Just back - 4-day- April 14-18

[Toby]

Just back - had a fabulous time. This was our 3rd Disney cruise - 4day, 7 day, and now the 4-day again with a first-time cruiser. She loved it and didn't want to leave the ship!! I know she's got the bug. Great weather - wonderful, attentive staff, great food, yummy rum drinks.

Rented a room at Comfort Inn and used Atlantis's facilties - not to be believed. Castaway Cay - gorgeous, as usual. took advantage of Adult-only beach - beautiful - quiet and serene and lunch right there so you don't have to backtrack to Cookies..

Any questions, I'll be glad to answer...

 

[scottie]

Toby-

Thanks for the review! Using the Comfort Suites room were you able to access the beach and pools at Atlantis?

 

[Nancy1801]

We plan to do the Comfort Suites thing too. Any hints or tips on that? How long did it take you to taxi over to Comfort Suites from the Wonder? How long did it even take you to get off the boat thru customs, and then how long did it take you to get back on? We have early seating -- what time would you suggest that we leave and checkout of Comfort Suites, or do we even have to check out? -- can we just leave and they know that we only wanted to rent for the one day? And one other thing -- can we get beach/pool towels at the Atlantis? Thanks !!!

 

[Toby]

Okay, the taxi ride over to Comfort Inn takes 10-15 minutes at the most. Once there, we checked in, actually went to our room, got wristbands, and walked out the back exit door and walked right across the street to Atlantis's front entrance. You can use EVERYTHING at Atlantis - all pools, towels, beaches, casino, restaurants, the aquarium viewing, waterslides. We spent from 10:00am until 6:30pm and I think we did everything we wanted to do. We had lunch there overlooking the beach, hit the casinos, went shopping, had ice cream - just enjoyed the whole experience. If you didn't want to eat dinner back on the ship, you certainly could have dinner there - gorgeous restaurants. It's only a 1-2 minute walk back to the Comfort Inn. They know most people reserve a room just to use the facilities at Atlantis, so
they try to give you a room near the exit closest to the walkway. You certainly have plenty of time in Nassau so if you brought a change of clothes, you could shower, change at Comfort Inn, and walk back to Atlantis for a nice dinner. By the way, the Comfort Inn was very nice, also. Coffeemaker, hairdryer, shampoo, etc in the room. We all agreed that day in Nassau was well worth renting the room at Comfort Inn. Hope this helps...

 

[Nancy1801]

Toby, thanks so much for the detail. One more thing -- can you tell me if Customs was a big hold up either getting on or off the boat? How much time ?

 

[Toby]

Getting off the ship to tour Nassau is just a matter of going to deck #1, showing your room key card, and photo id. The officer then swipes your room card and off you go. Same as boarding, again swiping your card. I suppose this is to keep track of who's left the ship and who's returned.

Now, disembarking the ship the final time at Port Canaveral is very simple. Again, have those photo id's, passports, etc. handy because you will show them a few times. They do have dogs sniffing bags and packages, but all in all it took about 5-10 minutes to get off the ship. My mother who has been on many other cruiselines, says Disney is so efficient with getting people off the ship. No hangups whatsoever, and you do not have to declare anything unless you spent over $600.00, I believe. Hope this helps. Luggage is then color-coded according to stateroom numbers. You are given color baggage tags the night before disembarking so finding your luggage is so easy....hope this helps.