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Blue Lagoon Nassau Beach Day

heatherpl

By heatherpl,
in Bahamas

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KimPossible1

KimPossible1

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I found pictures on trip advisor and youtube had some videos. We are going this week.   It looked like there wasn't umbrellas on the regular beach so I booked the VIP excursion through Carnival that says umbrellas and padded chairs.  I just googled searched it and found reviews and pics on many different sites.

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happylittlefamily

happylittlefamily

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Just did this excursion on Wednesday and do not recommend it.   It was incredibly disappointing for our entire family.   Lunch was not very good.  Hot dog or burger.  Limited sides.  Lemonade and fruit punch was not very good at all.  One drink (lemonade/fruit punch) and one visit to lunch line.  We ended up having to sit on our beach towels on the ground because no chairs available at the lagoon, but they had a large reserved area of empty chairs available.   Our day in Nassau there were 5 ships in port and that is the reason I've been given for our experience.   However,  I paid the same price as if it weren't busy, so not sure how it is supposed to rectify our experience.   We will not do this excursion again.  Thank goodness Princess Cay the next day redeemed our faith in the Bahamas beach experience!

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KimPossible1

KimPossible1

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Hello,

We just did the VIP excursion through Carnival and I would not recommend it.  When we arrived at the "private" beach there were no chairs there and had to walk farther to another "private" beach.  We were very upset and the hostess said they don't usually open the extra beach because the "private" adult beach holds 54, which makes it not very private and they had over 100 people book the excursion.  It did not have padded chairs as advertised, but there were umbrellas, it would have been a total disaster if not for the Bahama Mamas lol!!  There were many areas on the other beaches that looked shaded and hammocks in the shade too, so I don't think it was necessary to get the VIP package.  We were really disappointed, and actually we were only there 3 hours of a so-called 5 hour excursion.  We arrived at 11 and had to take the 2:15 ferry back.  

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happylittlefamily

happylittlefamily

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On 2/16/2020 at 12:48 PM, KimPossible1 said:

Hello,

We just did the VIP excursion through Carnival and I would not recommend it.  When we arrived at the "private" beach there were no chairs there and had to walk farther to another "private" beach.  We were very upset and the hostess said they don't usually open the extra beach because the "private" adult beach holds 54, which makes it not very private and they had over 100 people book the excursion.  It did not have padded chairs as advertised, but there were umbrellas, it would have been a total disaster if not for the Bahama Mamas lol!!  There were many areas on the other beaches that looked shaded and hammocks in the shade too, so I don't think it was necessary to get the VIP package.  We were really disappointed, and actually we were only there 3 hours of a so-called 5 hour excursion.  We arrived at 11 and had to take the 2:15 ferry back.  

We had the same experience and when we complained were told nobody else had said they were unhappy.   I was so upset and also do not recommend this excursion. 

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Marie51

Marie51

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On 2/16/2020 at 12:48 PM, KimPossible1 said:

Hello,

We just did the VIP excursion through Carnival and I would not recommend it.  When we arrived at the "private" beach there were no chairs there and had to walk farther to another "private" beach.  We were very upset and the hostess said they don't usually open the extra beach because the "private" adult beach holds 54, which makes it not very private and they had over 100 people book the excursion.  It did not have padded chairs as advertised, but there were umbrellas, it would have been a total disaster if not for the Bahama Mamas lol!!  There were many areas on the other beaches that looked shaded and hammocks in the shade too, so I don't think it was necessary to get the VIP package.  We were really disappointed, and actually we were only there 3 hours of a so-called 5 hour excursion.  We arrived at 11 and had to take the 2:15 ferry back.  

 Just for future reference I believe you can take any ferry back as they run continuously. You do not have to take any specific one. 

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PrincessArlena'sDad "Live from...." Rare

PrincessArlena'sDad

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2 minutes ago, Marie51 said:

 Just for future reference I believe you can take any ferry back as they run continuously. You do not have to take any specific one. 

Yes, but I believe they have two schedules, one for ferries back to Paradise Island, and the other schedule to go directly to the pier.

 

Also, with multiple ships in port, it is possible the last ferry back to the pier is too late to make your ship, so you do need to be mindful of times.

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KimPossible1

KimPossible1

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We were told at least 2 times on the ride to the island and told 2 times during our orientation/walk to the adult beach that we had to take the 2:15 ferry and if we didn't make it, we wouldn't get back to the ship.  When we went to get the 2:15 ferry there was a huge group of people lined up and the guy noticed our carnival bands and said to follow him to make sure we got on that one.  People seemed upset that we were allowed to "jump the line" ....so I don't think you can take just any ferry back.  

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Marie51

Marie51

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2 hours ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

Yes, but I believe they have two schedules, one for ferries back to Paradise Island, and the other schedule to go directly to the pier.

 

Also, with multiple ships in port, it is possible the last ferry back to the pier is too late to make your ship, so you do need to be mindful of times.

 Yes, I forgot to mention that. Be sure you are on the ferry going back to the cruise pier;  otherwise you’ll end up in Paradise Island and have to take a taxi back to the ship. 

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Marie51

Marie51

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7 minutes ago, KimPossible1 said:

We were told at least 2 times on the ride to the island and told 2 times during our orientation/walk to the adult beach that we had to take the 2:15 ferry and if we didn't make it, we wouldn't get back to the ship.  When we went to get the 2:15 ferry there was a huge group of people lined up and the guy noticed our carnival bands and said to follow him to make sure we got on that one.  People seemed upset that we were allowed to "jump the line" ....so I don't think you can take just any ferry back.  

I’m just speaking from my own experience. People from our group were taking different ferries back at different times.  Perhaps it depends on how many people are there on any particular day. 😊

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happylittlefamily

happylittlefamily

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1 hour ago, KimPossible1 said:

We were told at least 2 times on the ride to the island and told 2 times during our orientation/walk to the adult beach that we had to take the 2:15 ferry and if we didn't make it, we wouldn't get back to the ship.  When we went to get the 2:15 ferry there was a huge group of people lined up and the guy noticed our carnival bands and said to follow him to make sure we got on that one.  People seemed upset that we were allowed to "jump the line" ....so I don't think you can take just any ferry back.  

Were you there 2/12? That was the day we were there and had the exact same situation!  It was horrible. 

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KimPossible1

KimPossible1

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Yes we were there 2/12.  I was so disappointed with the whole excursion!  When there were no chairs left and we had to walk to the other beach, I was really upset.  I felt bad for the poor girls having to walk all the way down to that other beach and people were not being very nice to them.  The drinks were strong though, so there are some parts that are a little fuzzy LOL!!!  Like we ended up at the wrong buffet but we really didn't end up eating much so it didn't matter, but I still have no idea where the "brown roof" hut was that we were supposed to go to, we just started walking down the sidewalk and ended up at the main buffet.  Oh well!  I had heard by both my sister and a friend how great Blue Lagoon was and thought by getting the VIP excursion we would have comfy chairs and a quieter area.  Before we moved to the other beach, while I was at the bathroom, my husband said the people in front of him were playing music on a portable speaker so that's not good and I'm glad I didn't hear that, or I would have been even madder 😉  We ended up having fun because of the alcohol but saying an excursion is 5 hours and only having 3 hours on the beach isn't good.  We will try something else next time.  

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happylittlefamily

happylittlefamily

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1 hour ago, KimPossible1 said:

Yes we were there 2/12.  I was so disappointed with the whole excursion!  When there were no chairs left and we had to walk to the other beach, I was really upset.  I felt bad for the poor girls having to walk all the way down to that other beach and people were not being very nice to them.  The drinks were strong though, so there are some parts that are a little fuzzy LOL!!!  Like we ended up at the wrong buffet but we really didn't end up eating much so it didn't matter, but I still have no idea where the "brown roof" hut was that we were supposed to go to, we just started walking down the sidewalk and ended up at the main buffet.  Oh well!  I had heard by both my sister and a friend how great Blue Lagoon was and thought by getting the VIP excursion we would have comfy chairs and a quieter area.  Before we moved to the other beach, while I was at the bathroom, my husband said the people in front of him were playing music on a portable speaker so that's not good and I'm glad I didn't hear that, or I would have been even madder 😉  We ended up having fun because of the alcohol but saying an excursion is 5 hours and only having 3 hours on the beach isn't good.  We will try something else next time.  

We just did the family beach day, so no alcohol.  Did you make a complaint?  We kept asking for help because I thought we must have been in the wrong place and they kept saying, go down to that lady and she will know.  That was done about 3-4 times and finally told 30 minutes before having to be on the ferry that if we walked down 2 more beaches, we would find chairs.  Everyone told us how great and relaxing Blue Lagoon was, so totally felt misled.  Our day was $400 and literally walked in circles for almost all of it.  I am going to contact them directly because I still haven't received a follow-up to the complaint I issued to the excursion desk.

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SRQbeachgirl "Live from...." Rare

SRQbeachgirl

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5 hours ago, happylittlefamily said:

We were told we (Carnival) had to take the 1:15 ferry or the 2:15 ferry even though we didn't get to the Island until 11am.  We were told if we missed those ferries, we would be stuck there.

 

What time was your excursion schedule to start? We have the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Adventure, Waterpark, Beach & Lunch booked and it says the departure time is 8:30am.

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PrincessArlena'sDad "Live from...." Rare

PrincessArlena'sDad

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15 hours ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

What time was your excursion schedule to start? We have the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Adventure, Waterpark, Beach & Lunch booked and it says the departure time is 8:30am.

We have the same tour booked, with the same departure time.

 

If travel time is an hour, with the listed time of 5 hours total, 3 hours at blue lagoon would be disappointing, but technically within the details provided.  

 

Our ship departs at 5 pm, so I'm hoping there is a 3 pm ferry, which would give us over 5 hours there.

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