Dolphin Encounter on either the Blue Lagoon or Atlantis

[Mrs_dee]

Can you make it back your ship by lunch time (between 11 am - 12 noon) if you book an early morning dolphin encounter on either the Blue Lagoon or the Atlantis? I heard the actual shore excursions only lasts under an hour and about half an hour away from the Nassau port - so if you just strictly do the dolphin encounter, can you make it back to your ship after 2 hours of disembarking to enjoy the ship? Thanks!!

 

[yowcruiser]

For Blue Lagoon, the ferry back to the cruise terminal was operating at specific times, and priority was given to specific ships for each boarding, especially if this was one of the last departure to catch that ship. In our case, and looking at the schedule that day, it would not have been possible for us to come back in time for an early lunch.

 

[Mrs_dee]

For Blue Lagoon, the ferry back to the cruise terminal was operating at specific times, and priority was given to specific ships for each boarding, especially if this was one of the last departure to catch that ship. In our case, and looking at the schedule that day, it would not have been possible for us to come back in time for an early lunch.

Can you kindly clarify what you meant by “priority is given to specific ships for each boarding”? We just can’t catch a ship by every hour or so similar to the buses at WDW? Sorry first time here!

So if I have an 8:45 am dolphin encounter at BL - what’s the earliest I can catch/be back on board my ship? Thanks!

 

[MomOTwins]

Can you kindly clarify what you meant by “priority is given to specific ships for each boarding”? We just can’t catch a ship by every hour or so similar to the buses at WDW? Sorry first time here!

So if I have an 8:45 am dolphin encounter at BL - what’s the earliest I can catch/be back on board my ship? Thanks!

What they mean is if, say, a Royal Caribbean ship has is going to leave port sooner than the Disney ship, they will let passengers on that ship board before anyone else so they don’t miss their ship. So you may be able to get on an earlier ferry back, or may not, depending on whether it fills up with customers from the priority ship.

 

[mevelandry]

You need a water shuttle to go to Blue Lagoon and come back (30 minutes or so each way). Shuttles are only available on specific time.

You just need a short cab ride (10 minutes or so) from Atlantis to the Port.

If your wish is to get back to the port as early as possible, you're better with Atlantis.

 

[Mrs_dee]

What they mean is if, say, a Royal Caribbean ship has is going to leave port sooner than the Disney ship, they will let passengers on that ship board before anyone else so they don’t miss their ship. So you may be able to get on an earlier ferry back, or may not, depending on whether it fills up with customers from the priority ship.

Ah ok, got it! That’s probably why Disney indicated “4 to 4.5 hours” as the length of this excursion... they include with the approximate roundtrip travel time... correct?

 

[yowcruiser]

Ah ok, got it! That’s probably why Disney indicated “4 to 4.5 hours” as the length of this excursion... they include with the approximate roundtrip travel time... correct?

Yes - but as it turned out in our case, and we had the "morning" departure, the actual time of the Dolphin Encounter at Blue Lagoon was 12:30. So we arrived at Blue Lagoon around 10:30 or so, had 90 minutes or so to spare at the beach, meet for the encounter... so could not really leave the island much earlier than 1:30

As suggested thread, if you really want to be back "early" on the ship, Atlantis might be a better option

 

[lunaland]

We got back to the ship pretty quick after our excursion at Blue Lagoon. However, we left as soon as possible. As someone who has worked with animals, we had concerns over all 3 we saw- dolphins, rays, sea lions. From an animal welfare standpoint, Atlantis is much, much better.

 

[brownmajik]

I did Atlantis earlier this year. I want to say that the shallow water dolphin experience took about 90 minutes with orientation and pictures.