Blue Lagoon Beach Day

[Lisa D]

Hi! Our "starter cruise" (as I refer to it because it's taken me 18 years to get my DH on a cruise ship) begins 10/16 on the 3-day Wonder. I was considering trying the Blue Lagoon Beach day - the day rooms at Atlantis & Comfort Suites seem a little iffy - besides we will be doing a water park at WDW before the cruise. We all (me, DH, 2 DS ages 11 & 8), all love the beach and the ocean. Has anyone done this excursion and found it worthwhile? Any and all responses are welcomed - I've trying just reading posts for a couple of days (weeks?) and haven't learned too much about this particular excursion - but I've picked up alot of other helpful information!

Lisa

 

[musicgirl]

Hi, we did this in 6/02. We really enjoyed it.

First, you will meet in the morning, turn in your paperwork (you get this in your room), check id etc. You pick up a towel and off you go. The group takes about a 10-15 minute walk to the boat.

Our most unusual memory happened along the way! It was about 9:00am and we passed a man "mixing" his drink in the street. He took a drink of coke from the can in one hand and then added a drink of rum from the bottle in the other hand. Rum and Coke, but no ice!!!

Anyway, you hand in part of your ticket at the boat. There is a little band on board to entertain you. It is a nice, but kind of a long ride-45 minutes.

We did not go very far. At first, we stayed in the cove area which was shallow and clear and clean. You can rent boat ect. here. This is great for people with little kids.

We brought our own snorkel gear, but you must have a vest it you want to snorkel. At the time, I think it was $5 a piece. We then went over to the snorkel area. This was our first experience at this. We thought it was great and we had a lot of fun. It is pretty rocky and not very deep. If you have little ones or even bigger ones, it is nice to play along the shore and watch all the critters.

We had lunch which was ok. The punch that they provided was horrible We had the choice of going back at 2:00 or 4:00. We left on the ferry at 2. We were pretty worn out and went back to get cleaned up and relax a little bit.

Have fun with whatever you do!

 

[Shop Till I drop]

We did the dolphin swim when we went a couple years ago, What a day to remember, it was awesome!!!! We booked our own.

 

[mm126]

Lisa D...If you decide to do the Blue Lagoon excursion, please post a report. I have been trying to decide if that would be a good excursion for us (DH, 5 & 6 years olds). I too think the Atlantis and Comfort Suites is iffy.

If you do a search on the internet for Nassau Bahamas Blue Lagoon you will see their website. It looks very nice.

The cost for our family would be around $125 for Blue Lagoon. The cost of a room at Comfort would be much more. I have also heard that the beach at the Atlantis is not a good place for young swimmers. Waters are too rough.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[Lisa D]

Thanks to all of you that responded! I think we're going to give it a try. I'll be sure to post a report when we get back!

Lisa

 

[MiaSRN62]

The punch that they provided was horrible

It's funny how tastes are different. We actually liked the punch. We did the Blue Lagoon Beach day on Nov 4, 2002. As I recall, you got a ticket good for 2 complimentary drinks. We also packed bottles of water to take with us. We had a fantastic day. The water was so clear and calm in the cove. We came face to face with a barracuda and someone else saw a small (harmless) shark. We didn't see as many fish as we did at CC while snorkeling, but there is some. Also--important---when we were there parts of the cove had sea urchins all over. These seemed to be off to the far end, but remember to wear water socks ! With the water socks it was no problem. Actually, most of the fish we encountered seemed to hang out around the urchins.
As soon as you get off the boat, go stake a claim at one of the picnic tables and/or hammocks. There aren't a whole lot of them.

We brought our own snorkel gear, but you must have a vest it you want to snorkel. At the time, I think it was $5 a piece.

I wonder if they changed this, because in Nov '02 we weren't required to rent or wear vests ? We went in wearing just our suits.

The group takes about a 10-15 minute walk to the boat.

We were not aware of this when we booked the excursion. My mil was with us. She was 68, with lung cancer and undergoing chemo treatments. This walk just about did her in. In fact, she couldn't keep up. We got separated from the tour group in Nassau. My husband had to run (way) ahead and ask them to wait for us. We actually got a little lost, but some of the towns people were nice enough to point us in the right direction. My mil was very winded after the brisk walk. I'm only mentioning this, in case you are traveling with very young or old.
As I recall, there were 2 (maybe 3 ?) different times you could return to the boat. I think 3:30-4'ish was the last one. We had early seating dinner and got back to the Wonder with about 45 min to spare before dinner.
All in all, we felt Blue Lagoon Day was worth the cost as we love the beach. Even though the island/beach is small, it didn't feel crowded at all. I have memories of napping on the hammock under the palms and blue skies.

 

[awatt]

On our cruise last month we got day passes at the British Colonial Hilton. I think it was $10 per adult and $5 per child to use the beach,chairs,pool. The Hilton has been refurbed since last time I was in Nassau and is lovely. Beach and water very clean. There's an outdoor restaurant where we had a nice lunch. If you're looking for a day at the beach its a good choice. If you're looking for parasailin,jetskis etc this is not the place. Another plus- no one is wandering the beach trying to sell you anything.

 

[musicgirl]

MiaSRN62, I agree about how people do view or in this case taste things differently. The punch however really was bad. Perhaps we just got a bad batch. We're not fussy people and none of us could even drink it.

I'm not sure what the policy now is about the vests. We had not planned on using vests (I'm basically cheap lol), but there was a sign stating that we needed them. Perhaps they have changed it. I actually enjoyed using the vests because it allowed me to just float around and look.

I was interested in seeing what others wrote this time. Usually when a question about the Blue Lagoon is asked, there are always a few who hate this excursion and said that it was very dirty. We really had a great day, in fact, we were going to book it on our 2nd cruise with my sister. They wanted to do the catamaran sail and snorkel so since we had already done the Blue lagoon that was ok with us. The Catamaran excursion was great as well.