nassau excursion or not?

[minnieluvzmickey]

I was just trying to decide what to do in nassau. Are the excursions worth it or should i just stay on the ship? I wouldn't mind checking out Atlantis. Would I have to do the excursion or could I do it on my own?

 

[bigsky]

We're going to do Atlantis. I wouldn't book the one with the ship. Not only is it more, but you could have access to everything for cheaper if you do it on your own.
You could book a room with Comfort Suites and have full access to everything at ATlantis.
I've also read that you can buy a wristband there for 25.00 pp. and have full access. ONe I read full, then I thought I read all BUT the beach. So not sure which it is. Will call and find out.

Enjoy!!

 

[musicgirl]

Our first trip, we did the Blue Lagoon. It was very nice. We got to snorkel and relax in the bay area. It is very shallow in places so this is great if you have little ones. It takes about 35-45 minutes to get there. They provide a lunch which is ok, the punch was horrible (hopefully it has gotten better). The first ferry went back at 2 and then another at 4. We had a good time, some people did not like this excursion though.

This year we did the catamaran excursion. We really liked this one even though it rained part of the time. We loved the snorkeling, but it was way to short. We were back on the ship about 1:00 for lunch. If you do this and you have your own equipment, take it. Their equipment was not the greatest.

We also went into Nassau this time since we had more time and were not too tired. We went for about an hour, that's all we needed. There are lots of things to buy here. Make sure you bargain!

Have fun!

 

[minnieluvzmickey]

Bigsky--would that 25.00 wristband include the slides also or do you know?

 

[MarkRG]

Here's my prewritten answer every time this comes up:

This note is for people who want to just go visit Atlantis and tour the Dig, a huge grouping of aquariums. If you want to use the water amenities(ANY water recreation on property), you need to get a room at Atlantis or Comfort Suites at Atlantis.

To just visit is very easy to do on your own. All you have to do is walk to the end of the dock, where there are numerous cabs(minivans) with a current rate of $4 per person to shuttle you over. There are also private limos if you prefer with competitve rates.

Where they drop you off at Atlantis is where they will pick you up to return to the dock. At this point you have access to the casino, the shops, the main building of the resort.

To get access to the Dig and all the resort, simply go to the center of the Casino to a kiosk with a blue globe over it.

Wristbands for access to the rest are $25 for adults, $19 for kids 4-12, Under 4 free. This is not for access to the water amenities, as I said above you have to get a room for that.

They will give you maps of the Dig/resort and such at that point. You're now on your own to explore the resort at your own pace. The Dig is in sections spread over the resort and it is a great deal of walking. But definitely worth it. Enjoy!


Ok, enough cut and paste, If you do want to use their waterpark, the rooms start at somewhere around $150 or so and go up from there. Now, If you're combining this with any time at WDW you'd be much better spending your time and money at one of Disney's waterparks. The place is goregous, but the water recreation is about on par with any of WDW's deluxe resorts, with the exception of Stormalong Bay at Yach/Beach Club, which is a bit better, in my opinion.

 

[bigsky]

hhmm...I did read that someone that just got back had access to ALL with the wristbands. Maybe they got lucky??? I'm going to call Atlantis and see what they say.

Laura

I got a quote for about 170.00 for a room at Comfort Suites. I wouldn't book with Atlantis. It's VERY expensive!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

We went over to Atlantis on our own. Saw the aquarium, walked around the hotel grounds and did a little gambling. After our taxi ride back to the ship, we walked around and did some window shopping in town. We weren't that impressed with Nassau and will not be getting off the ship in December for this Port. We plan on taking advantage of the pool and maybe a spa appointment or two.

 

[MarkRG]

Laura, you probably read both my responses to this question. My old one was worded differently and could get confused, so I re-wrote it recently. I'm trying to put together a faq for here. I've been to Atlantis three times now, and have a very clear understanding of how it works, and I'm trying to clear up any confusion on the subject. The bottom line is there are two different wristbands, the ones the people staying at one of the hotels get and the ones the walk-in people get. The resort has people stationed everywhere watching for these wristbands. The closest you can get to the beach with the $25 one is to walk down to it. They have a person at the bottom of the stairs who only allows resort guests any further. The absolute answer is if you want to use the water based amentiies at Atlantis you must get a room at either Comfort Suites or Atlantis.

 

[bigsky]

MarkRG,

So do you think it's worth it to book a room at CS to have full access to all the slides and stuff? We'll have a 13 and 15 yr. old with us. From what we've seen of the place, the slides and rides looked like it would be so much fun!
What are your thoughts? Also, can we just get some lunch from the ship from room service and take a soft cooler to save on money. Didn't want to pay a fortune for lunch there.

Any thought or suggestions would be appreciated.

Also, it wasn't your old post that I read about getting in. I think this group just got lucky. But they did get everything for the 25.00. We do have a room booked, but just wasn't sure if we needed to keep it.

Thanks,
Laura

 

[S. C.]

I read somewhere that people had ordered sandwiches, fruit etc. the night before and put it in the fridge in there room, then used a soft side cooler for their lunch on the islands.

 

[MarkRG]

Well, That's a subjective answer for me. We don't have kids.

But I'll try to make the decision a little easier. I've scanned the resort map. To judge the scale of this map, I'd have to say it is approximately between 1.5 and 2 miles across. I've made a number of lime green letter notations on this map, here they are. The Dig is all over the place, so I am not going to specify it.

A) The spot where the taxis drop you off/pick you up. The tour/water taxis drop you off the top of this map, approximately a block straight up from A.

B) Is about the place where the wristbands for limited access are, for those who want one.

C) Is the Mayan Temple Water slides, one is a body slide, one is a tube slide.

D) Is the Lazy River Tube Ride, and adjoining is the much smaller Goombay Water slide.

E) Pardise Lagoon, where the snorkeling is done.

F,G,H) are the open white sand beaches.

The ones with x's are off limits for swimming, they are viewing pools for fish.

It isn't like a focused water park you'd have near home, or at Disney, it's all over the property, that could be a negative for the kids as there's alots of hiking between water rides, and for you to round them up. To me the Mayan Slide is the coolest thing there, but is a pale shade of the ones at Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach. It's one mostly enclosed drop and you slide thru a fully enclosed tube thru a tank with some sharks swimming around. The other slide is ok and the lazy river is pretty good. These opinions are from looking at them and seeing the reactions of people riding them, I personally havn't.
I dig the...umm.. Dig

 

[bigsky]

Mark,

Thank you so much for taking the time to send this to me. I think we'll just make sure the kids stay with us so we won't get seperated. They can ditch us on the ship. But stay together as a family at the ports.

I think we'll probably just book the room at Comfort Suites.

Looks to be a lot of fun!

Laura

 

[bigsky]

Sorry, but one more question Mark. Paradise Lagoon, can you snorkel there also if you have your own equipment?
You said open white sand beaches. This is for us to use if we have full access? This is seperate from the main beach?

Thanks again!

Laura...just full of questions.

 

[bigsky]

Ok, ok...ONE more thing. Now I'm looking at point C and D..both we'd want to do. The Mayan slide and lazy river. How do you get from one point to the other? Seems to be a loooooooong walk.

We don't have enough time at WDW to do the water parks. If we were spending more time, we'd probably not be thinking of doing this. But for 70.00 more, seems worth it. The wrist bands being 100.00 for 4...or book a room and have full access.

Thanks again!!!

 

[MarkRG]

Hmm... I'm not sure on how the snorkeling works other than we saw them going thru orientation for a group in the pool adjoining the Mayan slide the last time we were there, so it may be organized excursions only, but don't take that as written in stone.

Yes, the beaches are open to you with the full access by room thing. The main ocean side beach is letter 'H' on the map.

 

[MarkRG]

Yes, point C and D are VERY far apart, I'm not going to tell you otherwise. That's what I meant by the negative of hiking around, this resort is very sprawling! Just us walking around it, not stopping to do much goofing around took somewhere around 2-3 hours. Make sure you've got good watershoes along to wear.

Yes, it is a decent deal vs just getting wristbands when you put it that way.

 

[pooh.kim]

Are the wristbands you get from the room at Comfort Suites all the same or are they marked adult and child? We have a room booked for 4 but there are only 2 of us - could we find someone to give the other 2 bands to and maybe split the cost?

 

[DOCLINGER]

I just got back from the 4-Day on Disney Wonder, July20-24. I didn't do an excursion, decided ahead of time to just enjoy the boat, without all the people...It was nice! Many of the people I spoke with didn't enjoy their excursion as much as they had hoped to for the money spent.

The only one I heard was a really good time was the dolphin encounter, which if you check www.shoretrips.com they offer something similar to Disney's for a better price(depending on how many kids you are taking). I had looked into it, they seemed very helpful, and pretty quick about emailing back. In the end I can only give second hand info, sorry.

My wife and I didn't hear of anyone going to Atlantis, but a friend of mine went last year, said you can get a day room at Atlantis(booked ahead of time) for under $200 (I think) and it gives you full access to the facilities, including all the water slide and beach stuff.

As for the beaches, including Blue Lagoon, the Nassau Beaches are pretty dirty/nasty depending upon your tastes. Save you beach time for Castaway Cay...It's beautiful and clean...I SO WISH THEY WOULD DO 2 DAYS THERE!!!! I highly recommend a Waterproof camera for the snorkeling, also some pre-cruise exercise...(It's a highly active sport). If you have your own snorkeling gear, bring it...they give free life vests, HUGE savings for my Fam of 5 (WalMart $10-$12 each covered the kids and wife...I already had mine).

Hope this all helps!

 

[pooh.kim]

 

[Bacrd]

Does anyone know how far of a walk it is from the Comfort Suites to the facilities at Atlantis?