Paradise Island Bahamas

Hey Guys....Looking to book a trip in july for my girlfriend and I. Found some pretty good deals on Paradise Island, basically next to atlantis. The biggest perk of the hotel is that it has unlimited use of all Atlantis amenities for free. Does anyone have any experiece on this island? How is the snorkling/diving? I head food is crazy expensive, but you can take a $3 ferry to Nassau and the prices are a little more reasonable. Any thoughts? Any alternative cheap carribbean ideas? Looking for roughly $1100 with flight but without food..Thanks!

 

My experience at Atlantis:

Wife and I arrived at check-in around 2pm. The kid behind the desk looked like he was 12. He said our room wasn't ready yet, and nothing else. I asked how long, and he said about 20 minutes. It happens, so we went over to the bar and got a drink. 30 minutes later I went back up, and the kid said our room wasn't ready. Again, I asked how long and he said he didn't know. I told him that the Atlantis would probably like to buy us a drink at the bar for being so patient and received a blank stare. I asked if there was a problem and he went to get an adult. The grown man who emerged told me the occupants of the room had not yet checked out. They're 3 1/2 hours late checking out, so I told the guy to throw them the hell out so we can have our room. "Let me see what I can do, sir". He offered to upgrade us to an ocean view, but I reserved ocean view. Ultimately, the kid came back and somehow put us in a sweet suite at no extra charge! No free drinks, though

So, the property is fantastic. The food? Yes, it's over-priced provided you're able to even get into a restaurant before 11pm. As soon as we arrived we learned how booked all the Atlantis restaurants were. We began trying to make reservations into the week, but nothing was available! The best meal we had all week was in a bar across the bridge from Atlantis, a normal place on the harbor. My wife and I aren't the types to get all caught up in the over-priced pageantry of dining. When I'm on vacation, I like to have fun which, to me, isn't playing dress up and going to an over-priced eatery. At home we can walk outside, fall over and hit our heads on excellent restaurants.

Find out where the boat crowd hangs out and that should lead you to some good/fun places.

A buddy and I went on a good dive. They have a lot of different dives you can do there-Bahamas are pretty good for that. Look into a shark dive.

 

I concur, for crazy expensive food on the Atlantis resort grounds. We did find one place almost affordable, near the Marina for breakfast, but way too long to eat - gotta live on Island Time I guess. The locals working there clearly didn't care if it was 30 minutes or 3 minutes to do Anything. Each restaurant had their own strange schedule of which days and times they'd be open.

We stayed in two different room classes on the Atlantis resort - the oldest/most affordable tower and the newest/most expensive tower. I couldn't believe the difference - We'd had motel 6 rooms much nicer than the one, where the other was stellar. It's a big place, you're looking at hours of walking to get around, even if you're staying in the resort.

the water park was very good - if you don't mind the odd "lifeguard" sleeping.

would of liked to of tour'd the island and done some diving - but kept busy enough just in the resort with the kids.

 

Just to clarify, where i am looking is a block from atlantis, but it has full access to all of the atlantis amenities. From a hotel and my stand point, its just a place to sleep, im not planning on being in the room very much anyways, but it is very cheap (as in $500 per person with Non-Stop Airfare from a local airport). How much should i budget for food? Is $80 a day feasible? My past Carribean experiences have taught me that you can get good relatively cheap food if you leave the initial resort area..Wasnt really planning on eating at Atlantis as I am sure its way expensive. Anyone gone from the Island to Nassau? Or to any of the other islands (Eleuthera) How are the beaches on Paradise Island?

Shark diving sounds perfect for me, does atlantis have a scuba class to certify you for a dive? If so, do you know how much $$? I did this in cancun, we spent a couple hours "training" to get a temp permit to take a dive trip.

 

Ryan--you said you're going in July? I'd seriously consider getting SCUBA certified ahead of time. You can even look into getting your final open water check-off on the trip if need-be, but the whole resort course approach always makes me a little nervous. Proper certification is very educational and important--especially if you're interested in more advanced dives. When I was at Atlantis, I seem to recall they didn't operate dive excursions themselves but could refer you to local operators. As for meals, it's hard to estimate how much you can get by on. Will your room have a kitchenette? That makes a huge difference obviously, but either way you can probably survive on two meals a day if you want.

 

The issue with getting certified beforehand is prior to this trip my girlfriend will be in ireland for 6 weeks for post-graduation field camp, so getting that completed for her beforehand will be impossible. The hotel has a free continental b-fast, no kitchenette, but it does have a fridge. Are there grocery-type stores around? How safe was it to walk around at night? How are the beaches around the island?

I am also very open to other ideas/islands to visit...I want to do the caribbean, ive done cancun, cozumel, grand cayman, ALL around jamaica (three week mission trip) and the bahamas (when i was 8) but she has never seen white sand/clear water.

 

The Bahamas are so spread out, it's a little trickier seeing all of them in a visit. Plus they're all kind of the same variation of one another. The first thing you'll notice driving to your hotel is there's a lot of poverty close by. The town is only a short ride away, but since I haven't been there in a few years it would help if someone else could chime in who's been there more recently. Other than diving, we didn't venture "off campus" during the day other than to bum around town one afternoon. Obviously there are a lot of beaches but we didn't explore them. We were with another couple and my buddy's wife was pregnant so we stayed close to home most of the time.

 

I enjoyed Atlantis. Have you checked out Sandals? It includes food and alcohol. My favorite island is Harbor Island. It has pink sand beaches. Very romantic.

 

We did the Comfort Suites right behind the Atlantis our second kid spring break there, and saved $300 a night from the overpriced Atlantis medium level rooms. Got the armbands and all the perks of Atlantis so it a great " secret" deal. Look for the breakfast taco lady in a van just outside the Comfort Suites parking lot. Have fun, and try to not buy a lot of $10 frozen drinks at Atlantis. Just walking around and seeing the sea life is great.

 

Thats exactly where I am looking. For $500 per person with airfare for 4 nights, i cant find a good reason not to do it. Perhaps ill bring a couple bottles in the suitcase to help with that expense, and plan on enjoying the beaches around the area/spending a lot of time in atlantis.

 

I just got back from a seven day trip to Atlantis and it was great..stayed at The Cove, which has a great adult pool. Its a little pricey but you usually get what you pay for and discounts and comps are available for rated players. Bobby Flays place Mesa Grille has great food and the peanut and jelly sandwiches at the Seaglass are my favorite for lunch. I found that the people are unbelievably friendly. Im going back next month to do it all again!
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Heading to Atlantis for the 3rd time in 4 years next week. A little different for us because we bring the kids. I love the place, food is expensive but it is a great place to go. I could spend the entire vacation at Marina Village. The boats, I mean yachts, are insane. Interesting to see how the other 0.000001% live. When I was there last "Utopia" came in which was about the 38th largest yacht at the time. Insane, 238' and a few years ago was available for charter at $445,000 per week.

 

Some of the yachts there recently.
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If you have the time, I highly recommend the dolphin encounter experience that is just south of Paradise Island.
http://www.dolphinencounters.com/dolphin-facilities.php

Pay some extra money and do the "swim with the dolphins" experience.
Wow, it was one of the best things I've ever done.

I was on a cruise ship and we docked in Nassau just across from Paradise Island.
A small tour boat took us first to Paradise Islands and then to the small lagoon cay that does the dolphin encounter. It was about a 15 minute boat ride.

Great stuff. Make reservations in advance of your trip.

 

Great information, thanks for the help!!

 

So those of you whom have been to Atlantis, you would go again? I had looked at going about a month ago but upon talking to a few people that went, they absolutely could not stand the Atlantis, they said it was dirty and extremely outdated; suffice it to say, they recommended not bothering with it and said they would never be returning to Atlantis.

 

Depends very much which tower you're in. The old side, is - well, really old. and a huge walk to the newer facilities. Our TV was busted, the balcony was 1'x4' and had an ugly view of an a/c unit on top of the conference facility. Felt like it was untouched since the 50's.

We also stayed in a newer tower, The Cove, and it was fantastic. A totally difference experience. The bathroom was probably bigger than the cheap room, completely modern and great decor/layout. great pools. Still a fair walk anywhere, with some transportation available.

We won't be going back, but glad we did it the once. It's two days of travel from here, it's a huge ugly casino, and it's hugely expensive, although the water park is pretty cool to do for a couple of days. We'd gone through a dolphin experience at Xcaret in Mexico already, although this one looked pretty good as well. The 'Marina' was unlike anything I'd seen before - those boats are huge.

 

Well....I just booked it. Four nights in july at the comfort suites (free access to Atlantis), with a direct flight from DC for $1k. Leaving on a thursday at 8:30 am, touchdown in the bahamas at 11:06 am. Thanks for the advice, although i beleive that ill end up spending a little more than i should at this time, you're only young once.

 

You get numb to the size and cost of these boats. The "small" boat in front of the huge yacht is a 65' Viking, probably a $2.65mil boat that burns 90 gallons an hour at cruise. Yet, in these pictures, it looks small and like a nice boat to have. Lifestyles of the rich for sure.....Same can be said for going to the Ft. Lauderdale boat show, after a day walking around you think $600,000 is a reasonable amount of money to spend for a familiy crusing boat.

 

We usually go about twice a year but always stay at the Cove or Reef. This makes a huge difference. The very first time we went, we had no idea and stayed in the Coral Towers and your friends are pretty spot on. Once we discovered the other side, we love it. It's a little pricey but as many have said, you get what you pay for.

 

Thanks for the insight on it guys, I'll have to do some more reading around and see what else there is; another Island I looked at visiting is St. Thomas and currently - from what I read - the Ritz there is the winner on my list for my vacation stay when I go.

 

Thanks again for all of the help so far..We are flying out a week from today to Paradise Island, does anyone have any last minute advice?

 

Eat at the Poop Deck, just across the bridge from Atlantis. Cold beer, seafood, and good
conch fritters. T-shirt selection is fun too.

 

Rent some jetski's and do this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBSX3-Q1O3w&feature=channel

 

Forget paradise island. If you're not at the cove or maybe royal towers, then its not too 'special'. If you're going to go out there, then you should go for an amazing experience. www.stanielcay.com

fly to nassau and 120 RT to staniel. rooms are 150ish/night. It will be an epic time for you.

I go to atlantis maybe as much as 10x a year as I'm a bit of a gambler and living in FL I can pop over for a weekend. Staniel is a real vacation. they even do an all inclusive package for 170/night/couple for all meals, boat, snorkel gear and more. its amazing.