For anyone that knows me, they know that I love water parks and dolphins. So, given that on my recent Carnival Cruise, and with a large selection of dolphin interaction shore excursions, I was left with the task of choosing which one was right for me.

I knew it was going to be expensive, so cost didn’t play a huge role on my decision. The second day of the cruise was to be spent in Nassau, where one of the listed shore excursions was a day at Atlantis’ Water Park, Aquaventure for $120 USD.

Since I had first seen pictures of this amazing resort years ago, I promised myself that I would visit, but $120 was a steep price for just a water park. Atlantis also had several dolphin interactions for cruise guests ranging from a deep water swim with water scooters to a shallow water interaction where you would get to feed and play with a dolphin at their world renowned Dolphin Cay.

Deciding that I wanted to do a dolphin interaction more than see the water park, I decided on the shallow water interaction for $120. After taking a final look at the water park, I noticed you could buy an Aquaventure add-on to the dolphin experience for $60, a much more reasonable price for a water park. After signing my girlfriend and I up, we were set to meet our guide on the dock at Nassau bright and early the morning we docked.

The beach at Dolphin Cay

The morning we arrived in Nassau, it was a little chilly with some wind, but that thankfully changed by the time we got to Paradise Island, and Atlantis.

We were given a tour of the grounds including the casino, some shops, and their main atrium area before being lead to Dolphin Cay.

Our Dolphin encounter started with changing into a wet suit and watching a video about the behavior and biology of these amazing creatures. We were then split into 4 small groups and taken into the water where we were asked to kneel down.

The trainer brought around one of the dolphins and we were able to pet, kiss, hug, and feed it as a group and individually. Pictures were taken, but a mixture of not taking my credit card, the resort being cashless, and the insane price, we declined on them.

After our time with the dolphin, all four dolphins put on a little show for us, showcasing some of their different tricks. Once we were out of the water and out of our wet suits, it was time to hit up Aquaventure.

I’ll start this out by saying that Aquaventure is by far one of the best water parks I have been to, my top three are now the two Disney water parks, and Aquaventure.

The theme here was of the lost city and its temples, and was on par from what I’d expect for the money. We started by trying to get a locker, but again the cashless system and not taking my credit card posed a problem.

We then set about trying to find at least one chair to put our stuff, but there was no luck, and employees weren’t up to helping since we weren’t guests. After hiding our bag (including wallets and brand new camera) under a bush we headed for Power Tower, a multi-slide tower featuring three Master Blaster slides and the Abyss.

The end of the Abyss

First up was the tallest of the Master Blaster slides since the smaller two were closed. My girlfriend isn’t exactly fond of many water slides, so her screams provided some entertainment for the ride. It was a fun and twisting slide with some great drops and dark areas that ends in a lazy river. After getting out of the river, we walked back up Power Tower and got in line for the Abyss.

The Abyss is an extremely steep and dark slide that starts inside a small box atop the tower. Once the green light came up, I gave myself a nice launch and my body sailed right off the slide; I wasn’t expecting it to be this steep. About ¾ of the way down, I opened my eyes to some daylight thinking it was done, but just as I could see the sky, I dropped underground into the darkness again, and sped through a waterfall into an underground grotto. All of their slides end in pools rather than run-offs, so I didn’t have to worry about any wedgies, but that’s beside the point. The pool inside the grotto was surrounded by large fish tanks, vine covered rocks, and a skylight letting in some sunlight. This was the best theming I had ever seen on a water slide, and easily escalated the Abyss to my number one water slide.

After exiting the grotto, we decided to take the lazy river over to the water park’s signature attraction; the Mayan temple. Finding out their lazy river wasn’t very “lazy” and had few climb out points, we ended up traveling the entire way around.

Their river included dark caves filled with rapids, fast flowing sections, and one section inside a canyon with a wave machine sending out wave pool sized waves. The narrow canyon mixed with the wave machine made for an interesting ride with large waves, and a very fast current.

My girlfriend, who got stuck at one point and was much further behind me caught up with the help of the waves. The canyon led to another cave with a hidden lift hill leading to a split in the river; one to a gentle lazy river, the other to the rapids. The rapids are exactly as the name implies, a long stretch of the lazy river filled with rapids that eventually leads back to where we started.

After getting out of the river, we finally worked our way to the Mayan Temple, which featured 3 slides. We decided to do the Leap of Faith first since there was nobody in line. The Leap of Faith is their signature attraction; it is the first slide I heard about that got me so interested in the place.

Leap of Faith

For those who don’t know, the Leap of Faith is a steep speed slide that takes you under water through a shark tank. My girlfriend went first, the life guard joking that she was going to scream the whole way down; he was right, he just laughed as he sent me down after her. The slide is so fast that you can’t even see the sharks, but you do know you’re underwater just by opening your eyes and looking at nothing but turquoise blue around you.

After getting out of the pool, we went back up to the temple to do the racing slides. The lifeguard from the first slide recognized my girlfriend and told her it was the best scream he had heard in awhile. The racing slide was a typical two person racer filled with hops down one side of the temple and into a splash pool. We didn’t bother checking our times to see who won, and decided to head back to Power Tower for some final rides.

This time one of the smaller Master Blaster slides was open, so we decided to do that first. This one felt longer than the first one and offered the same great drops, twists, and darkness. After getting off, we left our tube in the lazy river and went back for another ride on the Abyss.

There was a bit of a longer wait for it this time, and being wet and on top of a tall structure made for a chilly line. Again, I gave myself a good launch and sailed off the slide and sped into the grotto. Once we were done, we grabbed our bag (nothing was gone, thankfully) and decided to spend some time on the beach, take some pictures of the park, and explore the hotel before we had to get back to our ship.

Before leaving I made a new promise to myself; I promised I would save enough money to one day come back to Atlantis as a paying guest instead of just a cruise ship excursion so I can experience everything with much more time.

All in all, Aquaventure at Atlantis is one of the greatest water parks I have visited. While it is not worth $120 (no water park is), and with $60 even being a little much, the atmosphere, theming and experience is a ton of fun and a great addition to any vacation to the Bahamas.

Tags: Bahamas, slides, water parks