Best Nassau Excursion w/ young kids? (Balmoral Island or Atlantis Aquaventure)

[anomamatt]

Hi All,

I've searched and read a ton of posts about Nassau, but every time I think I have made up my mind, I read a contradictory post and change my mind. We are sailing on the May 4, 5-night Magic (from Miami cruise). My kids are 3 and 5. I'm trying to decide what to do on Nassau. For our other port days: we are doing the butterfly/aquarium tour in Key West and we have a cabana for Castaway Cay. Originally we were going to stay on the ship, but we have a day at sea already and I want to make sure we have some beach/pool time in case Castaway day has bad weather or we cannot dock, etc.

So I want to do something, just to make sure we have beach time during the cruise. I have narrowed my choices to:

1) Balmoral Island Deluxe - seems to fit what I am looking for, but only reviews I could find were so-so. Most reviews said there was not much to do (besides the beach and pools), but honestly that might be exactly what we want. But I also read that it was not possible to come back to the ship early. I don't want to be "trapped" anywhere in case we need to go back to the ship.

2) Atlantis Aquaventure + Private Cabana. A lot more $$$, but that's not an issue as long as we take advantage of the time. My kids would likely only do the kiddie pool, which is fine. But this doesn't seem "relaxing" at all. Seems a lot more stressful than sitting on the beach and playing around in a pool with my kids. Also sounds very crowded, which isn't ideal.

I also thought about Graycliff (lunch + 2 pools + self-tour), but my kids might be too young to appreciate it?

If you were taking two young kids, and wanted beach/pool time, which would you pick (ignoring the cost and cost differences)? Other considerations that matter to us: how long it takes to get there (shorter is better with a 3 year old) and whether we can come back to the ship early (if we get tired or bored).

Thanks!

 

[mevelandry]

What about Blue Lagoon? It's very nice.

 

[anomamatt]

What about Blue Lagoon? It's very nice.

Thank you for the suggestion! I was interested in it, but I read a few negative reviews about it. Two or three saying the transportation was very slow (waiting on the dock for an hour) and getting back was also difficult. And a couple others saying they could not get a beach chair (at all) because it was so crowded. I'm sure there are bad experiences put on the web for all of these... Maybe I should put it back on the list?

Since I posted this thread I keep thinking Balmoral might be the way to go. The worst thing I read (in a couple reviews) was that it was boring. But that might be exactly what I'm looking for...

 

[csdavis10]

We are going on the same cruise in April and we picked Balmoral Island for the similar reasons. We have a four-year-old and I have heard that the pools on the ship can get crowded during sea day so we liked that Balmoral Island has two pools. I did look pretty extensively into Blue Lagoon as well but I had read the similar reviews that it can get busy and chairs can be limited. We are cruising with my parents and they will need to have chairs. I hope that it's boring, that's what we are looking for too!

 

[mevelandry]

Thank you for the suggestion! I was interested in it, but I read a few negative reviews about it. Two or three saying the transportation was very slow (waiting on the dock for an hour) and getting back was also difficult. And a couple others saying they could not get a beach chair (at all) because it was so crowded. I'm sure there are bad experiences put on the web for all of these... Maybe I should put it back on the list?

Since I posted this thread I keep thinking Balmoral might be the way to go. The worst thing I read (in a couple reviews) was that it was boring. But that might be exactly what I'm looking for...

If you go through an excursion you shouldn't wait that much. We waited less than 15 minutes. No problem coming back either but of course, you get to the island by boat, if there is a lot of waves, the ride can be bumpy...

We did not have problems finding chairs. But I would check into the new VIP option... Maybe it could be interesting for you?

I heard great reviews about Balmoral but did not experience it myself.

 

[CBCruise]

Hi All,

I've searched and read a ton of posts about Nassau, but every time I think I have made up my mind, I read a contradictory post and change my mind. We are sailing on the May 4, 5-night Magic (from Miami cruise). My kids are 3 and 5. I'm trying to decide what to do on Nassau. For our other port days: we are doing the butterfly/aquarium tour in Key West and we have a cabana for Castaway Cay. Originally we were going to stay on the ship, but we have a day at sea already and I want to make sure we have some beach/pool time in case Castaway day has bad weather or we cannot dock, etc.

So I want to do something, just to make sure we have beach time during the cruise. I have narrowed my choices to:

1) Balmoral Island Deluxe - seems to fit what I am looking for, but only reviews I could find were so-so. Most reviews said there was not much to do (besides the beach and pools), but honestly that might be exactly what we want. But I also read that it was not possible to come back to the ship early. I don't want to be "trapped" anywhere in case we need to go back to the ship.

2) Atlantis Aquaventure + Private Cabana. A lot more $$$, but that's not an issue as long as we take advantage of the time. My kids would likely only do the kiddie pool, which is fine. But this doesn't seem "relaxing" at all. Seems a lot more stressful than sitting on the beach and playing around in a pool with my kids. Also sounds very crowded, which isn't ideal.

I also thought about Graycliff (lunch + 2 pools + self-tour), but my kids might be too young to appreciate it?

If you were taking two young kids, and wanted beach/pool time, which would you pick (ignoring the cost and cost differences)? Other considerations that matter to us: how long it takes to get there (shorter is better with a 3 year old) and whether we can come back to the ship early (if we get tired or bored).

Thanks!

Hello! We are about to take the same cruise and trying to figure out what to do in Nassau with our kids who are 3 and 5 years old too. Would you mind sharing which excursion you ended up doing? Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[Dug720]

If you go through an excursion you shouldn't wait that much. We waited less than 15 minutes. No problem coming back either but of course, you get to the island by boat, if there is a lot of waves, the ride can be bumpy...

We did not have problems finding chairs. But I would check into the new VIP option... Maybe it could be interesting for you?

I heard great reviews about Balmoral but did not experience it myself.

I think the VIP Blue Lagoon option is 18+ Adults Only. Unless there is another one added since I looked last.

 

[anomamatt]

Hello! We are about to take the same cruise and trying to figure out what to do in Nassau with our kids who are 3 and 5 years old too. Would you mind sharing which excursion you ended up doing? Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

We did Balmoral Island -- and we loved it! (we did the one with lunch included and I would recommend that, their prices for lunch are pretty insane -- it was nice to pre-pay and get a discount on the lunch)

We just wanted a beach day and it was just that... it was not crowded at all, the beach was nice... the lunch was good/decent...

I can see why people who want something more "exciting" might find it boring. But it's a beautiful beach and two salt-water pools.. . and that is it. We loved how private it was, it wasn't crowded at all... was all around exactly what we wanted.

We stayed the whole time, but they told us we could take an earlier shuttle back to the port if we wanted. And it seemed like there would have been zero problems leaving earlier -- I had read a review saying they felt "trapped" there.

I initially thought we would stay on the boat in Nassau (given my kids are/were 6 and 4), but this was really perfect for us...