Another "Wonder"ful cruise, day 2

[momof2disprincesses]

We awoke early on day 2 because we were excited about our plans in Nassau. We had booked a hotel room at the Harborside at Atlantis through Expedia. It was $184 plus taxes & fees, so it came out to $241 total. I was slightly nervous about doing this because it was a lot of money for a shore excursion and I didn't know if we would enjoy this day OR what the weather would be, etc. I shouldn't have worried. It turned out to be a really wonderful, fun-filled, beautiful day.

We went to breakfast at Parrot Cay by 8:30am and were off the ship right after we docked (I lost track of time, but I think it was like 9 or 9:30am). We took a taxi to the hotel, which took a lot longer than I expected. The taxi would only go when it was full and our driver was aggressive in finding other groups to go with us, so that took extra time. It seemd like it took about an hour to get from off the ship to checking in at the hotel, which I didn't expect to take so long.

However, the driver did drop us off right at the front desk and we were checked in and in our room within 5 minutes of arriving. I was very, very impressed with this hotel. Our room was ready even that early and the girl that checked us in said lots of people from the cruises are now renting rooms and just staying for the day. She didn't seem at all surprised by what we were doing.

We dropped our stuff in this fabulous condo room. I wish we could have spent more time in the condo - it had a living room, small kitchen, washer & dryer (I wish we would have known that - I would have brought some laundry to do!), huge, comfy bed, large bathroom with a huge whirlpool tub.

We then caught a shuttle from this hotel to the main Atlantis Hotel. Shuttles ran constantly and we saw lots of them. We arrived at the hotel and were in awe. It is so breathtakingly beautiful. We went through the Dig first because we were still dry and thought that would be the best plan. The Dig was uncrowded and very unique. I wouldn't pay $29/person for it, but since it was included, it was a nice experience and we got a lot of good pictures inside. They let our friends come with us for free even though they were not registered guests at the hotel. They said, "You are our guests and they are your guests, so they are welcome here." That was nice as they were planning to pay for their tickets. Even though it wasn't Disney, it felt like a little pixie dust and a great way to start our day at Atlantis.

After the Dig, we enjoyed the pools and beach at Atlantis. We are from WI and we have mega waterparks in WI Dells here. Atlantis' pools do not compare with what we have seen here in WI, but they are nice. The kids loved going through the tube ride with the sharks. I LOVED the lazy river ride. It was so beautiful with all the lush, tropical foliage. The highlight of the day for me was floating through one area and thinking "I'm in paradise instead of at work right now!" I could definitely get used to that

We explored pretty much all of the pools and beach at Atlantis in a few hours. It is really BIG, but doable. We then were getting tired and hungry, so we went back on a shuttle to Harborside. We had ordered room service on the ship the night before and brought collapsable coolers with us with turkey sandwiches and cookies and bottled water (we brought in a suitcase on the cruise with us). We ate lunch by the Harborside pool and then swam some more there. Although the weather was perfect ~ low 80's and sunny, the pool at Harborside was very cold. So, we switched over to the hot tubs there and enjoyed watching the rich people in their yachts go by in the harbor. All in all, I was in cloud nine all day

We then spent about an hour and a half in the room, drying our swimsuits in the dryer (a nice touch) and showering/bathing in that huge tub. I took someone's advice here and brought stuff to shave my legs. It was so much easier in this huge bathroom than in the teenie tiny shower on the ship. We just "chilled" out here and watched Dr. Phil on tv (why is that so much better in the Bahamas? ).

After the dig, our single friends went on the explore other parts of Nassau (the straw market & pirate museum). They loved both and they had a great day also!

We then took the water taxi for $3/person back to the ship. We got a good view of the mansions on that side of Nassau on the water taxi, but I would have preferred another cab as the water taxi looked VERY old and run-down and didn't seem very safe. Also, they had a guy on there telling you all about the island and then he expected to be tipped. I couldn't understand one word he said until he said "Now, please show me your appreciation" and stuck his hand in my dh's face. For some reason, that part of his "talk" was crystal clear.

It was neat to come back to the dock this way though as we got to see all the other ships docked. Right next to the Wonder was RCCL's Navigator of the Seas, the ship we had cruised on in 2004! That was neat to see them side-by-side.

We shopped a little bit in the market next to the pier and then went back to the ship by 5pm. We ordered room service again as we had 8:30 dinner and we were pretty hungry. I love room service on the Wonder. It is quick and I LOVE their All Hands On Deck cheese plate (we got this twice), Mickey bars (they are not on the menu, but are available), and they have the absolute BEST chocolate chip cookies!!!

We then attended the "Golden Mickey's" before dinner. That was a great show! I loved how they interviewed kids outside the theater before the show!

Dh and I had our PALO reservations at 8:30pm. It was nice to have a dinner alone and PALO is very romantic. We had never eaten here before and we weren't sure if we wanted to. I had asked for advice here and everyone said to go for it. We enjoyed it very much. Joost was our server. He did a great job explaining everything on the menu. We also knew from tips here to order the souffle first thing

We started with the Pizza Margerita (I know I probably spelled that wrong) and a salad. DH ate most of the salad. I didn't like the salad. The pizza though was really yummy! Joost also brought out some other appetizers with fruits. That was good too.

We then had the filet mignon. That was also very good! He also brought an extra pasta dish, which dh ate most of. I was getting so full and knew I had to save room for dessert, so I only ate a small part of my meal. Plus, I don't know why, but I thought it was very hot inside PALO and I began to feel a bit sick half way through our meal.

Then dessert came. The souffle was everything I dreamed of. Joost also brought like 4 other desserts too for us to try. They were all divine and heavenly! However, by this point, I was really in need of fresh air, so we kind of rushed through dessert and left quickly. I'm sure Joost thought we were odd, but we also mentioned we wanted to see the fireworks and they were about to start. We tipped extra for him as he was very attentive, professional and knowledgable!

All in all, we enjoyed PALO and the time alone, but it will not be a "must" for future trips.

After PALO, we went to check on our friends and kids. They had eaten at Triton's that night and were the only guests in Lito and Herman's section. They got a lot of individual attention because of it and they had a really nice dinner without us Our dd9 though was pretty wiped out from our big day in the sun and she fell asleep at the table No problem for our servers though. I guess they were very nice about it.

So, dd9 also slept through Pirate Night and the fireworks. The rest of us though, really enjoyed all that Pirate Night offered!



The fireworks at sea were so cool That was something new since our first cruise and it was really a nice, added touch.

We then went to the 11pm showing of Glory Road in the Walt Disney theater (it was new and I think they expected a big crowd). It was really good, but I fell asleep at the end I guess, like dd9, the day was too much for me too.

All in all, this was my favorite day of the trip. I'll write more about day 3 next. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[michboro]

I was just wondering about how you liked the Nick hotel. We will be going there after our 4 nite Disney Cruise in Nov.

 

[Jennifer48]

Do you recommend getting the hotel room for the Nassau excursion? I have read mixed reviews.

I forgot to ask before, do you have any pictures of the NASA rocket? That must have been a fun experience!

 

[momof2disprincesses]

I would highly recommend renting a room if you want to experience Atlantis. For us, it was something we've always wanted to do, yet I don't really want to fly down there and stay for a week.

It was a perfect way to "taste" the Atlantis. For our family of 4, I felt the cost was worthwhile since we had such a great time and it would have cost about the same to do a shore excursion for all 4 of us anyway. Plus, I also looked at it like this ~ we spend that much to do a park day at Disney, SeaWorld, etc. and never think twice.

For us, it was exactly what we wanted to do and I was in no way disappointed with that choice. We loved it!

As for pictures of the rocket, no we didn't get any. A good friend was watching the coverage on Fox News and called and said "it's going off now" so we were by a window and were lucky enough to see it. I know a lot of people missed it because they kept putting it off. It was supposed to go at 1pm and it was more like 2:30 or so when it actually happened, so a lot of people gave up looking for it.

 

[momof2disprincesses]

I was just wondering about how you liked the Nick hotel. We will be going there after our 4 nite Disney Cruise in Nov.

Here are my thoughts on the Nick Hotel from a post I did on another forum:


We had stayed here for a week a few years ago before it became Nickelodeon. It is pretty much the same with some slight improvements.

We love the lay-out of the 2 bedroom kid's suites. I love having 3 tv's and privacy for Mom & Dad. I especially love the mini kitchen, big bathroom, storage space and pull-out couch too. Although, this time around, we felt the kid's room and small bunk beds were not ideal for our 13 year old. She was not happy with the small uncomfortable bed and made it known she would not like to stay in one of those rooms again.

We found the pools to be very warm and inviting. We loved the family activities, although I did think some things were a bit too "young" for my 13 year old, although she made the best of it all. My dd9 loved this place and it was one of the highlights of her trip.

We often saw employees cleaning, painting, fixing things, etc. We thought the hotel is maintained well and it seemed cleaner and "brighter" this time around. There is newer, funkier furniture in the living rooms too.

We also thought the staff there was above average. We were checked in with zero wait time by Jacqueline who went above & beyond in her friendliness and was so accommodating and helpful. She explained everything to us very well and told us our perks of being Holiday Inn Priority Club members (my favorite was the late check out at 2pm).

We checked out with Kathy, who again, was fabulous. She even went online for us and helped us pick our airline seats and printed our boarding passes for us.

In addition, one morning, dh and the kids were wandering around and a manager stopped them and asked if they could talk with her for a few minutes on their thoughts of the hotel. She was especially interested in dd13's impressions and how they can improve things to attract older kids. They talked with her for about 30 minutes and she genuinely was interested in our impressions, suggestions, etc. My dh was very impressed by this!

Our kids also loved how the Nick characters wander around in the mall area. We got several pictures with them without having to pay for the character breakfast.

The mall area and nighttime shows are really nice. We hung out at the hotel one afternoon for several hours and were not bored and spent another morning hanging out at the pool. My kids were mad when we had to leave for the airport when they started playing games at the pool. They both would have liked to stay for that as it looked really fun.

We received their pay in advance suite deal special of $125/night, which was really a good deal for all this hotel had to offer.