Reviews of Blue Lagoon Beach day???

[jacksmom]

We can't decide on a shore excursion and would love some advise! We want to do the Pirate museum for sure, but would also like to do something else in addition to this! Has anyone done the Blue Lagoon? My ds does not want to do the Dolphins, but would like to spend some time in the ocean! Would love some info!

 

[ShannonRT]

Subscribing because I'd like some info on this too....

 

[musicgirl]

We did this in 6-02. We really enjoyed it.

The boat ride is about 45 min. There are non-motorized water craft for rent. There is a shallow inlet that is great to enjoy the water especially if you have little ones. DS was 11 and we both enjoyed this area.

There are other areas to swim in that are on the "outside" of the island, but we didn't get there.

We did enjoy snorkeling here. We had our own equipment, but we had to rent vests at $5 a piece. It was pretty rocky getting into the area. I wore my water shoes out and snorkeled without fins. I had no desire to walk over the rocks bare foot.

If you have little ones, the snorkel area is also great because again it is a shallow entrance and there are lots of little creatures to watch.

The lunch provided was ok. It was your typical BBQ. They did take pictures that you could buy on a cash basis ($10).

There were 2 trips back, one at 2 and the other at 4. We were more than ready by 2.

They also had hammocks, basketball, volleyball.

I don't know if much has changed since 2002, but we had a great time.

 

[justmestace]

We did this on our first cruise, when our kids were 8 and 11. I can't imagine that anything in Nassau is much better, unless you book a private snorkel excursion on your own. Nothing else appealed to us, and we did one of DCL's extremely lame and crowded snorkel excursion another time....so, if we went to Nassau again with DCL, I would go back to Blue Lagoon. It was really pretty there. Plenty of shady places to lounge, games to play, two lagoons to swim and snorkel in, and plenty of water toys. I thought the lunch was decent, it was their free Kool-Aid that was horrid. But you can buy beer and sodas there....take some cash. They had a small gift shop, restrooms and an outdoor shower. The kids loved the Jamaican-type band on the boat trip over and back.

 

[musicgirl]

Justmestace,

I had to laugh at your comment about the kool-aid. I was just awful!!! But it seemed like everytime I mentioned it in my review, people said that they thought it was good!!!

 

[bjkj]

Justmestace,

What was the extremely lame DCL snorkel excursion? I have the catamaran sail and snorkel booked. Is this the one? Is the Blue Lagoon better?

 

[MiaSRN62]

but would like to spend some time in the ocean!

We did this excursion in 11/02. We were allowed to swim/snorkel/play in the calm, shallow waters of the lagoon area but the ocean side had signs posted as "off limits". I don't know if it's always like this or if perhaps we were there a day when it was rough surf or something ? Anyone else able to go swimming in the ocean side ?
And, btw, we loved our day spent here. There were volleyball nets set-up and many people got together for a game.

 

[justmestace]

We were able to swim and snorkel on the ocean side. Small kids were playing in the light waves that day, and they had a couple of life guards on the beach and in kayaks over there. It may close on days when the surf is too strong.

The Kool-Aid was definitely horrid! But they had Pepsi (my personal favorite) so that made up for it.

bjkj....yes, it was the Catamaran Snorkel that we did the 2nd time we were in Nassau. They only let you snorkel in a path directly behind the catamaran, because they anchor the Cat in the bay area where there are a lot of other boats, and they don't want anyone getting run over. So imagine a catamaran with a good 100+ people, and all those people are trying to snorkel in one lane. Except when one of the guys from the boat got into the water with food, we didn't see any fish at all....and the ones that came when he had the food were just an ugly grey....not at all the colorful fish you'd want to see. We did find a tire on the bottom of the ocean though.

If we took a 3 or 4 day cruise again, I would either try to book something on our own that took us out and away from the crowds, or go back to Blue Lagoon.
I didn't care to go to Atlantis...we've seen aquariums and large hotels and casinos.....

 

[justmestace]

I'm not good at posting pictures, but here's one I found that we had taken at Blue Lagoon....sorry if it's small, I don't know how to make them bigger!

This is the Lagoon side, where there are water trikes, floats, etc for you to swim and play with....

 

[musicgirl]

bjkj,

We did the catamaran sail and snorkel our 2nd time and loved it! Great fish, we were back by 1, which left plenty of time for lunch on the ship, quick clean up, a short trip into Nassau and then a spa appt. at 5. We got to do alot.

If beach is what you are looking for, go for the blue lagoon.

 

[MiaSRN62]

We were able to swim and snorkel on the ocean side.

Thanks justmestace. It's good to know they allow people to do this when the surf isn't too rough because it was just so beautiful on the ocean side.
Here's a pic I took :

 

[MiaSRN62]

Here's one more from the ocean side :

 

[justmestace]

Those are much better pictures than mine! I didn't own a digital back then, and I think I even took my pics with one of those disposable water cameras! The tiny one I posted had been scanned into the computer....life is so much easier now.

Seeing your pictures actually makes me want to go back again! But we're spoiled now with the longer cruises!

 

[bjkj]

Justmestace -
Thanks for the advice. If you did try and book something on your own, how would you go about doing that? I wouldn't even know where to start or who to trust...

Seeing the pics make me so excited! I can't wait!!!!

 

[MiaSRN62]

Glad to share the pics with you all Believe it or not, they were taken with Kodak waterproof disposable cameras ! I was afraid to bring my dig camera as well because I didn't want to leave it unattended while we were swimming.
Here's one more of the lagoon side this time. I'm posting it so you can see how calm/shallow the water is on that side :

This is my dd wading in the waist deep water. I recommend water shoes for this side though. We spotted many of those little spiny sea urchins (at least in 11/02 they were there).