Baha Mar, Nassau Review

I recently went on a cruise with some family, and one of our stops was Nassau, Bahamas. My plan was to visit one of the casino resorts on the island in search of better games than the ship's casino offered. I chose the Baha Mar since it was newer, and I had already seen Atlantis. Here's a quick report of what I found.

For transportation out to Baha Mar, you can always take a cab, but for the more adventurous and/or frugal, there are the jitney buses. The jitney buses appear to each be privately owned and operated, but they adhere to specified routes. The #10 or #12 bus can take you from near the cruise port to Baha Mar for $1.25 pp + tip -- just tell the driver you want to go to Baha Mar. We went to the bus stop in front of the McDonald's west of the port on Bay St. across from the British Colonial Hilton. There may be another stop on Bay closer to the port, but I'm not sure where. If you see the bus you want, just flag it down, and they'll stop for you. The bus will drop you at the entrance to the property, but it is still a 5-10 minute walk to get to the casino or hotel.

Near the end of the ride, we passed the Baha Mar's Royal Blue Golf Club. The course looked nice from what we could see. Not sure what the greens fees or club rentals would run us. Probably more than the $25 twilight rate at the local muni!

They have fountains arrayed in the man-made 'lagoon' at the front of the property. They were not going at the time, but evidently they have shows after dark. Think mini-Bellagio.

Baha Mar consists of three separate (sorta) hotels -- the Rosewood, the SLS and the Grand Hyatt. The casino links the two towers of the Grand Hyatt on the ground floor. The casino itself was expansive. There had to be 10-12 separate pits, and 100+ tables overall. While we were there, only about 15 of the tables were staffed. Only being open for a year, everything still had that new feel to it. There were high ceilings, and lots of natural light -- definitely a rare thing to see in any casino, at least in my experience.

All BJ was 3/2. I saw one $10 table, one $15 table, and the rest were $25 and up. There was a high limit salon with BJ and baccarat tables. 2 of the bac tables were going when we arrived around 10 AM, but no BJ. The casino itself was pretty deserted. There were as many people at those two bac tables as there were in the entire rest of casino. I'm not sure if October is the off-season or what, but there was just about nobody in the entire place.

Of the two craps tables open (neither with any players), there was one $10 table, and one $15 table. There was one Ultimate Texas Holdem table that was $25 when we arrived, but later changed to $10. Adjacent to it was $10 Caribbean Stud, even though the Bahamas are not technically in the Caribbean. ;) They had two roulette tables open, but I didn't see limits.

While there are lots of slots, I saw very little VP -- one bank of 4 in the middle of the casino, 2 or 3 banks near the sports book, plus two of the bars had bartop VP. Of the banks near the sports book, there was one bank of Ultimate X where I found a juicy amount of orphaned multipliers! :) More VP could be found in the High Limit room. There were 4 banks of 3 machines each -- 2 banks of single line, 1 bank of 3/5/10 Play, and 1 bank of UX -- no stray multipliers on the High Limit UX! :(

The best paytable I saw was 8/5 DDB from 25c up through $10, with an exception of the three $1 3/5/10 play machines in the High Limit area where DDB was 9/5. For those with a 6-figure bankroll, you could also find 9/5 DDB at the $25 & $50 levels.

All the staff were very friendly. The employee stationed at the High Limit entrance came over while I was playing the 3/5/10 Play machine and chatted me up. She said she didn't even know how video poker worked. So I gave her a 30 second run-down of the rules, and while she and I were talking, I hit quad jacks. Friendly & evidently good luck, too! ;)

We wandered around the resort a bit. There is still some construction going on with shops & bars, but nothing noticeable in the casino or the lobby. Like Atlantis, they would not allow us (non-hotel guests) to go out to the beach or pool areas. Interestingly, one craps dealer suggested that we ask guests checking out for their wrist bands!

One of the locals on the bus ride back said they stop checking wrist bands after 6 at Atlantis. I guess they are there just to keep the cruise ship riff-raff out since all the ships typically leave by then. Not sure if Baha Mar is the same, or even if I believe the bus guy 100% about Atlantis.

As for my personal gambling, overall, I decided to donate a few hundred to Baha Mar. I lost $100 on VP in the High limit room, but made it back playing Lotus Land. This is the only slot that can hold my interest these days, and is my go-to for MyVegas and MyKonami. I have only ever seen it at the Miarge, and that was $1 x 20 lines minimum! This was the 1c version -- I played $1.50/spin. I hit the bonus spin feature and got a nice hit with a line of 3x and 4x wilds in the 2nd and 3rd columns.

After that, I played some UTH and ended up about $125, then vultured and played some UX and gained another $100. I should have left then. I went back to the UX machines and lost all my profits in quick fashion. Then I bought in for $200 at the craps tables, betting pass plus one come, and proceeded to hit exactly 2 points over the next 15 minutes. :P. Finally I decided to give the 3/5/10 Play VP one last hundred, and proceeded to lose it in about 3 minutes.

As we were leaving the resort, we saw the golf course again. My sister said we should have played golf instead -- it would have been cheaper. I'm pretty sure she was right.

Thanks for the report! As a craps player I was wondering about quick dice setting, maybe somebody else will chip in! Table limits are reasonable, bet they are higher at Atlantis!

I'm a "pick-em-up-and-toss-em" guy. So I can't speak as to how lenient they would be with dice setters, but I can't imagine they would make much of a fuss about it, especially if the tables are as empty as they were when I was there.

thx for the report.

was it easy to get a jitney at the resort back to the ship?
and if you know, how much would a taxi ride be?

Quote: 100xOdds

thx for the report.

was it easy to get a jitney at the resort back to the ship?
and if you know, how much would a taxi ride be?

Actually, as soon as we reached Bay St., we saw a bus & flagged him down. I'd guess you wouldn't have to wait more than 10 minutes for one to come by. You still have to walk out to the main street from the casino (5-10 min.). They won't come up the driveway like a taxi would.

I'm not sure how much a taxi would be. Maybe $25? Maybe more? It's about a 15 minute ride. It would also depend on how many in your party, and if there were others wanting to share a ride. They typically try to load up the cabs whenever possible.

Quote: Joeman

I'm not sure how much a taxi would be. Maybe $25? Maybe more?
It's about a 15 minute ride. It would also depend on how many in your party, and if there were others wanting to share a ride.
They typically try to load up the cabs whenever possible.

when I was at Nassau a couple of years ago, there were official looking govt signs at the pier that said taxi to Atlantis was $5 each. (maybe $4 and I gave him a $5 bill and told him to keep the change?)
yeah, the taxi van was packed.

guess you didn't see taxi price signs at the pier for Baha Mar?

No, I didn't see any signs for taxis to Baha Mar in the port, but we weren't really looking. If I had to guess, I'd say you would have to hire the taxi to take you there, rather than just share a ride.

It doesn't seem like it is (marketed as) a cruise excursion destination. There were 5 ships in port x ~ 1,500 passengers per, and we may have been the only ones at Baha Mar that day. Other than the casino, and possibly the golf course, there really doesn't seem to be a draw for cruise day-trippers -- unless it's to avoid the crowds!

going to Nassau,bahamas soon.
plan to visit Baha Mar.
will hopefully update this thread.

i heard it was walkable from the cruise pier??

and any requests for me to look for?

I'm in Bahamas.
$5 + tip/person to baha mar if van driver find enough people to make it worth his while, else $20+tip if going alone.

cable beach near baha mar so my van driver tried to get those people too.
But in the end I gave up waiting and walked to the jitney mentioned in the op.

I saw #12 jitney parked on Bay St & Fredrick st trying to fill it. It's infront of mad hatter outlet.
And located half way between the Pier and British Hilton.

I asked the driver if he's going to baha mar and he said yes. I asked how much and he said $1.25.
(You pay the driver upon leaving.)

Note: even though I had $1.25 exact change, I gave $2 because op said to tip.

Note#2: the jitney #s are permanently painted on the front of the van instead of a sign in the window like I expected.

Craps: $15 min, 3/4/5x odds, double 12 on field.
Ultimate Texas Holdem: $15 min, 865 trips (~2% he)

Bj: $15min, 3:2 for bj but I saw a $25 6:5 table and people were playing it when a $15 3:2 table had seats a few feet away!

Sea and dessert games were picked clean. (Thx wiz)