Is Atlantis worth it?

[Dayna]

I heard that on the day in Nassau you can book a room at the Atlantis for the day and then you can use all of the facilities? How much does it cost for the day, how many people can be in your party and is it worth doing? We are trying to decide if we should do the excursion or if we should book the room? Thanks.

Dayna

 

[vicnmickey]

I would like to know this too!!!!
I heard it was around $175 for a 4 person room

 

[din]

A word of caution, the excursion only take you on a tour of Atlantis, including the digs, but no swimming. Getting a room gives you access to the pool and swim areas and the dig.

I would suggest that you consider what you want to do at Atlantis. If it is shopping, just wandering in the public areas or gambling, you can catch a cab and have fun. If it is the aquarium, you can do that by yourself by buying tickets for it whille ou are there. If it is the pools and swimming area that you want, then a room is needed.

Good luck in making your decision.

 

[Dayna]

bump

 

[johnsontrio]

my family would not do it again. Let me explain.

Thanksgiving week we were off school with a planned trip to Florida. No one wanted to do the parks with the holiday crowds so I booked a last minute cruise on the Sovereign of the Sea. Awesome cruise, we all had a blast. We happen to have friends that have been to Atlantis and can't stop raving about it, so I booked a room for the day ($242).

The cons are as follows:
-Very little value in the water park, Disney water parks are way more fun and even our local Soak City has more to offer. There are only 4 slides, that's it. After 2 and a half hours, DD and DH were done.
-Expensive, 3 drinks and a lunch size bag of chips $18. by the pool. Lunch in the buffet restaurant would have been $70 plus tip. We ate at the NY style deli (maybe Murray's?) a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a reuben, a small garden salad and a child's hamburger, with water to drink was almost $50.
-The pools close at 5:30pm. After that there is nothing to do. Our ship sailed at Midnight and we stayed at Atlantis until about 8:30. We looked in the boutiques etc.. but saw many people in the casino gaming with small children on their laps, pushing the buttons on the slots etc..
-Also unbelievable amounts of people, the deck chairs are up to 10 rows deep in some pool areas.

The pros:
-We are so glad to have checked out this place on "the cheap". Prior to our trip there, it was on our short list. A 5-7 day vacation there would have cost us a bundle and we would have all been disappointed.

A note of interest. Atlantis is way over the top. After dark most of the women are wearing designer clothes, Prada, Versace etc.. The boutiques are definitely upscale. As an example, the swimwear shop had bathing suits and matching coverups at $299. each piece.

I don't mean to be negative and we are glad to have done it, but never again. My family would rather waterpark at Typhoon Lagoon and would rather vacation on a cruise or Hilton Head Island. HTH. Amy

 

[Dayna]

I appreciate your opinions. I had heard you could also book a room at th comfort suites for the day and get to use the Atlantis facilities. But maybe we will just do the aquarium and the do some shopping. Thanks again,

Dayna

 

[Dayna]

bump

 

[prymsu]

i did this in October, and would also not do it again. Just not enough time to be worth the money, and the majority of time is walking to get from point a to point b. I thought that the dig was supposed to take a couple hours to get through, and it was more like fifteen minutes. Two slides were closed, and the beach was also closed that day. We never did find the shark slide, and that is the one i wanted to do the most. Not worth it in my opinion...

 

[Lizal]

Having been on 2 Disney cruises and vacationing at Atlantis I just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth.

There are 4 waterslides at the Mayan temple but also one more over at the Coral Towers that is a little tamer. There is also a lazy river and a water play area for young children. In addition there are at least 3 pools and a beach with water activities.
I could not get my 8yo off the water slides and having to accompany him all day can really wear you out! Needless to say, my children loved it!

Another draw for Atlantis is the property alone. The numerous aquariums are something to see as well as all the aquatic life around the property. My children especially liked the shark feeding just watching the sharks and stingrays.

I would assume the crowds depend on the time of year, but we never had a problem finding a chair at the pools.

Food is expensive. I would opt for a large breakfast on the ship, eat lunch at Atlantis ( the pool restaurants are probably a little cheaper than the sit down restaurants). I would probably return to the ship for dinner since it is already paid for and dinner at Atlantis can be very pricey!

The slides close early but I believe the pools stay open later. Not much other activity after dark besides gambling. They allow children to walk thru the casino but they are not allowed to sit down and gamble or even accompany parents that are gambling. (We stopped with our children and put a quarter in a slot machine and security was there immediately telling us that the children were not permitted to stop and even sit down at the machines)

IMHO, there is plenty to keep you busy at Atlantis for a day. I was my 8 yo's favorite vacation. He even claims he liked it better than Blizzard Beach. The grounds alone are something to see. I do agree with the previous poster that there is not much to do at night with the kids. They do, however offer a kids club and a teen club if the parents want to gamble at night.

 

[magiroux]

Which cruise goes to Atlantis??

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Personally, hubby and I just did the 4-day and did visit Atlantis on our own. We were disappointed in Atlantis and Nassau itself. We decided to not get off the ship if we do this 4-day again in the future. To me, it wasn't worth the $$ for the cab ride.

To see pictures of this trip go to:
http://community.webshots.com/user/mfpriebe

 

[tecdavidt]

We only took a taxi over and paid the $25 each for the tour of the Aquarium. On the tour was myself and my husband and one other family of three. Our guide was great, he took a lot of time answering any questions about the resort and aquarium. Was that worth it, yes, to us. We could of cared less about the pools, low 70's is not swimming weather for us. In fact we want to bring our daughter back to see the aquarium so we are doing that next year on the New Year Eve's Wonder Cruise.

As far as the hotel portion, way overcrowded for us. Our tablemates wanted to eat lunch at a sit down luncheon area; they were told no because the husband had on shorts. The wife had on a sundress. This was the same restaurant we walked through on our tour and we had shorts on so go figure. We had a couple of drinks after walking around, I don't remember the price but I thought it was around 18.00 for two. I also saw a Tommy Bahama shirt I bought my husband in one of the shops. I paid $96 here in Iowa and the Atlantis shop wanted $145 (yes, US $) for the exact same shirt. Duty free yes but lower prices, no.

Our TA told us a short story about Atlantis when we got back home. A good customer of hers insisted she wanted a week vacation there for her family of four which consisted of two little children preschool age. The room alone was over 6,000 for one week. They had airfare on top of that. When they got back the woman hated it. She said it was crowded and was tired of the overpriced food. The breakfast for her family was around $100 and dinners were over $200. If you thought DisneyWorld was expensive, go to the Atlantis.

Was the hotel and casino worth seeing? Yes, and as a previous poster stated, way over the top. The marina has some huge expensive yachts that are also interesting to see. Just another lifestyle. Kathy

 

[ike]

I stayed at the atlantis last year for a week & I loved it. I think it is worth it if you can get a reasonable rate. My kids still talked about it. A word of caution-you need to be 48 inches to go on the slides & they are strict about it. Also, the pools are NOT heated-so if it's a cold day BRRRRR!

 

[Wishing on a star]

We are planning on spending the day at Atlantis, if the weather is great, etc, etc..... I am thinking that it will indeed be worth it for us... My son(5) LOVES anything to do with aquariums, divers, under-the sea. I know he will talk about the Dig for months and years! (That alone would cost us quite a bit of money - so why not just get a day room???) I love sunny afternoons at beautiful pools. And, the nice kiddie pool areas and the water slides are an added bonus. (We do not care for waterparks with mega-slides.....) Plus, there is the beach. We do not live anywhere near a sunny warm beach, so this too is a big draw for us. It gives us two beach days on a 4 nite cruise.

My question for Atlantis goers is this - We would like to arrive early, do the Dig, then the Beach, then the pools in the area of the Mayan Temple and slides. Now everyone mentions just how huge Atlantis is, and how much walking is involved. Can anyone give us a good idea on just how far it is from each of these areas to the other? And, I am assuming that Atlantis does not have trams? Is it realistic to hope to enjoy these three areas in the one day?

 

[Lizardbeth61]

Frankly, I wouldn't consider going to Atlantis again because of the awful service we received. We got a room for the day. Maybe that's why . . . they don't like day trippers. But my comment is about the Discovery Channel camp. We got the room so our children could take advantage of this and I would STRONGLY urge against it although it may have been an off day for them.

My children love the Discovery Channel and when I saw info about the camp on the TLC I immediately contacted my travel agent to sign them up. We got confirmations and all, but when we got there, they told us it wasn't supposed to be open that day because of some kind of staff meeting. I was willing to pack up and spend the day at the pool (most of which were closed . . . too cold, but we'd make do and it is an amazing property!). However, another parent came in wanting to sign their child in and to make a long story short, they opened up. However, because of the pool situtation etc, my husband and I tried killing time until we could pick them up from camp. We didn't want them to miss a minute. When we did get them, we found out they'd been counting the minutes until it was over. Because it was not supposed to be open, my kids enjoyed glorified babysitting which is NOT what we intended! They did none of the activities they were supposed to. They didn't visit the aquarium or the fish nursery. All they did was make a plaster cast of shark teeth and stay in a very dark play area. VERY DISAPPOINTING . . . especially since we wasted a day for all of us and spent money to do it! Ugh. I would have preferred honesty about the activities of the day. We literally went there for the camp and it was a bust.

 

[Dayna]

Thanks to all of you for your replies. I am going to copy them all and give them to my travel mates so we can all make an extremely informed decision. Thanks again.

Dayna

 

[ike]

To Wishing Upon A Star
I would looked up Atlantis on the website or call & get a map. It is really big. I heard they have trams but I don't recall seeing them. There are pools at Coral Tower & then pools at Royal Tower, with kids I would say it is a 10-15 minute walk. Coral Towers has the lazy river but it is much colder than the Royal Tower pools. With a 5 yr old- he probably won't be tall enough to go down the big slides but they have a great kiddie pool behind it with smaller slides. There are slides hidden everywhere. When I was there, it was too cold for the beach. And the digs took only 15-20 min. I would save the beach for last because you are going to have the beach at Castaway. Again, we loved the Atlantis & would highly recommend getting a room so that you can use all the pools.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Thanks Ike!

So, it it is like a 10-15 minute walk between each area.... That is a considerable bit of walking if it is a very hot day, but definately do-able!

I have indeed checked out the map on the Atlantis awesome website.... Still think we may check out the beach before the pools, as then we can get rid of all the sand, and be back at the pools, closer to our room and check-out when we are ready to head back to the ship. I will definately go look at the map again to check out which would be less walking!!!

 

[ike]

It's a 10-15 min walk(i had a 2 year old) from one end to the other end. If I recall the dig was right in the middle. In addition to the beach they have a man made beach, actually they have a couple of them & it's much calmer than the beach- one is the bay & the other is a lagoon. Have a great time!

 

[johnsontrio]

This may be obvious to some.. when you are planning your day please know that the aquariums are only lit by sunlight. We wanted to get pool time and since it was dark around 5:30 we planned to see the Dig and the aquariums after that. Well, we did see the Dig, but didn't see much in the aquariums. I agree with a previous poster that the Dig only took about 30 minutes max to see it all. It may have also been better in the daylight, not sure if that also involves outside aquariums. HTH.