We recently returned from a stay at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. We stayed 4 nights the first week of June at the Corral Tower section. We were offered at check in an option to upgrade to the Royal section. We turned this down, preferring an Ocean view at the Corral section to a Garden view at the Royal section. Believe me, we found out, at least judging from outside appearances, there is a vast difference between the Corral Tower building and the Royal Tower Building. I would advise you to take the Royal building if offered, it is amazing, awesome. The Corral Tower section is downright tacky in comparison.

Our first room in the Corral Towers was awful, the “water view” required tunnel vision and a good imagination. We complained and Peggy at Guest services came thru like a champ and the next day we were offered a beautiful sixth floor room with a great view of the Ocean and the entire facility. On the second night, they has a totally awesome fireworks display at the new Cove section. This was indeed impressive and if we had taken the Royal room we would not have had the great view. I guess our bad judgment worked out OK in this instance. The room itself was fairly plain, but clean and pleasant. Nothing like the rooms at some 5 star resorts we have been to in Costa Rico or the Dominican Republic, but still overall there was no complaint. Service was good and the Hotel employees were friendly. This is unlike what I had read in some other reviews.

We purchased the American Food plan and probably did not come out on it. A dinner at one of the Buffet restaurants would have averaged over $100 for two adults and a 5 year old. The food was plentiful, which was mandatory, as finding something edible was a problem. I’m not sure if it was our spoiled American appetites or if the food was really bland and tasteless. The Breakfast buffets averaged about $60 and the Omelets were pretty good. Service at the restaurants was typical of the Caribbean resorts, slow and slower. You just have to adjust to a lower scale of service and you’ll do fine.

The beach was great, beautiful sand and water. The beach was somewhat crowded and had a few beach vendors pedaling various items but not bad at all. The pools and water parks were very entertaining and our 5 year old pretty well lived in the water for 4 days. The 48” height required for some of the water parks was a bummer for baby as she was about 4 inches short of that height and they would not budge on letting her in. The lazy river she could do and we enjoyed this. When the lazy river ride got crowded, it wasn’t much fun, but with few people it was a favorite. The Lagoon and Snorkel beach was also a favorite place. We probably spend as much time there as anywhere. It’s not a real place to snorkel with not much to see but baby didn’t mind. Overall, this resort offered the most varied water entertainment of anyplace we have visited.

We went on one tour, the Dolphin experience. We took a boat ride to an island and baby and momma got to touch and kiss a Dolphin. The Tour cost about $80 each to participate with $25 to observe. It was a fun trip and worth the money. The same basic Dolphin Experience at the Atlantis was about twice as expensive.

First I would like say that I booked this trip at very reduced price of $479.

The flight from Toronto with Canjet was fine going down but 11/2 hours late on the return. These planes are putting more and more seats in their planes every year, and they don't offer first class seating.

Upon arriving at Atlantis we found that our rooms would be about 1 hour till ready(3:30pm). Once we got our room key we waited 1 hour for our luggage to get to our room.

Positives: The grounds and pools look great at first glance.

The buffets were a good price and value. We went on the Island World Adventure and it was the best trip we have ever been on, worth every penny and then some. Beds were good and the rooms clean.

Negatives: The staff at the hotel are fall short of a 5 star rating. I think this is because there is a 15% gratuity included on all food and drinks (they don't have to work for their money) The staff do the bare minimum and smiles are rare. The grounds while nice were dirty and to large with a 20 minute walk from one side to the other. The pools only open from 9am to 7pm. as does the beach. This was a pain as we really enjoy morning and evening swims. The water slide closed at 7 pm as well. We arrived at 6:45pm one night and were told that we couldn't go on. When we questioned the life guard he said he needed tome to clean up. The beach was closed each day because the life guard said it was to rough to swim, but the next hotel was open to swim as was the public beach next door. After 3 days of this myself and a couple of other angry people just went swimming anyway. The lifeguard said he was going to call the authorities but when the manager came down to the beach we told him how we felt and he told the guards to let us go.( they don't own the beach). Over 1/2 of the restaurants were closed for the week, this was a problem as the ones that they close are the lowest priced ones.

We were also asked to go to a time share information session every time we passed in the lobby, they just won't leave you alone.

Well, what can i say - if money is no object and you like thinking that you are one of the rich and famous, this resort is for you - but if like me, you want your moneys worth stay away!!!!! We travelled with our married son and grandchild, so we stayed at the Harborside (time share) part of the resort - which i highly recommend if you are with children - room for them to run around and there is transportation to the main resort. The place is beautiful and there is lots to see - however.... how many pools can you swim in at one time???? My advice - stay at the nearby comfort inn - they give you breakfast and you have priviledges at the atlantis, or stay at an even more reasonable resort and get a day pass for the atlantis. For the price of this vacation, we could have taken 2 at punta cana, or cancun

I agree that the ocean water in the bahamas is the most beautiful - better than bermuda, dominican republic and hawaii BUT the beach itself is not

I have been to Atlantis three times in the last three years. We stayed in the villas twice at the Coral Towers and the Hotel once. If you can get a villa (it cannot be requested beforehand) it is absolutely fabulous. The villas are adjacent to the beach and covered with waterfalls, lagoons and tropical plants. Atlantis is by far the most absoutely gorgeous resort I have ever been to. Yes, it is expensive but worth every penny. My husband and I recently purcased a Time Share at Atlantis, guaranteeing us a vacation there every year. The water is the most beautiful I've seen anywhere and is warm and calm in the summer months. It is much better to go early summer than in the off season because the weather is calmer and warmer.

My wife and 10 year old daughter and I just returned from a week's stay at the Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. We were there from 4/13/03 to 4/19/03. Where do I start without sounding like Jack Lemmon in "The Out of Towners"?

First, the hotel. Our only choice when we booked was the Beach tower. The other choices are the Coral tower and Royal tower. Our room was spacious and clean. The view of the ocean was nice except for the fact that our entire side of the tower overlooked an ugly rooftop and the service and pool area of the Sheraton next door. You see nothing of the place you are visiting. This building was originally built in 1967 and short of lobby renovations and hallways downstairs it looks as if not much has ever been done since then. Be careful of the balconies. There so small you can lose a child.

During our stay one of only three elevators worked for 3 of the 7 days we were there. The second finally was fixed and the third is still probably out of order. There didn't seem to be any great desire to fix the problem by staff. So plan on walking up stairs or make sure you get a low floor. When we were dropped off by the pre-arranged airport transfer company, Dan Knowles, we were deposited at the Coral tower lobby where we were told to check in. Then a five minute walk through crowds to our building the Beach tower. Apparently, the Beach tower doesn't even warrant it's own check in staff even though it must have in the past since the facility is set up for it. I got the feeling that the Beach tower is the poor stepchild of Atlantis. A clear example of this was that all convention facilities seemed located there to handle the groups that like to throw water balloons out the windows and such. There is only one restaurant in the tower and it only serves buffet. All of the other nicer restaurants are either in the Coral or Royal towers. Now lets talk about the meals.

My travel agent suggested that due to the typically expensive meals, it may make sense to buy the Gourmet food plan for my family. I was told that this permitted one to dine in any of the restaurants (although some had specific dollar limits which if exceeded we were responsible for the excess) for all the meals. The cost was $80 per person per day and $40 for a child. So we bought the Gourmet package for the week. ( you have to buy it for your entire stay, not just a few days). Don't do it.

First, unless you make reservations at least 2 to 3 weeks before your arrive, you will be shut out of every restaurant except the buffets. That happened to us. We paid $200 per day to eat at buffets and this does not include any alcohol. (A beer is $6.50, glass of wine is $11.00 A bottle of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio sells retail for $18 in CT. Here it is $53.) Second, the Gourmet plan does not include lunch. That will run you an additional $45-55 per day for 2 adults and one 10 year old child. And for that we got to stand in lines for up to 15 minutes just for a hambuger, fries, and a water. And we chose to eat at the Cave Bar Grill out at the pool. If you decide to go to a sit down place for lunch, plan on a 45 minute wait and a $60 tab in a very noisy and crowded venue.

Third, the buffets. While these clearly provide value, they don't if you bought the goumet plan. Of the two we visited, the Water's Edge in the Coral Tower is better. Its bigger and the food is better. The Seagrape in Beach tower (naturally) is noisy and people lined up for food, kids dropping plates of pasta, and in general, only good when shut out of any other place to eat. One avenue that will be suggested to you by the hotel when you complain as we did about being shut out of all the restaurants before we even arrived, is to speak to the concierge. They will tell you to just show up at a particular restaurant and hope for a cancellation. We did that but it only seemed to work after 8:30 or so and who wants to wander around with a child with such uncertainty. And like I said, if youre in Beach tower you will definitely be wandering around. But the reality is that even this tactic was unsuccessful for us on three of the four nights we tried it. What I find interesting is that if you make a resevation and don't show up, the hotel told us that they bill the party $50 per person for failing to show. So now the hotel never loses. As a gourmet plan participant, I show up, lacking a reservation, since all the restaurants were booked before I've even arrived, and if willing, will take the place of the diner who failed to show (and was charged $50) and now I cover that person's dinner.

Oh and if you order a bottle of wine, you will get very large traditional wine glasses. If you go cheap and just order by the glass, they will remove the large wine glass and serve you your single drink in a much smaller wine glass. This way, you will drink the bottled (read more expensive) wine more quickly. It's kind of like any casino- the odds are always in there favor. Now let's talk about the attractions. Much effort was made to integrate many species of marine life throughout the resort and they did it very creatively. For children and adults it's very interesting. Now if you could just eliminate about half of the people that are there, it would be tolerable. It seems that by 9am at any pool , every damn beach chair is "taken" by guests. I know people that told us that they get up at 7am and go out to the pool bringing their dirty towel from the day before (since the towel booths don't open until 9:30am) and stake out their chairs. According to the Pool Etiquette chapter in the in-room guide book, the reseving of chairs is not permitted. Yet the practice is so pervasive, you're forced to either lay on the cement or try your luck out on the beach, where you will almost certainly encounter the same problem. My wife sat on the cement near a pool watching our daughter swim for an hour next to an unoccupied chair that had a towel on it. Finally she sat on it. No sooner did she sit down when the reserving occupant, a rude, loud-mouthed woman ("probably from New York"- J. Lithgow, Terms of Endearment) confronted my wife and yelled at her to get off "her chair" and repeated this several times to those around her. My wife got up, explained that no one had been there for over an hour to which the woman responded that because she had her towel there, my wife was to have known to keep off her chair. Since I was scuba diving that morning I missed this confrontation but was given the blow-by-blow by my wife when I arrived in the afternoon. I then went over to the woman's husband (she was not there , of course) and told him what had happened. He simply said that they had had the chairs all morning by simply reserving them. I explained what I understood to be hotel policy regarding the prohibition of such reserving and he said go complain to the hotel. I did and was told that the hotel policy, does in fact prohibit the holding of chairs and that those that do will have their property removed and stored until claimed by the guest. I tell you this because what should be a time and place to relax is any thing but at the pools. Too many screaming kids, lots of rude (and overweight for the most part) adults and teens who wouldn't know how to say "excuse me" if their lives depended on it.

To top off the pool experience, all but the Beach tower pools close at 5:30pm. So if you thought about a nice relaxing swim at 6pm without the crowds, forget it. To make sure of this all the food places and outdoor spots to get a drink also shut down at 5:30pm as well as the towel huts. About the towels, you need to show your room key to get towels as well as your ID bracelet for each day that you are in the pool areas. Yet the rules state that if you fail to return a towel, your room will be charged $25 per towel. Given all the towels I saw laying around the pool and beach near the end of the day, either they are not enforcing the rules or they're making a hell of a lot of money with the fines. One last grating thing about the Atlantis experience is that apparently the hotel offers tours to outsiders. So in order to properly control the pools, you will be asked to produce your room key/identity tag by employees standing at the entrance areas all over the complex. This forces you to have to walk down to the towel huts and stand in line to be given the bracelet of the day or be constanly asked to prove you belong there.

Whatever you do, don't buy any souveniers of a local nature at the hotel. They are usually triple the street price. And the women that prowl the beach selling shirts and beads an necklaces are way over priced. If you must return with any of this kind of stuff, take the $3 boat shuttle across the harbor and go to the straw market and negotiate there. And even there, don't pay what they say. You can usually get even those vendors to cut the price by half.

Other beefs.
The Sports workout facility is almost a mile from the Beach tower so just going there will probably give you the workout you desire. The property is so large it remined me of EPCOT in Orlando. You will walk forever. The ONLY ATM machine on the property is in the casino between the Coral and Royal towers. What a coincidence. Of course, don't rely on them since they were frequently not working the week I was there. (You can go to the casino cashier as an alternative but you will need a photo ID in order to get money from a debit or credit card.)

You will hear some noise about the kids club, Rush. Ages 7 to 13 from 4:30pm to 7:30pm. Older kids from 14 to 17 later. No parents allowed other than to drop off (and pay the admission fee, of course) Judging by the way the second age group is dressed,(girls like hookers and boys like "Abercrombie Zombies"), there is justification for the sign on the front door of the club prohibiting "PDA" or public disaplay of affection including" dirty dancing, kissing, groping. How come they didn't have these places when I was a teenager.

I'm still on a roll. About the drinks. They love pushing the local drinks. All of which contain a lot of sugar. Every drink is portion controlled so be warned. At least you won't get drunk. Broke, but not intoxicated.

Of the islands I've been to, the natives hawking their wares seemed to be the most agressive here. An example, if you even go near the beach with a girl the age of my daughter, the women will come up and offer to braid their hair. Having done this for our daughter last year in Turks and Caicos for $60, we asked how much. $130 was the going rate. Don't pay it or any thing close. After you say no, they will ask you what you want to pay. We said $60 and they said $80 and she gave both my daughter and wife a necklace. They all negotiate. And they only take cash.

I would suggest that if you are still willing to brave the crowds, that you do a lot of research before you go. Don't just take the travel agents word or information. Unless they've been there recently, you need to make some calls. The side excursions that sound interesting such as swimming with the dolphins ($145 per person) was sold out a month before we even got there. Not that we would have done it but just an example of expectations of a spontaneous jaunt needing to balanced with reality.

What I get out of all of this, is that all the brochures show the Royal Towers. Great but naturally more expensive than the others and much more desireable. In fact there is even another step above if you want to get away and that is at the adjoining Ocean Club. Its a shuttle ride away and is apparently the place to go to be pampered at much higher rates with restaurants that are alway booked before you get there. Never got over there myself. But for $600 or $800 a night you'd be better off going to Cap Jaluca in Anguilla for that much.