Welcome, Foolish Muggles! IoA/US/MK/SW *July 2013 Trip Report Link*

[natebenma]

Great pics from Atlantis. I got to go a few years ago as a "favor" to my boss for a business trip. Very cool! We are taking a Disney cruise next April and I am still trying to decide if this excursion is worth the $.

Thanks for the kind comments! Not a bad place for a business trip.

How long is the ship in Nassau? The kids are great ages to enjoy Atlantis, but it is a lot of $$$ for a day. Would you consider renting a room at the Comfort Suites to get passes?

I love to snorkel. I've been snorkeling in the Bahamas, Aruba, Puerto Vallarta, Curacao, Antigua, St. Thomas and St. Kitts. The coolest snorkeling experience I've had has been in Aruba. There's a ship from WWII that is sunk just off the coast, that's one of the snorkeling stops on the daylong trips. There's a whole reef that's sprung up in and around the ship, it's a very cool sight.

Yay! Good luck with the organizing, I'm sure there are about a million photos. I'll be front and center once the TR starts.

, a snorkel buddy!

My first time was in the Bahamas, on the Royal Caribbean private island, over 20 years ago. I didn't think I would be able to get the hang of it, but I did and fell in love.

We may have been to that shipwreck in Aruba, but conditions were not good for us that day. Liked De Palm island there- HUGE parrotfish.

We have also been to Cozumel, the Mayan Riviera, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and when I was 3 1/2 months pregnant with Nate, we went to St. John for an all snorkel-all the time vacation. My favorite experience was there- we took a 'Round the Island Snorkel Tour and one of the stops was a shallow bay-a fish nursery amongst the roots of the mangrove trees

Oh my goodness I'm so behind with everything on the Dis-finally getting caught up today I hope
Loving all your pics so far-that place looks amazing!
I've never snorkled-not sure if I'm brave enough- but it looks really cool!
Cant wait to hear more

Thanks for your comments about the pictures. Atlantis is very cool!

If you ever get the opportunity to go snorkeling someplace tropical, I hope you will try it.

 

[MickeyT]

Thank you! The place is just over the top gorgeous! We went through the Digs Aquarium at least twice each day, it was especially nice right after breakfast because nobody else was there.
!

Could not help to think " Wonder if she tried to get Fastpasses for later?"

 

[natebenma]

Could not help to think " Wonder if she tried to get Fastpasses for later?"

Of course, but I had to be mindful of the return time!

 

[MHTeacher]

Beautiful pictures of your snorkeling adventure!

Everything at Atlantis looks beautiful-and so much fun!

Still waiting to hear, if you took the big plunge?

 

[natebenma]

Beautiful pictures of your snorkeling adventure!

Everything at Atlantis looks beautiful-and so much fun!

Still waiting to hear, if you took the big plunge?

It was a fabulous trip!

Here's the deal on big plunge... There are two very steep extreme slides, The Abyss and The Leap of Faith.

You enter the Abyss in a coffin-like structure, the ride is dark, then there is a shaft of light, followed by a waterfall right before you plunge into a really cool cavern/aquarium.

I went on this slide. Once. Me no like!!!

I don't like body slides and I don't like water in the face, and I choked on water on the slide.

My son Nate did this slide at least 30 times!!!

I ended up not trying the Leap of Faith. You can't see anything as you are shooting down the slide, and you have the same body slide issues. Nate did this slide once and Mark did it once.

I much prefered the Serpent Slide that takes you (via a raft) into the shark tube.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Sounds like you had a great vacation Dee!!
Atlantis does look beautiful- I so wanna go. I guess going there instead of Disney one year wouldn't be that bad. I hate to keep repeating myself, but I posted on Amanda's PTR that I was really sad this trip b/c DH and DS14 said they were sick of Disney That made me so sad. So we are definately planning a non Disney trip for next year since 2 trips are out of the question on a substitute salary
I will be going through withdrawals by September of 2013!

 

[MEK]

Wow! Your pictures of Atlantis are stunning! I've heard mixed things about Atlantis as an excursion, but honestly, it looks wonderful. I am putting that up to the top of my list for my cruise planning!

 

[natebenma]

Wow! Your pictures of Atlantis are stunning! I've heard mixed things about Atlantis as an excursion, but honestly, it looks wonderful. I am putting that up to the top of my list for my cruise planning!

Thank you so much for your kind comments!

Atlantis was a blast! My biggest concern with it as a cruise stop (other than the outrageous expense ) is that there is TOO much to do.

You could spend an entire day at the water park. And then there are the beaches. Plus the first rate aquarium (The Digs), The Predator Tunnel and all of the other marine habitats scattered throughout the place.

That's what is taking me so long to get my report going. We went through the Digs twice a day most days. So I have about 10 different sets of pictures. Well, 9. One day my family challenged me to walk through without taking any pictures. And I won, too!

Both of my cameras were out of charge.

 

[natebenma]

Sounds like you had a great vacation Dee!!
Atlantis does look beautiful- I so wanna go. I guess going there instead of Disney one year wouldn't be that bad. I hate to keep repeating myself, but I posted on Amanda's PTR that I was really sad this trip b/c DH and DS14 said they were sick of Disney That made me so sad. So we are definately planning a non Disney trip for next year since 2 trips are out of the question on a substitute salary
I will be going through withdrawals by September of 2013!

We did have a great trip. I hope yours was wonderful too, even if there was some grumbling about Disney overload. You will have to see if those attitudes change in the next few months.

We got that after our 2010 trip, which was why I planned the vacation to Universal last summer. Then as you know, everyone grumbled that we weren't going to Disney!!

We have been to Atlantis in February and April, and April was much better weather-wise. Although we were there during school vacation week, it wasn't outrageously crowded. People told us the previous week had been worse there.

My advertisement for Atlantis will be starting in the next few days.

 

[MEK]

Thank you so much for your kind comments!

Atlantis was a blast! My biggest concern with it as a cruise stop (other than the outrageous expense ) is that there is TOO much to do.

You could spend an entire day at the water park. And then there are the beaches. Plus the first rate aquarium (The Digs), The Predator Tunnel and all of the other marine habitats scattered throughout the place.

That's what is taking me so long to get my report going. We went through the Digs twice a day most days. So I have about 10 different sets of pictures. Well, 9. One day my family challenged me to walk through without taking any pictures. And I won, too!

Both of my cameras were out of charge.

Well I, for one, can not wait to see more pictures of this fabulous place!

 

[jenseib]

I love seeing the pictures of the aquarium. I am contemplating that as our excursion in Nov. I did do it about 9 years ago and it was neat.

 

[natebenma]

I love seeing the pictures of the aquarium. I am contemplating that as our excursion in Nov. I did do it about 9 years ago and it was neat.

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look! I'll have more pictures coming up. Soon, I hope

Are you thinking of doing just the tour of the aquarium/habitats or the water park, too? I could spend hours and hours just in the marine parts of Atlantis.

Or are you thinking about one of the interactive experiences? Dolphin, sea lion? We did the dolphin encounter on our 2009 trip. To be honest, I think I would look into the Blue Lagoon offerings over the Atlantis options if you are doing something like that.

 

[pixarmom]

Hi Dee! Just wanted to let you know that I'm following along and enjoying the photos, as always. Looking forward to the full report!

 

[jenseib]

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look! I'll have more pictures coming up. Soon, I hope

Are you thinking of doing just the tour of the aquarium/habitats or the water park, too? I could spend hours and hours just in the marine parts of Atlantis.

Or are you thinking about one of the interactive experiences? Dolphin, sea lion? We did the dolphin encounter on our 2009 trip. To be honest, I think I would look into the Blue Lagoon offerings over the Atlantis options if you are doing something like that.

I'm looking at the Aquarium part. I'm not a huge water park person, and Claire likes them but I'm not about to spend that kind of money for it.
We did the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter last year and loved it, but again, it's a hefty chunk of change, so it will be a while before we do that again.

 

[natebenma]

Hi Dee! Just wanted to let you know that I'm following along and enjoying the photos, as always. Looking forward to the full report!

Thanks! I am finally going to get started on this thing!

I'm looking at the Aquarium part. I'm not a huge water park person, and Claire likes them but I'm not about to spend that kind of money for it.
We did the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter last year and loved it, but again, it's a hefty chunk of change, so it will be a while before we do that again.

The Aquarium part is definitely worth a visit. Do you know if the tours are entirely guided or if you get free time to explore on your own? We saw a lot of guided tours through the Dig Ruins, the Predator Lagoon and the other exhibits.

 

[natebenma]

Atlantis, Comfort Suites, Sunday April 15- Friday April 20, 2012

Things you can lose:

Your car keys
Your mind
Your luggage (unfortunately we discovered this)
Money wagered on a New England Patriots Super Bowl win in 2012
A Whole City

A city???

The Atlantis resort is based on the Ancient Greek legend of a city that reigned supreme in a time when gods walked among men and fantastic creatures roamed the earth. The city of Atlantis flourished for years, enjoying technological advances that rivaled all other civilizations in the world until it was lost to the sea in an unforeseen cataclysmic event in one terrible day and night.

Now, tourists can visit, via land or sea, this amazing destination in the Bahamas. And yes, you will lose lots of money in the process. We should know. This was our second trip here.

In this report, I will give an overview of our trip in February 2009, Ill describe our stay at the Comfort Suites, an off-property sister hotel which allows guests to enjoy all of the amenities of Atlantis. I will describe in excruciating detail the attractions of Aquaventure, the wonderful waterpark. I will show pictures of the other-worldly marine habitat that encompasses Atlantis. I will take you snorkeling with Manta Rays and barracuda. We will take a tour of Nassau together. And you didnt think I would leave out the food porn, did you?

Lets get started, shall we?

Here we are in February 2009.

We stayed in a room in the Beach Towers of Atlantis. Here are a few pictures of our amazing view from the room. We could see the water park, the ocean, the Beach Tower Pool, and right below us was an exhibit with large rays and tropical fish.

Ill have some comparisons of this room with the CS room when I get to this years trip.

We enjoyed The Dig/Ruins habitat, the Predator Tunnel, Sea Grapes coral reef display, feeding the turtles and rays.

We were blown, and swept, away by the waterpark. In a happy coincidence, one of Nates friends happened to be cruising that week with a stop in Nassau, so he and his grandpa joined us for a day.

We took a cab into Nassau one morning and walked around town and visited the Pirates Museum (we had also visited the museum on a previous cruise stop to Nassau).

Hey, does this come in teenager sizes?


And on our final full day, we visited the on-site excursion Dolphin Cay where Ben and I had a shallow water interaction with dolphins and Mark and Nate booked a swim with the dolphins.

We had booked the Atlantis casual dining plan for this trip, which included a buffet breakfast every morning and dinner at one of the buffets or one of the casual restaurants at Atlantis or nearby Marina Village. For convenience, we ate all of our breakfast and dinners at the Marketplace Buffet Restaurant. The buffets are huge and there was plenty of variety so we were never bored.

We had an amazing stay!

One fantastic consequence of this trip was that after we returned home, Nate looked at the pictures, was mortified by how his hair looked and asked for a haircut.

After our trip, we knew we would be back. But we wanted to try a different time of year. We found it to be a little chilly in February. The waterpark attractions were fine, the ocean was ok, but we definitely needed sweatshirts in the evenings. My thought was to pair this family trip during the same year that my DH and I would celebrate our 25th anniversary with a couples-only trip.

I am pleased to report that this plan worked out splendidly- Mark and I visited Puerto Rico in early March and our family trip was during the kids April school break.

Next Up: Arrival Day April 2012/Comfort Suites


Chapter Links:

Atlantis- Comfort Suites April 15-20, 2012

Preview Pictures:

Around Atlantis and The Digs Aquarium

Atlantis Waterpark

Snorkeling in the Ruins and Snorkeling in the wild

Atlantis- February 2009

Arrival Day/Comfort Suites Paradise Island


CS Room 291

Aquaventure Waterpark

Best."Lazy" River. EVER! Part 1

Best."Lazy" River. EVER! Part 2



The Power Tower

The Power Tower-The Drop and The Falls

The Power Tower-The Surge

The Power Tower- The Abyss


The Mayan Temple, Part 1

The Mayan Temple, Part 2

The Rest of the Waterpark: Pools/Hot Tubs/Kiddie Area


Finally, Food Porn!


Let's Take a Walk Around Atlantis

The Royal Towers Lobby and The Dig, Part I

The Dig, Part II

More of The Dig and the Ruins Lagoon

Fins to the Left! Predator and Ray Lagoons

Fins to the Right! Predator Tunnel

Paradise Lagoon

Under the Sea, Part 1

Under the Sea, Part 2

Snorkel The Ruins:

Snorkeling The Ruins
Pictures 1
Pictures 2

Atlantis Beaches

Marina Village

Tour of Nassau



.

 

[DrMomof3]

Tell me more!!!! I'm so excited to hear about this trip!

Amanda

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Oh you have me excited to read more
Cant believe how much your boys have grown

 

[natebenma]

Tell me more!!!! I'm so excited to hear about this trip!

Amanda

Thank you! I should be able to put up a new installment tomorrow.

Oh you have me excited to read more
Cant believe how much your boys have grown

I appreciate your enthusiasm! I enjoyed going back and reliving that trip as I prepared this chapter. The boys really have changed! Ben is now the same age Nate was on the previous trip.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Wow it just looks so great! Your boys have gotten so big. Isn't it sad how fast time flies? They'll be in college before we know it.
Yeah, Nate did look like a girl in those pics.