Comfort Suites Paradise Island for Family of five Atlantis Question:

[mamaprincess]

We are going on our 1st cruise this December on the Dream and are considering doing the Atlantis water park adventure booking Comfort Suites but they only sleep 4 so we will only receive 4 wrist bands. Will DCL allow us to buy 1 port adventure for a child or is there another approach larger families take. Also can Comfort Suite room be cancelled with a refund if we need to due to inclimate weather? Thanks for your help.

 

[glassslipper2004]

I believe the Comfort Suites room has to be cancelled at least several days in advance - check the website for more specific information. The obvious down side to this is that if the Dream doesn't make it to Nassau for some reason, you lose your money, while if you had signed up for the Disney excursion, you wouldn't lose your money. However, I don't think the Disney one would even give you your money back for bad weather, although maybe if it was really, really bad!

 

[Dizzyworld]

Not sure DCL will let you buy an excursion for a child without an adult being on it also.

 

[jel0511]

What I would do is buy the DCL one for an adult and book the 4 others at Comfort Suites. The person on the DCL one will have to travel separately, so that's why an adult will have to do it, not a kid. As a note any child over 10 is charged as an adult per DCL any way, so you'd have to let a child under 10 travel alone without any supervision. As I'm sure you don't receive the wristbands until arriving at Atlantis.

 

[mamaprincess]

Thanks for the info guys. If we do it, we will purchase one adult excursion from Disney.

 

[cincinmouse]

How old is your youngest? We are also a family of 5. We did not want to do a double room at comfort inn. I checked with Atlantis directly and they allow 5 in a room if one is 4 or under. My youngest is 4 so we are booked for a room in Atlantis it was the cheapest of the three options.

 

[DAPford]

I have read alot about doing Atlantis this way but for a family of 3 (one is 16 but is considered an adult for Comfort Suites ) I think using disney is the best way to go unless I am missing something ... of course we would be checking in 12/31 so rates are probably higher than normal but here is what I have

Disney is 169 x 3 = 507 including trans & lunch

Comfort suites is 381.90 + 12.95 x 3 (fuel) + 5 x 3(housekeeping) = 436 handling trans and lunch on own

the difference is 71 but not sure what price i can put on peace of mind and not fainting at lunch prices at the resort

do you think its because of the time of year or am I not doing something correct

 

[jel0511]

yeah it's probably the time of year. We're going in April and we're paying just over 230 for 4 of us in one room, whereas DCL wants over 600 for the four of us!!! Based on your pricing, I'd keep looking to see if anything cheaper opens up, when I first looked into it our room it was well over 400! And we're there Easter Week, so a high rate week as well. If the rate doesn't drop, I'd book DCL when your window opens. Also keep checking, you never know when rates will drop and you can cancel DCL up to 3 days before sailing with no penalty. For $70, I'd stick with DCL, I think that will probably be your taxi fare and food with the current rate. Also book the Comfort Suites as back up plan, just in case the DCL one is sold out by the time you can book. You only hold the room with your CC, so no harm.........

 

[lar32]

We are traveling on the Dream May 29th of this year and also have three kids (9,9, and 4). We've done the Comfort Suites before and it worked out great but last time our daughter was just 2 so there was no problem with five of us. Now she is 4 going on 5 the week before our cruise. I was able to book one adult spot (since for obvious reasons it wouldn't let me book a child's spot) but I wish they had a contact person who I could explain our situation to and see if DCL would just let us buy the one wristband for our daughter but have her travel with us. I'm now thinking I will cancel the one spot with DCL and gamble and see if Comfort Suites will let her in and if not hope to get a day pass from Atlantis directly. I would book a second room but our room is already $400 at Comfort suites times that by two and it's over what DCL would charge. At comfort suites i was also able to book a Kids stay free promo which included free lunch and dinners. At least my kid will have lunch taken care of...

 

[barbs9]

Saw this thread and so excited to try this out on our cruise in April. Which date did you book the room? if you arrive in nassau at 9am-ish and check in is at 3pm and check out at 11am. Does that mean you reserve the room for the day before you arrive? Did any of you who did the CS option vs through DCL have to call CS ahead of time to let them know you wouldn't check in until the next day. thanks so much for your help!!

 

[simivalleysarah]

Honestly how closely do they check for wrist bands? We have 5 in a room too - my one daughter is only 3 so maybe it might be okay after all if they don't count her. But I also have some grandparents who will be with us and I doubt they will be going down the water slides. If they keep to themselves under an umbrella somewhere will they be okay without a wrist band?

I was thinking there has be a way around booking another room for one person. I mean what happens if you "loose" a wrist band at some point during the day? Wont they give you another one?