Nassau - Melia or Colonial Hilton

[steph12]

I've been reading reviews online for both of these hotels for day passes and would like to see if anyone here has any recommendations between the 2. I know the Hilton includes food with the day pass, but it looks like the pools and beaches are better at Melia. Has anyone been to the Melia lately? How expensive is the food here? Thanks for any help you can give me!

 

[sexyrx]

Two years ago, on our 1st Disney cruise, we did the day pass at the Hilton. At the time, between 2 families we had 5 children between the ages of 2 and 5. The Hilton was great in that it is within walking distance from the port, includes food and drink with the day pass and was really quiet. To me, the beach was unsafe for small children as I found broken glass in the sand. Otherwise, it was great. Next month we will be buying a day pass to the Melia. The kids are now between the ages of 4 and 7. We chose the Melia since all of the kids love to swim and Melia has more pools and a better stretch of beach to play on. We're expecting food to be expensive at Melia but we plan on ordering Uncrustables before we leave the ship for the kids to eat while we're there. We cruise on 4/21 so I can report back after we return.

 

[steph12]

Two years ago, on our 1st Disney cruise, we did the day pass at the Hilton. At the time, between 2 families we had 5 children between the ages of 2 and 5. The Hilton was great in that it is within walking distance from the port, includes food and drink with the day pass and was really quiet. To me, the beach was unsafe for small children as I found broken glass in the sand. Otherwise, it was great. Next month we will be buying a day pass to the Melia. The kids are now between the ages of 4 and 7. We chose the Melia since all of the kids love to swim and Melia has more pools and a better stretch of beach to play on. We're expecting food to be expensive at Melia but we plan on ordering Uncrustables before we leave the ship for the kids to eat while we're there. We cruise on 4/21 so I can report back after we return.

That would be great if you could let me know how it goes at the Melia! I know that people say to try out the Daiquiri Shack across the street too. I hope you have a great trip!

 

[mjdis17]

I went to the Melia this past December and we had a great day!

To answer your food questions upfront:
- Food is EXPENSIVE. The menu is incredibly slim. BF and I each got a jerk chicken wrap and while they were good, the were not worth the $15 price EACH. Way way overpriced.

- Took taxi to resort from ship dock for $25
- Got the resort and receptionists could not have been nicer!
- Paid exactly $45 per adult, but sure about kids price.
- Got an orange wristband to wear as pass and also coupon for ANY free Starbucks drink from cafe in lobby.
- We were some of the only people out around the pools/beach until about 10am (it was Dec 22).
- Got card to trade in for one towel per person.
- Pools were warm and felt good. The main pool never had more than 3 people in it and the others never looked that busy either, despite lots of people on beach and lounge chairs.
- The day pass does NOT include non-motorized water sports anymore. I can't remember the exact prices...something like $30/hr for the water bikes, kayaks, etc is standing out in my head. I may be wrong about that price.
- The beach was nice but honestly I was a little disappointed. The water had wood-chipish things floating in it and was cold.
- There are really comfy lounge chairs all over the beach and pool decks.
- Drinks (alcoholic) are equally expensive. Not sure if you plan on getting any but a small little cup of some jungle juice concoction was $11.
- There are companies on the beach that sell glass bottom boat tours and jet ski rentals. We rented a jet ski for I think $60/half hour. It was all my BF's idea haha I did not condone that price! Still a cool experience though.
- There are also women and children walking around selling things. I was intimidated by this and made to feel slightly uncomfortable since it's similar to going to the mall and getting all of the kiosk people to try and offer you something. With that being said I bought a beautiful tie dye sarong for $20 that I'm incredibly happy with and once I bought it they all left me alone.
- Convenient and clean outdoor bathrooms.
- Several taxis waiting outside when time to go back. $15 for ride to ship.

All in all we really enjoyed the Melia but were actually just talking the other night about how we wished we had known how expensive the food was. We were saying how if we ever did it again we honestly would've brought a little flat cooler bag in our suitcase somehow "stolen" some sandwiches from the buffet to bring in the cooler with DIY ice packs. Or at the very least we would bring our own snacks. I know that seems excessive lol but it ended up being a pretty expensive day with $90 in day passes and a $38 lunch total, so eliminating the food cost would have been nice. If you bring something to hold you over while you're there then you can eat right when you return to the ship. One side note is that once we got back on the ship and went to take out wrist bands off we realized we 100% could've gotten away with not paying the day pass fee. The actual resort guests have no form of identification on them to indicate that they are a paying guest. Obviously I am not at all trying to recommend that you go there and not pay, but it was certainly something we realized when the day was all said and done. We stayed from about 9am-2pm.

Overall, we would go back and I definitely recommend it. Attached are some pics!