Atlantis Paradise Island is one of those magical places that delights you at every turn with it’s wonder. There are the stunning aquariums found in The Dig exhibit as well as glorious art and architecture stretching across the grounds, with a multitude of heavily flowered tropical paths to carry you around the extensive property. From there you can climp the Power Tower waterslides for an eye popping view of the beach from atop the Tower. This can be done without ever taking a plunge on the waterslide. It’s all there to stir your senses and leave you feeling like you’ve stepped into a true paradise. Check out these links to my previous posts on Atlantis Paradise Island and Traveling During Hurricane Season for Sweet Deals.

Perks
1. A world class water park that is included in the price of your stay. We enjoyed the variety of waterslides; there are seven different styles of slide rides. Beyond the waterslides we especially loved The Current, which is a combination experience with rapids and lazy river features. It remains hands down our personal favorite!
2. There are pools upon pools to lull you into a feeling of finding your own personal paradise; we counted twelve in all; with three being children’s pools. Each had it’s own unique style and environment.
3. Beach bars with live music bring home the feeling of island living with the price of a drink.
4. Three free movies every day at the Atlantis movie theatre.
5. A very reasonably priced comedy club, called The Joker’s Club at twenty dollars per person.
6. World class landscaped walkways and garden areas that truly bring home tropical paradise with every step.
7. A world class aquariuam complex called The Dig with over 50,000 different creatures. Walking through The Dig is memorable beyond measure. We visited The Dig and the ten other aquarium features several times.
8. The sense of romance and delight that being in this environment brings to your relationship.
9. Restaurants of every style and price range all within a short walk from your room.
10. Lagoons for swimming, sea toys to rent, everything you need within fingertips reach for an incredible experience.
11. Beautiful rooms with balconies to enjoy the Island view.
12. Entertainment in the form of a casino, and night club, along with kid friendly entertainment such as a build your own race car station, family video game arcade, and Club Rush, a teen club where teens can hang and enjoy music and friends.
13. We lucked out with a sparse visitor population due to the storms. There were no lines at the water slides and no necessity to make reservations for dinner.
14. A daily schedule of events, movies and restaurants that are open can be found under your door each morning, much the same as you would find on a cruise ship. This is exceedingly helpful.

Quirks
1. There were several mistakes on our room charges. I made it a point to spend five minutes every morning getting a print out of our current charges and correcting them at the front desk. That way I avoided a big nasty surprise at check out. I learned this from a past cruise experience. The desk staff was very gracious about taking off incorrect charges.
2. The prices for meals at the resort are beyond expensive. In fact pretty much everything at the resort is expensive. It made my years in Guam and Hawaii feel reasonable.
3. No free shuttle or ferry service into Nassau.
4. Some restaurants were closed on various days; I believe this was due to the hurricane storm status, but I don’t know if this also happens under normal conditions.
5. The grounds are very very extensive, plan on doing A LOT of walking. Carry water with you, the heat can be very intense.
6. The bath products in our room were not of a quality that I would expect when paying the price we were paying for our room.
7. The number of visitors during the height of tour season would require planning ahead and making reservations for meals.
8. Suck it up and purchase a meal plan. The savings and the diversity of restaurants will be worth the cost.

Photo Credit Robin Brightbill and Lisa Overman

1. Hurricane season is unpredictable.
2. Know your options if a storm does develop; ie will the resort refund your money or reschedule your trip?
3. What are the refund or change procedures for the airline you’ll be flying?
4. Purchase travel insurance to protect your investment and your trip.
5. Can you be flexible?
6. Is your package offering a substantial savings?

We chose a deal with The Atlantis Paradise Island Resort. Our package offered a three night stay with flights and airport tranfers. Before we departed we also opted to add the meal plan. THIS IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, as meal prices are exhorbitant at the resort and this meal plan offers travelers a choice of several restaurants within the resort for one daily price of 59 dollars per person. This price gives visitors the casual dining plan; a slightly more costly plan offered gourmet dining for 89 dollars a day.
If I did it again I would opt for the gourmet dining plan due to the fact that you are then able to dine at every restaurant within the resort. These meal plans offers a SERIOUS savings. After dining just one night at a fine dining restaurant within the resort our bill for dinner, drinks and dessert came to just under $150 dollars; thankfully we had the dining plan so everything on our bill was removed except alcohol, tip and tax. Our 59 dollar meal plan which included full breakfast and dinner, excluding alcohol suddenly felt like an incredible deal. The catch to this plan, you must sign up at least three days before arrival.

Challenges to traveling on these deals is the reality of hurricane season. Storms sometimes happen without more than a few days warning. Their direction and strength can change quickly and an island resort ballroom is not a luxurious place to sleep in the midst of a hurricane if you can’t get a flight out. We had an interesting and challenging experience on our trip with traveling into Nassau on the last flight in before Hurricane Hanna came through. We flew into Nassau on Bahama Air; we discussed cancelling, but knowing that the tracking is quite accurate we opted to go knowing Hanna was tracking as the very lowest grade hurricane. We knew we’d have one day of rainy gray, windy weather, but we hoped the other days would be bright and beautiful. We were fortunate; Hanna was downgraded, mild and we had only one evening of high wind and most of a day of rain and grey overcast skies as the storm made it’s way past Nassau.

An additional challenge was Hurricane Ike tracking toward the Bahamas a few days behind Hanna. We lucked out with a nice window of weather between storms. We did spend time watching storm coverage to be certain we were up to date with the changes in storm direction and strength. The resort was very good about posting hurricane updates in the resort lobby. An additional challenge with The Atlantis Paradise Island was a lack of useful information before departure regarding our options if the storm did hit Nassau. In the days before we departed I got a lot of run around and some nonsense answers, such as we can’t predict if the storm will hit the Bahamas. The fact was at that point the National Weather Service was already confirming that the storm was tracking directly toward the Bahamas, so their reservation agents stick your head in the sand attitude was very annoying. On top of that the NOA website was showing the waves in the area to be higher than normal, so their lack of information was simply annoying. On top of this it took several phone calls and finally asking for a supervisor to get full answers about our options for cancellation if a storm did hit Nassau and we couldn’t get a flight in.

As it turned out the resort did offer free rescheduling if a storm was going to hit. We were given other possible dates to choose from when I finally talked to a supervisor by phone. Our package was booked straight through Atlantis Paradise Island so I was surprised when I spoke to the resort before our arrival and learned I would have to rebook our flights through the airline. What I also learned is that Bahama Air will reschedule you with no cost if flights are cancelled due to weather. The catch is that you must wait to reschedule until the airline has decided to cancel flights. Once cancellations have begun they waive any rescheduling fee and allow you to select another flight date with no rescheduling fee.

Another consideration is accomodations during a storm. We were given daily updates as Hurricane Ike made it’s way toward the Bahamas and we were given an official letter under our door from the island government saying they recommended all tourists to depart the island ahead of the coming hurricane. The hotel also clearly stated that guests who remained at the hotel during Hurricane Ike would be housed in safe areas such as the ballroom. So any thought of resort accomodations and hanging in your room would be out of that picture.

Overall even with the challenges we faced our experience at Atlantis Paradise Island was positive. We had a great trip; we survived the hassles traveling during hurricane season can produce and we hope to return again with no storm on the forecast. Certainly there are things to consider before choosing any resort. There were pros and cons to our choice and I plan to do another post discussing those.

Photo Credit: Robin Brightbill and Lisa Overman