Atlantis Submarine?? Worth it or not?

[jaxbeach12]

Never been to Barbados before and I'm really interested in the Atlantis Submarine excursion. I'm not really comfortable snorkling so I thought this would be a great way to see all the sea life. Have you been on it and did you actually see anything? Is it worth the money? Should I just suck it up and snorkle instead -with a land & sea tour? I know - so girlie

Thanks, Rebecca

[MrSchwump]

We did the Atlantis Sub trip in Aruba a few years ago. I'd do it, if for no other reason, so you can say you've ridden in a submarine!

 

You can see quite a bit as the windows are pretty large. It is a weird feeling when the sub touches down on the ocean floor, in our case, 160 feet down.

 

You can't really compare it to snorkeling though. You can probably see more marine life snorkeling than in the sub but you'll get a different perspective in the sub and you'll see what the deep water looks like.

 

I'd highly recommend it!

 

Your old pal,

Joe

[jaxbeach12]

Anyone else tried the Atlantis Sub? I'm still undecided.

Thanks, Rebecca

[Aplmac]

It's worth the money.

[Pomperaugrr]

We just did this tour two weeks ago. They run a nice operation. We were down about 45 minutes and had great visibility. We went down to about 145 feet. We had done the Atlantis sub off Cozumel, but that only went down 110 feet and there was not as much coral as what we say in Barbados. We saw a lot of very healthy coral and quite a bit of sea life, plus the shipwreck in seen in the other poster's photos. Do not expect vibrant colors down at 140 feet. A lot of visible light is filtered out, so coral colors look muted, but the fish are amazing. It is a great experience. The boat ride out to the sub is only about 12 minutes and they do safety briefing on the way out. On the trip back in, they have soda, water and of course, rum punch.

 

One tip: Try to book the first trip of the day. We were back on the ship in time for lunch and spa appointments. Or you can go to a beach for awhile afterward. We enjoyed this very much.

 

Eric

[Aplmac]

Told you!

[jaxbeach12]

Thank you for the replies and photos. It has really helped a great deal! :D

[jaxbeach12]

For anyone else that is interested, I found some more reviews and photos on tripadvisor.com

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g147263-d283571-r5323100-Atlantis_Submarine-Bridgetown_Barbados.html

[woodofpine]

It's worth it for the experience of a sub, and you see a certain amount of stuff, but you can't get real close to the reefs and once you get to 80-100 feet the amount of light drops such that spectrographically colors fade to blue. The sub can be a bit confining to those that are claustrophobic.

 

Strictly to see fish and reef, after much snorkling and some SCUBA, I'm inclined to try some of these clear plexiglass kayaks that I've started seeing used. Paddling shallow reefs might be very cool with one of those.

[MACISBAC]

So are you allowed to bring a camera down there? What about a camcorder?

[Aplmac]

So are you allowed to bring a camera down there? ===> YES.

What about a camcorder? ===> Yes!

Yes yes YES. :cool:

[sadiecat]

We did this tour in Hawaii. You can see the subs as they are right next two where the ships dock. If I recall the price was $110, I know it was not below $90. All we saw were a few fish. There was nothing extraordinary about it for us anyway.