Just returned from a 3 night stay (11/11-11/14) with 2 adults so figured I'd give a recent review. We only had 2.5 days/3 nights on property as we left super early on our return travel day, and since the room and flights were all on points we did not hold back on spending on-site.
ROOM: Booked a standard king with 67,000 points, purchased a $30 Explorist trial on eBay to try and guarantee an upgrade, and woke up the morning of arrival to see that we got upgraded to an oceanview king with full balcony (west tower). Even though it was "only" on the 11th floor we had a spectacular view and I especially loved how the shower wall could be opened up for full ocean views while showering - I do see how that feature is pointless for families. Prior to arrival I had emailed about cash upgrades and was given a few options but we decided to chance it and I'm happy we did. I marked our arrival in the app as 1:30 and while we arrived earlier than that, the room was ready exactly at 1:30. The room itself was nice overall but some gripes - sand on the floor, the sheets were clean but stained, no robes/slippers (though they brought them quickly when I called down) or tablet to order room service as advertised, and it definitely had some overall wear. I know those are nit-picky things but I'd have been a little disappointed had I been paying the $800+/night cash rate during our dates.
BAHA BAY BEACH CLUB & CABANA: The BEST thing we did was reserve two loungers in the Baha Bay beach club - $250 for two chairs after VAT & fees, but it was ALL applied to F&B (I originally thought only the $200 chair price would be applied, not the $50 in taxes/fees but the entire $250 was removed from our bill). Our waiter was amazing and the water was bath water, completely different temp from the "regular pools" and rest of the water park. The food and drinks were fabulous - huge menu - and there were only like 3 kids that periodically stopped in and then left. Truly amazing. The next best thing we did (which was a bday gift for my husband) was reserve a reflections pool cabana - this is the pool right outside the GH casino where each cabana has its own entrance. It was $385 after fees for our stay and while I was a little disappointed with the wait staff service, small food menu and the fact that some amenities included had to be specifically asked for (water and fruit bowl) the water was once again bath water and the experience overall was so relaxing. I spent almost the whole day flung over the infinity fountain edge with my kindle. For us these additional charges were worth it for the warm pool water alone, premium adult only-ish experiences and the ability to relax and have a 2nd cup of coffee on the balcony on our own timeline vs rushing out the door early to find a good chair.
FOOD: Including the $250 on the lounge chairs, we spent $1,500 in food for 2 people and that was not including any breakfast items. Lots of sets of drinks for $50+, more than one $20 bottle of sparkling water at dinner, and a $500 birthday meal at Carna made up the majority of that. We never ate at Stix or Pizza Lab, everything was a pool side meal and sit down restaurant (Katsuya, Carna & Cleo). We are Disney people so I was pretty numb to the pricing, and like I mentioned before we did not hold back whatsoever as we almost never eat out at home. My husband took a can of coke out of the room mini bar and were thrilled when it showed in the app as ONLY $8.50 after fees since prices weren't listed - we did sit back and laugh at how expensive/insane that actually was later in the night. While I can absolutely agree that prices are high, everything we ate was outstanding, we always had fabulous service and I was fully aware of the menus and pricing before we went so my $500/day predicted food budget ended up being right on without ever sacrificing something we wanted. We also left $5 two days for the housekeeper with a note requesting as many waters as possible and got 10 bottles each day. On the last night we stopped in the west tower arrival/departure lounge and laughed at the 100 water bottles out for the taking - guess we could have saved $10 and gotten our own extras!
Other points: We used the hotel car service transportation to get from the airport to the resort because we previously had a poor taxi experience on a cruise to Nassau and I didn't want the stress - I thought it was worth the money. We did take a taxi back to the airport when leaving though which was fine. The first day (Saturday) it was very tough to get two chairs by any pool even at 3:45pm, but the last day (Monday) we saw lots of open chairs at 1:30pm so that's absolutely crowd level specific. Absolutely book dining reservations in advance though I think you already know that if you're on this forum! Lastly we had a 2.5hr layover at MCO and because we don't currently have a card with lounge access I bought two generic LoungeKey passes off eBay for $10/ea that worked flawlessly in the new Terminal C lounge (which was beautiful) and more than paid for themselves.
To get yourself excited for an upcoming trip I recommend "Secrets of the Mega Resort" on Prime which is a docu about this resort. It was filmed pre-covid and pre-water park but it's what got my husband convinced to go here over Atlantis
