Hours in Port/Nassau

[DVC2004]

What are the true port hours in Nassau? I saw 9:30 am to 6 pm. My husband found a really interesting shore excursion that is not offered through Disney. It says it's from 9:30 - 5 pm. I am worried that this will not work with the cruise. Does anyone know are you in port before that 9:30 am? Also when do you need to be back on the ship? Maybe we will have to pick something else to do...

[DizneyRox]

Personally, I would never do a full blown shore excursion not sponsored by the ship. The ship WILL leave at exactly the time they say they will.

With a sponsored excursion, you can be sure there will at the very least be some communication between the cruise line and the excursion operator. I would guess that they would also arrange some sort of backup plan in case of some type of delay, for whatever reason.

I'm just saying...

We've done town shopping on our own, but wouldn't venture too far from the boat without being on an approved trip.

Arrival times are based more on clearing customs than anything else. Again, I think the approved trips will wait until customs is cleared before starting. Not sure an independent tour would know that, or care to wait.

[wildernesslady]

My daughter is currently working on the Dream and she said they are generally the last ship to port in Nassau. They are also usually the last to leave.

What is your excursion? We are sailing next Sunday and do not have any Nassau plans. We may just let her be our tour guide or visit the Atlantis.

[DVC2004]

It was called Power Boat adventures, and it got great reviews. However it sounds like we would cut it too close and that would take away from the fun if I was worried all day.

Bascially they take you to an out island and hour away and they feed sharks and rays, you have a barbecue, there is also a wild pig that is there that you can feed (apparently it is cool with people).

I think we will end up doing the half day Blue Lagoon Beach day. We have been there and done the Dolphin swim before. We have also cruised Disney to there 2 times and stayed once at Atlantis for 1 week. So we've done all of Atlantis, Blue Lagoon Island Dolphin swim, and when the kids were very small we did the Astrada Gardens and City tour (meh).

I guess if we go back to Atlantis some day for a non cruise vacation we'll try the powerboat adventures. It looked fun and different. Too bad there isn't zipline or ATV adventures there.

[tinkman]

We have been there twice and, if memory serves, we had to be back on the ship by 5:00. We got off only on the first trip, toured Atlantis then we strolled around the stores near the dock till about 3:30. I'm a worrier about time and sure as heck didn't want to get stranded in Nassau! 2nd trip we stayed on board on "nassau" day and had a great time.

[DizneyRox]

2nd trip we stayed on board on "nassau" day and had a great time.
Yeah, we have a few of those "at sea" days. Nassau is one, Puerto Rico, Dominican, and a couple others that I haven't even seen as ports of call in a while.