Atlantis, Bahamas, on Spring Break -- help me soul-search

[ed1chandler]

The wife wants to take the kids to Atlantis for Spring break. What are people's experiences, particularly during that time of year?

Yes, I know it's a Marriott property now and, yes, I know about the Comfort Suites next door.

By my valuation of the points/miles involved for the stay and the flights, and my estimate of resort meal prices, I estimate that this is going to cost me about 5 grand worth of cash and points.

Worth it? (Frankly, I'm struggling to find any rationale for doing it.)

 

[Matt]

The wife wants to take the kids to Atlantis for Spring break. What are people's experiences, particularly during that time of year?

Yes, I know it's a Marriott property now and, yes, I know about the Comfort Suites next door.

By my valuation of the points/miles involved for the stay and the flights, and my estimate of resort meal prices, I estimate that this is going to cost me about 5 grand worth of cash and points.

Worth it? (Frankly, I'm struggling to find any rationale for doing it.)

Do you/ could you gamble? There is a comp deal going on there. You get 4 free nights of you play 6hrs- very 'gameable' more here:

http://saverocity.com/forum/threads/atlantis-hack.867/

 

[ed1chandler]

Do not. Could ... but best not. ;-)
Appreciated.

 

[Matt]

Do not. Could ... but best not. ;-)
Appreciated.

The only issue really is time played. They don't track coin in, so if you could sit at a penny slot for 1 and a bit hrs per day spinning through a few cents at a time, you meet the requirements. Its a case of can you do that without getting bored.

 

[Deltahater]

Don't do it. Have you looked up the meal deal prices? $150ish per person per day, not including alcohol. It is simply not worth it. And Spring break makes it even worse.

Take the kids to Bangkok for $140 from NYC. Then go to Phuket or to the Northeastern coast towards Cambodia.

 

[ed1chandler]

Yeah, not doing the meal plan is a foregone conclusion, but thanks.
BKK sounds really tempting, but I'm not seeing any such fare for my dates ... 3/21-28.

Matt, will look into the comp thing further. Pretty sure I can spend 6 hours playing slots. Just prop the old iPad up there on the machine and catch up on the Walking Dead while I'm at it.

 

[Matt]

Don't do it. Have you looked up the meal deal prices? $150ish per person per day, not including alcohol. It is simply not worth it. And Spring break makes it even worse.

Take the kids to Bangkok for $140 from NYC. Then go to Phuket or to the Northeastern coast towards Cambodia.

Yeah, I still remember paying like $30 for a bagel there one morning after an all nighter... sad times.

I'm not a huge fan of Nassau in general, though the Atlantis is its own little island.... Even though I don't mind to gamble I've not taken up this offer.

 

[nickelfish1]

I just did a girl's weekend at the Riu next door in Oct. The food was good...the places you have to make reservations were not. (The sushi place was ok) Its AI so it's not luxury food but totally acceptable. The beach was nice and had waves. The pool is small. I didn't use the spa as I took massages on the beach and they were fantastic and cheap. After six you can go thru the tank at the Atlantis for free. I wasn't that impressed and I was half in the bag so it should have impressed me far more than it did. You can buy a day pass too...kinda pricey but we didn't care about going over there. The rooms are kinda blah. Standard stuff. My room looked exactly like the website. It kinda smelled damp though. During the day I'd just turn off the air and leave the slider open and that aired out the room no problem. The room fridge was stocked with beer, pop and giant waters everyday free of charge. The only thing...there were five full sized bottles of alcohol above the fridge. I've never seen anything like that before and thought about people bringing teens with free flowing booze in each room might be a little problematic! Actually, there were buckets of wine and champagne out all day and Smirnoff Red on the breakfast buffet. The breakfast was great. Huge. They even made fresh juices of whatever you wanted...including green juices. Lunch was blah, but you can find something even if it's a salad. Dinner dessert table was gooood! The nightly entertainment was boring...we just filled up a solo cup of wine and went to Atlantis to dance and got a refill at the black jack tables...and that casino wine was really crappy. Probably why I was so hung over every morning. Drinks and water were pricey at the bar. Atlantis was loaded with kids so the place was dead after 10. Seems like everyone went to bed except the convention people. Again, this was Oct.

Have you been to the Marriott in St. Kitts? We've been three times and did the AI. With kids it was a great deal. The highest rate, with a suite, we paid $375 a night AI for all four of us. Restaurants are great, tons of kids so yours make friends, AI rate includes two kids under 12 eat/play and free kids club. Lots to do on the island. Unfortunately, when the gov't stopped sugar cane production the cruise ships came in. Used to be you couldn't drive down the street without having to stop and wait for gangs of goats and monkeys to move. Last time I was there I didn't see any monkeys at all.

 

[janetdoe]

We went to Atlantis this November - sort of a forced choice because the other couple we were with was on a 10th anniversary trip and they got married there. I hated Atlantis a little bit less the second time, and I was underwhelmed by The Bahamas in general. We also did some nights at the One and Only and Sandals resorts and weren't really impressed with either of them for the cost, even at half-price through Expedia VIP.

If you are going to do Atlantis, the ONLY way to do it, IMHO, is to rent a timeshare at Harborside on the secondary market. We used redtimeshares(dot)com and were very happy with them, but there are other services/BBs. Try and get at least the premium 1BR if you have kids, the extra space and the full kitchen (as opposed to the half-kitchen in the 1 BR deluxe) is worth the small premium.

The full kitchen will save you hundreds of dollars in food costs (possibly thousands if you have teenagers), and even if you get tired of cooking, the Harborside marina - an easy walk - has a Quiznos for a reasonable (read $9 instead of $17+18% automatic gratuity) sandwich. Harborside has a daily grocery shuttle ($7 pp round trip) that takes you to a store like Whole Foods but with higher prices. Or you can hire a taxi for $30 and he can take you to the SuperValu grocery store where locals shop. We packed a suitcase full of basic snacks, pantry staples like pasta and peanut butter, spices, coffee, dishwasher tabs, laundry detergent, paper plates, etc and only bought fresh produce, meats, and dairy while we were there. We even took a Brita pitcher so we could use refillable water bottles instead of buying cases of bottled water, but that was more a convenience/preference than a cost savings.

PM me if you decide to bite the bullet and go to the Bahamas, I have some other advice but don't want to ramble when I don't really recommend going in the first place.

ETA: Also how old are the kids? The other couple had a 2 and 3 year old, and they were too young for the Atlantis, they would have had just as much fun in any pool with a splash feature, although they did enjoy a few walks through the aquariums. The sweet spot would be older kids, say 8 - 13, they might really enjoy the water park and get value out of it.

 

[carlos]

so I am not thinking of spring break but for summer vacation, I have a 20 and 14 year old, what would be options to make this as cheap as possible, besides Marriott any other Hotel chains that I can use points?

 

[Rick]

My issue with Atlantis in their selling of day passes. Way too many people crowd into the resort - it's hard to find a lounge chair by the pool if you don't get down there really early. It's a beatiful place, but for the price of their better rooms, I want more exclusivity.

Have you looked at Baha Mar? It's opening next month and the Hyatt there goes. For 20k/night.

 

[janetdoe]

My issue with Atlantis in their selling of day passes. Way too many people crowd into the resort - it's hard to find a lounge chair by the pool if you don't get down there really early. It's a beatiful place, but for the price of their better rooms, I want more exclusivity.

Have you looked at Baha Mar? It's opening next month and the Hyatt there goes. For 20k/night.

I have a feeling that will be a hot mess for at least few months, maybe a few years. Look at some of the local press. They had to build new training schools because the population of hospitality workers in the country is too low to support the development properly. Also, they've had to push the opening date several times; I wouldn't bet a lot of money that it will be open in May.

 

[nickelfish1]

I drove past it in Oct and it was basically a skeleton. The driver said they brought in a thousand Chinese construction workers (dual owners?) to build it. I wondered how they'd find enough people to staff it once it opened.

 

[DL172]

so I am not thinking of spring break but for summer vacation, I have a 20 and 14 year old, what would be options to make this as cheap as possible, besides Marriott any other Hotel chains that I can use points?

The further you get away from the US, the cheaper on your wallet. If you can take time off from work, as someone mentioned above, Thailand, southeast Asia in general, is a budget friendly location but has a lot more going for it then - what I consider to be - generic Nassau. I don't think there is any reason to go to Nassau vs. Miami, unless you want to shed your wallet.