For anyone who's been there....

I perused the website and the price seems to vary quite a bit between the towers. Something like $220/night for the Beach Tower to $550 a night for Cove Atlantis. Is the "cheap" option not worth doing? I'm not going to spend $500 a night for a family vacation. $220 is doable but I don't want to be in the rundown section of an expensive resort just to be at the resort.

So any experience with the variance of accommodations in the various towers?

I haven't been there, but I'm going in November, paying an effective rate of $310/nt (which may have been your $220/night - look for a huge set of "fees" at confirmation). I'm not worried about getting a fleabag dive. I'm sure it will be a bit of a walk, probably facing a bunch of trees, etc. But I always book resort/garden/mountain view - whatever is cheapest. We're rarely in the room more than the 9 hours for sleep and prep/breakfast. I've never had a problem at quality properties.

We were there several years ago. The property itself is gorgeous, something to really see. We stayed in the cheapest tower, beach or coral, can't remember. The furniture was falling apart and the room was awful, however we were never in the room. We purchased the gourmet food package...well worth the money...outstanding ambiance, service and food. I remember my hubby ordered the seafood tower for an appetizer....it was outrageous...like a giant cooke tray but huge...with tons of cold seafood. I"m sure it's not like that today, but it was wonderful.
Tons of beautiful things to see. If you are really worried there is a Comfort Suites across the road...much cheaper, nice rooms and you get access to all the facilities at the Atlantis.

Seriously? Comfort Inn can use all the facilities? That seems like a problem in their business plan.

I am curious - does your room location/tower affect which facilities/pools you can use? I thought I read something about private pools specific to a given tower? That would be the main concern I would have of the cheaper bookings; lack of access to some parts of the property.

In reply: Yes, you can use all the facilities at Atlantis while staying at the Comfort Inn. You can even read about it on Cruisecritic.com where people spending a day book a room at the CI to use the Atlantis property.
As to limitations due to tower, that did not exist when I was there. We used all the facilities which were just beautiful.
If you think something is not fair, think about how Atlantis charges a pretty penny for their "exlusive" resort and then allows cruise passengers to buy day passes. Not so exclusive after all.

We stayed in the "reef" section (2 adults and & 2 teens) about 3 yrs ago which had kitchenette and separate bedroom. Ocean views were outstanding but cost $$$. The coral section is old and on our first trip (over 10 yrs ago) we stayed there and were thoroughly disappointed.
Food cost are huge there so having a kitchenette to cook helps a lot. Just have your driver stop at the supermarket on your way to the Atlantis and give them your food stamps that you get at check out. It will be greatly appreciated !!!!
Cruise passengers are allowed to buy passes for the water park but we found they just mostly take up deck chairs and tan.

There is a special on Atlantis at the moment, according to the ad in the elevator I saw 20 minutes ago - something about a free upgrade on room catagory on stays of 2 nights or more (sorry, wasn't paying much attention!) Might be worth googling and seeing what you can find.