Stopping in Nassau

[edenrayne]

Has any one on the Poisea took the "Discover Atlantis" tour through the ship? There is not a very good discription of the tour on the web site.

Just wanted to know what all you did for $35.

[edenrayne]

I should have said the price was $50 for this tour.

Has no one ever taken;this tour?

[smitty1952]

I would like to know also. I tried to book on MSC website. They told me I had to book on ship.

[bobar]

i would take a cab ride for $8pp roundtrip or water taxi and go see it myself without a ships tour:cool:

[rashmi2999]

Hi. We just got back from the Poesia on Saturday, and took the discover Atlantis tour (my friend hasn't been to Nassau before and really wanted to see this). Here is what it entailed:

We were escorted from the ship to the ferry dock (about 10 minutes) where we boarded. The ferry ride was about 15 minutes to Paradise Island, and the tour guide pointed out some celeb landmarks (Nicholas Cage's home, Anna Nicole Smith's hospital, James Bond set etc.). There were about 150-200 of us on the tour from our ship, and we were all herded from the dock on Paradise Island to the Atlantis resort where we split off into groups of about 20. They told us the ferry returns every half hour until 6, so we could take any return trip we wanted (on the way there only MSC was on the ferry, but on the return trip there were other ships passengers with us).

Our tour guide took us through the hotel and casino to the first aquarium. The aquariums are the main focus of the guided tour. One lady complained that the guide was walking too fast since there was not sufficient time to take pictures of the resort and there was someone with a broken toe and had trouble walking (and the guide replied "did you not know that this tour requires sufficient mobility when you booked it"). Personally we found the tour was moving rather slowly, and we had suficient time to take pictures of the hotel features and flowers and sculptures. We then walked over to the second aquarium with more sharks, fish and jellyfish, and a tank where you can touch starfish and conch. After the aquariums were done we had time to explore the resort/island at leisure.

I do not think the tour is worth it unless you are really into seeing the aquarium. I have already been to seaworld, different zoos, and the Mandalay Bay aquarium, so the fish aren't really novel to me. The tour does not include admission to the resort's private beach, or water park. You can tour most of the shops, casinos and hotel towers though. And there is a public beach with a changeroom about five minutes from the Coral Towers section of the hotel (which was quite nice and locals didn't harass us to buy things after the first 5 minutes after we sat down). I beleive the tour guide told us cabs from Atlantis to the ship port are $4 per head each way in case you miss the ferry, so I would reccomend this instead if you don't care for the aquarium. Hope that helps!