4 nts Bahamas - Excursion choices & alternatives? Advice, please!

[capistrano60]

Hi all. I'm a first-time cruiser traveling (mom, no hubby) with two 13-year old girls and an 18 year old boy. I've booked the Royal Caribbean 4-nights Bahamas cruise and have just received the guest documentation, itinerary and excursion choices. I have to admit, I'm a little bummed to discover that all these cool choices cost extra, so I need to plan carefully since I spent most of my $$$ on the cruise itself.

 

Suggestions? Might help to know that we're NOT interested in: scuba, gambling, drinking and anything that requires a romantic mate (dancing, etc).

 

Tours, exploring, nature and maybe snorkeling sound good to me. My son wants to do the waverunner. What do you suggest we do in Nassau? Should we take the RC offerings, or book our own privately?

 

Also, are there any extras (like floating mats) that we should definitely buy?

 

And is it safe to let the 13 year olds go off and do teen stuff on the boat itself? How much supervision is necessary for their safety?

 

And do I REALLY have to pack formal clothes? (!!)

 

I'm looking forward to your advice and insights!

Thanks!!

[BethCarp]

I'm going on my first warm-weather cruise next weekend to the Bahamas. There's a ton of great info on the Bahamas board http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58. We're not sure what we're going to be doing yet either. I think we'll just sit on the beach and snorkel in coco cay. I know float mats can be rented there for around $10. You can also rent snorkel gear and waverunners there too. I've heard the waverunner excursion is awesome at CC. You might be able to find cheaper waverunners in Nassau from an independent vendor. I think we're going to take a bus to Cable Beach and hang out there for most of the day. Definitely check out the Bahamas board---tons of great info there.

[dougp26364]

We were recently in Nassua. The wife and I did the Seatreck Sailing and Snorkeling tour and the kids did the Pirates and Dungons tours. Both had very different experiences.

 

We really enjoy the Snorkeling. The water was very clear and it was like swimming in an aquarium. There were serveral different colorful fish to see. However, we did this just a couple of weeks ago and the water temp was a little chilly when we first got in. It didn't take long to get used to it and after the initial emersion, we did all right.

 

The kids on the other hand HATED their tour. The tour guide spoke so fast no one could understand him. They were rushed through all the stops so much that they couldn't take pictures. Every stop they made had someone with their hand out wanting another tip and everyone openly pushed for people to tip them. Even the bus driver was wanting a tip for driving them around. IMO, that's his job and part of what is included in the tour price. I only tip a guide if they are exceptionally good and give us more for our money. In this case, the guy obviuosly didn't. The only part of the tour that was worth anything was the Pirates museum at the end. Something they could have done on their own for $12. One other thing that ticked them off is the tour ended at the museum. Something none of the guests on this particular trip were aware of. After the museum it was up to the guest to make their own way back to the ship. For our kids this wasn't a problem but some people on the trip had problems getting around and the walk was a problem for them, thus they had to shell out more money for cab fare back to the ship.

 

I have written RCI about this as it's one of the tours they offer. In our three cruises, we've never had a quality problem like this on one of the recommended tours through RCI. I'm not so much interested in hearing back from them as I am in having something done to either bring up the quality of this tour or have it dropped from their recommended tours if it's a consistant issue.

 

Be aware that in Nassau, you'll all be inidated with woman wanting to braid your hair. They can be very aggressive. Having been raise to be polite it's hard to just ignore them and keep walking without saying no thank you. It didn't take me long though to realize that speaking to them only encourage them more. After a few moments, I learned to tune them out and just keep talking, walking or doing whatever we were doing before they tried to interupt us to ask, "Hey lady, you want your hair braided."

[ruttie]

If you are looking for a great thing to do in between stuff the Pitate museaum is a great choice! I would not book tyh etour though as the above poster said it is an easy 5-10 minute walk and is not very expensive and takes about 1 hour..