Nassau: Spend the day at Atlantis or stay on Wonder

[MickeyMagic]

I have a reservation for the Comfort Suites in order to spend the day in Nassau at Atlantis. I've just been visiting Barb & Tony's website and took a look at the 3-day Navigator. I do enjoy my time on the ship and I'm sure I will miss not having a full day at sea. I'm starting to second-guess my plan to spend the day at Atlantis and am thinking about staying on the ship in Nassau.

I'm looking for opinions from others who have spent the day at Atlantis. Did you think it was worth it? Or if you stayed on the ship in Nassau, were you happy with your decision afterward?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[Lisa F]

We just came back from the 9/19 wonder (3 day) and spent the day on the ship at Nassau. It was WONDERFUL and very relaxing, but that's the kind of trip we were looking for. We did some spa stuff in the morning and took a long nap in a deck chair in the afternoon (which really helped with being able to party that night!), played some shuffle board, talked to some crew members, swam in the pool and basically had a fantastic, relaxing time. Going into town is tiring and while we did that in every port on our 7 day, we NEVER got to any of the nighttime activities because we were so zonked. This way, we got to experience some different things than we had on our 7 day cruise. I did not regret it one bit, but I am also too cheap to shell out $150+ for a room at atlantis when there is a perfectly lovely ship with fabulous amenities that has already been paid for. I went on the cruise to experience the boat and castaway cay and it would not have mattered to me one bit if we didn't stop in nassau at all, but if you're looking for more action then go. I think it really depends on what kind of vacation you want.

Lisa

 

[PiperG]

I am just posting to say "hello" to another Minnesotan. I don't know where you are located, but hope fall has finally arrived at your place. We are eagerly awaiting a day without mosquitos here. . . .hoping for a frost in Maple Grove tonight

We did the glass bottomed boat in Nassau. We didn't think much of that excursion and spent the rest of the day on the boat. Very relaxing with no crowds in the sparkling clean Mickey Pool. We wish we would have just stayed on board the whole day.

 

[pmgreene]

JUST MY OPINION of course, but after getting a room at Atlantis earlier this month, I would not do it again. The room was $164 plus roundtrip cab fares for four of $32 and we spent all of 5 hours there. Maybe it was our fault for not maximizing the adventure...

It is a beautiful property and was nice to see but we could have done that without paying for the room. DD6 was not tall enough for the Mayan Temple slides (let me point out that there are only 4 slides at the Temple and a few smaller ones spaced throughout the property- not as many "cool" ones as we were lead to believe). DS9 enjoyed two of the Mayan Temple slides but was scared to try the others. The beach right by the hotel was ok, but I got stung by a jelly fish so that cut that part short.

We figured we would have payed about the same amount for any DCL excursion so we gave it a try. Next time we'll try something else.

Have fun!

 

[WDWLVR]

On our first trip to Nassau we just walked around town and did some shopping - boring!

On our second trip to Nassau we took a taxi over to Atlantis and paid $25 to walk around the Dig and surrounding property. That was great and I'm really glad we did it but don't feel the need to do it again. The slides, etc. looked like fun but not worth it in my opinion to pay for a room. We made it back to ship in time for lunch and spent the afternoon on board. So we had the best of both worlds.

We are going on the DVC member cruise in February that has a day at Nassua sandwiched in between 2 days on Castaway Cay. We have no plans to get off in Nassau this time. We're going to enjoy the ship and let everyone else get off!

 

[taswira]

On my first DCL cruise I saw Nassau and Atlantis. I was not really impressed with either. The next time I stayed on the ship and thoroughly enjoyed it! If someone has not traveled much and never seen much of anything, I'd say "do" Nassau and Atlantis for the experience. Otherwise, IF you're missing that day at sea, to pretend you are at sea while in port is even better because most guests will be off the ship!

 

[outahere]

We stayed on the ship and loved having no crowds..... had lunch in Triton's with no more than 80 - 100 other people. We've never seen Atlantis, but I'm not sure I could fully enjoy it in so short a visit. Maybe we'll stay at Atlantis on a future vacation.

I vote for staying on the ship.

 

[kincal]

We spent the day at Atlantis on our cruise and had a blast. It was probably the best part of our cruise. My DH and I had previously vacationed at Atlantis and my DD wanted to see what it was we had talked so much about. She had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back to Atlantis. It all depends on what kind of experience you are looking for. I actually found it quite relaxing at Atlantis - we took a cab over, got our id bracelets, followed the nice pool boy to chairs and sat down and relaxed. My DH and DD spent most of the time on the slides while I people watched and read. We did go through the DIG and had lunch inside - delicious! We never even went to the room!

I should say that after our cruise we all decided that cruising was not our favorite kind of vacation - although we did not have a bad time, it certainly was not the dream vacation we thought it would be - different strokes for different folks!

 

[KLDESQ]

We went to the Atlantis last year, late October (it may have even been 1 Nov when we were there). We booked the room at the Comfort, we were disappointed since the water was very cold, several of the slides were closed (apparently for the season) the one that sticks out in my mind was the family river slide or something like that. That was definitely closed. It was also an overcast day and maybe hit 70 for a high with little or no sun.

You have to walk a ton at Atlantis and overall was not a good value. Also, Nassau is a dump, I mean as soon as you clear the ship you have tons of people hawking you for money, for taxi rides, etc. Very very dirty and slum like (think South Bronx).

Given the sloven nature of Nassau and it's residents, and the fact that the kids pools were always jammed, if I were doing it again, I'd skip the slums and just hang out (especially in the kids pool) on the beautiful Wonder.

We are on a 7 night cruise in Nov and a large reason we chose it (Western) is that Key West is beautiful in all respects compared to the slums of the Bahamas.

Make SURE you get off at CC, which is paradise!

 

[Tluvs2talk]

GO TO ATLANTIS!!!!! It is beautiful. We had such a great time on our last 2 cruises there, that we rented a room this time.

 

[DopeysGal]

When we arrived in Nassau, it was pouring rain and all of the shore excursions were cancelled. My DS and I didn't know what to do so we went to Bingo and then looked at Atlantis from the ship. We decided that we wanted to at least walk around the resort and took a cab over (it was late morning and the rain was gone by then). We did the Dig and had lunch at a deli. It's a beautiful hotel to visit and we enjoyed our couple of hours there. As we were walking through the casino on our way out, I put 5 quarters in a slot machine and won $30! We rode through downtown on our way back to the ship and decided that we did not want to walk around that area...very dirty and somewhat scary to us. So we spent the afternoon and evening on the ship, relaxing, eating and enjoying the deck party in the evening. It was the best of both worlds. There was a Carnival Cruise ship docked next to us and their passengers were looking over at the great Disney party with envy...nothing was happening on their ship. Glad we did it but don't think we would pay for a room and stay all day.


Deb

 

[aprilgail2]

Well if you decide to not do Atlanis then I would stay on the ship...nothing much else worth getting off the ship for there, is a very dirty place...I have actually been there 3 times, got off the boat the first time, stayed on the 2nd and thought maybe this time it would have changed but it didn't!