucky.
However, on the ride home there was not any band and was pretty crowded.

The biggest problem I had is that they didn't have lounge chairs on the beach and the towels that Disney handed out were way too small to lay on.

 

[TikiGirl]

We really enjoyed this excursion - the dolphin encounter was really fun and the snorkeling was great - tons of fish! It's a bit rocky in places so bring your water socks.
We didn't mind the boat ride over with the exception that it took like an extra 45 minutes to even leave because someone was late coming off the ship. So the 45 min ride over turned into 1 1/2 hours. It was nice to see all the houses on the shore and all the amazing yachts and watercraft docked near Paradise Island.
On the way back, we were relaxed and tired so we caught a bit more sun and a nice nap.
There wasn't a live band on our ferry - they did play some festive calypso music but it was VERY loud - almost too loud at times.
Lunch was basic BBQ but we were hungry so it tasted pretty good.
There were plentiful hammocks to relax in and once the 2pm ferry left, we pretty much had the island to ourselves.

We would do it again.

Hope this helps!

 

[Cuzisayso2]

Originally posted by SCOTTOHIOCPA
The boat doesn't have a live band playing island music anymore either, just a tape deck.


We were on the 3 Day May 6th and the boat we took to BL had a wonderful band on board. They played tropical music all the way and the same on the back. They even tried to play songs to get the kids involved. DD8 LOVED doing the limbo! We too enjoyed blue lagoon, however, next time we will opt to stay on the boat in Nassau. This time we had booked the Dolphin Swim on our own and then booked the BL beach day thru DCL. It worked out really well and the Dolphin SWIM was incredible!

 

[weluv M&M]

We will be doing this June 14th. I noticed that you returned on the 4:00 boat back....did you have enough time to shower/change for dinner? Did you have early seating or late? Do you think it is possible to do this with early seating?

 

[suzanp66]

We had the late dinner seating (8:30) and had plenty of time to get ready. I think with the 4 of us having to get ready, we would've been pressed for time, but I would say it's doable if you you don't mind rushing off the ferry and thru town to get back to the ship (there's quite a walk from the ferry back to the ship). To me it would be worth missing dinner to stay later on the beach.

 

[weluv M&M]

THANKS SUZANP66....

We have just the Dolphin Excursion booked (not through DCL).
We were advised to take a water taxi from the dock just beyond the ship to the ferry dock. Do you know anything about this? How far is it from the ship to the water taxis? we will have a 5 and 7 yr old with us so I want to be prepared.

 

[mbw12]

If you do the Dolphin Encounter, are you done in time to take the 2:00pm ferry back or do you habve to take the 4:00pm ferry back (we have early dinner seating and the 4:00pm wopuld make us too rushed to get ready)

TIA!

 

[mbw12]

bump