What to do on Nassau Island?

[Chi35364]

1st time cruisers, we depart on the Wish 11/18.

When looking at land activities for Nassus via the DCL app ,things either look extremely pricy ($239+ for water park at atlanats!) or lots of boat tours. So I am 12 days to departure and have no idea what we are going to do. Anyone suggest some ideas? Traveing with 2 young kids 7yrs old

 

[Capt_BJ]

FIRST when leaving the ship area find the 'horse carriage' place and negotiate a city tour dropping you at the Pirate Museum

http://www.piratesofnassau.com/

you can walk back from here - just a few blocks and passes the straw market if you get tempted . . .

 

[Graymoon]

If it’s your first cruise, I would relax and stay on the ship. There’s more to do on the ship than in Nassau.

 

[Cheburashka]

For first time cruisers on a short Disney cruise, who don't want to go to Atlantis, I recommend that you stay onboard and enjoy the ship.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I was just going to say
Stay on the Ship !!!

 

[Flying Fish]

I came on here to start a thread, but I wonder if someone can help me in this thread. First, to the OP, I would suggest just staying on the ship. You'll find a lot more to do on the ship than you will no land. We haven't been off the ship in Nassau for probably five years, and that leads me to my question. We are cruising with my sister, and she wants to go to Atlantis with her young children. We have no real interest in going with her (especially for the price). Will she be safe grabbing a cab with her kids and riding over there? My memory is that some of the vendors are a little pushy, but it's safe. Any one have a more recent experience?

 

[Anna131517]

How old are her children! Do they need booster or car seats? If they do, then paying for a shore excursion that includes bus transportation may be the way to go. I am always very careful to pick shore excursions based on transportation options when traveling with little kids. I will say it would very kind of you to go with her if she doesn’t have another adult. It can be nerve wracking watching young children around water.

 

[noteasybeinggreen]

I came on here to start a thread, but I wonder if someone can help me in this thread. First, to the OP, I would suggest just staying on the ship. You'll find a lot more to do on the ship than you will no land. We haven't been off the ship in Nassau for probably five years, and that leads me to my question. We are cruising with my sister, and she wants to go to Atlantis with her young children. We have no real interest in going with her (especially for the price). Will she be safe grabbing a cab with her kids and riding over there? My memory is that some of the vendors are a little pushy, but it's safe. Any one have a more recent experience?

I went in to Atlantis in February (HAL sailing) and had no problem taking a shared cab (van) both two and from Atlantis with my two youngish kids. I bought tickets to Atlantis directly from Atlantis prior to the cruise.

 

[ElenaRN]

I usually chime in on this question when it pops up bc we had a great time last time we went to Nassau. FYI this was about 5 years ago so things may have changed.

We had 3 young children in our party. 3 girls - 2 age 6 and one 3 year old. We didn't want to spend the $ on any excursions.

We decided to check out Junkanoo Beach. I had read mixed reviews but figured we could always leave without any $ lost. Its about a 20 min doable walk from port. We did have a stroller for little one. The beach itself was clean, sand and water. We had read some complaints of a lot of garbage in the sand. We did not find that at all. It is a nice view of the port and its nice that you can see the ships while on the beach. We rented lounge chairs. There are a few craft stands boardering the beach with touristy things like jewelry, souvenirs and beach accessories.
We ordered some jerk chicken platters for lunch with some frosty beverages for adults and smoothies for kids. It was delicious. We planned on spending an hour or 2 and were there for closer to 4.

 

[dcassetta]

1st time cruisers, we depart on the Wish 11/18.

When looking at land activities for Nassus via the DCL app ,things either look extremely pricy ($239+ for water park at atlanats!) or lots of boat tours. So I am 12 days to departure and have no idea what we are going to do. Anyone suggest some ideas? Traveing with 2 young kids 7yrs old

If you are interested in water parks, you might look at day passes at the Margaritaville resort. The have a small water parks, pools and a nice beach area. It is walkable from the cruise port.

If you would prefer non-beach, I also think the Pirate Musuem is nice for kids. You might also look at Ardastra Gardens, a nice little zoo in Nassau. It's a short cab ride from the ship. DCL used to offer an excursion there, but I am sure if they currently do.

 

[Flying Fish]

My sister's kids are 7 and 9, so I am pretty sure she could handle them. She is just nervous about grabbing a cab and going over there alone. Last time we were off the ship in Nassau was probably a solid 5 years ago, and it wasn't any worse than any other port. In fact, I would say it felt better than many we have visited. She is just a nervous person in general. I could go with her, but I'm not really interested in a day at Atlantis if I can avoid it. She is definitely not interested in paying for the DCL excursion for obvious reasons. Sorry to OP for hijacking your post and thanks for the input on ideas for Nassau. It almost makes me think we should get off again and poke around.

 

[KashasMom]

We always get off the ship. We do excursions on our own. We've done day passes, Dolphin Lagoon, a snorkeling excursion, and this walking tour - https://www.frommers.com/destinations/new-providence/walking-tours. The walking tour is a good option especially if you've never been to Nassau before.

If you really want to go to Atlantis you can book a room at the Comfort Suites on Paradise Island. They have full access to the Atlantis Resort Amenities. We haven't done this but many people have so you can try Googling on how to do it. It would cost a fraction of what an excursion or day pass at Atlantis would cost.

 

[onesam319]

A kind of neat thing to find is the Queen's Staircase. When we were there in February we walked to it on our own. Just do a search for it and print out a page from google maps to take with you. It's only a few blocks, but it is uphill. There is an old fort at the top of the stairs with some historical info. There are also vendors along the fort's perimeter street. We walked there first thing and stopped to browse the merchants near the port on our way back. We were back on the ship for lunch.

 

[mrsgthatsme]

I would highly recommend getting Margaritaville day passes. We found it to be a perfect way to get off the ship for a partial day of beach/pool time. The price was reasonable, it was safe, uncrowded, clean and pretty much just what we were looking for. We have older kids and the walk felt very safe and manageable to us. You are on the touristy strip the whole time so while there are some vendors and the roads/sidewalks aren’t what we are used to in the US, I never felt a bit unsafe.

 

[dmunsil]

We liked the Ardastra Gardens & Zoo. It's quite small, but it's nice and they have some good exhibits. You can easily just take a cab for maybe $10-15 each way from the cruise terminal. Technically it's a walkable distance, but it's kind of a pain to find and tucked in among private houses with no sidewalks for part of the route. When you want to leave, just ask them to call you a cab.

The "marching flamingos" show was silly and fun. Basically the flamingos are trained to "march" around in a circle and take orders to stop, change direction, etc. from the trainer. It's kind of a hoot to see a whole flock of flamingos walking in a somewhat synchronized fashion. The fact that they're not super good at it is part of the entertainment value.

They also have some black swans, which was new to us, and multiple tropical birds, including lorakeets that can eat apple pieces out of your hands if you would like to try that.

 

[drmel]

I would highly recommend getting Margaritaville day passes. We found it to be a perfect way to get off the ship for a partial day of beach/pool time. The price was reasonable, it was safe, uncrowded, clean and pretty much just what we were looking for. We have older kids and the walk felt very safe and manageable to us. You are on the touristy strip the whole time so while there are some vendors and the roads/sidewalks aren’t what we are used to in the US, I never felt a bit unsafe.

did you buy them before you left for the cruise or just went and bought them that day ?

 

[mrsgthatsme]

did you buy them before you left for the cruise or just went and bought them that day ?

We bought ours in advance on resortpass. When we traveled there they had a free cancellation policy if you cancel at least 24 hrs in advance. It was not busy at all the day we were there, so we probably could’ve just walked up and bought them on site the day of, but we didn’t want to take a chance since we didn’t know how busy it would be.