In the months and weeks leading up to the cruise, we had a real struggle trying to decide what to do in Nassau. I had researched all the possibilities through the cruise line and outside of the cruise line. We knew that most people said that the best thing to do in Nassau was to spend the day at the Atlantis Resort. But we had a really hard time just jumping right on board with that plan since it would be over $200 dollars a person for a few hours on resort property. I also researched a lot about the resort and the water park there and was really worried that the lines would be long and the resort would be crowded and it would just be a miserable experience. We also wanted our kids to experience what life in a foreign country is like and to try some of the local cuisine. so we were pushing for renting a 6 seater ATV that was street approved and just driving around the island to explore. The Knudsen's still wanted to go to Atlantis. Our kids really wanted to be with their cousins so there was a week or 2 of not knowing what to do. And then, there was a news report a couple of weeks before the cruise saying that the city of Nassua had had 18 murders by gangs in the area this year (almost one a day!) The city and country had was raising the travel advisory level for Americans telling us to be very cautious and to cancel travel plans if at all possible. We knew that safety was our top priority that day and renting an ATV to get away from the ship crowds suddenly seemed like a very bad idea. It also seemed like a bad idea to take a taxi to Atlantis on our own. So we booked with the cruise line and hoped for a good experience.
They got us off of the ship right away, but then we stood in this line for a long time while they collected our tickets and waited for the shuttles. Alyssa and Claire, once again, showed up matching that day.
The shuttle ride was about 20 minutes through some crazy traffic and roads (we were kind of glad we didn't have to try and drive through it on our own). Once we got off of the shuttles, we had to wait in another line to get our wristbands. We found out while in this line, that we needed to fill out an online waiver for each member of our family. The wifi was questionable and this took much longer than we would have liked.
We were happy to finally have our wristbands and enter the resort. The walk to the aquadventure was quite long. Plus we wanted to stop at a few fun things along the way. We had to take a picture in this swing, especially since it was Valentine's Day.
We could see right away that it was unreasonable to stay all together. We split off into 3-4 groups after the first slide, a water coaster. The lines were not too bad all day. Our biggest disappointment was that half of the slides were not even open the whole time we were there. There were supposed to be 3 water coasters and a body slide on one slide tower and 5 body slides on the other tower. Only 1 water coaster was open on the one tower. And the other tower only had 3 slides open. The kids were happy that the 2 slides that went under the shark tank were, at least, open.
The other cool feature of the water park was the "not so lazy" river. It had a number of sections with waves and rapids which made it a little more exciting that your normal lazy river.
After we had ridden all of the slides a couple of times and made the full loop on the river float, we got the boys fancy drinks and walked out to the beach. It was beautiful.
The boys splashed a little while in the waves and then we headed back for more slides. By the way, after the first slide, we never saw any of the others from our group, including Alyssa and Ashley, except for a few minutes in the hot tub. We were glad that we had come up with a meeting place and time.
Two more slides finally opened up about 20 minutes before we had to head out. Danny, the boys, and I had unfortunately been in the wrong tower when they opened up because the really fun slide was in the other tower and we chose to ride a slow windy slide instead and it took the rest of our time. The boys were quite sad when they heard their sisters and their cousins talk about how fun that slide was.
As we walked out, we stopped for a bit to look at the aquarium tanks. There were some fun underwater Atlantis themed things in the water.
We also stopped and got some pictures on this big chair.
The hotel lobby had some really cool sculptures and paintings.
On our way back to the ship. We were glad that we did not get murdered during our visit to Nassau. LOL
Here is our group in front of the outdoor pools. There were a lot of cool sea animals in them, including sea turtles, sting rays, sharks, eels, and other fish.
We were one of the last ones on the shuttle bus, getting there right before the time they said the last shuttles would go back to the ship. We got to see a motorcycle gang do some wheelies next to our bus during the drive. There were some shops on the pier that we stopped and looked for souvenirs at on our way back. Overall it was a good day. The kids had fun, even though we were a little disappointed in all of the closed slides. The resort was pretty and the beaches there were amazing. We probably would have enjoyed the theme even more if we knew anything about the lost city of Atlantis.
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