Nassau - See it or skip it

[mrp4352]

I agree, you should probably get off the ship if you haven't been before. There's a nice walking tour of Nassau that you can pick up on board the ship. It takes you beyond the couple of blocks right around the ship, and into some of the prettier parts.

 

[yanners]

You guys are great! Thanks!

 

[disneynewbee]

I found Nassau to be depressing and not worth the visit unless you like to be harassed by pushy people on the streets and want to shop in depressing stores. My husband's luggage went missing on one trip and we were forced to go out in quest of clothes after 2 hours of searching we decided it was easier and less of a hassel to have clothes shipped overnight from home.

The Atlantis is a beautiful resort worth a visit but unless you stay there you cannot access most of the resort itself. There are some areas they allow you to walk around but very little. They do this so that people will book their resort for the next trip which is exactly what we wound up doing.

The only thing worth while around is the Dolphin Experience which is incredible. It is far less costly than other dolpin experiences we have done such as Discovery Cove. I couldn't particpate for health reasons but my husband had the time of his life and swam with the dolphins for more than 45 minutes. We paid twice as much at Discovery Cove and his personal interaction with the dolphins lasted only 3 minutes. The photos we have from this are priceless and were easily taken. Discovery Cove won't let you anywhere near the lagoon with a camera as they want you to buy their photos.

Happy Sailing!

Are these excursions you did on your own? The only one I'm showing for Nassau is Blue Lagoon at $125. The only dolphin involvement I'm showing for Atlantis is trainer for the day which is insane at four hundred and some dollars. We want to do a dolphin encounter and $125 isn't bad at all but I'm wondering if Blue Lagoon is a good experience. Thanks.

 

[justmestace]

We really enjoyed Blue Lagoon years ago, on our first DCL cruise, when our kids were younger (11 & 8). The next time, we had a large group with us, so we did a Catamaran Snorkel excursion that didn't even get us out of the port area, and it stunk.
Going back this summer for the 3rd time, and I think we'll book our own snorkel boat/beach excursion through a private company that will get us away from the port area and to the beautiful waters I know the Bahamas are famous for.
I would definitely get off the boat, though. It seems such a shame to go that far, spend that much money, and not at least set foot on foreign soil.

 

[Anal Annie]

Out of curiosity, where was this picture taken? Wherever it is, it looks like a place we'd want to go if and when we're in the Bahamas again. Is it Blue Lagoon?

YES! Isn't it pretty? It's by where the ferry docks there...we thought it was a gorgeous little island. Went there for the dolphin swim last summer (booked direct). LOVED it there! Pricey but worth it! So-o glad we chose to do the swim over the encounter! The trainers there are awesome and the dolphins incredible. They ran a first rate excursion.

 

[DisneyDDS]

I am usually pretty positive about anything that has to do with disney and DCL, but we did not enjoy Nassau when we were there last Friday on our 3 night cruise. We should have taken an excursion and gone to the Atlantis aquarium, but we decided to see the city on our own on foot.

The problem was that the Wonder was one of 5 ships in port that day....there were 3 huge carnival ships and one Holland America. There must have been at least 12,000 people entering the port. The cruise terminal is very small and they only had 2 entrance doors open. There were very long lines to get in and once we were through the cruise terminal there were many very persistent tour operators/taxi drivers yelling at us to be their next customers.

We walked up to the Parliment building and the surrounding neighborhood and then we went back to the ship and sat by the pool. I know we did not give Nassau much of a chance. I think it would have been much better to have taken a disney excursion and avoided the crazy throng of people getting off the 3 carnival ships.

 

[pouncingpluto]

Yeah... I feel like the city part of Nassau isn't that great or interesting (especially if you've been similar places before)... but the beaches can be beautiful. And beach day excursions can be relatively inexpensive.