Atlantis Submarine excursion any good?

[Liesel]

We will be on the Mariner in March. We are deciding on excursions for Grand Cayman. We are in our sixties and have been looking at Atlantis Submarine, Nautilus Undersea Tour, and Seaworld Explorer Semi-Submarine. There seems to be a big difference in price between the three.

Has anybody been on any of these? Or any other excursions that would be nice? I sure could use some help.

[dosherpack]

DW and I have been on the semi-sub in GC and on the Atlantis in Cozemel. Both are good and enjoyable. Main difference is the depth. Atlantis goes down over 100 ft. vs. less than 10 ft on the semi-sub. Kind of like the difference between scuba diving and snorkeling. We enjoyed both.

[Philob]

I did the Atlantis sub in Grand Cayman:):) :)

[chrisv348]

I did the Atlantis in St. Thomas. Well worth the money. Sub moves very slowly so as to not disturb the ocean bottom and coral reef. You feel little movement. I was worried about seasickness, but absolutely no problem whatsoever.

[phtktz3]

I did the Atlantis in Grand Cayman a few years ago and it was nice, but I get a little freaked out in closed in spaces and it was a really tight squeeze in there, you are very close to the person next to you! I did enjoy it though. Not sure how comfortable it would be for a larger person....my DH is 6'2" and about 220lbs and I don't think he would be at all comfortable in there.

[alicam]

I did the Atlantis sub in Grand Cayman just over 2 years ago...I thought it was pretty good...did it because I figured I'd never get the chance again to go on a sub. By the way, I'm 6' and 240 lbs and didn't feel cramped in the sub....

[happyshelly]

WE also did the Atlantis in Grand Caymen and enjoyed it. My husband is a big guy at 6'5" and 390lbs and he did not feel squished in the least.Nor were the other passengers on the sub,not saying it is not tight it is but comfortable.

 

Michele

[wieslaw]

We will be on the Mariner in March. We are deciding on excursions for Grand Cayman. We are in our sixties and have been looking at Atlantis Submarine, Nautilus Undersea Tour, and Seaworld Explorer Semi-Submarine. There seems to be a big difference in price between the three.

Has anybody been on any of these? Or any other excursions that would be nice? I sure could use some help.

 

Hi,

I did the tour on the Atlantis submarine both: in Grand Cayman and in St. Thomas..... it is a different experience to be in a sub about 100 or 120 ft deep and see the reef and some of the sea life ....... but one thing is missing - the color.

 

Every thing that you see is sort of grayish blue - the natural daylight in deeper water changes the color of things ..... something might be red but you will only see it as grayish blue. The true color can only be seen with artificial illumination at night when the Atlantis uses its lights.

 

There is actually more color to be seen on the tour of the semi-sub ( I did that in Aruba so I can't 'say' what the Grand Cayman is) - going in the semi-sub is similar experience to the real submarine (Atlantis) but only at a depth of about 8 or 10 ft.

The price for the tour on Atlantis is higher probably because of the initial cost of the submarine ( about 4 million dol.) . You can save a little by booking directly or use a coupon.

I do have some pictures taken through the window of the sub at some 90ft depth - if you are interested I can email them to you or attach them to my next post .

 

In case if one decided to do the tours in Grand Cayman ( as we did back in April) some discounts / coupons can be obtained from the Cayman Activity Guide.

If you book on your own before the cruise be aware of local time and 'ship's time' . The Atlantis operates on local time regardless of any 'ship's time'.

 

Enjoy your tour - whichever you choose.

 

Wes

[alwalaska]

Wes,

 

We are looking at the Atlantis in St Thomas. A few pictures would be wonderful.

Thanks.

[PSCruiser]

We've done Atlantis in Hawaii, and it was a great experience - just the thrill of being down that deep was a unique experience.

However, Weislaw has an excellent point about the lack of color at depth. Something that was unexpected, is that there is basically nothing to see except at the bottom, and then it lacks the color of a shallow reef because of the depth.

If you haven't done it before, I'd highly recommend in GC doing Stingray City on a tour like Rays, Reef, Rum Point with Nativeways (see the website). A very unique experience with the stingrays, and a chance to snorkel a decent reef.

[tbruin3235]

Wes,

 

We are looking at the Atlantis in St Thomas. A few pictures would be wonderful.

Thanks.

 

We did the Atlantis sub on our recent Voyager cruise. I took a few pictures of the trip:

 

http://www.oplnk.net/~tbruin/vacations/voyager2008/img_4177_jpg.html

 

There are several pictures that might give you an idea of what it is like.

[Lionesss]

We did the sub ride in St. Thomas, and Waikiki. It is well worth the price. We always buy a T-Shirt to show we were on it.

It is very safe, and a relaxing ride, and they talk about all the fish, and sea life you would not recognize on your own.

[wieslaw]

Wes,

 

We are looking at the Atlantis in St Thomas. A few pictures would be wonderful.

Thanks.

 

Hi,

the pictures by tbruin are very nice and do show what you can expect.

I will try to attach some of mine but they will be reduced in size per CC requirements. At least you will have some idea what there is to see from the window of the Atlantis. Mine were taken in Grand Cayman.

 

Wes

[hoop4321]

How long do they stay at 90-100 ft? There should be plenty of color at 60. Hubby is diving the wall. Anyone done that? Any one been to boatswains beach??

[wieslaw]

How long do they stay at 90-100 ft? There should be plenty of color at 60. Hubby is diving the wall. Anyone done that? Any one been to boatswains beach??

 

 

Hi,

I do not remember how long the sub stayed at any given depth. The whole dive was about 45 minutes and most of the time the captain of the sub tried to stay close to the top or sides of the coral reef so we could see more. I guess we stayed at the 70 or 80 foot most of the time but we also got to about 110 ft .

 

The light is absorbed as it passes through water, and much of it is lost in the process. The spectoral components of light have different wavelentgh and are absorbed at different depths even in very clear water. First the long waves - red, are absorbed, then the orange, then yellow, green, and the last the blue goes in the deepest.

That is why most of the things at the depth we were in seem to be just light blue .....even that they are not.

That is why you can see more colors being in the semi-sub. The colorful fish can be seen in the real colors at the 6 or 8 ft deep water but at the 80 or 100 ft depth the same fish just seem to be ' blue' . The same is true with the coral reef - you just do not see the real colors. ........ but the things that you will see at the 80 ft or so depth you will not see from the semi-sub.

The guide on the Atlantis was telling us that the night dives when they use their strong lights are the dives to take - all the true colors are visible then.

 

Wes

[timberheadnot]

we also did the Atlantis sub in Grand Cayman WOW it was amazing!!!!! We where like really ow much? but it turned out to be a very well spent excursion truly amazing and wonderful to behold watching the turtles and seeing everything....the best was at like 45 feet when the gentelman doing the talking was like.... outside you port window are....divers!!!!! lol beyond cool we have photos but these divers where coming up (sort of :p ) to us and flipping around and having a BLAST as we sat snug in our sub hehe ..sooooooooooooo coooollllll and to be honest i hate SMALL

spaces and truly drove my dh nuts while waiting going i am going to freak out ...its huge in there...at least more than i thought was going to be...

 

beyond the neatest.....:D imho

[rclcruzer]

My DH and 2 young teen sons did it, and they loved it !! Try it :D:D

[giles]

Over the years I have been out on all three right here in Grand Cayman, as well as other places. For my money I would choose the Nautilus Semi Submarine.

 

The Atlantis is a real submarine that submerges and even though it goes down underwater for me I didn't think I saw that much more if at all ! And it is much more expensive almost double I think.

Then the two semi submarines both stay on the surface and do a variation on the same tour over shipwrecks and Reef. Both are very similar prices if I recall, but the Nautilus is a much larger boat and much nicer too. I would pick the Nautilus http://www.nautilus.ky again.

[fluffych]

My DH and I did the Atlantis in Aruba with the AOS. We paid around $94 pp and thought it was pretty good. We didn't see alot of different fish, but it all depends on the day. The coral was beautiful and the trip out to the sub was enjoyable. If you get uneasy with small, closed in spaces I wouldn't suggest it.

[lablvr2]

I did the Atlantis sub in GC with my kids a few years back. It was wonderful and they still talk about it! Worth every penny. I am not good with enclosed spaces and I was alright with this tour. I got a little antsy by the end and just wanted out. What we saw far outweighed my fears. It's not often you are able to do something like this - do it! You won't regret it :)