What is your favorite excursion in Nassau

[drewswife]

We are taking a 3 day cruise in May and I was just wondering what your favorite excursion in Nassau is?

Thank you

 

[westjones]

Personally, I think on the 3 day it is better to just stay on board and enjoy the ship! We did get off and walk around the town on our own for about an hour, but afterwards I wished we had just stayed on board.

NOW to be honest, next year we are planning the dolphin encounter just because we will be in Nassau on our twin daughters' 10th birthday and this is a surprise for them (including the cruise). But if it were not for their 10th birthday, we wouldn't do it.

I think a lot depends on what you enjoy. We love the ship so much that we hate to miss out on things like the Princess Party in the morning (then I do have young girls who love the princesses) or the Who wants to be a Mouseketeer in the afternoon.

Have you looked at the navigators? Here is a link to the 3 day Nassau navigator on Barb and Tony's page:

http://www.disneycruiser.info/w3day2.htm

DJ

 

[PiperG]

Originally posted by westjones
Personally, I think on the 3 day it is better to just stay on board and enjoy the ship! We did get off and walk around the town on our own for about an hour, but afterwards I wished we had just stayed on board.


DJ

We did the glass bottomed boat, which I do not recommend. We wish we had stayed on the ship also. It is far less crowded and we had more fun in the Mickey pool without all the crowds. However, I think it all depends on what you like to do and the age of the kids.

 

[aprilgail2]

Stay on the boat! Nothing much there unless you want to go over to Atlantis!

 

[mickeyfan1]

There is NOTHING worth getting off one of the most beautiful ships in the industry for in Nassau. Even Atlantis. You can spend a lot of $$$ getting off, going to Paradise Island, trying to get on the beach, or, you can stay on board, be at the pool, soak up the sun, maybe tour the ship (maybe the kitchen or bridge, if that is offered) and then you get to go to Castaway Cay, much more beautiful than Nassau, Paradise Island, and Blue Lagoon combined. And it's included in your cruise fare!!!!

Imagine, all this praise coming from someone who really didn't like the DCL experience! But what I have said is true. I have been to Nassau 12 times, if I get off the ship, it is to go to Cable Beach Casino, nothing else.

 

[npdman]

Seems no one is answering your question. I have never been either, so cannot speak from experience.

It seems logical you always have the option of staying on the ship. However, there are us wacky folks who might still like to leave the most beautiful ship in the world. If you leave the ship what are the best excursions on Nassua?

I am leaning toward the Dolphin Swim and then going to Stingray City on Paradise Island after the Swim. I too have been interested in what people thought of these two self planned excursions?

 

[BearFan]

We were in Nassau on the 4 day cruise and did not do any excursions. It was the first time we had been there and we really didn't like Nassau at all. We felt that it was the dirtiest of all the ports that DCL stops at (we've been on all 3 itineraries). We had people following us around and had to duck into stores several times just to shake them. But the worst thing of all, in our opinion, was the vendors (cabbies, hairbraiders et al) ready to pounce on you as soon as you leave the ship. I don't understand why Disney doesn't keep them on the other side of the security checkpoint. It just didn't seem logical seeing the state of security these days.
About your question, many of the people we cruised with who did go on excursions just raved about going to Atlantis. We sat with another couple without children who just loved the tour.

I hope you enjoy whatever you do there.

Lisa Marie Smith

 

[shefor24]

I will try to answer you the best I can. Remember everyone, this is only MY opinion, so no flames.
Okay, we did the Blue Lagoon Island excursion, and we were soooo excited about surprising my twin girls, age 10 to the dolphin encounter there. Well, we got over there and was herded towards the dolphin encounter with most of the people on our slow moving ferry boat that took 45 minutes to get over there. It was beautiful- the trip over, so I am really not trying to complain about that part. So we get up to the encounter "classroom" type thing where they are telling about where to touch the dolphins, what not to touch, etc, etc. Everyone during this time was loud and really not listening to him talk. I was mad they didn't make people SHUT UP during this, so we could at least hear what is going on. So then he got done talking and must've said something about come this way becasue all of a sudden I was getting trampled on and pushed out of the way. So I got the hint and followed the crowd. They divided us up to several U shaped piers and there was probably 12 people per section, 6 on each side. They had 6 people go to the bottom of the U where there is a platform in the water. You stand there and she called the dolphin in, and had the dolphin come by you to pet it, then again to dance with it, then again to get your "kiss" while the phtographer took a picture (it is per family, not per person, so decide before this time who is going to be the one to get "kissed". Anyway, it was....neat, but IMHO not worth that much MONEY!! WOW that was an expensive 2-3 minutes that my twins got to actually touch and see up close the dolphin. I mean if you add up all the minutes together. Anyway, after that we did the Stingray City which was so VERY COOL! I can't say enough about it- maybe its becasue it was my first time to "snorkel" at ALL, but it was really neat! For $15 it was so much more worth it than the $118.00 per kid for the dolphin theng, and my kids love dolphins, but I bet if you asked them when I wasn't around which they liked best, it would be the stingrays! So, to answer your question.....lets see would I do it again........I don't think I would go to Blue Lagoon Island again, the stingray thing was quite COOL, but I would probably choose stay on the ship, the beach at Blue Lagoon Island was nice, peaceful, quiet, pretty, etc, but boy I hadn't seen ANYTHING til we got to Castaway Cay!!
Whew, that was alot, thanks for listening.....hee hee

 

[Nutsoverdisney]

Both times when we cruised we decided to visit Nassau. The first time we walked around the town a little and stopped in some of the little shops making our way to the straw market. Then we took a taxi to the Atlantis where we had rented a room. We used the pools. beach and slides. Before returning to the ship we went back to our room and showered. Myself and DD14 at the time, stayed in the room and relaxed while DH and DM went to the casinos.

The second time we took the horse and buggy ride. The driver gave us a tour of the city pointing out some historical buildings, giving us some of the history of the island, he also answered any questions we had.

After the horse and buggy ride we made our way to the straw market. DM wanted to pick up some straw door mats. Then hit the beach.

Next time we go to Nassau we will be going to Paradise Cove to do some snorkeling.

Check out Nassaus offical web page, it might help you decide on what to do in Nassau.

 

[idontknow]

Uh oh, I thought Paradise Cove was in Freeport/Lucaya. Have I really messed up the info that much or is there another Paradise Cove?

 

[hydster]

think the excursions we took in Nassau were terrible! We did the Scuba Dive in Nassau which STUNK to say the least. We only went down about 10-15 feet for an hour and it was ho hum! They did reduce the price but it got boring after awhile! We were supposed to go to a wreck and a reef but neither one panned out. They said it was because of a cold front coming in but I dont think that is the case since I have talked to some others since returning and they have all had the same experience! It was a waste of money to us. Then we took the kids on the glass bottom boat and that was another time waster! Our kids were cold and bored after about 5 min in the bottom of the boat. It wasnt a very long tour thankfully but still a waste of time and money. I really thought Nassau was neat (but then I love different places like Costa Rica and Belize) and we really enjoyed the straw market (even if it is total junk) but it was fun interracting with people there. I didnt like the constant hassle of saying no to the braid people but I do understand that is alot of how they make their money so a polite nope and they would leave us alone. I personally would love to just look around Nassau on my own (probably for a little bit with the kids and alot alone without them) just to see the people and the places but I dont know if I would get off and do an excursion again. They seemed overpriced and not our "cup of tea". Now in Freeport we did the Dolphin Encounter and it was amazing! That was our favorite part of the trip for sure!

Heidi