My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review UPDATED 2: MORE PICS IN ALBUM

I woke up Monday morning super excited to hit the Bahamas with my boyfriend. Not only would it be my first ever stamp on my passport but it was my first long trip away with Chris

Chris and his dad picked me up around 9am and lugged me and my extra large suite case to the airport. I had been counting down the minutes to sun, surf, yummy food, and 5 days away from work for the past 5 months and finally we were on our way!!

Waiting on line at LGA to check our bags and get our tickets actually took longer then the ENTIRE flight down to the Bahamas. Luckily the Hurricane had no affect on our flight or trip at all. We finally got to the Bahamas and it was GORGEOUS AND SUNNY!!! I’m talking 90 degrees--balmy and breezy.
Giddy with excitement we took a bus through the island and got a pretty cool tour that lasted about 35 minutes as we were led to the Atlantis Hotel.

Arriving at the Hotel I learned that Chris had upgraded us from a room in the Coral Towers to the Royal Towers, on the 15th floor overlooking the entire island!!! He is an awesome secret keeper because I had NO CLUE—what an amazing boyfriend he is ?
The hotel was STUNNING. High ceilings, very romantic. Really cool fountains outside and amazing architecture on the inside. …We got to our room and it was was gorgeous--the view was breathtaking!!! I could see the pools, and beach, and even dolphins jumping in the distance.

We spent our first night with an awesome dinner at the Market Place. The Market Place was a yummy buffet restaurant in the Royal Towers that had rows and rows of food. I ate the best steak, rice, and veggies until I thought I would burst. To top it off they had a delicious Chocolate fountain and we spent a looooooong time covering strawberries, marshmallows and other treats in Chocolate.

Since it was dark already we decided to explore what we could of the Hotel—inside and out. Tons of aquariums filled with fish, sharks, and sting rays. I was HOOKED on the casino from moment one—and won 75 bucks the first night! Chris and I had quite the gambling system and continued to win and lose throughout the week but unfortunately we didn’t come home millionaires. As we continued to explore we were really surprised that often we were completely alone. For such a big packed hotel the week we happened to be there a lot of times it was quiet and no one was around us at all!!

On day 2 we decided to wake up early & hit the breakfast buffet at the Water’s Edge Restaurant. Belgium waffles topped off with sugar, loads of crispy bacon, potatoes, eggs, pastries…You name it, we ate it!! I was really impressed with the selection and even if you wanted to eat healthy you could because they offered fruits, yogurt, and omelets.

We chose to get the American Meal Plan dining plan when we booked our trip—this allowed you $80.00 per person per day.( It is also mandatory 15% gratuity that is NOT included in the price). Although it worked out great for us because we are burgers, steak, fries kinda people and Chris HATES seafood so the fancier places were definitely not worth it for us. The meal plan worked out great in some ways b/c food is CRAZZZZZY expensive but sometimes you felt somewhat gipped if you didn’t eat $80.00 worth of food each day b/c you could not carry it over—and you couldn’t use the “meal plan money” at the store..

Speaking of the stores..
EXPENSIVE is the only thing that comes to mind… for example:

Bottled Water $4.00
Sun Screen Regular Size Bottle $30.00
Nyquil $13.00
Postcards $2.79 each

It’s not a good idea to drink the water in the Bahamas so when we did buy it in a bottle we were sure to ration it. I also asked for no ice in my drinks and didn’t eat any salad the entire time I was there just because my stomach is extra sensitive and didn’t want to take ANY chances. I couldn’t wait to eat lettuce when I got home and when I saw “Aquafina”: I actually cheered. lol

So..we then hit the beach for the first time. It’s hard to describe how beautiful the beach was. Soft white sand, clear aqua blue water, and the blazing sun all mixed in to one. There were native people all over. Selling coconut drinks straight from the coconut, little boys selling flutes and women seeling woven items. Very authentic and I loved the island feeling, although they do pray on the tourists. They were renting the beach umbrellas for 30 bucks!!! I do not really like that the Atlantis has no responsibility for anything on the actual Hotel. All rentals—water skis, jet skis, parasailing, rentals for umbrellas or even many of there stores are totally owned by different companies so they don’t have any say even tho it is on there property..

Anyhoo we had so much fun playing in the water. It was so warm and blue you could see clear to the bottom. Something I have never personally witnessed before. I even collected some actual Bahamas sand to take home as a keepsake. After the beach we decided the sun was killing us so we headed to the pool. The pools are really cool and there are so many of them. Some shallow enough to sit Indian style in and many that Chris had to carry my tiny body around in. My fave part was the waterfalls—so romantic!!!! They added a really cool water park portion to the Atlantis—Lazy rivers, tubing, water slides, and although I didn’t go down the largest one basically b/c the thought of flipping over and being trapped underneath a tube with Chris attached to me didn’t really float my boat no pun intended-- I watched Chris go down and took plenty of pics. I DID go down some “intense” fake rapids only because Chris TRICKED ME INTO IT, but I secretly had a blast (don’t tell him—I’m still using his LIE as leverage

Wednesday was the only day that was slightly overcast but we were actually really happy to not have the sun pounding down on us because it was the day of our Dolphin Encounter!!! By far the coolest thing ever!! Chris or should I say Roger—that’s what our guide kept calling him: Roger—needless to say Roger and I had a blast lol
We got to wear wetsuits which was a funny experience but dammmmmn those things are TIGHT—but totally worth it when we felt how freezing the water was.

In a group of five people we got to have an up close encounter with a dolphin. Our dolphin’s name was Elijah. We got to kiss and hug him, feed him fish and touch his dorsal (sp?) fin. His back flipper (is that called a fin? Geez I don’t know) is really warm and really strong. It’s pretty amazing how he feels like a flat rubbery tire and to think I was touching an actual dolphin was totally surreal. I think I want a dolphin now more then a dog—and I don’t ever recall signing anything in my apartment lease about no dolphins… hmm…. LoL

We spent the rest of the afternoon eating lunch by the pool and swimming.
That night we hit up the Casino again and by this time Chris realizes Michelle had a gambling addiction and is currently looking into a Gambling Anonymous Program for her.. All Michelle has to say about this is: WHEEL OF FORTUNE!!!!

We then hit up the Atlantis Comedy Club which was HYSTERICAL. The lead guy was funny as hell but the drawback was once again it is 20 bucks per person. The negative side of going to a place that is not all inclusive. As another example—they have a club in the hotel that cost $100.00 for guys to enter and $50.00 for girls. Um hello is it New Years Eve!? NO!! IMO that is INSANE to charge for people to go into a club. I’ll dance in my room if I wanna dance that badly.

Two nights in a row we ate at the Atlantis Grill & Bar. Burgers and fries (so delicious!!) And then the next night shrimp kabobs and pita bread with Greek sauce. I honestly don’t think we had a bad meal the entire time and of course I topped every meal off with a gigantic dessert. It is vacation after all and calories just do not count on vacation!!

Thursday was pure heaven!! Beach Fun all day and drinks by the pool. I had a coconut rum drink and Chris had some Hawaiian pineapple drink. His was wayyyy YUMMIER—some kind of sweet pineapple concoction that had me tipsy in about 2.3 seconds and he was kind enough to switch with me. HEAVEN!!
On our last night we spent it walking around the Marina and scoping out Yachts we could never afford. I was so sad that soon our vacation would soon be over

We woke up Friday and checked our pretty early so we could get in some breakfast and buy souvenirs for our family.
Because of the intense heat and the icy AC throughout the hotel I ended up getting a pretty bad cold so the airplane ride was pretty brutal. Since this was my first international flight I never realized that Customs would be such a pain on both sides AND that you hafta PAY to leave the Bahamas.. Yep that’s right, we each had to pay $22.00 to leave thei country.. MADNESS if you ask me, but I guess since they don’t charge tax they feel they are justified.

Overall we had a really great time. Ate delicious food, got tan, spent quality time as bf/gf and I am so sad to have it all be over. I have tons of pics but will only post a few and will try to get some more up soon. I guess the only negative thing I can say is that IT IS very expensive. If you are a drinker it will even be more so..and me personally I love a lot of nightlife..comedy shows..entertainers..bingo..so next time I think we would go all inclusive so we could have more night life that is provided and included with the hotel.

Any questions just fm me!
Thanks for reading!
Mich

Message edited 8/27/2007 4:39:22 PM.

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review (Pics Coming in a few..)

So glad that you had a wonderful time! I visited Atlantis during our HM, while we stayed at the Sandals resort. Your trip brought back so many memories!!

Welcome back and glad that you had so much fun!

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review (Pics Coming in a few..)

Thanks for a great review! It sounds like you had an awesome time. I can't wait to see pictures.

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review (Pics Coming in a few..)

Sounds like lots of fun Michi.

The man of yours is definitely a keeper.

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review (Pics Coming in a few..)

Great review! Great boyfriend! We got to see the Atlantis last time we were in the Bahamas but didnt stay there.

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review (Pics Coming in a few..)

Great review!!!

Glad you had a good time!

Cant wait to see the pictures!!

PS...that reminds me...I have to wrtie my review of our Vegas trip!!

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review (Pics Coming in a few..)

Thanks Girls!
I am working on posting the pics, they keep coming out the wrong size.

Message edited 8/27/2007 11:16:54 AM.

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review (Pics Coming in a few..)

sounds like you had a great vacation!

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review UPDATED: PICS IN ALBUM

Wow, the water and beach look amazing! Thanks for sharing. You guys look great!

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review UPDATED 2: MORE PICS IN ALBUM

Great review! It looks so beautiful there, amazing pics!!!

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review UPDATED 2: MORE PICS IN ALBUM

I totally missed this!!
Glad to read your detailed, excellent review and hear that you had such an amazing vacation...

LOVE the pictures.. you and Chris are too cute Looking at the photos brings back a lot of good memories of my 'babymoon' last May...I'm glad you enjoyed Atlantis and had a wonderful trip overall

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review UPDATED 2: MORE PICS IN ALBUM

ahhh memories, the Atlantis is so beautiful, I only went there for a day trip, but it was so nice!
Great pics, you and your BF are sooo cute together and glad you had a great time

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review UPDATED 2: MORE PICS IN ALBUM

Sounds like a wonderful trip!
It's such a beautiful place...You are an adorable couple!

Message edited 8/28/2007 7:11:31 PM.

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review UPDATED 2: MORE PICS IN ALBUM

Wow! Loved your review! We stayed at RIU next to the Atlantis loved the all inclusive but the island was amazing and so glad you loved it! I want to go back!!! Thanks again for the stellar review

Re: My Atlantis Bahamas Vaca Review UPDATED 2: MORE PICS IN ALBUM

Thanks Girls!!
I am so ready to plan trip number 2 and I have barely printed all these photos.. lol if any1 is my friend on myspace i have 100s of pics on there

www.myspace.com/michik

add me as a friend!
thanks again