Just Returned 4 day Wonder

[castoff50]

Quick overview: Ship was beautiful! Good food and service. No adherence to dress code. Daughter thought the kids club and nursery were excellent. Did not see a single fish extender. We had 3 rooms (6 adults/4kids) and decorated our doors, only one other door decorated down our hallway. Did room at Atlantis: Take a taxi! My DH and I have done the ferry w/o kids before with no problem...we were in no hurry then. But, all the bad things you read about the ferry can and will happen. We did, and strongly regretted it! Easy check-in, no wait. Felt very rushed to see only 25% of property. Do not do Atlantis if you are not willing to do A LOT of walking. Had to be back on board by 5:00. Shows were great.

 

[Anal Annie]

Quick overview: Ship was beautiful! Good food and service. No adherence to dress code. Daughter thought the kids club and nursery were excellent. Did not see a single fish extender. We had 3 rooms (6 adults/4kids) and decorated our doors, only one other door decorated down our hallway. Did room at Atlantis: Take a taxi! My DH and I have done the ferry w/o kids before with no problem...we were in no hurry then. But, all the bad things you read about the ferry can and will happen. We did, and strongly regretted it! Easy check-in, no wait. Felt very rushed to see only 25% of property. Do not do Atlantis if you are not willing to do A LOT of walking. Had to be back on board by 5:00. Shows were great.

We booked a room at the Comfort Suites for our trip in July...how long does the whole taxi thing take back & forth? An hour? 30 minutes? I was bummed to see that DCL bumped the onboard time up from 7:00 to 5:00 - will really cut our day short by a lot to make it back on time.

 

[castoff50]

I was very disappointed when I read that all aboard was 5:00. It was posted in the Navigator the night before. We got a late start and did not leave the ship until close to 10:00. We traveled via ferry (2nd mistake of the morning). Our rooms were in the Atlantis Beach Tower (check-in is in the Coral Tower lobby). By the time we hit the pool it 11:40. Dang ferry! I asked the bell desk about taxis and traffic back to ship. He said that traffic backs up starting at 3:00 when many employee leave work. According to him "worst case" it could take 1hr. to get back to the ship. We didn't want to take any chances (we had a 4, 3, 2y.o. and 4m.o. with us) so we caught the taxi about 2:45 and were back on board before 3:30. Here is the scoop on the taxi: still $4/p, you have to make your way thru the building at the port and you will see a sign pointing to the taxi stand when you exit. The ride should be 20min+/-. We spent 3 hrs there. Everyone enjoyed the visit. I was the financier and leader of the pack and totally stress out. Seeing the looks of amazement made it worth while.

 

[Pirates16103]

I was on that cruise as well! We went to Nassau as well and we were back onboard the ship by 1. When we were leaving Atlantis there was a guy standing at the doors and it turns out he was a taxi driver. Since it was still $4/person we decided to let him drive us, and it was a limo! So that really rocked our day. The food was good during the cruise and my favorite show is now Toy Story the Musical.

 

[brianjk777]

I just booked my 4 night Disney Wonder trip and I am kind of confused about the Atlantis excursion. There are 4 of us (kids are 12 and 7) and I was planning on booking the Atlantis Dophin Cay encounter plus the waterpark/pool access. However I keep reading about people who do the whole thing by themselves instead of doing it as a ship excusion. Q1 does anybody know what time I would get to Atlantis if I let Disney me take me. Q2 would I get to Atlantis earlier if I did the taxi thing. Q3 it seems like with only 4 people it might not make sense for us to book the room option -- I have been quoted prices of about $400 and that is only about $50 cheaper than if I purchased waterpark tickets including transportation from Disney. Q4 lastly if would seem like that if I was on the Disney excursion and the bus was running late the ship would wait for us while if I took private transportion the ship would leave. I am willing to pay a little bit more not to have to worry about things and have all the arrangement take care of for us.

Am I missing something here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[castoff50]

Brianjk, Here is what I did: Rm at Atlantis was $169+ tax, mandatory gratuity and energy surcharge thru Travelzoo. I thought this was a good rate but others have found cheaper rates. Atlantis provides wrist bands for 2 adults and 2 children (under 12 I believe). You can catch a taxi for $4/p very easily and this can be done is soon as "all clear" to disembark around 9:30. As a resort guess you get priority to sign up for the dolphin experience at a discount, not sure of cost. The Disney excursion was scheduled to meet in a designated lounge at 9:15 and then onto a bus and to Atlantis. I don't know what time they arrived at Atlantis. The big factor is cost vs. security! You can save 1/3 to 1/2 the expense doing it yourself but knowing that the boat will wait if the bus is late is comforting. I was a paranoid wreck the whole time while everyone else was having a good time. Disney had a bus running until about 4:15 for those on the excursion. I hope that all made sense.

 

[brianjk777]

Thanks, I think I am going to pay a little more and not have the stress. I booked a lower category room and I will use some of those savings.

 

[Anal Annie]

I just booked my 4 night Disney Wonder trip and I am kind of confused about the Atlantis excursion. There are 4 of us (kids are 12 and 7) and I was planning on booking the Atlantis Dophin Cay encounter plus the waterpark/pool access. However I keep reading about people who do the whole thing by themselves instead of doing it as a ship excusion. Q1 does anybody know what time I would get to Atlantis if I let Disney me take me. Q2 would I get to Atlantis earlier if I did the taxi thing. Q3 it seems like with only 4 people it might not make sense for us to book the room option -- I have been quoted prices of about $400 and that is only about $50 cheaper than if I purchased waterpark tickets including transportation from Disney. Q4 lastly if would seem like that if I was on the Disney excursion and the bus was running late the ship would wait for us while if I took private transportion the ship would leave. I am willing to pay a little bit more not to have to worry about things and have all the arrangement take care of for us.

Am I missing something here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I believe that DCL actually offers about 3 or 4 different Atlantis excursions. The cheapest one is just the aquarium tour (the "Dig") & is much less pp (like $20 something). The next excursion is what they call the beach day or something. I think it is about $65 pp ($65X4=$260). It includes the aquarium & access to the lagoon & a "light lunch" but not the water park/slides. (We have friends who did this before the Aquaventure Water Park area was finished and they really enjoyed it.) The next excursion is what they call the "Aquaventure" and includes the water park area along with the above mentioned options. It is $155 pp ($155x4=$620). Then finally there is something I think they call the "Dolphin Cay Aquaventure". This includes the aquarium, the waterpark, lagoon & a "dolphin encounter" (not a dolphin swim) as well as this "light lunch". It runs $285 pp ($285x4=$1,140).

I believe there is a miniumum height requirement for the water slides of 48" so make sure your little one is tall enough before deciding. There are still pools & such but they may not be able to go on everything!