Need help for Nassau??

Hey all

I'll be on the majesty soon and we were thinking of going to Atlantis...everyone talks about it so we wanted to see if for ourselves

There is an excursion there with the ship...but thinking maybe to just do it on our own...is it easy to get there from the cruise port??? Can we just jump in a taxi and be on our way?? Would be less expensive to do it this way rather then through the ship???

Any feedback would help alot!!!!!

Great question about Atlantis...I will have the same question if we book the cruise we are thinking about. Thanks for asking it...

Hi, We were just there in July on the Majesty. We did NOT book the tour of Atlantis with RCCL. We found a very nice man named Felton Cox (he had business cards with him) who took us on a private tour of the island, then over to Paradise Island for a "mini tour" of Atlantis. He charged us $25 per person, and we were with him for almost three hours. He has an air conditioned new Toyota van, much nicer than the "Open-air" vans some of the tours have. He was an older gentleman and very knowledgeable. I don't know if you would be able to book a tour with him directly, but it was a pleasant experience for us. You definitely have to tour Atlantis while there, it is amazing! :D

We also purchased the Passport (I think it is called) to shopping in the islands, and found the Treasure Hunting to be fun. They were for sale at the "shopping talk meeting" aboard the ship.

Good Luck! Donna

We took the RCI ship's tour to Atlantis, in April, from the Sovereign. Much was included in the excursion cost: chairs & towels on the beach, lunch, the Aquarium admission, and the harbor tour.

As this was our first time to Atlantis, it was just right for us. Another time, we would go to Atlantis on our own.

We were just at Atlantis for a week. (Came back 2 weeks ago). If your tour on the cruise ship allows you access to the Atlantis beach or pools, I would do that. If you go independent, I am not sure you can get out to the pool/beach area. There is a guard that stands out there all day and you have to show your room key to get out there. If you go independent I think you will only be able to go to the Casino, or the really really expensive shops. The hotel is Marvelous if you are into just touring a hotel. There is also "The Dig" a huge aquarium to walk through. You can access it right by the Hall of Waters restaurant--which is just down the stairs from the main lobby. I am pretty sure you can just walk into it without a fee, but we did it 2 years ago not on this last trip--so I can't remember if we had to show a room key. If they do ask for a room key and you are not staying there, you might have to pay a fee, but it is a cool thing to do. If your tour includes the dig, and pool/beach access-- I would take the tour. All of the outdoor restaurants are cashless--room charges or credit card only. So bring a credit card for food. You can buy a coconut rum drink on the beach from the locals for cash. They are delicious, but you will get smashed! :rolleyes: Have fun! Definately see the Atlantis. It is the best think in Nassau.

If you are not wanting to use the pools, the excursion with RCI would probably be ok or you could definitly just take a cab over and look around on your own. But, if you want to use the pools (and I think a certain part of the beach area, I'm not sure), you have to either reserve a room at the Atlantis or across the street at the Comfort Suites. We did the Comfort Suites reservation when we were there in July and really enjoyed it. We had been to the Atlantis before and just toured the hotel and really wanted to experience the pools, etc. All you do is make a reservation for the day at either of these hotels and they give you bracelets which gives you access to the property for the day. The cost for us was around $350 for our family of 4. This seems fairly high, but when you consider the cost of many of the ship sponsored excursions it was worth it for us. It is just a matter of what you want to do. Also, we thought lunch would be outragiously high, but you can get four hamburgers, two large orders of fries and four drinks at the Cave restaurant for about $25. We thought this was a pretty fair deal considering everything else there is very expensive. Have a great time.

If you're just going to look around and gamble, you don't need an excursion at all. Just grab a taxi at the pier and go! Same with coming back to the ship--they have taxis hanging around outside the hotel.

We are going to Atlantis on the 18th. of October on our Sovereign Cruise. We booked a "Fall Terrace Special" rate of 179.00 for the day. (Total cost with taxes and fee's was 220.11) That is a really good rate for Atlantis and especially for 4 people. That way we can use all the facilities all day, go back to the room and shower and then return to the ship. We have been to Atlantis before and it is magnificent! The cab ride to Atlantis is around $20. for 4 people. We looked at the prices at Comfort Suites and they were a little higher than Atlantis, at least a couple monthes ago. You can not do the Aquarium unless you have purchased a ticket from the ship or at Atlantis. It is not free unless you have a room at the hotel. Hope you have a great time. I can't wait until we go! E-Beth

We stayed in Cable beach in July and decided to go to Atlantis for the day. It was very crowded. If you weren't a guest you couldn't go on the beach or near the pools. We walked through the lobby and there were huge aquariums there. To walk through the Dig was a lot of money. I think it was 30pp. Didn't want to spend $ 150 for a family of 5 to see fish.