Shore Excursion: Day at Breezes

[GiniB]

Here's my critique of our Breezes shore excursion ($78 per person).

 

We were met at the pier by a Breezes representative at 10:15. Boarded a shuttle and arrived at the hotel at 10:55. We were told that the breakfast buffet was closing at 11 so if we wanted to eat we'd need to hurry.

 

Hurried down to the buffet...very slim pickings left over: some suspicious looking scrambled eggs, limp bacon and very stale pastry. That wouldn't have been so bad if the service had at least been halfway decent. The wait staff obviously wanted us gone and were extremely rude to us. (Once when we asked for silverware, once when we asked for coffee...neither of these were self-service).

 

So we went out to the pool and beach area. Cable Beach is very nice and there were plenty of chairs both at the beach and at the pool. I would not, however, have dipped so much as a toe in that pool if my life had depended on it. I am not a squeamish person, but that pool was disgusting. It was a very unhealthy cloudy green color. The hot tub was worse. It looked like it could have held about 10, so it gets a thumbs-up for size, but it too was above-mentioned snot color and had a ton of mysterious floating flotsam in it. When someone stood up to get out of it, she was totally covered in this waste...yuck.

 

As far as "activities," they had two while we were there...marshmallow golf and beach volleyball. We were told that the sailboats weren't available and the trapeze was closed.

 

At about 12 noon the beach grill opened up and served hamburgers, fries, etc. The free drinks were available at the bar the whole time we were there (we were determined to drink our $156 worth of payment), so that gets two thumbs up.

 

The shuttle picked us up at 2:30 and we went back to the ship.

 

Overall, I think we would have had a much better time either staying on the ship (even at $5 a pop we could have drank a lot of fruity chick drinks for $154) and laying by the pool or buying a bottle of rum at duty free and mixing our own out on the beach.

 

As an aside, although we didn't see the rooms from the inside, we were particularly underwhelmed with the property as a whole. It had the aura of a mediocre stateside Holiday Inn.

 

The good news is we didn't spend 2 grand to stay the week at Breezes...and know now to never return.

[CaribbeanBound]

Thank you. Good to know.

[BethCarp]

Thanks GiniB. We're thinking of going there next weekend. Someone else just got back with a "not great" review. Perhaps we'll skip it. I'm still hoping to just "crash" one of the hotels (Radisson, Wyndham) on Cable Beach. Most people say that you can go there no problems. But, some people lately have been saying they were questioned by lifeguards. I guess we'll go and see what happens. I won't mind paying a few bucks for them to let us hang around for awhile.

[sportsterjohn]

thanks for the heads up, I just a a breezes sale thing in my e-mail and was thinking of taking the kids to breezes in punta cana this summer.

[GiniB]

I want to be clear that my review was for the Breezes in Nassau, not Punta Cana. I would hate to discourage you from going to another Breezes...hopefully they're not all bad. I've been to Punta Cana but I stayed at another all-inclusive, not a Breezes. Wish I could remember the name because the one I stayed in was truly lovely.

[CaribbeanBound]

Perhaps "Couples" or "Sandals"?

[GiniB]

No, it wasn't one of the "majors," RCI owed me a week due to cancellations over Sept. 11 and the place in the Dominican Republic was all they had available so I took it. I'll try to find some paperwork on it and let you know which one it was, 'cause it turned out to be great.

[Carol D.]

GiniB, thanks for the honest review. We have wanted to try Sandals Royal Bahamian for a while now, and we were thinking about it for our day in Nassau. It is slightly more than Breezes, but it is supposed to be much nicer. If no one else reviews Sandals as a port of call, I'll write one when I get home!

[cruizbabe]

I have to totally agree with GiniB ... we were just at Breezes in Nassau last Sunday, 11/28. and the conditions at the resort were horrible. We arrived around 12:30 in the afternoon ... by that time, the lessons for the sailboats had already taken place so we couldn't do that ... all the pools were closed except for one small wading pool and it looked so dirty l wouldn't go in it. The beach littered with cups and trash, the only "restaurant" that was open was the pool grill and the activities during the time we were there were trapeze lessons and musical chairs. Whoopee. For $75 pp x 3, even if we drank for the entire 4 hours we were there, we couldn't get our money's worth. All things considered, we would have been much better off if RCCL had cancelled our excursion there and this being our first experience at Breezes, I can tell you we will NEVER return.

 

If I were you and you have booked this excursion, I'd ask for a refund right away and plan to do something else in Nassau.

 

Just my $0.02.

 

Angela

[BethCarp]

thanks cruizbabe, we've pretty much decided not to go now. That's just too many bad reveiews for me to "risk it".

[gogetter]

Hello,

 

As i have been on several cruises, i have never found as much rudeness as in the Bahamas. We had been to Atlantis and i stood at the bar with bills in my hand, doing everything short of jumping up and down and screaming, never to have been waited on.

[scubagirrl]

Don't equate the Atlantis with the Bahamas.

There's far too much politics and union upheaval there to make anyone happy.

They are in a world of there own.

I find bahamians to be the most outgoing and thoughful people I've ever met. (and I've met quite a few)

[CindyinSeattle]

Thank you. Good to know.

If you have an entire day in Nassau, try booking a room at the Comfort Suites on Paradise Island. We did this back in 2001, split the cost of the room with another couple ($48 pp) and were able to use Atlantis' property without paying Atlantis' exhorbatant room prices ($420 per night was the cheapest I could find!). Comfort Suites in the ONLY hotel that is allowed to send their guests over to the Atlantis. We didn't even spend the night at Comfort Suites, just used the room to stash our dry clothes, change into our suites, and walk across the street. The Comfort Suites room was huge, and it was nice checking out the weather channel. Of course, the best part of the deal is being able to use Atlantis's great facilities. The "Dig" is fantastic and the pools and water slides are super! The highlight was riding a tube through the shark tank! That was cool! I would highly recommend booking a room at Comfort Suites while you are in Nassau. We have been to Nassau on cruises at least 4 times and ran out of other things to do there along time ago. Call the hotel to book a room direct, don't try to do it through a website. I was really upfront with the hotel staff, and they had no problem with our just booking a room so we could go to the Atlantis - said they do it all the time! The cruise ship did have a shore excursion that included sightseeing the Atlantis property, but found out that they just let you go through the casino and shops, not use any of the property facilities. The shore excursion staff will tell you that you can't use the waterpark at all unless you are staying at the Atlantis, but that's not true. Course, they would rather you book their $50 bus tour, but you'll never get in see "The Dig" that way!