Salt Cay — Attraction in New Providence

ABSOLUTELY THE WORST EXPERIENCE. In short, spending $80 each to go swimming and have a free lunch is insane. That is it in a nutshell. The whole "adventure" took 6 hrs. (we took first shuttle back) Read below the other issues 7/11/19 - We bought 3 VIP dolphin swim adventure. Ages 10,14,15. We get off carnival cruise on the dock (830 AM) only to be told by Blue Lagoon that the 10 yr old needs a swimming adult. Which means we have to spend another $200. (up to $800 now). The 7 adults who want to watch the kids have to spend $80 per to go to & watch.$560 to the $800. We get on the boat to find they went over their limit on seating. 16 in total have to stand on the back deck near the diesel engines (which smoked) for the 20 min ride. I should mention there was no railing on the port side so the small ones had to be held the entire time. GREAT SAFETY techniques. We get to the Lagoon to order drinks ( since we now were told we have 90 min wait for the 11:15 tour) and the bartender took, and I mean this, 30 minutes to get the three drinks we ordered. The Pina Colada was melted by the time the 3rd drink arrived. There was only 5 people ordering drinks at this time. Why 30 min you may ask. Well because she was on her phone ( I am pretty sure it was facebook, but can not be certain). We later discover the bartender was a very extraordinary person. She loved to help people, like herself for example, by taking $1 per drink for her tip. Without asking or giving us the opportunity. She straight up stole $1 per drink. YOU GO GIRL!!!! Now for the dolphin excursion. Dolphins were AMAZING and the handlers were personable enough. But, 10 (ish) people in the water for 2 dolphins meant each swimmer, who spent $200 each, had NO MORE than 5 minutes each with the dolphins ( it was actually less but I rounded up). They kissed you, which was AMAZING, they hugged you, which was amazing as well. Then is was a 25 meter diameter swim while holding the dolphins fins and then the dolphin pushed you on a boogie board. Also pretty cool. But it truly was less than 5 minutes worth of interaction with the dolphins. Most of the time you waited your turn or for the dolphins to get their treats and get back in to position. understandably so. One of the dolphins jumped in the air twice as a grand finale. Now you leave the area and go to the beach to swim for the remainder of the time while you waited to go back. They had a few games on shore ( some were broken like the ring on the rope game) and the blow up mountain in the water for the little ones). Some were not free so there was additional fees ( like volleyball) The food: one hot dog or hamburger, some fries and water with no ice which has been in the heat all day. I still have not mentioned the lady who told us one bad review was not going to ruin the company or the fact that they had us go to several different places because the group that had our family was on the other side of the netted wall. Which meant you could not see them from the peer. (to be fair, none of us were happy at this point, including my mother who is in her 70s and has not a care in the world) If it was not for the professional camera crew, who saw how we were being spoken to and treated, offering us a spot where they were, we would of not seen the kids with the dolphins at all ( I'll take this opportunity to thank them). I give them a lot of credit because they had to of seen my professional camera and still offered the spot because of the other employees attitude. In closing. Had we been pulled aside and someone expressed some sort of remorse, or been spoken to semi-politely. Or even not had the bartender steal money. Or even have the area where we were supposed to go clearly marked. We even had the one (who told us one bad review wouldn't hurt their company, give us her name when asked (she refused) I may of given it a 3 star. But, for the money we spend THEY ABSOLUTELY...

Sailing on the Allure of the Seas currently, and wanted to leave a review for this excursion that we had planned through the ship for our Nassau stop. I planned this ahead of time and paid $77pp.

We had gotten our excursion tickets in our stateroom when it was available on the first day. The meeting time was 9am on the tickets. When we departed the ship on the day of the excursion there was meeting locations set up for each excursion. We turned in our tickets for wristbands that said 9:45, which made me question why we weren’t leaving for almost an hour after the excursion ticket stated. We also received our tickets for our welcome drink and lunch.

The time came and we all followed the excursion leader through the pier to a two-level pontoon style boat for our transportation to the island. There was two of these boats, and ours was definitely not cramped. On the way (roughly 30mins) we were given a tour which included all of the famous celebrity homes that we passed... Tiger Woods, Jay-Z, Oprah, Michael Jordan, and Michael Jackson. (As well as the area in the opening credits of Gilligans island) The entire time the captain and his crew were having a blast getting the whole boat dancing and playing music for us.

As we arrived it was breathtaking just like I had been expecting. We got off the boat and began to explore right away. The dolphins were just to the right of the boat dock area and that’s where we went first. This area was way larger than expected and after seeing the dolphins and the trainers I had no doubts that they are taken very well care of. We got to see them jumping and playing while the trainers were not with them as well. The dolphin section is larger than the other animals but every spot is gorgeous regardless. I would say all of the animals have a very large area to roam. I highly recommend booking something that includes the dolphins if you’re questioning it due to watching a group and they were having a blast in the water.

After this we we explored all of the different beaches and sections of the whole island. There is a gift shop that had a good selection. The bathrooms are surprisingly clean.

We had been advised of the signs that had the departure times for two different boats you could take back to the pier and there are several of these signs on the island. We took the later boat and had some time to shop near the pier.

The food was good and the drinks were too, just a little watered down. I tend to think that if your going to these excursions you cannot always expect the best of the food and other amenities. Obviously they don’t have gourmet chefs cooking the food.. but I had no issues with it. If it was gross I would be the first to tell you. Hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, fries, peas & rice, salad bar, etc. There is also a roof top area to eat on that is gorgeous. I had tried the conch fritters also that was not included in the price. There are several bars around the island. Also stands for carvings and other souvenirs and hair braiding.

We had walked past the VIP section and I’m glad we did not book this. Nothing against the area but we had the whole island to explore and had no issues with finding a quiet spot, I feel it would be a waste to spend extra to stay at the back of the island inside a roped area the whole time. We had crossed the bridge and found even more “bed things” with nobody around so we stayed there for a little bit too. We also had a lot of hammock areas to choose from some more secluded, but everything was very relaxing.

We would book...

Visited the Blue Lagoon Dolphin encounters as an excursion through our cruise line. Our experience was disappointing. From the time we assembled on the dock at the cruise ship, to the boat ride there, and progression through our booked events, most staff were rude rushed. In our observation, they treated us like we were a burden, yelling and being very short in their responses. We were to leave the cruise dock at 0930, arrive at the island, see the three events and have time to do some snorkeling before we had to leave by 4pm. Instead, they did not leave the dock until after 10:25 am, arriving at the island and debarking shortly after 11 am. We were to be at our event 15 minutes prior to start. Our events started at 12pm, 1230pm and 1pm, but each were delayed. It seems like they were backed up and pushing things forward. The staff invests a lot of time in taking your pictures during each event so they can charge you a big $$$ at the end. Over 50 pictures (mostly the same) and videos for each person cost for total bundle $150. I would have rather stayed on time and enjoyed each event less rushed. In the end, they had to cancel the last event, because they were running out of time to clear the island of cruise ship folks. The assembly time for the ferry back was at 2:45pm so no time to really do anything else after the events. In addition, the snorkeling side of the island was closed. Given there were 4 cruise ships docked at the same time, I believe the island was overwhelmed with passengers and the staff was inadequate to operate all the events or open up other parts of the island that are normally available and advertised. As far as the weather and water conditions, it was perfect! We paid $215 per person for a disappointing experience and burned up all our time at Nassau . Based on our experience, we will not be revisiting...