Stay on Ship or venture out at Nassau

[Heather Fournier]

We are leaving for the 3 night cruise Dec 4th... We went many years ago for our honeymoon and once again about 7 years ago... Now our son will be 11 this time around, and we are going with another close family. They have already heard we should just stay on ship once at Nassau, and we are considering it.. Anyone do this and wish they hadnt, or vice versa? Other than some shops.. and the Atlantis ... is there anything big to see? Ive tried to google, but its never the same as hearing from someone who has gone.
Thanks
Heather

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

The Straw market is worth it for a walk.

 

[Quellman]

The Straw market is worth it for a walk.

It's worth it just to get off for a little bit and walk a little bit. The OPs son might like picking up a trinket in the market.

OP - I'm not sure what you consider as big? There are a few museums, a chocolate shop/factory, restaurants etc. Of course you can always charter a boat for the day and they will take you snorkeling and to private island place. You can also do Atlantis, or Blue Lagoon, or any other resort with day passes. You won't be finding 4x4 rides, zip lines, and super adventure things like that. But I believe there are rhino boats or jet ski tours/rentals as well.

 

[afyoung]

We got off the ship in Nassau last November on a dreary, rainy, windy day. Our port adventures had been cancelled because of the bad weather, so we decided to just make the best of it. We ended up in a private taxi with a guy who gave us (2 adults, 2 kids (b8 & g9) a tour of the island, time to walk around Atlantis, stopped at a market away from the straw market- nobody there wanted to braid mine or my daughter's hair had lunch at a tiny little place by the water that was awesome, and were back to the ship in plenty of time to enjoy the slide before leaving port for the day. Total cost, not including souvenirs or lunch $40. We had never been to Nassau and felt that we should experience it at least once. We had a great time. My kids had plenty of information to fill their journals with for the day (they were missing school for the vacation). My son loved the taxi driver and still talks about the things he learned a year later. My suggestion is get off the ship, see what there is to see and if you hate it, go back to the ship. Maybe have the kids research something to do while you are there.

 

[Heather Fournier]

Thanks for the info! We have done Atlantis before, prob couldnt swing the price of the water park there.... We are spending 3 days at the park before leaving, and the Mickey christmas party.. so def looking to keep some costs down.. Although, snorkeling does sound great! Ill look into Rhino boats.

 

[HeadintheClouds]

We are going next year and I think we are going to try the shark walk in Atlantis.

 

[BelleWannabe4]

I know I've mentioned this in other posts, but I had dinner at Lukka Kairi when I was in Nassau and really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere (they had a live band playing while we were there). It was pretty reasonably priced and the food was great - modern Caribbean. It's right across the street from Senor Frog's and not too far from the port. If you want to stretch your legs and have lunch or a drink in Nassau, I would highly recommend it.

 

[SSRFred]

We thought about staying on board on our last cruise, but didn't want to feel like we missed enjoying a port, even one we've been to before, so we went to Ardastra Gardens & Zoo. We all really enjoyed it, adults and kids (DS14 & DS10). I would definitely visit there again.

 

[princessmommyx3]

We have always stayed on board (3 times) and I have never regretted it or felt like I was missing out on anything.

 

[cheermom2four]

We booked a private tour (after extensive researching) as this will be our first time there and we wont have kids with us on this cruise. We are going with another couple so we figured heck if we dont find it worth our time, we can just tell the tour person to head back. If we go again on same itinerary, we would probably just stay on the ship.

 

[Otimon]

By all means get off the ship and consider the Chocolate Factory Tour at the Greycliff Hotel in Nassau. Have done this tour twice now - everyone will enjoy it!

 

[mevans9066]

We have a really short port time in Nov in nassau so I think we've narrowed it down to hopping off, taking a carriage ride tour, walking down to Junkanoo beach for a couple of hours and head back! We are only there ftom 7 to noon!

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

If you're willing to spend on an off-ship meal then I can't recommend the Fish Fry enough. It's a group of small (nothing fancy) restaurants not too far from the pier.

They serve fresh Bahamian lobster and grouper that they've just plonked out of the water. So delicious!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

On my only cruise that went there I took a tour of Atlantis and then went back to the ship later in the day mainly because i wanted to have and and cool off for a bit. I still regret not going back out to see what was near the port area.

 

[anna08]

I recommend getting off the ship, even if it's just to walk around for a quick stroll and then back on. We didn't on our first cruise, which was a 3day and we really regretted it when the weather was too bad to dock at Castaway Cay. Lots of ports have a Starbucks where you can hook up to wifi and grab a familiar drink at a minimum.