Did anyone regret visiting Altantis in Nassau?

[Little Twin Stars]

I am struggling if we should take our kids to Altantis.

For us it is expensive as we are to stay there for around only 2 hours.

BUT: sounds like it's a really amazing place.

We have been to some places like Ocean Park, the Marine Land, I wonder how is the aquarium different from those places?

Please help.

 

[heart]

Yes! :

I took my family there last summer for four days and I was not pleased.

It is nice--but their marketing is more impressive than their facilities--and certainly more impressive than the service!

Hope you have fun no matter what you choose!

 

[Little Twin Stars]

Originally posted by heart
Yes! :

Can I know more about your disappointment?

Did anyone think it is a "must"?

 

[EmmasGrammy]

My DH and I did the day tour @Atlantis this past Oct. and thought the tour was well worth the $$$. Two hrs. is plenty of time to see the aquarium "The Dig" and to look around the grounds. The themeing and architecture are beautiful. We even enjoyed checking out the private yachts parked in the marina out front of the resorts. We took the guided tour, had a quick, light lunch and dropped a few $$ in the slots (not winning a dime!!! shucks!!)and went back to our ship (RCCL) in a two hr. period.

The pools at the resort were amazing, although our tour package did not permit us to use the facilities.

My only draw back was that there were so many tour groups at the resort I couldn't help thinking that if I were one of the Atlantis guest paying the resort's high price for the my vacation, I would not appreciate being crowded out by people walking and gauking around. I felt like I was encrouching on their "space".

 

[hsteacher]

If you are only able to be there for about 2 hours it def. wouldn't be worth it. For free you can only get on the oustide of the grouns and the actual resort itself for shopping, eating (very expensive) and gambling. You have to pay (either have a room at Atlantis for the day or the Comfort Suites across the street OR a DCL excursion that is much longer than 2 hours) to access (even just to walk around) the pools, aquarium, water slides and beach. ** There was a previous post that said you could just buy the bracelets to use the pools, waterslides, beach at one time but that info. was confusing and I don't remember if this ever got settled as to weather you could or not. Even so, two hours wouldn't be enough.

Was I disappointed -- NO but it is a pricey day for just the day. I have done both the DCL Beach Day excursion and have had a room at the Comfort Suites. We really enjoy Atlantis but we spend lots of time there and odn't return until the latest possible time. My kids love Atlantis but we leave in two weeks for our fourth cruise and we are not doing Atlantis again. We've done it the past three cruises and they just want to shop and go back on the ship. Hope that helps.

 

[kaykels]

If you are only going to spend a few hours, go to the Marriot Crystal Palace on Cable Beach. It's FREE! And... it's AWSOME! I've posted this many times to share with my Dis friends because we had such a good time there and it didn't cost anything! We got off of the boat and the cab driver took us there for $5.00 pp. The beach is big and beautiful with motorized water sports available, big pool with swim up bar and water slide, casino, etc. Although there is no aquarium, it's a great beach day at a beautiful resort. And YES, I'm SURE that cruise guests are allowed to use their facilities. We saved a fortune since we are a party of 9! If you want more info about it e-mail me at : kaykels@aol.com

 

[clh2]

We did Atlantis (the aquarium and the Dig) on our own last fall. While they were both interesting, I thought it was quite pricey. If you do go, there is some interesting artwork at Atlantis from Dale Chihuly - huge glass sculptures. (From what I am told - he is the same artist that did the "chandelier" thing in both the atriums for the Wonder and Magic.

Now that I have BTDT, I would now jsut skip it and stay on the ship. On a four day cruise - even with the day at see, just didn't feel like I had enough "ship-time."

One thing we did - we took a taxi over to Atlantis in the morning, did the tours, and were back on the ship in time for lunch. (Heh - I am cheap, and lunch on the ship is free!)

 

[MarkRG]

If you have never visited it, it is interesting to visit it at least once.

To clear up the the rules, here's the whole rundown.

For free, you can roam all the interior of the main building, which does include some pricey restaurants and Rodeo Drive type shops and the Casino. You also have very limited access outside.

For the cheap wristbands, $25 adults $19 kids 4-12 you have full access to roam the resort, tour the Dig which is a good number of aquariums both above and below ground that are scattered over about half the outside of the resort. YOU DO NOT get any use of the water recreation facilities with this one.

To use the entire resort, which amounts to some nice lagoon beaches, an ok dual waterslide, a lazy river, and use of chairs on the public oceanside beach, you have to get a room at either Atlantis or the neighboring Comfort Suites. One thing to keep in mind is the property is huge and the parts of the water fun are spread very far apart, you will need watershoes for the walking.

Now, as for the food.. The food at Atlantis is very expensive, how about $2.50 for a can of pop? And, the food on the ship is definitely not free, you've already paid for it with the cruise wether you're there to eat it or not. We toured the resort with the cheap wristbands in a morning with plenty of time for an excellent lunch shipboard.

Now would I go back? Yes I would, but I just love seeing the place and am something of an aquatic life nut If we had kids, would I spend the cash to get a room at either place? No, sorry, I wouldn't, I would put the level of pool fun on the same level with any of the deluxe resorts at WDW, definitly not even close to say Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon. Especially with the idea of perfectly good pool shipboard and the fact of Castaway Cay, a very fun place also already included.

 

[mey]

Originally posted by kaykels
If you are only going to spend a few hours, go to the Marriot Crystal Palace on Cable Beach. It's FREE! And... it's AWSOME! I've posted this many times to share with my Dis friends because we had such a good time there and it didn't cost anything! We got off of the boat and the cab driver took us there for $5.00 pp. The beach is big and beautiful with motorized water sports available, big pool with swim up bar and water slide, casino, etc. Although there is no aquarium, it's a great beach day at a beautiful resort. And YES, I'm SURE that cruise guests are allowed to use their facilities. We saved a fortune since we are a party of 9!



I just called Crystal Palace and they told me that all I'd have to do is show them my cruise ID and I can use their facilities.

 

[loveBond]

Nothing was awful about it, it just didn't "live up" to our expectations. Make note we did not stay there, we just booked the excursion to Atlantis thru DCL.

We all (my brother, sisters, mom & dad, hubby and my kids) WALKED from the place dropped by boat and it was HOT! By the time we got there, everyone's energy levels and attitude dropped tremendously.

The tour guide was nice but kind of rushy and there were some nice things that we saw (big groupers-fish big enough to swallow a 3yo. , but nothing that made us say, "Now THAT made this worthwhile."

If you do decide to go, I think you may enjoy, it just wasn't what I thought it would be.

Hope this helps and isn't too discouraging.

 

[prymsu]

my friend and I went, and it was not as terrific as we thought it would be. My friend paid for the room because she really wanted to check this out. It was a ton of walking, and i don't know about everyone else but we had a hard time trying to find where we wanted to go. Also, the snorkeling lagoon was one big disappointment, and the day we went the beach was closed because it was too choppy for swimming or snorkeling.

I do know that other folks have raved about it, so i guess it all depends on what you are wanting to do when you are there.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Personally, I regret ever stepping foot on Nassau -- Atlantis just wasn't worth it to me and unfortunately it took us two trips to the Atlantis and three trips to Nassau for us to realize this. I think the people that we encountered in Nassau during all three trips were incredibly rude and ignorant. I don't like the way they do business and it made me really uncomfortable many times. This is really unfortunate because the beaches we encountered were lovely.

We've done two Wonder cruises and one Eastern visiting all ports and would love to go back to the Eastern ports. I vow to never have to step foot on Nassau ever again. Ever. I'll stay onboard during these ports.

 

[mkymouse4ever]

I tried searching the "marriot crystal palace" and cannot locate it. I did find a Wyndham "crystal palace? Did they sell it and change names? Is this the same place?

Thanks, mky

 

[lori saxman]

About 3 years ago I was on a RCCL cruise and one of the stops was Nassau. I also felt that the Atlantis was a little costly for the "use" of "their private" beach and lunch with beach chairs. We took a very run down fairy boat over to Paradise Island and had our own day at the beach. We tried to gain beach access through the Atlantis, but we very quickly and rudely run off by Atlantis employees. I guess I was good enough to be inside the property as long as I was going to spend money, but don't dare ask "where's the beach?" ha! ha!. There is a public beach next to the Atlantis (actually I believe you can cut across the Sheraton property to reach it. The only problem I had with the Public beach was there are a lot of localls trying to sell you everything from drinks to jewelery. That got to be a little bothersome, but the beach was FREE!!

 

[gottaluvdis]

I too am in a dilemma about what to do in Nassau. I've been there before, but DH and DD haven't, so I almost feel obligated to get off the the boat so they can see some of it. DD loves aquariums and marine life, so we figured we'd cab it over to Atlantis and get the "cheap" wrist bands ($25) for the Dig and aquarium only. I stayed on Cable Beach when I was there years ago, so I'm also very tempted to go to the Marriot beach for free. I also remember the Nassau downtown public beach and it wasn't that bad (then again, I was in college, so pretty much anything was good back then, especially if it was free ) We didn't want to do a DCL excursion because we're only on the 3-night cruise and we didn't want to spend the time and have to be certain places at certain times. I like the idea of going in the morning, then getting back to the boat for lunch. Maybe later we can head to cable beach, but then again we may just decide to stay on the boat.

 

[cathie]

And watch out for those cab drivers that take you over to Paradise Island! Ours hit two cars on the way back into town & never even stopped ( I guess there's also no speed limit) Ride at your own risk!! Cathie & The Gang

 

[Tonyspad]

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY. On our third DC we decided to try the Atlantis and booked a room at the Comfort Suites. By the time we took a cab, checked in, walked over to the Atlantis and got our wrist bands it was 11:00. The place is over rated, yes it is pretty just not worth everything invested. IMO it is better to stay on the ship and relax and use the beach at CC. If you must get off the ship take a horse and buggy ride, haggle them down on the price and make sure you get the length of ride you paid for. We will never go back to Atlantis.

 

[deerh]

My wife and I stayed at the Atlantis this Oct on a package deal thru AAA for 3 nights from Atlanta. WE ENJOYED THIS RESORT!!!
IT WAS AWESOME!! For $1000 total, we had 3 nts and airfare to this resort. I thought the service was good, and fall is the time to go there, it is slow (hurricane season), and the manager of one of the rest. stopped and sat down with us for 30 min to talk about the island, Atlantis,etc. The dig is WORTH IT, it was free for us because we were staying there. We DID do the food option, and had 2 meals a day for $275/person. NOT bad for 4 days there, I thought. If I were you, take a trip like this instead of the Cruise (going there during a DCL cruise). The pools were incredible, we only swam in 4 of them, I believe there are 11 pools there. Yes, I did the big slide and the slide around the sharks, and they are great as well. I DID NOT see any bad service at all during my stay. THE ONLY NEGATIVE- THEY push the timeshare at Harboside resort!! They bugged us a lot about that, but we are DVC members, and we said NO THANKS, and that was it!!
Hope this helps a little.
DeerH