chabs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2005
- Messages
- 1,274
It absolutely was! I booked directly through the Comfort Inn website and was able to get a special for $168 for the 4 of us-it actually turned out to be exactly $100 more with the fees once we checked in-so total of $268.
We took a cab/van from the port to the Comfort Inn ($4 per person) with another family-they try to get as many people in a van as possible-you just have to tell the cab drivers that you do not want to wait and they'll get you going on your way. It took maybe about 15 minutes to get there once they filled the van. We were dropped off right in front of the Comfort Inn and checked in and out within 5 minutes. The Comfort Inn gives you a card to take over to Atlantis.
We walked across the street to Atlantis and through the building (downstairs and then through part of the aquarium) to get to the pool (about a 10 minute walk). You have to exchange your cards at a towel hut for wristbands and towels (which were included). The longest wait was getting a locker-at least 15 minutes of wasted time there and they only take credit cards (Atlantis does not take cash for anything). I think we rented a medium locker for about $12. Be aware that they will hold a $50 deposit on your credit card for the key.
We spend almost our whole day in the "lazy" river, since my son had casts on both of his arms and figured that he wouldn't be allowed to do the body slides (was told no body slides at TL). Their lazy river beats TL or BB by a mile-it's not so lazy and also takes you up to a couple of different water slides without you ever having to get out of the water. My kids (12 and 14) both loved the water park and said that this was the best part of the cruise.
We didn't eat lunch there-we had a couple of snacks (soda was $4 per can). I think I paid about $30 for 4 sodas, 2 french fries and a pretzel, so it's not cheap. Service is extremely slow-nobody seemed like they were in a rush to wait on you. I did see a Ben & Jerry's but we didn't eat there.
We were able to walk over to the beach for a little while, but the kids wanted to go back to the pool. You can get ski or ride the banana boat but we really didn't have time for that because I wanted to get some shopping in before we left the port.
One thing you need to know-bring sandals or some type of shoes to wear because the ground is HOT! I hate wearing shoes at water parks and even I had to keep jumping off the pavement because I couldn't stand it.
We left at 2pm so that I could shop and walked back into the main lobby (where the aquarium is) and out the front door. They have cabs waiting there to take you back to the port ($4 each again). We took some crazy route through a couple of neighborhoods (not sure why?) but it took longer to get back to port-maybe about 20 minutes.
I wouldn't bother shopping in Nassau unless you are specifically looking for jewelry or rum cakes. There is not much else there. We didn't feel unsafe but you really had to keep an eye on who was around you when you were on the street. The stores close at 5:30 and we were going to stop at the straw market on our way out around 5, but there were too many people kind of just hanging around and you had to walk on a narrow side walk packed with cars so we didn't think it was a good idea. We didn't want to put ourselves in a bad situation and it seemed like there were a lot of people just hanging around on the streets at closing time. There were a lot of side streets that didn't look like they were safe so you really had to stick to the main shopping street.
We did attend the shopping talk by Tiffany and she passed out cards with names on them of people who would give you the best discount and a couple of free items (we picked up free Tanzanite earrings-obviously they were not the greatest and I think my mother got a couple of free gemstones). Basically, most of the jewelry stores will give you at least 50% off the marked price-sometimes up to 70% depending on how hard you push. The shopping talk is mostly about jewelry, since jewelry is the best buy in the Bahamas. She gave out some free items (I won a Del Sol t-shirt-although we went to the store to buy the sunglasses that she talked about and the store was practically empty-no merchandise). She was very nice and we did end up seeing her in one of the jewelry stores. She also gives you a map of the preferred stores-this was very helpful.
We took a cab/van from the port to the Comfort Inn ($4 per person) with another family-they try to get as many people in a van as possible-you just have to tell the cab drivers that you do not want to wait and they'll get you going on your way. It took maybe about 15 minutes to get there once they filled the van. We were dropped off right in front of the Comfort Inn and checked in and out within 5 minutes. The Comfort Inn gives you a card to take over to Atlantis.
We walked across the street to Atlantis and through the building (downstairs and then through part of the aquarium) to get to the pool (about a 10 minute walk). You have to exchange your cards at a towel hut for wristbands and towels (which were included). The longest wait was getting a locker-at least 15 minutes of wasted time there and they only take credit cards (Atlantis does not take cash for anything). I think we rented a medium locker for about $12. Be aware that they will hold a $50 deposit on your credit card for the key.
We spend almost our whole day in the "lazy" river, since my son had casts on both of his arms and figured that he wouldn't be allowed to do the body slides (was told no body slides at TL). Their lazy river beats TL or BB by a mile-it's not so lazy and also takes you up to a couple of different water slides without you ever having to get out of the water. My kids (12 and 14) both loved the water park and said that this was the best part of the cruise.
We didn't eat lunch there-we had a couple of snacks (soda was $4 per can). I think I paid about $30 for 4 sodas, 2 french fries and a pretzel, so it's not cheap. Service is extremely slow-nobody seemed like they were in a rush to wait on you. I did see a Ben & Jerry's but we didn't eat there.
We were able to walk over to the beach for a little while, but the kids wanted to go back to the pool. You can get ski or ride the banana boat but we really didn't have time for that because I wanted to get some shopping in before we left the port.
One thing you need to know-bring sandals or some type of shoes to wear because the ground is HOT! I hate wearing shoes at water parks and even I had to keep jumping off the pavement because I couldn't stand it.
We left at 2pm so that I could shop and walked back into the main lobby (where the aquarium is) and out the front door. They have cabs waiting there to take you back to the port ($4 each again). We took some crazy route through a couple of neighborhoods (not sure why?) but it took longer to get back to port-maybe about 20 minutes.
I wouldn't bother shopping in Nassau unless you are specifically looking for jewelry or rum cakes. There is not much else there. We didn't feel unsafe but you really had to keep an eye on who was around you when you were on the street. The stores close at 5:30 and we were going to stop at the straw market on our way out around 5, but there were too many people kind of just hanging around and you had to walk on a narrow side walk packed with cars so we didn't think it was a good idea. We didn't want to put ourselves in a bad situation and it seemed like there were a lot of people just hanging around on the streets at closing time. There were a lot of side streets that didn't look like they were safe so you really had to stick to the main shopping street.
We did attend the shopping talk by Tiffany and she passed out cards with names on them of people who would give you the best discount and a couple of free items (we picked up free Tanzanite earrings-obviously they were not the greatest and I think my mother got a couple of free gemstones). Basically, most of the jewelry stores will give you at least 50% off the marked price-sometimes up to 70% depending on how hard you push. The shopping talk is mostly about jewelry, since jewelry is the best buy in the Bahamas. She gave out some free items (I won a Del Sol t-shirt-although we went to the store to buy the sunglasses that she talked about and the store was practically empty-no merchandise). She was very nice and we did end up seeing her in one of the jewelry stores. She also gives you a map of the preferred stores-this was very helpful.
