Graycliff Chocolate Tour

[chinarider]

Looking for opinions on this excursion. TIA

 

[Donna M]

The chocolate was good and making it was fun. The place is small, so the tour was very short. It's almost like a home kitchen operation. When I looked at the price for our upcoming cruise I was shocked. I don't think it is worth it, but it would depend on your budget. You end up with maybe a 4"x6" box of chocolates.

 

[BruinEd03]

We liked it and thought it was worth it. We got to taste white chocolate, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate. We could then make our own chocolate bars and also other chocolate items. They give you a cup of one of those three types of chocolate. The person then explains how the chocolate is made. In addition, they let you taste the chocolates in different stages of refinement.

We got lucky and only had 6 people in our tour group so we got lots of attention.

 

[over50visits]

Family friendly, mild exercise (bus to/from Graycliff, walk about 100 feet total), take a lot of chocolate back to the ship with you (don't forget to declare the fruits such as strawberries if you take them back to the US), nice (small) shop, pretty grounds if you take a few minutes to explore. If you go to Nassau more than once, you'll want to take this tour sometime. If it's your only visit, it's probably a small step below Pirate Museum, Ardastra gardens or a trip to Atlantis. If wearing an apron and making your own chocolate candy seems like it would be fun, then go for it.

Insider tip: your guide will introduce herself at the start of the tour. Commit her name to memory for the rest of the tour. Trust me on this one.

 

[Sytrace]

We loved this tour! Family of 4 with two teens who said it was the best excursion we had done in Nassau (and this was compared to Atlantis and a Glass bottom boat tour)
Coco was our guide ...yes, you read that correctly. She was awesome! We made chocolate bars and while they were setting in the mold we got to create truffles, chocolate covered strawberries with the toppings they give you like granola, chocolate pearls, coconut, almonds etc. So much fun!
You package up any leftover chocolates in with the chocolate bar you make into a box and can take it back to the ship with you.

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

We loved it. We are not beach people so finding excursions that are kid friendly and not beach related are hard. This was a perfect tour for us and our 9 year old. The fun part is making the chocolate. Our daughter thought it was great that she got to bring home a candy bar that she made herself. We will be doing it again in October.

 

[starvenger]

FWIW, you can book direct and the price for the 1 hour tour+chocolate tasting is $50 adult/$40 child. Not sure what the DCL price is but RCI is $65/50. The walk does not seem to be too far - probably 5 minutes from Senor Frogs? I know the kids and I could make that trek. My dad couldn't though - he uses a cane and can't walk that well anymore.

 

[tlprice]

FWIW, you can book direct and the price for the 1 hour tour+chocolate tasting is $50 adult/$40 child. Not sure what the DCL price is but RCI is $65/50. The walk does not seem to be too far - probably 5 minutes from Senor Frogs? I know the kids and I could make that trek. My dad couldn't though - he uses a cane and can't walk that well anymore.

Unless they have changed the days and hours, you cannot book this direct. I tried, but the hours and days were not available while we were in port. I have a feeling Disney has some sort of contract with them or something so that you can only book this through Disney when they are in port. We loved this excursion though. We ended up with so much chocolate that we enjoyed throughout the rest of our trip. We were with a group that had done it before and they were a blast! We all shared chocolate so we could have all the different kinds. My daughter thought this was one of the best excursions we've ever done.

 

[intricatejewel]

I did this excursion with my father in January of ‘17 and neither one of us cared for it. What we experienced was a tour guide with zero enthusiasm that rushed us through the “factory” and explanations of how chocolate was made. The only fun part was making our chocolates, which were a fun keepsake, but definitely didn’t justify the $68 charge for this short excursion. We still laugh to this day about the $65 chocolate bars we ate on our cruise, but considered this excursion a waste of money and time. Based on the overwhelming positive reviews it has, I think we just got unlucky with our tour guide that was maybe having an off day. I’m certain we would have enjoyed this more if we’d had a more involved guide

 

[starvenger]

Unless they have changed the days and hours, you cannot book this direct. I tried, but the hours and days were not available while we were in port. I have a feeling Disney has some sort of contract with them or something so that you can only book this through Disney when they are in port. We loved this excursion though. We ended up with so much chocolate that we enjoyed throughout the rest of our trip. We were with a group that had done it before and they were a blast! We all shared chocolate so we could have all the different kinds. My daughter thought this was one of the best excursions we've ever done.

I think the bookable tours were 9:30 and later in the afternoon so having cruise-exclusive times would not surprise me.

 

[Auntof2]

I did this excursion with my father in January of ‘17 and neither one of us cared for it. What we experienced was a tour guide with zero enthusiasm that rushed us through the “factory” and explanations of how chocolate was made. The only fun part was making our chocolates, which were a fun keepsake, but definitely didn’t justify the $68 charge for this short excursion. We still laugh to this day about the $65 chocolate bars we ate on our cruise, but considered this excursion a waste of money and time. Based on the overwhelming positive reviews it has, I think we just got unlucky with our tour guide that was maybe having an off day. I’m certain we would have enjoyed this more if we’d had a more involved guide

We pretty much had this exact same experience over Memorial Day weekend. No tour, barely any explanation, and too much money for pouring a cup of melted chocolate into a mold.

 

[lilmc]

too much money for pouring a cup of melted chocolate into a mold.

This is what is deterring me. It sounds fun, but it’s up to $79 pp and I can’t seem to justify $320 for our family of four to pour some chocolate. I wish this was more affordable.

 

[Ajojo]

It was OK and I am glad that we (party of 4) did it because it was always on our wish list, but we wont do this again. The tour was full and it got quite hot/stuffy in the room that we were all in. People got a bit goofy because we had to wait for the chocolate to harden. Low enthusiasm and interaction from the tour operators. We all left the chocolate bars on the ship and didn't eat them.

 

[Otimon]

Did this tour twice back in the day as we all enjoyed it. However, from reading above it seems the cost has gone up quite a bit since then. Ås I recall it was $39pp when we did the tour. Way overpriced now in my opinion.

 

[bumbershoot]

This is what is deterring me. It sounds fun, but it’s up to $79 pp and I can’t seem to justify $320 for our family of four to pour some chocolate. I wish this was more affordable.

You could just walk or taxi over there and buy chocolate. It’s quite tasty.

We all left the chocolate bars on the ship and didn't eat them.

Im saddened by this. They were good! Messy since we made them, but good. I’m sad that you didn’t eat them.



I’m also stunned at the lackluster tour guide reports from earlier this year. And here I thought it was always the vivacious Coco who did the tours.

 

[MJB03]

Add us to those who had less than enthusiastic tour guides. We did the tour in February, and on paper, it seemed like a fun thing to do off the ship for a couple of hours with DS (5). Our tour guide was a young man, probably in his early 20s. It felt like he was simply repeating the script he had memorized, and the tour part of the excursion was over before we knew it. It was fun playing with the chocolate and making our own candies, but I’ve had much better chocolate. I think we threw away most of our candies at the end of the cruise. Definitely not worth the cost of the excursion.

 

[Sakura1017]

Has anyone done this tour recently? How is it?

 

[Kwami]

Has anyone done this tour recently? How is it?

We did this tour in February and had a great time. We weren't able to explore the area because of Covid-19 restrictions at the time, but the excursion itself was a lot of fun. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly and she gave us some extra chocolate while we waited for our bars to dry. One lady wanted to mix dark and white chocolate in her bar, so the guide brought her two cups of chocolate to play with. There was only one kid on the tour, but he seemed very happy to be playing with chocolate!

I can't imagine not eating the chocolates that you make. The chocolate that this company makes is really, really good. We each got a full-sized chocolate bar, a chocolate covered strawberry, and a small cup of chocolate with stuff inside, sort of like a big peanut butter cup. Instead of peanut butter, we had Oreo bits, crisp rice, coconut shavings, and a few other options to put inside. You could use those toppings on the strawberry or in the bar, too.

And while you're waiting for the chocolates to dry, go ahead and push on the plastic cup to knock some extra chocolate loose. Tasty.

 

[Calantha]

We went in January. It was me and DS (6 almost 7). I really enjoyed it and agree with @Kwami. My son was a little bored, but when we started making the chocolate bars, he was totally into that.

 

[Rob1872]

We enjoyed it. I think that the Ardastra Gardens was a better excursion, my wife thinks the chocolate was the better excursion.