We did only one scheduled tour on this sailing, the Atlantis Submarine Tour in Aruba. We booked it through the ship using onboard credit during a pre-cruise sale. It can also be booked independently through the same company, De Palm Tours here. This was our second visit to Aruba. On the first visit, we booked independently with Trikes Aruba for a unique way to see some of the same sites across the island as the big bus ship tours.
The Atlantis Submarine Tour only has a minimum age of four and the only issue with physical limitations is that you have to climb down and back up about 10-15 steps. On our tour, I was a little surprised to see older cruisers with assistive devices and even some with casts and walking boots show up for this excursion. However, everyone seemed to manage the transfers and steps fine.
Our tour met like most of them this day, on the steps outside the little mall of shops that you are forced to walk through when getting off and back on the ship. I'm not sure if something changed or if there ever was meant to be some sort of transportation from those steps to our waiting ferry boat. We were all made to briskly walk about 200 yards to keep up with our excursion rep before being handed over to our guide from De Palm Tours. Our guide kept us entertained with information about the island, the Atlantis business model, and as always the safety rules. The guide gave us a heads up warning so we could be ready for pictures as we arrived at the dive site before the submarine resurfaced with its current group.
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| Photo courtesy of Dad |
The tour sessions run right after the other so once we got to the location of the submarine vessel itself, the Captain from the company kept the ferry sidled up to the surfaced submarine. All of us on the ferry boat stood to form a line along the perimeter while those exiting the submarine transferred into the ferry boat and took the seats we'd just vacated. Once they were fully on the ferry, we took the same small bridge path and lined up on the top of the submarine waiting for each person ahead to slowly descend the ladder staircase. There are railings to hold onto around the staircase but you need to make sure you watch your head as you climb both ways.
Once inside, there is basically carved out bucket seat style divots - half facing one side of the submarine, half facing the other side. You will be sitting directly next to someone guaranteed. Unfortunately, the gentleman next to Dad chose to take 1 and 1/2 spots and the woman on my other side chose to leave one seat between us resulting in at least 1-2 people at the end of the boarding process without a real seat. Please don't be those people who cause others to have a less than enjoyable experience because you took more than your expected share. In the end, by moving away, the woman next to me did not get to sit directly in front of a viewing porthole. I've done a glass bottomed boat excursion before that was similar except it was as if they had substituted the last row of panels with glass. This was more of a visual through spaced out porthole windows so not every seat had a straight on view. The other main difference is that with the glass bottomed boat excursion, they had someone dive down to feed the fish in order to entice them to swim by our windows. Even though we are sitting shoulder to shoulder and I couldn't sit back this time due to a gentleman on the other side who thought he was in an airplane seat reclining, I did not find it claustrophobic.
Our De Palm tour guide went down the staircase first to make sure everyone from before was out and to assist anyone coming down the stairs. He then stayed with us during the entire submarine portion as well telling us what we were seeing and cracking jokes. I appreciated how he worked it into his narration an explanation for those on one side who got to see a space first and then recapped it when the submarine captain turned the vessel around so the other side could see.
The submarine portion was only about 45 minutes long but it did not feel rushed in the least. We saw lots of fish, coral, and multiple sunken ships that Atlantis happily accepts if you're looking to sell or donate. They sink them intentionally not only for viewing tours like this one but also to create new artificial reefs to keep all the wonderful colorful tropical fish populations thriving in Aruba's waters. If you've always wanted to view what swims below without getting wet, then this tour is a great option for you!
This little guy is waiting to say hello:
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