Atlantis/Comfort Suites Day Pass Questions

[cruislovin]

Does anyone know how much the Internet costs on DCL per minute?

[momofmeg]

Well we cancelled. All Disney could say was it was still up in the air but that they would not take us into the direct path of a storm. Another words I guess it was still too iffy to tell for sure.

 

On disboards.com my daughter read a post today where the Sept. 12 Wonder cruise went to Charleston, SC on Mon. Tues. was a sea day and Nassau on Wed. They said Nassau still looked pretty bad so they did not go to any beaches. They shopped a little and returned to the ship.

 

I did not want to throw away $200 and even though the internet will probally run about 75 cents to a $1.00 a minute I would rather spend $10 or $15 rebooking then to waste $200.

[vossjemi]

momofmeg,

 

I would have done the same. Pls post when you get back and let us know how it turned out. I may have the same worries next year on our disney cruise.

[momofmeg]

Well we were glad we cancelled. Especially after we called Disney and they told us we would be going to Nasau and Castaway Key. Thing was after we boarded we learned Monday would be our sea day instead of Wed. so we were in Nassau Tues. instead of Mon. We would have thrown away $200 if we had not cancelled.

 

We ended up not doing the comfort Suites thing. My daughter decided she did not want to go to Atlantis and hubby and I could not see the need to as we have a great water park right here in Atlanta-Whitewater-we have been to other water parks in FL when on vacation and none have measured up to whitewater.

 

What we did was the aquarain thing through the ship. Between that and the shopping I did I had a very full day-I can't see myself doing the waterpark too and enjoying it-as it was I was exhausted.

 

Plus the next day we were at Castaway Key and betwen the bananna boat, snorkling. paddle boat etc. we had plenty of beach time-after all that is all that day is about.

 

Internet was 75 cents a minute but if you went between 5 and 7 p.m. you got the first 5 minutes free so it would not be that expensive to go and book Comfort Inn from there. If it took you 15 minutes to book it then it would cost you $7.50. Ofcourse if you want to do more then it would get pricy.

 

Hubby ended up going to a cafe in Nassau called Tarkay that was 10 cents a minute. The purser's office can give you directions as the crew uses that cafe.

 

So neither of us really missed the waterpark I guess-I preferred shopping and hubby preferred playing "Fanasty football" so we were more then happy.

 

The aquarain had a tunnel to walk through where we could see the sharks and stingrays up close so we did not really miss that tunnel ride at the water park. (The only real reason I wanted to do it)

[vossjemi]

Thanks for the rpt momofmeg! Sounds like you made the right decision in cancelling. I'd still like to go to Atlantis, but since we are going next sept, it could very well be as unpredicatable as this year, so we may have to do a wait and see as well. Glad you had a fun cruise and got to do castaway cay. I hear this week's cruise is missing it due to Jeanne.:(

[momofmeg]

Yes when we left Wed. at 5 p.m. from castaway Key. Everything was great then but around midnight we started feeling the effects of Jeanne. We spent thurs. night in coca Beach-we watched both Fanasty and the Wonder leave. You would not believe the waves on that beach. Friday we left around 1 p.m. to head back home. We had went to the Kennedy space center Thurs. and Fri. morning. They were closing Kennedy early Fri-at 5 p.m. but we figured we better head home before people started evacuating. as it was there was plenty of traffic.

 

I hate folks will miss Castaway Key-it was really nice-much nicer then RCCL's Coco Cay-many more activities and also the Disney island must be like 3 times larger.

 

The people who worked on the island who were not Disney employees were from Abaco island which was 8 miles from Castaway. The weather channel said Abaco got hit this morning so I am sure Castaway Key did also. I really feel for those folks on Abaco-they said they were really hurting already from Frances so they sure did not need Jeanne.

 

I can't believe we got to do our cruise and both islands we were supposed to do. The week before us didn't and it looks like the week after us won't either.

 

We almost booked the Magic Sept. 18 cruise. Now with all this going on I am sure glad we did the Wonder instead. It looks as though Magic will geta day or two more and will debark in Ft. Lauderdale instead of Pt. Canaraval.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

We are going to Nassau in April on the Glory so I just checked to see the day and it is the first day, sunday but we arrive at 8.30 and depart at 2pm which means probably not enough time to go to the waterpark, we have done the walk around Atlantis and the water ferry there which was fun.

 

Oh well we will just have to book another cruise that goes there, and the prices would probably be better not during spring break.

[momofmeg]

I see you are from Atlanta. Have you ever been to Whitewater? That is the nicest waterpark we have been to and we have been to several. I always end up disapointed when we do a waterpark on vacation because Whitewater is so great right here at home. I have never found another waterpark that measured up to Whitewater.

 

From what I understand Atlantis is pretty much the same as whitewater except they have one tube you go through where you see sharks swimming around you. That would have been great to see but Atlantis did have that tunnel you walked through which had a simliar affect. Actually for me that would be better. I am not sure I could deal with the "feel" a shark was swimming right beside me.

 

Hubby and I thought we might possibly just fly there sometime for a long weekend instead of doing a cruise and then we could experience everything. I guess we should bring some bucks with us though because I saw a sandwich lunchen platter was like $20 a person. Who knows what dinner would cost?

[cruislovin]

momofmeg,

 

Have you sailed both RCCL and DCL? Can you tell me some of the differences between the two cruise lines?

 

Also, what is the aquarian? I have the Comfort Inn booked for Nov but am seriously considering cancelling it. I am afraid we will get there and my daughter will want to stay for a couple hours and then leave. It's too much money to take that chance...

 

Hope you had a wonderful cruise. We are looking forward to Nov if anything is left of the Bahamas after all these hurricanes pass through!

[momofmeg]

cruiselovin I posted back to you on another tread here. the one called "Disney Wonder." I won't go into as much detail but I will say this-I have 3 particular cruises of my 9 that vie for favorite cruise-Disney Wonder, Carnival Miracle and the old Pacific Princess. I have not been on a voyager class ship yet so I may change my mind after I do that.

 

But if you compare Sovereign to Wonder(similiar ittenaries) Wonder wins hands down. Sovereign is the only RCCL ship I have been on.(I have been on her twice.) Sovereign is a decent ship-she was tons better then my HAL cruise and I prefered her to Fascination, Inspiration and ofcourse Tropicale.

 

Now Magic would compare more to Mariner. I can't help you there as my Marnier cruise is still a year away.

[dubmeister]

We live in Birmingham and have done Whitewater several times. In your opinion of what you saw of the pools and waterslides, lazy river, etc. at Atlantis, is it worth it to do it once? We go there in 2-weeks on a Carnival cruise. I didn't know if there was more hands-on stuff with sea-life as well. Any info. would be appreciated. You can email me at dub_mike@hotmail.com

:)

[momofmeg]

Actually we never even saw that part. since we ended up just booking Atlantis we saw the aquarium which was in the Atlantis resort. We saw the casino ofcouse as we walked through that to see the rest of the aquarium. There are a bunch of shops there also but very pricy definetly not "straw market" types. We saw one restuarant where a lunchen menu was posted. Hamburger and fries was like $20. The grounds outside were gorgeous and so was the beach we saw-there were quite a few people out in sail boats we saw too but we did not see the water park.

 

It was our daughter who wanted to do the water park which is why we booked that-after we cancelled which was good as we did not go to Nassau the scheduled day and hubby decided to go and reschedule at the internet cafe our daughter decided she did not feel well enough. (her monthly thing) Hubby and I decided we would just do the aquarium through the ship.

 

One thing I will say too. Although the aquarium was nice-the one in chattanooga TENN is much nicer. We did see a lot of sharks and stingrays but I have seen that at Sea World and at Disney Epcot. (both have those tunnels where you walk through and see the sharks swimming around you) If I had to do it again I would have either explored Atlantis on my own or else just did what other posts have done- gone to the Hilton hotel beach for the day as they let you use their beach for $10 a person.

 

I did ask here if anyone who had been to the waterpark at Atlantis and White water in Atlanta- how did the 2 compare. No one answered. We have been to whitewater many times-have had the summer passes several years. Hubby and I could just not see paying extra just to go to a water park for just the 2 of us. I do think though if you have a couple of young kids it would be worth it.

 

I think hubby would have preferred doing a scuba dive in hindsight. He skipped that to do the family thing with me and the daughter who do not dive. If I had realised what Atlantis was I would have told him to go on and dive and I would do my own thing.

[dubmeister]

Even with kids, I'm starting to think like you are and pass up Atlantis. I get the feeling after reading a lot of posts about it that some people have never been to a good acquarium or waterpark. I wondered if that's why they were overwhelmed, or if Atlantis was just that unique with its park and marine life access. Obviously, the kids would enjoy any waterpark. But, we actually get free passes every year to Whitewater. Plus, we have a smaller one here in Birmingham. As far as the beaches in Nassau, have you heard or seen any that would be great just for hanging out and possibly snorkeling. Did you see the Hilton's beach? Or have you heard about Sea Island Tours? Any info would be great. Thanks.:)

[momofmeg]

No I only know what I have read here. Hubby snorkles I don't. the first Nassau cruise we took we basially shopped as we also went to Coco Cay (on Sovereign) and Key West. The next time hubby and daughter did the dolphin encounter-I did the glass bottom boat. they loved the dolphin thing-the glass bottom boat was just okay.

 

This time our daughter wanted to do the comfort suites thing and hubby and I went along although he really wanted to go diving. When she changed her mind about going there, hubby did not go diving as those excursions were cancelled. Jeanne had affected that in Nassau her first first time around -this was before she circled back and did the real damage-waters were just choppy enough they deemed diving not safe. So we decided just to do the Atlantis thing. As I said we enjoyed it but still we are guys that do a lot of day trips etc. We have been to Chattanooga's place several time and that is just so much nicer except for the stingrays and sharks ofcourse. Still though if you have ever been to Sea world or Epcot you have enjoyed that too.

 

We figured the lazy river was similiar to what White Water has. I realy feel -but until someone posts who has done both water parks the only thing we missed was the tube you go through where you see the sharks swimming around you.

 

From what I understand you can tour part of the Atlantis aquarium free. I even read a post from one person that said there was a "free" beach which was just a little bit of a walk from there. The taxi fare was $5 a person each way. She said hubby gambled while she and the kids enjoyed the beach.

 

Just look at all the posts here ( there is one here about beaches in Nassau-it is a little old so you may have to scale down a couple of pages) Also check out disboards.com and also the port of call section here.

[cruislovin]

momofmeg,

 

is this the post you were referring to?

[momofmeg]

Yes. As you see I was not impressed with Atlantis. It was okay and the aquarium was nice but I have been to better aquariums. The point I was trying to make is we do day trips to water parks and aquariums so I really don't see a need to do that on vacation. Hubby loves to dive and if weather had permitted he may as well done that-as that is something he does not get to do often as we are not close to the beach.

 

Also I am not into casinos-to me they are just a place to spend a lot of money for nothing. As far as expensive shops goes- we have here in Atlanta Lenox and Galleria Malls-I have no need to go on vacation to do that.

 

If you do Atlantis through the cruiseship-realise it is not so simple to find where you catch the bus to come back to the ship. They just point and say "down that way" and it is more to it then that. When you come out of the main door of Atlantis hotel, You go down to the left about 1 or 2 blocks- you make a right at the corner and cross the street. In front of Comfort Inn is where you catch the bus.

 

It took us about 30 minutes to figure out where the bus stop was and we asked 3 people. It wasn't just me and hubby either-it was around 10 of us from the Wonder and a couple of people that were on Carnival Fanasty. The only way we figured it out was a couple came by that had done Atlantis on a previous cruise.

 

I read on disboards.com a post where they said they waited 2 hours for a bus and gave up and took a taxi back. Like us they were under the impression that you caught the bus at the corner a block or 2 from the Atlantis hotel. That had been what they had been told too-instead of you have to cross the street and go another 2 blocks to the right in front of Comfort Inn.

 

We also learned you can take the bus for $4 each way. You don't have to buy the thing through the cruiseship for that. Still though the taxi is only a $1 more and then you don't wait for the bus to fill-as far as I am concerned I would spend the extra $1 on the taxi.

[cruislovin]

I agree. IF we go to Altantis / Comfort Suites we will definitely take a cab. I know my daughter would love the water slides and lazy river. I am just not sure we need 2 "SUN" days back to back like that...

[tiggrbaby]

We will be on the 11/4 Wonder,and had originally booked CS for the Nassau day. Then I read that some parts were not open due to hurricane damage, and the new movie will probably be shown at midnight our first night out. We decided that we would rather go see the movie and sleep in the next day, then spend time enjoying the ship. We'll just go into town to get something at the shop that sells sunlight-activated shirts. I am hoping that the boys will enjoy the activities so much that they will not miss the fact that we are skipping Atlantis.

[cruislovin]

We will be on the 11/4 Wonder,and had originally booked CS for the Nassau day. Then I read that some parts were not open due to hurricane damage, and the new movie will probably be shown at midnight our first night out. We decided that we would rather go see the movie and sleep in the next day, then spend time enjoying the ship. We'll just go into town to get something at the shop that sells sunlight-activated shirts. I am hoping that the boys will enjoy the activities so much that they will not miss the fact that we are skipping Atlantis.

We will be on the 11/11 Wonder sailing. Where did you get this information? Do you know what movie it is? My daughter would probably enjoy staying up late to see the movie but then I would not want to do Atlantis the next day.

[cruislovin]

That is where we went. We had got the information from here where to go. Hubby checked it again but it is still the same price. I guess the price goes up and down by availability or something.

Does anyone know how to get to the Choice Hotels discount on smarterliving.com now that they have changed their home page dramatically? I hope they still have the discount, but I can't find it. I emailed them but have not heard back as of yet.

[Flintstone]

http://www.choicehotels.com/ires/en-US/html/HomePage?clientid=SKqvGxBjtuO5

Don't know if this will work...but luckily I had it saved to my favorites.

 

Deb

[cruislovin]

http://www.choicehotels.com/ires/en-US/html/HomePage?clientid=SKqvGxBjtuO5

Don't know if this will work...but luckily I had it saved to my favorites.

 

Deb

Thanks SO much - it works!

[tiggrbaby]

cruislovin:

 

I can't remember where I found the Atlantis info; I read so many different things! But I do remember that I found a listing of the movies on disboards. Someone said that they called DCL and got the listing for the movies on the ship. From what other posters have said, DCL makes a big deal of one of their new movies. I also got the tip to bring your own snacks. They suggested either pack from home, or get room service stuff, and go to deck 9 for soda.

[cruislovin]

cruislovin:

 

I can't remember where I found the Atlantis info; I read so many different things! But I do remember that I found a listing of the movies on disboards. Someone said that they called DCL and got the listing for the movies on the ship. From what other posters have said, DCL makes a big deal of one of their new movies. I also got the tip to bring your own snacks. They suggested either pack from home, or get room service stuff, and go to deck 9 for soda.

I called Atlantis and they told me everything is open. She said nothing was closed as a result of hurricane damage.

[Flintstone]

This is from www.disneypictures.com

 

The Incredibles...Nov 5

National Treasure...Nov 19

Pooh's Huffalump....Feb (no date) 2005

Chichken Little...Summer 05 (no date)

 

We were on the Wonder last Halloween and happen to catch the premiere of Brother Bear. Disney does do it up for a movie premiere...the "red Carpet"..."Emmy-like" interviews by Ronna Bear..etc. The kids realy enjoyed it..even tho this Grandma kept dosing off during the movie! They play it at 12:01 am on the day it is to be released. So you truly are the first group to view the movie. Can't watch Brother Bear even a year later without thinking of our wonderful Disney Cruise.