Dolphin encounters: Blue Lagoon or Atlantis?

[Viget]

Hi All!

Long time lurker on WDWMagic from since 2002, but recently starting to post. My family and my friend's family are going on the Disney Dream for a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas on April 20th. We are planning to do a dolphin encounter at Nassau, but are unsure of whether to go with Blue Lagoon or Atlantis. We will have my DS 3 yo and my friends' DS age 5 and DD age 2 with us, and my wife hopefully will be pregnant as well. Any suggestions?

Also, if you were to go with Blue Lagoon, would you book through DCL or through the website? I know about the insurance and all with DCL, but it seems relatively low risk to go direct through blue lagoon and is significantly cheaper.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Tough one!

Hi All!

Long time lurker on WDWMagic from since 2002, but recently starting to post. My family and my friend's family are going on the Disney Dream for a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas on April 20th. We are planning to do a dolphin encounter at Nassau, but are unsure of whether to go with Blue Lagoon or Atlantis. We will have my DS 3 yo and my friends' DS age 5 and DD age 2 with us, and my wife hopefully will be pregnant as well. Any suggestions?

Also, if you were to go with Blue Lagoon, would you book through DCL or through the website? I know about the insurance and all with DCL, but it seems relatively low risk to go direct through blue lagoon and is significantly cheaper.

That's a tough one! Both get great reviews. My son did the Atlantis dolphin encounter and said it was great. I don't think you can make a bad choice there.

If you decide to book Blue Lagoon on your own, just make sure you give yourself plenty of extra time to get back. The biggest concern is being late back to the ship. Also, if the ship couldn't dock you would be out the money if you booked it on your own.

 

[Viget]

Tough one!

That's a tough one! Both get great reviews. My son did the Atlantis dolphin encounter and said it was great. I don't think you can make a bad choice there.

If you decide to book Blue Lagoon on your own, just make sure you give yourself plenty of extra time to get back. The biggest concern is being late back to the ship. Also, if the ship couldn't dock you would be out the money if you booked it on your own.

Thanks Tammy for the great advice!!! Good point about the docking bit.

Also, kind of an unrelated question, but I've been reading these threads for a while and saw that sweetpee mentioned that she was checking stateroom availability prior to her sailing date to get an idea of how booked the ship was and how good her chances were at geting an upgrade. We might consider doing this too, and I was wondering what website one goes to to get this kind of information. Any insight would be appreciated.

Love your TRs!!!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Just go to Disneycruise.com and price out your cruise. If you see a lot of rooms in a lot of categories, it's pretty empty. If only one or two categories pop up it's pretty full! If it doesn't show up at all, as happened to one I was checking this morning, it's completely full!

Thanks for reading them!

 

[flynnibus]

we did blue lagoon and liked it. the beach would be great for about 9-14 yr olds too given the inflatables they have out there, etc. Set expectations.. the beach is actually to a protected lagoon that is surrounded.

 

[wiigirl]

We did Blue Lagoon and loved it!

 

[Phonedave]

I did the Dolphin something (Encounter or Swim - whichever is the one you get to ride them) with my girls at Blue Lagoon and I was very happy.

I can't compare it to Atlantis, but Blue Lagoon has a nice beach, other things to do (walk around and look at the dolphins, sea lions, and turtles). They also have a (very pricey) snack shop, changing facilities, showers, and of course a gift shop. The other nice thing about Blue Lagoon was that (again, at least when we did it in the summer of 2009) starting around 11:00 AM or so, they had launches returning to the ship every hour. It was nice, you could do what you wanted and not feel like you were either stuck on the island, or rushing so you did not miss your return trip. The Stingray Adventure (Blackbeard Cay I think) was not like that, we sat around on their island for over 2 hours after we were done, with nothing to do (except spend money) waiting for a launch back. We felt like we were cheated out of enjoying the ship.

-dave

 

[stillgoofy]

We did Blue Lagoon and had a great time. I also liked the ability to stay at the beach or go back whenever you want. Also, I don't think you can book this on your own. When we went on DCL, we checked into it and Blue Lagoon said "no" we had to book it thru DCL.

 

[Viget]

We did Blue Lagoon and had a great time. I also liked the ability to stay at the beach or go back whenever you want. Also, I don't think you can book this on your own. When we went on DCL, we checked into it and Blue Lagoon said "no" we had to book it thru DCL.

Well, good to know. Unfortunately, it's my first time cruising, so hopefully it's still available at the 75 day window. I imagine it will be....