Budget tips for Atlantis

[Babypooh]

We are planning a trip to Atlantis and I am wondering if anyone has tips for us. Weve never been before so any advice is helpful. Places to eat? Swimming with dolphins? Tips for saving money?

Thanks so much!

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

Atlantis is very expensive. If you want budget tips, the best one I would give is not to go there lol. You are pretty much forced to eat on property as there isn't really anything in walking distance. And I wouldn't recommend to even attempt to travel on foot outside of the property in regards to safety. I think that there is a cheaper hotel next door to it. I believe by staying there you receive some of the benefits. I don't really know the specifics. However, depending on what type of guest you are, determines what accessibility you have at the resort. I have only visited the hotel while on a cruise. My SIL has stayed there several times and loves it. But DH and I were not impressed by it at all. We had a stroller and found it very hard to maneuver around the property on our tour. In fact our tour guide didn't even help us and we wound up lost several times. Now add the fact that we were restricted to only the aquarium area and no ramps for our stroller and the experience put a bad taste in our mouth. We did manage to find a place to get a few drinks and a snack for DD. And it cost us $50! So again, if you are frugal, this is not the place for you.

 

[minnie10]

I reccommend staying at the Comfort Suites next door. All the benefits and access to Atlantis for a fraction of the price. Also includes a hot breakfast each morning.

 

[bdcp]

We stayed there in 2009 for 5 nights, 3 of which were on DH's company. Anyway, there are places within walking distance to eat/snack, still on their property, but not inside the hotel that aren't as expensive. There's a Starbucks, and a few other places to eat/snack that are a bit cheaper. We took the water taxi to Nassau one day and shopped and had lunch at Senor Frog's, but otherwise ate all our meals in the hotel. We did the dolphin enounter (discounted due to being part of a conference group) and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's one of those destinations you just have to realize will not be cheap, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. The pool areas will keep you busy too. We spent time just lounging, riding the slides, lazy river, walking through the aquarium.

Unlike some resorts in the Caribbean/Mexico, the surroundings are pretty safe. I've heard stories of just getting to the resorts there from the airports as being scary and at least at Atlantis, you can leave the resort and visit the surrounding areas without any real worries. Of course, normal precautions do apply. The ride from the airport is pretty quick also and takes you right through Nassau.

 

[Darcy03231]

Atlantis and budget really don't go in the same sentance.

We have a very good friend who took his 3 kids there for a week. They had a wonderful time, but he remarked several times about how expensive it was. He spent $10k for the week. As this is a man who can well afford the finer things in life, when he starts commenting on how expensive everything was, you know its not a budget trip!

 

[SueInBoston]

I disagree. You definitely can do Atlantis on a budget. It just requires planning. Here is a thread to start:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3060977&highlight=atlantis

 

[brymolmom]

I reccommend staying at the Comfort Suites next door. All the benefits and access to Atlantis for a fraction of the price. Also includes a hot breakfast each morning.

This.

We did this back in October - LOVED IT! Stayed at the Comfort Suites and it was RIGHT THERE next to Atlantis. It was SWEET!

But if you've already booked at Atlantis...These 'might' work for you:

1) Bring a cooler or pay for a frig for your room (Comfort Suites has a nice frig in each room). Pay for a quick stop at a grocery store on your way to the resort. BE SURE TO ESTABLISH THE FULL COST PRIOR TO GETTING INTO A CAB/SHUTTLE. Our driver tried to charge us $1 per minute at the store (and let's say that the service is NOT quick there) - after I had been quoted 3 times a set price. I did NOT pay the additional but if I hadn't been 100% sure that I confirmed the actual price, I would have felt the need to do so - and it would have added like $45 more to the cost.
2) We bought drinks (including some beer and wine), a case of water, some sandwich stuff, and a bunch of snacks for the room.
3) We brought a soft sided cooler with us and filled it with drinks and snacks for poolside. With hindsight we would have brought our rolling soft-sided one. It is a bit of a walk and the cooler was heavy because we had so many drinks in it.
4) First night everyone was so tired we didn't feel like going out to eat. I went to Carmine's and bought a large pizza and a couple large containers of pasta to go while dh brought the kids to the room. We all ate a bit of it - With the fruit and drinks from our frig. It wasn't cheap - I think I spent $60 - $70 on it. However, we had about 2 more meals out of it from leftovers - Brought cold pizza to the pool one day and one more night of meals (with some leftovers from one more meal).
5) The combo meals at the place near the pool aren't too bad - $10 - $15 for a burger, chips and a drink. Save your cups - the drinks are refillable. We brought our Disney mugs with us and would empty the drinks we purchased into them to keep the paper cups from disintegrating. We would also fill the disney mugs with water from the drink dispensers.
6) The water taxi over to the straw market was inexpensive and a nice little trip. Straw market is good for souveniers. Barter and be firm with your price!
7) If you can - order WATER at restaurants. NONE of the restaurants that we went to had free refills...And the sizes for most of them were very small and they were very expensive - even for soda.

For taxi service to from the airport - I highly recommend:
Taxi service  Use CHERYL FOX-FERGUSON!!! She and her husband Craig were awesome!
You can google for her email online. She set her prices upfront and were SO MUCH BETTER than the guy who tried to charge us per minute.

Have fun!

 

[sandeee]

You can definitely do Atlantis on a budget. We have been going for the past 6 years and last year there were 5 of us for a week and my bill at check out was around $1600 - this included lunches at the pools every day, dinners at Carmines, Virgils, Marketplace Buffet, Johnny Rockets, Murrays, Bimini Rd, leftovers from Carmines/Virgils and Dominos Pizza. Also included frozen drinks and teen club for 5 nights for 3 kids. We ate breakfast in the room and stopped at grocery/liquor on the way in. Had "happy hour" in the room before dinner and took most of our beverages with us to the pool/beach (would just get cups of ice). Savings went toward trip to Blue Lagoon Island for Dolphin/Sea Lion Encounter which is less expensive and a lot nicer than what's offered at the Atlantis.