Thinking of skipping Nassau and staying onboard any comments?

[tjmw2727]

Ok - still planning, and planning......

Dh has a few friends who have done the wonder 4 day and advised him that since this is our first cruise, to really get the feel of a cruise, we may want to skip nassau and stay onboard to enjoy the ship.

Looking at the excursion options and the ages of our kids (girls who will be 9 and 11 at the time of the cruise) we may just do this.

Does anyone want to weigh in on the pros and cons of staying onboard rather than excursions on Nassau?

Thanks folks
TJ

 

[webray]

My first question to you would be, have you, hubby or the kids every been to Nassau. If not..then why wouldn't you go out and explore???? The island and people are great. Do the two hour historical city tour..it is excellent. You get to get out at all the major places, come back, have a nice lunch at Conch Fritters restaurant. Head down to the pharmacy, buy postcards and stamps and let the kids mail them back to themselves and their friends. Do a little souvenier shopping, don't miss the straw market, then head back to the ship.

It kills me when people say they stay on the ship. For some people this is the one and only time they will ever be in Nassau.

 

[tjmw2727]

My first question to you would be, have you, hubby or the kids every been to Nassau. If not..then why wouldn't you go out and explore???? The island and people are great. Do the two hour historical city tour..it is excellent. You get to get out at all the major places, come back, have a nice lunch at Conch Fritters restaurant. Head down to the pharmacy, buy postcards and stamps and let the kids mail them back to themselves and their friends. Do a little souvenier shopping, don't miss the straw market, then head back to the ship.

It kills me when people say they stay on the ship. For some people this is the one and only time they will ever be in Nassau.

Thanks so much - if we do head off the ship to do something then what you describe sounds better than the "excursions" I have been reading about.

I may have misworded my question as we do travel but this is our first cruise. We have not been to nassau but we have been to other islands in and out of the carribean. We really want to get the feel of cruising and some have said that the 4 day dosen't give you the feel of cruising as you have only one true "at sea" day. Since we chose the 4 day as a trial as dh has been seasick in the past and dd gets carsick on any driver longer than 20 minutes we just want to try a cruise and do more relaxing than touring. We want less of a hurry hurry vacation and more family time. Its been a very busy year for us all and we need some downtime/family time very much (don't we all!). Is there enough on ship to do if we decide not to do an excursion?

Of to check the navigators that are mentioned in another thread and maybe answer my own quesiton....

I appreciate any and all opinions - so thanks in advance
TJ

 

[aprilgail2]

There is more than enough to do on the ship without getting off. If I ever went to Nassau on a cruise again I wouldn't bother getting off the ship. Its one of my least favorite places to visit. Other than Atlantis there is nothing pretty about the place! The people there are very pushy.

 

[alanapapa]

I am looking forward to Nassau as this will be the whole family's first experience in the Bahamas, and the first time the DD's will remeber being out of the USA. My DW & I haven't decided what we are going to do, maybe just the tour and walk around as posted above. We do know there are a few shops we want to see,and to show our girls what life is like in different places. My advice would also be to at least go out and walk around, even if there are "pushy" salepeople at the straw market and the streets are not as clean as you are used to.

 

[JESW]

We may be another family that stays on the ship in Nassau when we cruise for the first time in April. We don't plan on any excursions as our oldest has special needs and we are not always sure how he will handle new things. I also figure that we are paying a small fortune for this trip so we want to make sure we REALLY enjoy every bit of the ship!

Jill

 

[Realityfreakaholic]

We have decided to skip the islands, St. Maarten & St. Thomas. We decided to stay on board and enjoy all the perks without it being super crowded. We also will be vacationing in Florida the week before and will be renting a charter fishing boat, waverunners and go parasailing and will be on the beach everyday so I'm sure those islands are beautiful but we figured we paid enough for the cruise, why spend more on excursions we can do in Florida? That's just our reasoning..and who knows we may decide to get off at the time.

We definitely will be getting off on CC. Here it's incredible and I wouldn't want to miss that for anything.

27 days until 7 night Disney Cruise

 

[Jilliebean]

We got off in Nassau our first two DCL cruises. On the third cruise, we stayed on board and LOVED it! It felt like we had the ship to ourselves at times. Now I think you'd have to drag us kicking and screaming off the ship on a Nassau day.

 

[Heathercat]

I think I will be on the same cruise as you realityfreak....But we decided to hit at least one of the islands...depends on what the kids want to do....Havent figured out which one yet....I think my teens want to go more then I do....

27 days until 7 night Eastern Disney Cruise ​

 

[logan1_2000]

I am not a fan of Nassau, and I stayed on board in January, but it was kinda cold & windy and I live in the south, anyway, and I had been to Nassau before. Had it been as nice, weatherwise, as it had been a week and a half earlier, we would have gotten off, jumped on the bus, I think its #10, to the Wyndham, and gone to the beach. But it wasn't so we made use of the ship's facilities.

I see the OP is from up north--where I am originally from--so if you are going in a cold weather month, and if the weather is nice, go ahead and go to Cable Beach on your own, and enjoy. Otherwise, might not miss much if you stay on board.

 

[lbgraves]

On our 7 days we go into town for an hour or two but spend the rest of the day at the almost deserted Mickey pool.

 

[icartjetta]

I hade been to Nasaau in 1984 when I was 14, so when I just went back on the Wonder in Feb. I could'nt wait to see the straw market. DH, Me and DD 13 months ventured out into Nassau, well the straw market is not big enouph to get a stroller through and even downtown is quite impossible (they will run you over in a heartbeat) so after about 1 1/2 hours in Nassau we were done and had seen everything there was to be seen in walking distance. We went back to the ship and enjoyed being on the ship. There's nothing better than a Disney Cruise. Just my 2 cents.
My favorite thing is room service..........................................

 

[Hanover]

We were on the Wonder Feb 13-17 and did the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Excursion in Nassau with our sons, 3 and 7. It was great and the boys loved it.

 

[Philadisney]

i really didn't enjoy nassau that much. we went snorkling, which i loved, and visited atlantis, which was fun EXCEPT we tried to walk there and it took forever (would NOT do that again, next time I'll shell out the money for a cab). after that i was ready to go back on the ship (this all took maybe 3 hours). the person i was with wanted to go shopping though so we did that for quite a while and i just did not like the atmosphere of the place. glad i checked it out as i've never been, but wouldn't spend much time there again.

 

[marylee15]

My DH still says the best day on the cruise with the exception of CC was the day we skipped St. Thomas and stayed on the ship. It was great not crowded, we did a bunch of things and our DS really had a good time at the Oceaneers Lab. I would say stay on the ship.

 

[jlowejd5]

The first cruise, we did the city. Our official opinion was "Meh". The straw market was okay, but very crowded. The people were pushy, but I understand that's how they make their living. DW has long hair, and the "braid, lady?" people were all over her. So we decided to pretend we were European and didn't speak English. Seemed to work.

Second cruise, we went over and toured Atlantis. It was gorgeous, but we'd just paid for our own wedding and cruise and were short on cash, so we didn't gamble. The resort and aquarium were amazing, and we had a good time there, but it made for a long day with a lot of walking.

The next time we go (under a year!!) we're going to stay on the ship. And we're okay with that decision. We'll have just done four days of WDW with a big group, so a day relaxing on the ship and then a day relaxing at CC will pretty much be perfect.

 

[nuke]

I won't be getting off the ship in Nassau this June. Been there before and wasn't impressed so we will use the ship facilities and have a nice relaxing day with noone around.

On our last cruise we stopped in Grand Cayman. After shopping and eating lunch we headed back to the ship and it was so nice and empty. We had a drink and chatted with the bar tender for a good 30 minutes before anyone else showed up.

 

[tinknsnow]

I actually asked this question before my 3-day Wonder last month.

We decided to stay onboard. We have no regrets! DH and I put the kids in the Club in the AM and hit the spa. I had a massage and facial and it was fantastic! Afterwards, we hung out on our verandah with the kids, had some room service. We took the kids swimming. They wanted to go back to the Club so we hung out with our toddler while he took a nap... It was a very relaxing day overall.

The only regret you might have is if you stay onboard on a sunny day... and your CC day ends up being lousy weather???

GL deciding!