lkar

Cove and Reef. If you like a kitchen, Harborside or one of the residences at the Reef.

onlysuites

Cove sounds good.

danorum

I would also recommend looking at the Comfort Suites. Tripadvisor reviews are generally good, but there are some bad ones. I have not stayed there but will be soon. I saved about 1000 over 5 nights by staying there over the lowest Atlantis property.

Free WiFi, Fridge in the room, free breakfast, and full resort and charging privileges at Atlantis seems like a winner.

Dan

onlysuites

Was looking at Google maps and it looks as if the main resort lobby should be 15 minutes walk? Or less?

lkar

Atlantis is huge, but generally speaking that's right. All of the three main towers at Atlantis are connected by inside walkways including through the casino -- Coral, Beach, and Royal. If you cross the street from Comfort Suites and enter the Beach Tower, you basically can walk inside to the Royal Tower, which is the main lobby. Comfort Suites is actually closer to some stuff -- the theater comes to mind -- than would be some rooms in the remote part of the main (Royal Tower) buildings.

onlysuites

So the entrance for the Atlantis is right across the street? How about the pools, restaurants and the beach? How far a walk would that be? I am not lazy and the comfort suites is sounding better by minute but wanted the best experience for my kid rather then have him walk 20 minutes for a pool.

mlad1101

The Comfort Suites is closer to the older side of the Atlantis.(Beach/Coral) There are some pools on that side, the larger and newer ones along with the water slides etc. are by the Royal Towers and between the Royal Towers and the Cove. I would say it's likely a 10-15 minute walk. They do offer shuttles that stop at all the different properties that encompass the Atlantis. I am not sure if these are available to Comfort Suites guests, but doubt you'd have issues getting on one and it would save some time.

I personally love the Cove and stay there quite frequently, but the cost difference between this and the Comfort Suites is likely substantial. Also take into account the cost of food, if you plan on fine dinning it is quite expensive. I get the meal plan as from all my stays I've figured it saves me some money, but it is still around $125 pp a day for Breakfast/Dinner without alcoholic beverages and gratuity.(Kids under 6 are free with purchase.)

lkar

The main pools of Atlantis and the water slides are over by the Royal Tower, which is a bit of a walk from Comfort Suites. Also, if you stay at Comfort Suites, in order to get a wrist band for Atlantis, you need to stop at the guest services desk in the Royal Tower in the morning.

But the bottom line with Atlantis is that everything is a walk. If you stay in the Royal Tower to be near the pools, you have to walk to the movie theater and the shops (and Starbucks) of the Marina. If you stay closer to those things, you walk to the slides. If you want the best rooms for the pools and slides, I would go for a room in the Royal Tower. But, in the end, Comfort Suites is no less convenient than many of the rooms in Atlantis itself. The slides open at 10. If you are staying at CS, you can have breakfast, walk over, get your wrist bands around 9:30, go for a swim, and then be ready when the slides open. It's a piece of cake.

If it's important to you to feel like you're staying in Atlantis, I would go with the Royal Tower. But in terms of exertion, you do a lot of walking at Atlantis no matter what. Just walking between the two main slide "towers" is a bit of a haul, not to mention walking up 8 flights of stairs to use the slide each time. The added prospect of walking over from CS in the morning is negligible.

mia

Discussion has shifted away from use of Membership Rewards points and thread has been transplanted to a more suitable location.

onlysuites

Perfect. Thank you for the detailed explanation.

hobo13

Perhaps including a link to that discussion here would be good. @:-)

FoJ4life

I just traveled to Paradise Island and stayed at the Comfort Suites. The rooms are actually quality (no, not luxury) but the savings that I experienced was worth it. For 5 nights, we paid about $1400. I think that anything in the Atlantis is substantially more than this. The walk from the Comfort Suites to the entrance to the Atlantis is equivalent to about maybe 2 NYC avenues. I, personally, did not really enjoy the Atlantis. Everything here is extremely commercial. Five or so years ago, I stayed in Freeport and felt as though my experience was more in line with a Caribbean-cultured experience. These are just my thoughts and I would like to hear what others say about the Atlantis. The food and EVERYthing appear to be quite expensive.

flyerwife

I agree with your assessment. This is not the place to go if you are looking for a Caribbean cultured experience. This is most definitely a mega-resort and you are really getting nothing as far as local flair when you come here. But I don't think that most people who are coming to Atlantis are looking for Bahamian culture; they are looking for an over-the-top vacation and that's what they'll get.

I also agree about the expense, although if you try, you can keep costs down. Food prices are most definitely the main culprit. I would not personally go for the $55pp buffet breakfast. Instead, we opted for coffee and a danish or muffin at the lobby cart or on-site Starbucks, costing us about $10-15 for breakfast for 3 of us. We ate lunch most days at the poolside snack areas, usually running about $10-15pp. For dinner, we again economized and ate at Carmines on-site (two entrees was more than enough for the 3 of us, they serve huge portions and family style sharing is the norm there) or Murray's. (Wouldn't recommend the on-site pizza; as I recall a pie was $35).

We are not the Nobu type but if you are, that is where your bill is going to grow. Also, drinks are expensive and of course the on-site shops are expensive (hubby forgot a bathing suit...duh...and Tommy Bahamas in the lobby wanted $125. He went into town and found two for $10 each.)