We were skeptical about planning too many excursions. We have heard they are money grabs by the cruise lines. I’m sure there is a lot of truth to that, though we wanted to see what the options were. We didn’t have to book the excursions when we booked the cruise. We could even have waited to book them when on board the ship, though we could guarantee our “spot” by booking early.
Since our trip was going to dock in three different ports we were looking at three different options. NYC is technically one of the ports, but doing an excursion there wasn’t ever a consideration. We’ve been to NYC enough that we didn’t need a tour. We could do that ourselves if we wanted.
Port Canaveral
Right away, there was an option that came right to the top of the list: Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. That hit all the right notes of being educational, unique, and… SPACESHIPS! That was definitely the option for us, though other options included a transfer to (and from) the different Disney parks, a river cruise, and more.
It was definitely the space center tour for us. While the tour was pricey at $85 each for the kids and $130 for adults, making a special trip there would cost a lot more so we figured we’d give that a try.
Great Stirrup Cay
All the cruise lines seem to have their own private island in the Caribbean and Norwegian is no different. Their island is in the Bahamas and is an old Navy station of some sort that the cruise line purchased when it was no longer in use by the military. It’s the “beach day” during the cruise and options included renting a private cabana, renting a standup paddle board or other types of floating gadgets, going on a fishing expedition, renting a jet ski, and going on a glass bottom boat tour around the island. None of those were of interest to us. We’d be content with a simple day at the beach..
Nassau, Bahamas
On Christmas Day we would be in Nassau, Bahamas. There were a few different options including tours of the island, a private getaway to a local beach area, a boat tour of the coast, and several options of going to the nearby Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. It’s quite imposing and impressive looking from the pictures!
Since the kids would be less than enthused about a historical tour of the town, we started looking at the options at Atlantis, including a day in the AquaVenture water park located at the resort. We hoped it would be something the kids would enjoy and we felt we had to do something since it was going to be Christmas Day. The alternative of hoping to find something to do in the city didn’t seem particularly appealing. We also got reviews from friends who had stayed at Atlantis before and gave a thumbs up to the water park.
Dinner and Shows
The cruise ship puts on shows most every night, though the website was clear that we needed to wait until we were onboard to actually book the shows.
We had selected the dinner package when we booked the cruise. This would allow two adults to eat at the specialty restaurants three times during the cruise. We read about the different options available, but we couldn’t book any of those until we were on board either.
Booking
While we booked the cruise itself about 5 months in advance, we booked the excursions only about a month before the sail date. Travelocity had sent me emails encouraging us to book excursions through them to save money. The activities were very similar to the ones offered by Norwegian but the prices were almost exactly the same. Since Norwegian could guarantee that they would hold the ship if your tour was running late, we booked through Norwegian. If you’re on a third party tour that goes late, you’re likely out of luck. The prospect of having to fly to the next port at your own expense to get back on board the board was not appealing. It doesn’t happen often, but it definitely happens.
We decided to book the Kennedy Space Center tour as well as a day trip to the AquaVenture waterpark at Atlantis. They weren’t cheap and we’d have to see if we spent more than they were worth. Being unfamiliar with the ports we didn’t know what the other options were. We were paying a premium for “piece of mind”.
Tomatico Travels 
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