Beach day in Atlantis... Which beaches?

[mevelandry]

Good morning,

I heard mixed reviews regarding Beach days in Atlantis:

-I heard somewhere that the beach they bring you to is actually free and locals go there too.
-I heard you can only swim at one beach (accessible to guests and excursions only).
-I heard you can swim at one of the beaches and also the lagoon.

Now, I don't know what to believe anymore.

Has anybody done the Beach Day and where did you swim? How was the beach? How was the lagoon (if you did swim in the lagoon) Did it look good?

Pictures would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[GrnMtnMan]

-I heard somewhere that the beach they bring you to is actually free and locals go there too.

All beaches in the Bahamas are public to the high water mark. Cabbage Beach is the long beach on Paradise island, and Atlantis sits on that beach. But there are no public facilities on this beach, so only resort guests can use the hotels' rest room and dining/bar facilities. so even though others can go there for free, they can't use Atlantis' facilities.

Cove Beach is private in that it can only be accessed from Atlantis grounds, and there's a reef that protects the cove from boats coming in. But its available for all Atlantis guests. I'm not sure if Atlantis' beach pass policy prevents people from getting to this area, because its basically part of Aquaventure.

 

[mevelandry]

All beaches in the Bahamas are public to the high water mark. Cabbage Beach is the long beach on Paradise island, and Atlantis sits on that beach. But there are no public facilities on this beach, so only resort guests can use the hotels' rest room and dining/bar facilities. so even though others can go there for free, they can't use Atlantis' facilities.

Cove Beach is private in that it can only be accessed from Atlantis grounds, and there's a reef that protects the cove from boats coming in. But its available for all Atlantis guests. I'm not sure if Atlantis' beach pass policy prevents people from getting to this area, because its basically part of Aquaventure.

View attachment 322922

But what about the lagoon? Is is included when you go for the beach day?

 

[GrnMtnMan]

This disclaimer got accidentally deleted from my first post: I have not done an Atlantis Beach day, but I've visited Atlantis ~15 times or so for week-long vacations.

But what about the lagoon? Is is included when you go for the beach day?

From the description on DCL's website, I'd say yes. Its' right outside the exit of The Dig, and on the way to Cabbage beach.

The lagoons are nice for little ones and/or activities, but they're kind-of small. What interests you about them?

 

[mevelandry]

This disclaimer got accidentally deleted from my first post: I have not done an Atlantis Beach day, but I've visited Atlantis ~15 times or so for week-long vacations.From the description on DCL's website, I'd say yes. Its' right outside the exit of The Dig, and on the way to Cabbage beach.

The lagoons are nice for little ones and/or activities, but they're kind-of small. What interests you about them?

The grounds around it. Based on the pictures, it looks nice. But I haven't seen it myself.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

The grounds around it. Based on the pictures, it looks nice. But I haven't seen it myself.

You're right, there are some other neat things in that general area, like the underwater viewing tunnel at the Predator's Lagoon.

https://www.atlantisbahamas.com/thingstodo/marinehabitat/predatorlagoon

 

[mevelandry]

You're right, there are some other neat things in that general area, like the underwater viewing tunnel at the Predator's Lagoon.

https://www.atlantisbahamas.com/thingstodo/marinehabitat/predatorlagoon

It's nice. It reminds me of the one at the Toronto Aquarium.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

We were there in December and taken to the Cove Beach. We had choice of that or the Lagoon.
It was a gorgeous and huge beach. Very good waves to play in. One thing is the sand there is very 'thick' to walk in or get out of the ocean in.
I have some mobility issues in my legs and had a very hard time getting out of the water. My legs sank in the sand so fast and I ended up getting the help of 3 people to basically pull me out. The sand on the land part is also deep and thick and nice, but hard to walk in!! If you are a fit person you will not have a problem, but if you are not someone with strong legs or have any mobility issues I advise against this beach. I have been to many many beaches and honestly thought I was never going to get out of the ocean and started to panic! It was not just me, everyone was having issues getting out and having help from each other.

If you have kids, life jackets are a MUST in those waves, as they are big and strong - and tons of fun!!

 

[mevelandry]

We were there in December and taken to the Cove Beach. We had choice of that or the Lagoon.
It was a gorgeous and huge beach. Very good waves to play in. One thing is the sand there is very 'thick' to walk in or get out of the ocean in.
I have some mobility issues in my legs and had a very hard time getting out of the water. My legs sank in the sand so fast and I ended up getting the help of 3 people to basically pull me out. The sand on the land part is also deep and thick and nice, but hard to walk in!! If you are a fit person you will not have a problem, but if you are not someone with strong legs or have any mobility issues I advise against this beach. I have been to many many beaches and honestly thought I was never going to get out of the ocean and started to panic! It was not just me, everyone was having issues getting out and having help from each other.

If you have kids, life jackets are a MUST in those waves, as they are big and strong - and tons of fun!!

Thanks for your reply.

We do not have kids.

Cove Beach looks nice.

We'll be careful.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

We were there in December and taken to the Cove Beach.

Cove Beach looks nice.

One note of caution on Cove Beach access: its possible this changes day-to-day.

Quite often Atlantis' portion of Cabbage Beach has waves too rough to swim...maybe 50% of the time. If that's the case, they might bring beach pass folks over to Cove Beach. But on other days, they might bring you to Cabbage beach and not tell you anything about Cove...or say its for hotel guests only.

Basically, on days when Cabbage has surf, they have to allow everybody to use Cove as its a) huge, and b)protected by a submerged reef so you can always swim there no matter the size of the waves on Cabbage. But they might vary beach passers access to Cove because Cove is essentially in Aquaventure, and if you're over on Cove there's nothing to prevent you from getting on the Aquaventure river (elsewhere around Aquaventure there are security guard check points that are looking for some sort of Atlantis wristband).

Now I'm just guessing at this...I've never seen how Atlantis treats beach passes versus Aquaventure passes. I've wondered what Atlantis did with beach passers on the many days that Cabbage beach is closed to swimming. And this explains it... they take you to Cove if Cabbage is closed.

One other thing: if cabbage is open and the water is calm, its bit nicer of a beach than cove. Its longer, a bit wider, and beautiful. So its no big deal either way.

 

[k3chantal]

The grounds around it. Based on the pictures, it looks nice. But I haven't seen it myself.

When we went, the beach was closed (high surf?) and we only had access to the lagoon. It was crowded (probably because the beach was closed) but fine. I must admit we love our port adventures and this day was our absolute least favorite out of about 15 excursions..........

 

[mevelandry]

When we went, the beach was closed (high surf?) and we only had access to the lagoon. It was crowded (probably because the beach was closed) but fine. I must admit we love our port adventures and this day was our absolute least favorite out of about 15 excursions..........

When they close the beach... Can you still approach it or are the paths leading to the beach completely closed?

Because I like to walk along the beach when the waves are very high... If looks amazing.

 

[k3chantal]

When they close the beach... Can you still approach it or are the paths leading to the beach completely closed?

Because I like to walk along the beach when the waves are very high... If looks amazing.

We didn't try. We just followed the directions of the staff. You get plenty of opportunity to find beaches on that cruise so we avoided any explicit danger.........

 

[GrnMtnMan]

When they close the beach... Can you still approach it or are the paths leading to the beach completely closed?

Because I like to walk along the beach when the waves are very high... If looks amazing.

You can always go onto the beach, you just can’t swim in the water if it’s a red flag day. And on days when the wind is really high, they might have all the loungers stacked. But most days when the beach is ‘closed’ it just means no swimming.

 

[mevelandry]

You can always go onto the beach, you just can’t swim in the water if it’s a red flag day. And on days when the wind is really high, they might have all the loungers stacked. But most days when the beach is ‘closed’ it just means no swimming.

Cool!