Nassau and Freeport questions

[Peggy Sue]

Hi,

We are booked on the 11/30 4 day Wonder cruise. Much to our dismay, this cruise stops in Freeport instead of a day at sea... Nassau is also not one of our favorite port of call.....

So, after reading these boards for awhile (thank you!) I booked a room at the Atlantis for the day we are in Nassau so we can take advantage of all the resort recreations facilities .. pool, beach, etc. This will run us about $230. for the day. 2 adults..no kids.

Questions:
For those of you who have done this before, was it worth it?
Is the aquarium included with the room, or is that still the extra $25. pp charge? (we did this in 2000)
Do you normally have to wait until after 4 to check into a room?
I assume you're allowed to use the pool, etc. immediately after check in, even if you don't have your room yet??


We've considered just staying on board..but the next day is Freeport, and we have less desire to go ashore that day..didn't know if 2 fulls days on board..but not at sea, was going to be something we would find enjoyable. (We're not into the spa treatments)

Does Freeport offer anything that is better than a day at the Atlantis on Nassau??

We might just end up doing what we did before..take a taxi to the Atlantis..walk around, see the casino and then go back to the ship to kill a few hours... We're banking on good weather to be able to enjoy the resort...and I don't know if that's such a good idea with a late November/Early December trip. Opinions??

thanks everyone! Appreciate your kind assistance!

Peggy Sue

 

[hsteacher]

we have been on three disney cruises and have booked the room at atlantis every time and loved it. You can also book a room at the comfort suites right across the street for a bit less if you check the prices and still get all the privileges at atlantis. Yes, everything (but food) is included in your room charge. It is beautiful and we have never regretted going there. There are people who will disagree but it is beautiful. As for freeport -- there is a resort there (lucayan maybe) that people on these posts have raved about -- we also stopped in freeport this past march and since we love atlantis, decided not to do another resort. We did do shopping in downtown Freeport and it was nothing different than Nassau. Here's the thing though -- in Nassau, you can shop the straw market without having to shuttle (you will have to shuttle by cab or water taxi to atlantis) which means you can shop without the extra money for the shuttle. So in freeport, it cost us $5 per person for the taxi into freeport (we are 4 so that's $20 -- ok we figured that) so we shop, and decide it's not any different than Nassau and try to head back to port around noon. The taxis will not head back until the taxi is full -- so we waited, and waited and since the taxi is a van (there were smaller ones behind the van but they couldn't take the taxi's out of order!) we finally just wanted to get back to the ship and paid $10 a person ($40) just to get back. Total waste. Cost us $60 in taxi's. I didn't like Freeport (don't get me started on the natives attitudes towards tourists -- espeically the taxi drivers) and we just like Nassau better. Easy on the ship -- easy off the ship. I'd stay on the ship at Freeport but that's my opinion only. Hopefully you will find that helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[joyowen]

We just took the trip last week and when we got to Nassau we walked up and there was a lady named Wilma that told us about a tour she would do for us. She was charging $25 an adult and the kids we free. With a family of 5, that was wonderful for us. We were planning on taking a taxi to Atlantis and paying to see the dig. With this tour we got to tour the rich parts of Nassau and the poor parts and then she took us to Atlantis and we toured Atlantis and saw part of the Aquarium and the casino. We could have seen the beaches there and went swimming at the beach but decided not to go, it had just started raining so we headed back to the ship. We did not regret doing this and we just loved the tour. She was great!! When we went to Freeport, we were traveling with 13 people so we didn't have a problem filling up the big van, we walked through the Lucayan and went to the beach there. We loved spending the day at the beach. It's a very pretty place to spend the day. Our taxi guy gave us his name and number and we called him when we were ready and he was there in just a few minutes and waited on everyone to finish shopping. He was a wonderful guy too!! My personal opinion is, when we go again, we may stay on the ship in Nassau and get off in Freeport!