Has anyone taken the NCL Aquadventure excursion recently?

[Joe7cri]

Just curious if anyone has taken the NCL Aquadventure excursion recently? We are cruising to Nassau in Dec, and we were looking forward to the Aquadventure excursion, but then a friend told me they were very disappointed in Atlantis. They vacationed their last week, and said the place was not kept up. Of course after hearing this I googled Atlantis, and found some similar complaints on trip advisor and even on this board, but I also read some good reviews on trip advisor, so I was hoping to hear more from everyone on here.

 

Is it true the aquarium is now murky, and there's algae everywhere? I read that the original owners defaulted on their loan, and the bank now owns the property. Supposedly they let their maintenance staff go to cut costs. Any signs of this while at Atlantis?

 

Thanks for any reviews you can provide! I'd hate to spend $500 on an excursion and be disappointed.

[LadyShiva]

The pictures of the aquarium aren't pretty: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1690231

 

I would put your money towards something else.

[Godiva830]

After seeing those pics and reading the thread about Atlantis we're questioning our excursion to Atlantis. We're cruising in Feb so maybe things will change by then.

[donnabonna]

Godiva,

 

I stayed at Atlantis a few years ago just before school started. I really enjoyed it but it was EMPTY! I could not help thinking that it would have been awful if all of those thousands of pool chairs were filled with people. The aquariums did smell. We were supposed to do a swim in them but cancelled because of the smell. The slides and river ride were fun but I don't think it is worth paying that much for it if it is crowded. The staff told me that during peak times the waits on some of the slides can be over an hour. The beach is very small. Way too small for the size of the resort. I did have a good time and got a really cheap deal so I thought it was worth going, but when I went I think it was only 15% filled. We were often the only people in the pools except for the lifeguards!

 

We are planning doing the Sheratan in Nassau in February, but I understand if Atlantis is a must see. It was on my bucket list and had I not alteady been there I would probably be going also as an excursion on the Jewel.

[Cruiser Bruiser]

So, I'm a little freaked that no one has said anything positive so far. I was planning on taking my 18-year-old niece to do this in December. However, as folks have said, it's expensive, and my niece isn't going to be too thrilled about hanging out in algae. Neither am I.

 

I thought that the Aquaventure excursion specifically afforded admission to the water park. Is that not the case? And does anyone have recent experience with the water park and the condition thereof? I'll save my money and do something else if it's just going to be long lines and algae.:eek:

[NYGirl1002]

I took the Atlantis Aquadventure through Disney on my cruise in May. It was not bad at all. My only complaint was that it was a ton of walking through places where they want you to spend money before you get started.

 

Once we got through that we went on our merry way. We put stuff on a chair and went on the lazy river which was a lot of fun. We did that 2 times and then had lunch at one of the kiosks which was very good. I must say that the DCL excursion did include lunch.

 

Then we moved a lounge chair into the lagoon and just enjoyed the water. We were 4 older adults so we did not do the water slides but my son had done them on a previous cruise and said they were a lot of fun.

 

We did go through the aquarium and I noticed the algae myself but I figured it was from the sun.

[tweekster]

We did the Atlantis Aqua adventure in May. We all had a great time on the lazy river and the slides.

 

Yes, it is overpriced, but we all would do it again.

 

If you have more than 2 going, it will be cheaper to book the hotel room across the street and you can get up to 4 pass for the Atlantis.

[Cruiser Bruiser]

I took the Atlantis Aquadventure through Disney on my cruise in May. It was not bad at all. My only complaint was that it was a ton of walking through places where they want you to spend money before you get started.

 

Once we got through that we went on our merry way. We put stuff on a chair and went on the lazy river which was a lot of fun. We did that 2 times and then had lunch at one of the kiosks which was very good. I must say that the DCL excursion did include lunch.

 

Then we moved a lounge chair into the lagoon and just enjoyed the water. We were 4 older adults so we did not do the water slides but my son had done them on a previous cruise and said they were a lot of fun.

 

We did go through the aquarium and I noticed the algae myself but I figured it was from the sun.

 

Good to hear. I'm a young-at-heart middle-aged dude:cool:, so I'm going to try a slide or two, or three. Hopefully we'll be so busy with the water park there won't be any time for the aquarium.

 

We did the Atlantis Aqua adventure in May. We all had a great time on the lazy river and the slides.

 

Yes, it is overpriced, but we all would do it again.

 

If you have more than 2 going, it will be cheaper to book the hotel room across the street and you can get up to 4 pass for the Atlantis.

 

Thanks for the advice about the cost benefit of getting a hotel room. That's pretty clever, but as there will only be two of us, I'm just going to bite the bullet and book through NCL. Cheers!:)

[Joe7cri]

Thanks for the replies. It seems the last time someone was there was May, and I'm not sure when the Bank took over Atlantis, so hopefully someone will chime in on this thread who was there a little more recently. I don't mind spending the money if the aquarium is clean and we can see the sea life, but I'd be very upset at spending $500.00 to see green algae.

[Snowrose]

I was doing some research. Things kept bouncing back and forth with no commitment from about January through May of this year. Then Brookfield took over and made a commitment to the Bahama gov't that they would keep on 8,000 employees and put $50 million per year into the resort.

 

Then I went and looked at recent reviews on Trip Advisor, I mean reviews from the last few weeks. Better than 90% of the reviews say Atlantis is beautiful and amazing.

 

I'm hoping at this point. I've always wanted to see Atlantis and I'd be devastated if it had gone to ruin.

[Snowrose]

So, having now been to Atlantis and seeing it just a week after Hurricane Sandy hit, I wanted to come and tell folks about what we thought about Atlantis. I wanted to move this thread from the past to what Atlantis is now.

 

WE LOVED ATLANTIS!!! :D

 

Even with a few denuded palm trees, it was beautiful and CLEAN. That's right, nothing out of order when it came to algae, scum or anything of that type. I'd call the waters of both the tanks and the activities just short of pristine. (It was beautiful but it's very hard for me to offer an opinion of perfection.)

 

Here are some pictures for you:

 

 

 

 

 

And just for the record, that last tank has a slight blurring due to that tank being extremely large, not due to any fouling of the tank.

 

Oh, and while I don't claim any deep knowledge, I did want to point out that I spent my first few years of university studying Marine Biology...

[agc291]

So, having now been to Atlantis and seeing it just a week after Hurricane Sandy hit, I wanted to come and tell folks about what we thought about Atlantis. I wanted to move this thread from the past to what Atlantis is now.

 

WE LOVED ATLANTIS!!! :D

 

Even with a few denuded palm trees, it was beautiful and CLEAN. That's right, nothing out of order when it came to algae, scum or anything of that type. I'd call the waters of both the tanks and the activities just short of pristine. (It was beautiful but it's very hard for me to offer an opinion of perfection.)

 

Here are some pictures for you:

 

 

 

 

 

And just for the record, that last tank has a slight blurring due to that tank being extremely large, not due to any fouling of the tank.

 

Oh, and while I don't claim any deep knowledge, I did want to point out that I spent my first few years of university studying Marine Biology...

 

 

Great pictures! We were at Atlantis when Sandy hit (no lines:D) and had a blast. Would definitely visit again, actually looking into a land vaca there.

[Joe7cri]

THanks for the reviews. We are only about 4 weeks away from our cruise. Was thinking about doing disney instead of Atlantis, but maybe we'll do both if Atlantis has been restored.