Dolphin Excursions in Nassau

[JCDarzi]

I don't know why, but I'm finding that I have more questions for booking our 5 day cruise in May than I ever have for our WDW trips.

I have a daughter (7 at time of cruise) who is crazy about dolphins. To do the shallow water interaction with dolphins in Nassau would be incredible.

Looking through the posts here, it looks like we have two choices...1) Blue Lagoon or 2) Dolphin Cay at Atlantis. Correct?

My thoughts would be to do Dolphin Cay at Atlantis because we've never been to Atlantis and would love to see it. It seems that we would only have time to do the one shore excursion, right?

Looking through Disney's shore excursions, they combine Dolphin Cay with the water park at Atlantis. With young kids (who are fairly timid), we are not interested in the water park.

I'm thinking our options are the following:

1) Go to Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter and forgo Atlantis.

2) Go to Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter and hit Atlantis as well...(is there time for this?)

3) Create our own shore excursion to Atlantis and reserve our own spots at Dolphin Cay. Then take whatever time is left to tour Atlantis. (how hard is it to get to Atlantis on our own? This is our first Disney cruise)

Any opinions of which dolphin encounter is better?

Thanks a bunch :-)

[MidnTPK]

Sorry, can't help you decide between the dolphin encounters, but I think you have the wrong impression of Aquaventure at Atlantis.

I have hard time imagining a kid bold enough to have an up close encounter with a large animal, but too timid to enjoy the water attractions at Atlantis. Most water features are not very extreme, but they are very fun. There a a mile ling river that has a wavy section and a rapids section. 3 and 4 year olds go on this all the time. There's a fantastic kid play structure with a dump bucket and 4 or 5 slides. There's another lazy river on the far side of the property. Then there's the more thrilling attractions, like the 3 'water coasters' just like Crush-n-Gusher at TL and a few other body and tube slides.

One thing to note: whichever route you go, make sure that it clear whether or not you get access to Aquaventure....just because you might do the encounter at Dolphin Cay at Atlantis doesn't mean you'll be allowed to access Aquaventure.

My advice is to do the Atlantis excursion. while it might be more expensive, it's much cheaper than a discrete trip to Atlantis!

[JCDarzi]

Thanks for your advice MidnTPK.

We would definitely like to spend time at Atlantis as it does look incredible. Any recommendations for "what not to miss" there?

We are a family of 4 with DD7 and DS4.

Thanks again

[TammiMcMan]

1) Go to Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter and forgo Atlantis.

I would do this option or the DCL combo excursion which includes the water park. You know your kids the best though. If you don't think they'll be comfortable at a water park, then maybe combining the Atlantis dolphin excursion with the aquarium tour would be better.

2) Go to Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter and hit Atlantis as well...(is there time for this?)

It really depends on what time the ship is scheduled to leave from Nassau and what time your encounter is. The excursion is about 5 hours.

3) Create our own shore excursion to Atlantis and reserve our own spots at Dolphin Cay. Then take whatever time is left to tour Atlantis. (how hard is it to get to Atlantis on our own? This is our first Disney cruise)

There are two fairly easy ways to get to Atlantis. You can go by taxi or water taxi. Both are located right outside the Welcome Center. As previously pointed out though, you probably won't get much of an Atlantis tour doing it this way. You'd need to be with the Disney excursion or a guest at the hotel. If you aren't one of those, you are limited to the marina and lobby area.

In terms of which encounter is better, I would go to the individual websites for each one and look through all they offer. Based on what I saw, Atlantis offers 30 minutes in the water, while Blue Lagoon offers 20 minutes.

[MidnTPK]

Thanks for your advice MidnTPK.

We would definitely like to spend time at Atlantis as it does look incredible. Any recommendations for "what not to miss" there?

We are a family of 4 with DD7 and DS4.

Thanks again

My advice: don't do the grounds tour. Either do the Aquaventure/Dolphin day or tour the free-public area on your own. The grounds tour would be an expensive way to torture your kids.

On the do it yourself side, make your way to the Great Hall and look in the giant aquarium from there. this is free and accessible to the public. Otherwise the free area is casinos and shopping, which I doubt kids that age will appreciate, though its very nice. But that's about then end of the don't miss if you don't do the Aquaventure day.

If you decide to do an Atlantis Aquaventure day, there is so much for kids to do. For context, I've brought my DD twice, the first when she was 9 months, the second when she was 21 months (going back when she'll be almost 3). My brother and his family have been twice with me when his kids have ranged from 3 to 9 years old.

Aquaventure itself if very kid friendly. Kids of any age may ride in the rapids and wavy area on one or two person tubes with parents, and life jackets are free and widely available.

For kids specifically, I'll start with Splashers, the nicest kid water play structure I've ever seen. Not the biggest, but it sits in a nice lagoon like pool, not on a concrete pad. It has 4 or 5 very kid friendly slides, plus play fountains and the dump bucket.

Across from that is Ripples Kids Pool, which has its own meandering slides and fountains (for the under 48 inch set).

Ripples is attached to the Mayan temple, which has some body slides (for the 48+ inch set) and some smaller ones for the younger. This is the place where there's' a steep slide through a tube in an aquarium full of sharks. There's also a non-extreme tube slide that you can do in two person tubes that also goes through the shark tank.

The other must-see for the young ones is all of the sea life lagoons on the east side of the grounds between the beach and coral towers. In that area there are all of the small lagoons filled with turtles, nurse sharks, rays, and juvenile sea life. And the kids can take part in the daily feedings.

There's another lazy river on this part of the resort that is truly lazy. There's a small kids pool here too, with a mushroom, but is quite of a let-down compared to the other areas.

On the aquarium side, walking through the Dig and through the underwater tunnel in the predators lagoon (Sawfish, Rays, Hammerheads) is also a don't miss.

I haven't mentioned the three beach areas (one very protected and calm and safe for even the littlest ones, one semi protected with just small waves, and then the open beach that can be calm or have body surfing size waves) and 4 or 5 other pools that you'd have access to.

To do this all a little cheaper, many people book a room at the Comfort Suites and never occupy the room. For a family of four, this might be the cheaper way to do-it-yourself. If that's of interest to you, I can explain further. Its perfectly legitimate and many cruisers (from all lines) do it.

[JCDarzi]

Wow! Y'all are awesome! Thanks for the all the great info.

[DisneyWhirled]

We did the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter in Nassau with our DS 10 & DD 7 last Monday.

It was perfect for us! We got some great photos and the kids loved the interaction with the dolphins. Having never had this type of experience, it was just right. No one felt overwhelmed and it was unforgettable.

I hope to do a trip report soon, but if you have any questions, let me know!!

[JCDarzi]

Thanks a bunch.

I looked at some reviews on Dolphin Cay vs. Blue Lagoon for dolphin encounters. It's looks like Blue Lagoon was the clear winner.

I'll look forward to your trip report. Did you have time to do anything else in Nassau besides the dolphin encounter?

[Imalismom]

You might also want to look outside of DCL for your excursions - I have found that you can do more and pay less for much of everything any cruise ship offers.

try places like shoretrips or myshoretrips and look at what they are offering and the prices they are charging. You can then look at what DCL is charging and offering. From there you can look at what the places themselves are offering and the prices if you just take a taxi to them and pay for the dolphin swim yourself.

When we did our dolphin swim, we booked directly with the establishment in Cozumel that was doing the swim, took a taxi to them, had an AWESOME time and spent about ½ of what we would have paid through the cruise line.

[JCDarzi]

Thanks! I will certainly look that up!