Those who have been to Atlantis:

A few questions:

My parents and my brother are taking little Christopher (my brother's son) to Atlantis the last week in August before he goes back to school. Ken's well enough now where he can travel on a plane, go to the beach, pool, and pretty much do whatever he wants which is great. He's super excited to take Chris.

What do you recommend they do? Chris is nine years old. They are staying in the "Royal" tower - whatever that is, not sure. Anyone stay there?

They are doing a meal plan because the TA recommended it. Anyone do this?

Now, in terms of being wheelchair-friendly -- because Kenneth is still in the wheelchair part of the time -- how is Atlantis? I know you may not have noticed unless you are IN one, but if you think back do you think he will have an OK time? They advertise themselves as being "100% wheelchair access"

ANY info and experiences about Atlantis would be awesome.. thanks!

Message edited 6/3/2011 8:07:30 PM.

Re: Those who have been to Atlantis:

I've never been here so I have no advice.

Re: Those who have been to Atlantis:

Posted by Mssissy

I've never been here so I have no advice.

Posted by DaniRella

Ken's well enough now where he can travel on a plane, go to the beach, pool, and pretty much do whatever he wants which is great. He's super excited to take Chris.

I just wanted to say this brought tears to my eyes.
I am SO happy to read this.

Re: Those who have been to Atlantis:

Sooooo happy to hear he is doing so well!!!! I hope he is able to enjoy a wonderful vacation with his son!

If I remember correctly, almost every place is very wheelchair accessible. There were a lot of ramps and wide walkways.

I would say they should def swim with the dolphins! I know there are different packages you can get.

Re: Those who have been to Atlantis:

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Message edited 6/4/2011 9:11:37 AM.

Re: Those who have been to Atlantis:

Hi, I just returned from Atlantis over memorial day weekend. I loved it there, it was so much fun. We decided to not do the meal plan. It is super expensive and you can only go to certain restaurants. We ate lunch at the pool and were able to get burgers, fries and drinks for under $20. We won the trip so we had bagels one morning and ate at Mosaics (breakfast buffet at the cove - highly recommended once). The meal plan doesn't include lunch so I would eat a late breakfast to hold you over til dinner.

We stayed at the Royal Towers and it was great. So pretty - the rooms were pretty standard.

The dig is great, the water park is awesome and the beach is very pretty. Note on the beach, go to the beach at the cove. The other beach has a lot of locals trying to sell you water scoters and such and can be annoying as they try to rent these to you.

So glad to hear about your brother. He has come some far.

Re: Those who have been to Atlantis:

We just got back a couple of weeks ago and we had a fantastic time. There are a lot of activities at the Atlantis, including a variety of pools and water rides/slides for the kids. I would also recommend doing the encounter with the dolphins. You take a day trip to the Blue Lagoon Island where you either do the encounter or swim with the dolphins and then you can spend the rest of the day at this beautiful island. They have water bouncers and slides and blow-up water activities. I think your nephew would have a blast there! He can also hop on the wave runners with somebody...thats a lot of fun too.

My only complaint about the Bahamas is the food. It is EXTREMELY overpriced and mediocre, to the point that it was very annoying and we would prefer to have Domino's for dinner as opposed to going out to a restaurant. We ate at Carmines (very expensive and my local pizzeria has a 1000x better quality food), Johnny Rockets, the Deli, and Anthony's Grill (the best bang for your buck and the food is decent). I wouldn't recommend the meal plan as I had my travel agent do the math and it was not worth it AT ALL, so before they purchase the meal plan they should do the math carefully.

Overall it is a fun and beautiful place to vacation!

Hope they have a wonderful time!

ETA: The Atlantis is great to navigate in a wheelchair. There are so many pathways that your brother can definitely access everywhere, even the dig. They have tour guides that will most likely take them around and show him the different ways that he can get around to basically anywhere. The staff there is super friendly and helpful.

Message edited 6/8/2011 11:24:28 AM.

Re: Those who have been to Atlantis:

First of all, HOORAY that your brother is well enough to travel and enjoy a vacation!!

Second, I've been to Atlantis twice, and the meal plan is a big NO. The first time we went we didn't get the meal plan but were unsure we were doing the right thing. We kept track of every thing we ate and tallied up how much we spent per day and compared it to the cost per day for the meal plan. We save a ton of money by NOT doing the meal plan, and trust me, we didn't skimp on food. We are HUGE foodies and ate in some of the best restaurants on the property.

As another poster mentioned the food is expensive and not great by NY standards. The restaurants we enjoyed most and felt were the best value:

Bimini Road
Atlas Bar and Grill
Carmine's
and Anthony's, which is off the property, but RIGHT across the street, in walking distance (or rolling in a wheel chair lol)

The best advice I can give is to tell your family to pack a collapsable cooler on wheels and stop at a supermarket on their way from the airport to the resort and stock up on drinks and snacks. we would fill our cooler every day and roll it to the pool so we wouldn't have to pay the INSANE prices for drinks. It was definitely a huge money saver.

Atlantis is awesome and they are going to have a GREAT time!!!

Re: Those who have been to Atlantis:

I sent this to you as an FM but I wanted to include this here. Yes, the pathways are wide enough for a wheel chair. But in the dig with other people around it is very difficult to maneuver a wheel chair.
We took a cruise and spent one day at the Atlantis.
I will start by saying we ended up receiving a full refund for this excursion.
If you are able bodied it is an excellent vacation option that I would recommend. However, if you are traveling with a wheel chair bound, or movement impaired, or stroller bound passenger, I would think about finding another option for that passenger (or bring a back pack carrier for a small child).
We arrived at Atlantis by mini-bus. We had my 90 year old grandma, who needs a wheel chair for lengthy walks. She can walk for short periods of time. There are very few (2) elevators and one of which was broken in the property. The property is very large (approximately 3 miles long). Unfortunately their staff was not informed of ride closures. Additionally, they cannot properly direct you to places once inside of the property, rather a go this way and ask the next person you see if you are going in the proper direction.
There are (or were) two lazy rivers. One has rapids and is not appropriate for children who cannot support themselves inside of an inner tube. The other one was supposed to be gentler and more appropriate for young children. When you arrive they give you a tour via the casino, over the dig (aquarium), and eventually lead you to the rapid lazy river. It is about 1 mile from leaving the tour bus to the rapid lazy river. When you have to push a stroller or a wheel chair bound guest, it is a little more taxing. When I inquired about using the lazy (rapid river) I was informed my children were too young to use it. I then asked to use the other lazy river. It is/was located closer to the entrance and about a mile and a half away from the rapid lazy river. The staff members then directed my party to the other lazy river. It would really help if they had two different names for the “lazy” rivers. This caused much confusion for staff members. We then walked back the 1 ½ miles (for a total of 2 ½ miles) to find out that the smaller lazy river was closed. This was not only frustrating, but a complete waste of time as their staff should have known about the closure. It was hot (90+ degrees). We then proceeded back to the middle of the hotel. About ¼ to ½ mile back to the middle of the hotel and then proceeded into the dig to get to the other part of the water park. When we got through the dig we asked about getting lunch inside as it was really hot. We had walked for quite a bit and were now tired. At 11:30 the only indoor restaurant open for lunch is Murray’s (large portions, good food, NY deli style, expensive) which of course was back near the small lazy river. I wish they had told us how far it was. You have to walk much farther when pushing a wheel chair as the closer entrance has stairs and is inaccessible to wheel chairs. Also, one of the elevators was inaccessible during our trip, requiring us to carry the stroller and wheel chair up and down the stairs.
After lunch we attempted to make our way back to the water park, but unfortunately our party got separated by the crowds. After getting separated and looking for one another for 45 minutes we were reunited. At this point, the weather forced the Atlantis to close the water park for 1 hour. When it finally reopened we were able to use the children’s attraction for about 45 minutes before needing to leave to make it back to the ship. So for an 8 hour day, we were able to use the water park for 45 minutes. Much of the confusion could have been avoided by having staff members informed of park closures, providing accurate maps as opposed to sketch hand drawings and having park members informed of where operational elevators and ramp access is located.
Over all, if you are able bodied, the park is an excellent expenditure and I could see how it would be a lot of fun for many guests. If I ever went back I would do so with older children or a back pack carrier, and walkie talkies.