I'm travelling on the Carnival Pride cruise on November 15th. I've heard great things about the Atlantis, but am still looking for additional confirmation that it is worth $155 pp. By the time you get off the ship and shuttle over to the Atlantis, how much time do you really have at the resort? On our cruise schedule, it says that we dock at 11 am and depart at 10 pm. I'm assuming that for most of that time, we would be able to spend at the Atlantis, right? I also noticed that the Aquaventure starts off with a tour. Do you really need to do the tour or can you opt to go off on our own? I just want to get all my waterslides in :) 

 I am also a shopper so definitely want to visit the straw market. Is there time for everything? 

 I've also heard that you can book a room at the Comfort Suites and get access to the Atlantis. Rooms right now are going for $198 for the "night." I was thinking this might be easier (not to mention slightly cheaper) because then we have a place to store our clothes, valuables for the day other than worrying about not getting a locker. Plus, then we are really on our own and not tied to Carnival's itinerary with the tour and other extras we may not be interested in. Thoughts? 

 Just trying to figure out the best option. Any insight would be great! 

pride09 I will try to give you my insight on this.  We have been to the Atlantis many times and have done the Aquaventure a few times.  We LOVE it...I think it is worth every penny but I am also a big waterpark fan and I find it to be one of the best.  It takes about 15-20 minutes depending on traffic to get to the Atlantis once you get a cab.  When we were there last it was open until 5 but I know they changed the hours over the summer to 7...not sure about now.  I would say you only need about 4 hours to do everything once or twice.

We have usually rent a room at Comfort Suites or at Atlantis.  This option will not help you with storing your belongings as check in is not until 3 pm.  So, you MAY get your room earlier but it is not guaranteed.

The straw market closes at either 5 or 6 pm...but this is not a REAL authentic shopping area, it is mostly cheap hats and t-shirts and knock off purses, did not find any cool bahamian souvenirs.  After the waterpark I would skip the waterpark and go to Senior Frogs...that is a GREAT TIME!

If you have anyother questions, feel free to ask, I will try to help you out as much as I can.  Have Fun!  We will be there about a week after you!

This is really helpful! Thanks. A few more questions below...

Did you have to take the tour when you went to the Atlantis? Any trouble finding lockers to store your belongings in? Do they charge for the lockers? I'm assuming they do since I've heard that they charge you for everything there :)

 My boyfriend and I love waterparks so I think this will be a blast for us. Thanks for helping me out! Hope you have a great trip too!

pride09:

Did you have to take the tour when you went to the Atlantis? Any trouble finding lockers to store your belongings in? Do they charge for the lockers? I'm assuming they do since I've heard that they charge you for everything there :)

No, we didn't take a tour.  Friends of ours that booked directly with the cruise line were supposed to take a tour before the aquaventure but they didn't, they went straight to the waterpark.

We didn't have a problem finding a locker but we docked pretty early in the morning.  I think we were there around 10.  They don't have a million but they have quite a few.  Just keep in mind they don't take cash anywhere outside.  You have to either have a room card or a credit card.  I think the locker was $10 or $15 but they may have had a smaller one, I don't really remember. 

Take all of your jewelry off, they don't let you wear necklaces or earrings on any of the slides.  I don't think they made us take off our wedding rings but I don't really remember.  So, you may not want to wear any over there so you don't have to worry about storing it. 

The river ride is NOT a lazy river, it is more like a roaring rapids in some parts...it is soooo much fun.  The mayan temple body slide is cool but NOTHING is cooler than the body slide at the top of the power tower....if you wear a 2 piece...HOLD ONTO YOUR TOP!  The tube slides at the top of the power tower actually shoot you out with a big rush of water so you go really good but they tell you to keep your butt up for a reason...there are these little plastic grates on the slide to keep you from going too fast and they will shred your bathing suit and butt, I saw more than one person with a rip in their bottoms and once guy must have been sitting on the slide and he was bleeding all down his leg so DO NOT DRAG YOUR BUTT.

 

We did an Atlantis Aquadventure excursion early October. From the time the tour started till we were ready to start using the waterpark an hour had passed. That includes walking from the pier to the buses, drive to Atlantis and the "tour". The tour isn't really a tour as such they just walk you from you get off the bus, into the hotel, through the casino, to a hut to be given a towel and to somewhat in the middle of the waterpark. The guide points out a few places like where to get on the slides, beach and where the lockers are. It's a big place so if it's your first time there the tour may actually save you time (unless you know where the lockers are they can take a fair bit of time to find). I could be wrong but i think they have 3 sizes of lockers. We would have got the largest and paid $10.00 (that i'm sure of). They don't take cash so you will need a credit card for the locker. The waterpark closed at 7pm and more important if you get a locker ... the locker rental hut closes at 6pm and if you haven't returned your key by then you will get $50 charged to your credit card.

peter-nf:

The waterpark closed at 7pm

Just make sure you double check the time, I think they extended it for the summer and I think it may go back to 5PM at some point. 

I posted this on another thread but thought it might be worth a mention here too. We are on the Pride Dec 7th and instead of booking the excursion with Carnival for Atlantis I booked a room for the day at Atlantis. Cost was only $198 and we get full access to the entire hotel and all it offers, this is much cheaper than the excursion. If the rates at the Atlantis for the room are too high when you are going you can check the Comfort Inn and Suites all guests of this hotel get complete access to Atlantis and all it offers too!

You should read Chuckys review under the Conquest thread...day 5...sounds like it would totally be worth it!   Here's a link...

http://www.carnivalconnections.com/cruisetalk/forums/t/83443.aspx

I called Atlantis yesterday and the waterpark is no later opened until 7:00 pm with the time change.  She said it closes as it gets close to dark so around 5:00 or maybe 5:30.  This is just so if anyone is wondering how long they will have to use the waterpark.

 

 We did the Aquaventure this week. It was our first time to Atlantis and we loved it. Definitely recommend it, and we will go back the next time we are in Nassau. The water was warm. We were at the park from about 10 until 2 pm. We could have stayed longer, but wanted to shop a little. There is a lot of walking involved. I feel like the short tour is necessary because it is such a huge place. It gave an idea of where everything was located. We would have been completely lost otherwise.

We did the aquaventure in May.  There were two couples, three fourty year olds and a thirty something.  We had a blast.  I did the leap of faith slide (the one you see in all the pictures) just to say I did it.  The water park was a blast but we had the best time using the beach.  We thought we would try body surfing and were surprised when we would catch a wave just right and it would tumble you about twenty yards onto shore then *** you back out.  You had no control and we were all laughing.

As far a a tour there wasn't any other than right at the beginning when they walk you to the aquaventure.  After that you are on your own to do as you please.  The aquarium is great along with the casino if your so inclined. I would highly recommend it to anybody.  The price is kinda high but I felt it was worth it.

I posted some pictures from the cruise on my website if you are interested.  There are several from the atlantis resort.  http://www.cruisingonislandtime.com