We are taking a vacation to the Bahamas and staying at the Atlantis resort. It will be me, my husband, our almost 3 year old daughter and another couple with their 4yr old daughter.
I wanted to know if anyone who has gone there purchased the dining plans and whether it was worth it or not. Any other thoughts you want to share about Atlantis would be great too!
So we just returned from our trip to Bahamas Atlantis. Overall we had a great time - how can you not have fun with so many swimming pools and slides and a beautiful beach. However, in regards to the resort and the food, here is my assessment:
The resort and accommodations - I think that the rooms in the Beach tower and Coral Towers are a little overpriced for what you get. For what we paid I felt that I could have stayed a 5 star resort like a Ritz somewhere else. The Royal Towers and the Cove are gorgeous but the rates at the Cove start at $700 a night. And that's way out of my budget. With the rates - you are basically paying for the amenities - the large number of swimming pools with the slides, 2 lazy river rides, gorgeous aquarium right on site that you can walk through on your way from one place to another, close proximity to a beautiful beach, interactive activities such as turtle feedings, etc. (and for the adults a casino, spa and nightclub). however, what I found was that with my daughter and her cousin who is one year older, they were still too young for many of the pool activities (the slides were scary), and were not quite ready for some of the animal feedings (they liked to watch but not get too close).
Regarding the Dining - We ended doing the Gourmet Dining Plan. With this we could basically eat at all of the fine dining restaurants and most of the casual restaurants for dinner and it also included breakfast buffets. Kids under 6 ate for free and the dining plan cost does not cover gratuity and tax. The breakfast buffets were great - with lots of food choices. For dinner, the Gourmet Restaurants are really pricey and some are over rated. We loved Cafe Martinique and Chop Stix. One of the issues with the gourmet places though is that only two of the restaurants allow children under 12 so unless if you are planning on feeding the kids separately and getting a baby sitter, you will not be able to go there for dinner. However, if you do plan to eat at all of the gourmet restaurants and are not vegetarians, then the dining plan is totally worth it! The cost of the food at these places is so high and you get one appetizer, one soup/salad, an entree, dessert and coffee/tea (for the most part some menus are slightly different so they accommodate accordingly). For the casual dining plan, its a similar thing I believe but the fine dining places are not included. If you are considering doing this plan, I would look at the casual restaurants included and just figure out what you would order and see how that compares to what you are paying for the dining plan. Like one of the posters said, the food is very expensive on the resort. However, it didn't seem like there was much else off the resort either. The lunch options are not great at all. The poolside dining options weren't good for lunch and at other resorts I am used to people coming by all of the time asking for drinks and food but they were only doing it for drinks.
Overall it seemed to me that we could have gone to a place with fewer amenities but still a nice room with a great kiddie pool, good food nearby and a nice spa at a lower cost than what we paid at the Atlantis. I think we may consider going back when the kids are older and can take more advantage of some of the other activities that are available there.
Hope this helps and if you have more specific questions, please send me a personal note.
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R.C.
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Washington DC
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We went when our daughter was two. We found that it was cheaper not to do the meal plan. Our daughter ate for FREE at the buffet meals.
We usually ate at the breakfast buffet the coral towers, had a casual lunch by the pools, and a fancy dinner. You must eat one day in town at Carmine's (which does not accept meal plans). We ate one dinner at the beach tower which is very kid friendly! They have a little buffet just for kids that is their height and they had clowns too! You must also eat one night at the Cove...expensive but delicious!
Like I said, at the end of the week we determined that we ate cheaper without the meal plan.
HAVE FUN!
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S.R.
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Washington DC
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The food at Atlantis is EXTREMELY expensive, and certainly not worth the cost for a 3 year old. My husband and I and our (then) 5 year old were three a couple years ago. We were paying $67++ for the breakfast buffet and my son was eating two pieces of bacon and a piece of french toast (which I forced upon him). Lunch and dinner were definitely not better. It wouldn't have been so bad if the food had been "good," but it wasn't. There wasn't one restaurant on the entire resort that had good food except the (new at the time) sushi restaurant. and it was $$$$$. Fortunately, we had such a great rate on our room ($99/night)that we almost didn't mind overpaying for terible the food.
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D.S.
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Washington DC
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How funny you should ask that! My family and I just returned from Atlantis and figured the dining plan was not worth it much. With 2 children that young, you probably won't use half of what you paid for the dining plan.
They do have three different choices of plans, and the best thing would be to decide what the two families will be doing at the resort. For example, are you big breakfast people?
Will you be sightseeing? Hanging on the beach or by the pool? Most of the dining plans do not include lunch, which for us was the big money spender, and dinner was not quite worth what we had paid for the overall plan.
Hope that helps! Have fun!
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R.S.
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Denver
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Hi M.,
If you have time and inclination, please let me or us know how the trip goes. I might be interested in going there with my 3, 5, and newborn sometime in the next year or sooo..
