Reviews:

“Enjoyed the Reef”

My husband and I spent a week at The Reef in the Atlantis. We had a blast! We were a little worried at first because The Reef is far away from the other towers. But, we didn't have any problem catching the courtesy shuttles around the resort. Our room was beautiful with an ocean view! This is the time to go visit Atlantis (September). We were told this was the slow season. The Reef wasn't busy at all. We had a nice private pool and beach for our tower. There were never more than 5 people at the pool. The staff was very accomodating and friendly. The whole resort is amazing. We spent endless hours on the lazy river/rapids/current and going on the slides. We highly recommend taking a snorkel tour through Stuart Cove's. The snorkel tour made three stops at coral reefs. The last stop we swam at a shark cove, where we swam with 30-40 reef sharks. They were about the size of us!! It was once in a lifetime... terribly scary, though. We also got to deep swim with the dolphins at the resort. It's been a dream of mine to swim with dolphins. It was fun, a little overrated, and overpriced.

The Reef Atlantis

My husband and I stayed at The Reef from 9/12- 9/17 and found it to be top notch. The furnishings, design and décor are absolutely beautiful. You can’t even compare the other hotels on the premises to The Reef. We visited friends at The Royal Towers and there’s no comparison. The other hotels need to be upgraded. We’re very glad we stayed at The Reef. It's spotless.

Airport: arrival into the Bahamas was great. We met a great taxi driver by the name of Cheryl Fergusen who we absolutely adored. She stopped at the store for us to pick up some incidentals and even gave me her late night snack recipe: Watermelon and cantaloupe sandwich – so, Cheryl if you’re reading this- THANK YOU and GOOD LUCK! I highly recommend anyone who plans on going to the Bahamas to contact Cheryl, she’s an absolute joy. Just email me and I’ll send you her info.

So here’s my pro’s and con’s of the Reef and the Atlantis property:

Pools- The Cove Hotel is right next door to The Reef and the design is very similar. I would have to say that the biggest hassle while staying at The Reef was that you can not walk thru the CAIN pool to access the other pool areas. Although I can understand CAIN being exclusive to Cove guests, I think the Architect could’ve done a better job allowing Reef guests an easier outside route to get thru to the other side where the remainder of the Atlantis property/ pools are. Not for nothing, but CAIN isn’t as great as you would expect with all the hype they put into it. We snuck past security and I wasn’t that impressed. 4 beds in the middle of the pool and loud lounge music wouldn’t make me want to pay extra to stay there. If you want to go to Atlantis and avoid the screaming kids, the pool outside Reef is just as secluded. Walkthru the Seaglass bar. It’s really very classy. Apparently they serve breakfast and lunch, but we didn’t find this out until the day before we left.

Waterpark- We heard from some people that September was the best time to visit since it’s off season (aka- hurricanes) because any other time of year it’s a madhouse. We basically have no complaints. The waterpark was great. We spent everyday there and we were never bored. There was one day where a couple of the slides were closed. Not a big deal. The lazy river (it really isn’t lazy) that runs thru the Power Tower was awesome. If you take the tube up the conveyor into the tower make sure you get out and walk up the extra 2 flights to the top. There are 2 separate slides up there that we didn’t find out about until our second day. One is a tube-less slide that is in complete darkness. This is scarier and just as steep as the “Leap of Faith”, I won’t divulge where you end up, it’s really awesome. The other slide at the top is via tube and best taken with a friend in the double.

The property- aside from my original note about access thru CAIN, we have no complaints. The property is well maintained and beautifully landscaped. One downside to this time of year is that Atlantis is half-staff and a lot of the beach restaurants and bars were closed. Which was annoying. We loved walking around. As mentioned in other reviews, there is a shuttle that comes every 5-7minutes. But, we didn’t mind walking b/c honestly to wait and then take the ride is the same time to just walk. Make sure you walk around at night. The lighting is amazing. Especially throughout the lagoon. I think the sealife is very active at night and walking thru the DIG and outside the main lagoon was fascinating.

Dining- I’m not going to complain. We expected it to be expensive and we weren’t surprised. I doubt prices will go down, so if Atlantis is your vacation then be prepared and improvise. On that note, our favorite restaurant was Mesa Grille. Nobu was good but I didn’t like the atmosphere. It’s used as a lounge for the casino. Atlantis needs something like Nobu, but strictly as a lounge for the smokers and drinkers. It was so unbelievably loud and crowded and smokey. It ruined the dinner for me. Japanese food is not supposed to be enjoyed like that. The servers rush you to turn the tables. I’m surprised the owner of Nobu approves of this. Oh yeah, Dune – the food was disappointing to me. The lobster was as tough as carpet. Bimini Road was cool. Seafire is good. We went to Murrays for lunch. Here’s a tip- order one sandwich at Murrays and split it. They’re enormous!

Service- Service is great as long as you don’t complain. The employees turn evil when you complain. All the reviews where people complain about “hidden costs” are true. They must’ve tagged on about $80 per night of “service fees”, tax, gratuities, etc. On every food bill gratuity is already built into the total.

Nassau- We took the “ferry” over one day to Nassau. The ferry is basically a dumpy old boat. It’s $6 RT per person. Take the shuttle bus to Harborside and walk down pass the bridge (there’s plenty of signs to point the way) Cost is not bad in comparison to cost of cab. Ferry’s run every ½ hour. There’s one guy that will tell you the same story on both trips and he’ll want a tip. Bonus - On the Paradise Island side there’s a grouchy dude down by the docks who sells fresh fruit cocktails. By fresh I mean, he takes fresh strawberries and bananas and rum and mixes it in a blender for $6, 10 or 12 (a bargain by Atlantis comparison). He's awesome. Buy one each way. They’re really great especially in the morning. The port of Nassau is like any port where the cruise ships come in. You will have to go down the side-streets to find anything interesting. I’m not a fan of knock-off D&G bags, so the straw market wasn’t my thing. We went to Senor Frogs for lunch. Don’t make eye contact with the guy that has the mic- he’ll have you singing something crazy and then you’ll get a guy with a whistle squirting shots down your throat (we had fun :-).

There’s one thing I didn’t mention. We stayed at Sandals 2 years ago. By comparison, We enjoyed Atlantis and The Reef better because there wasn’t one time when we were bored. However, we missed the swim up bars. Why are there no swim up bars at Atlantis? Even CAIN doesn’t have one. I don’t understand this. Maybe because it's more kid- friendly? There's also no jacuzzi's. I know its the Bahamas, but i like the Jacuzzi at night. The food at Sandals was comparable to Atlantis. I estimated the cost we spent for The Reef and food at the end is comparable to staying at Sandals via their website pricing. I kinda like the idea of all-inclusive better and I know Atlantis has introduced a meal-plan, which, next time I might be inclined to doing if were not with a group. All-in-all it was a great vacation.

The fitness center is $15 extra each day for a towel, use of the facilities and a bottle of water. Theres a lap pool, tennis courts and basketball with also all the standard fitness equipment. It really annoyed me that this was extra. But, i'm told that this is normal in Vegas. I think paying $15per day to use the gym annoyed me more than anything else about cost for food, etc. Fitness center should come with the cost for the room.

Dolphin Cay- pick up and read The Atlantean. It's their newsletter of stuff going on around the resort. Check out the free Dolphin show and save yourself some money. get there 15minutes early, Bring a drink and grab a seat under an umbrella. It lasts about 25 minutes. It's no sea-world, but it's free and it's really cute. We enjoyed it.