10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Going To Atlantis

We just got back from a trip to the Atlantis Bahamas resort. My husband had work meetings for a couple of days and we decided to extend the trip and spend a week on Paradise Island.

Before our trip, I did a lot of research but still wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.

I didn’t find any source that had all the information I wanted so I decided to share the information I wish I would have had before our Atlantis Bahamas trip.

Resources For Planning Your Atlantis Bahamas Vacation

Before our trip as I was doing research, I found the Atlantis Paradise Island, Bahamas Facebook group and it helped me as I planned our trip to Atlantis I wanted to make sure to share this resource with you.

Atlantis Facebook Group

The Atlantis Facebook group is very active and a great place to get questions answered and get an idea of what to expect at the Atlantis resort.

You can also search the group before asking a question to see if it’s recently been asked. I spent most of my time in this group searching my questions and I found almost all of them had been answered.

Some people in the group have been visiting the resort for years and many of them happily share their knowledge about the resort and visiting the island.

I will say that as with everything you will get a lot of different opinions in the group. So keep that in mind.

10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Going to Atlantis Bahamas Resort

While the group was really helpful in answering questions I wanted to share some of the things I wish I would have known before going to Atlantis with my family.

These are things that I didn’t necessarily expect or would have found helpful to know before our trip. Many of them aren’t things that I thought of until we were on our trip and I realized it would have been nice to know before we arrived.

Wifi For Texts and Phone Calls

When we were at the resort we connected to the wifi and used it for texting, phone calls, and everything else we needed on our phones.

Depending on your phone plan you can add international services to your plan for a set amount each day. We looked into this and my husband ended up doing one day of our trip because he had some business things he needed to get done.

We found that the wifi at the resort worked great and we got service pretty much everywhere. Out by the beach and in a couple of areas at the waterpark the wifi signal was a little bit iffy.

Communicating on the wifi worked great between those of us on the island together. We did notice that there was sometimes a delay when texting people back home. Some texts just took a few minutes longer while others took hours to be delivered.

If you are going to need to be in quick communication you may want to pay to have your phone data while on your trip. If that isn’t a concern the wifi worked really well for all of our communication needs.

Download and Use The App

The Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas app is free and was really helpful especially the first few days as we figured out our way around the resort.

The map section is the one we used the most on the app. It was nice to be able to put in what we were looking for and get a direct path to take.

It was also helpful to look at the map categories so we didn’t miss out on anything fun we wanted to see.

The tours section is a great place to find things to do at the resort it includes a bucket list tour, a tour of the dig, and a foodie tour.

In the more section of the app, we were able to see the daily Atlantean, events, movies, and more.

Expect Prices Similar To Disney

We found that food prices at the Atlantis resort were similar to those you would find at a theme park (like Disney). Maybe a little bit higher depending on which foods you decided to get.

Before our trip, I went to the resort’s website and looked at the different restaurant’s menus.

This gave me an idea of what we needed to budget for food and also which restaurants my kids would enjoy eating at. Some restaurants require reservations so keep that in mind and make the reservations early.

We chose not to eat at any of the restaurants requiring reservations since they charge a fee if you cancel too close to the reservation time. We also weren’t sure how early our kids would crash after being at the pools and beach all day.

For us, it ended up working out really well to end the day earlier since our kids were so tired after being on the go during the day. Most nights everyone was asleep by 8 pm (which is early for us!).

Pro Tip: Get a specialty drink (alcoholic or nonalcoholic) at one of the poolside bars it’s expensive but the cup gets free soda refills for the rest of your stay.

Bring Food From Home

We brought food from home and it was so nice and saved us a lot of money.

The top things I would recommend bringing are breakfast foods and snacks (especially if you’re traveling with kids). These foods are easy to pack and don’t take up much space. Granola bars, pop tarts, snack bags of chips, and crackers are all good options.

We only had a short flight to the Bahamas so we brought a cooler bag with frozen water bottles and some refrigerated foods like yogurts, lunch meat, milk, string cheese, and guacamole packets.

Salty snacks were a favorite snack and I wish we would have brought more of them. We ended up going to the little grocery store across the street to get a few more snacks.

I’ll share a complete packing list with everything we took on our trip soon.

Not All Rooms Have an Unobscured View

When you see the Instagram post of a beach vacation you usually see the beautiful lush tropical greenery, the ocean, and beautiful unobscured views of topical paradise.

Not all rooms have these beautiful unobscured views. If that view is important to you be sure you’re getting a room with a view when you book your stay.

I honestly didn’t think about the fact that our room might not have a great view until we went to our room.

We stayed at the Coral and our room faced the harbor side of the island. The floor we were on was right above the Coral lobby so our view was of the roof with a little bit beyond that. If we had been up a few floors the roof wouldn’t have been a big deal since we would have more of a view past it.

So take this as your reminder if a view is important to you be sure to check on that when booking and again at check-in.

Get Connecting Rooms

If you have more than 4 people in your group you can get connecting rooms at the Coral (and possibly other hotels at the resort too).

We loved staying at the Coral it is a great location with easy access to the beach, water park, shopping, and conference center.

We were able to get two connecting rooms so we had plenty of space for our family of 6. Each room had a table, dresser, tv mini fridge, and coffee maker. The mini fridge had a small freezer box on top. In one of the fridges it worked really well and was frozen, the other one didn’t work at all.

I would definitely stay in the Coral if we visit again. We heard that Harborside is great for families and that the villas have kitchens which would be nice but they can be a lot more expensive.

Bring Comfortable Shoes and a Stroller

Comfortable shoes are a must. The resort is big and you will do a lot of walking. If you’re out at the pools it might be tempting to go barefoot. But be aware that the sidewalk can get hot on warm days and after being in the water all day the paths can be rough on your feet.

We all had these water socks and they worked really well both for the pools and the beach. We didn’t wear them all the time in the water, but they were comfortable to wear around the resort and we were able to wear them on most of the slides.

Flip-flops also work great but you won’t be able to wear them in the pools or on the slides.

Depending on the ages of your kids you may or may not want to bring a stroller or wagon. We took our double stroller and were able to pile on all the sand toys, goggles, sunscreen, snacks, a cooler bag with drinks, towels, and 2 kids.

It was really nice to be able to take everything we would need throughout the day with us and spend most of the day at the pools or beach.

Dry Bags For Your Phone Are A Must

I got these waterproof phone dry bags to take with us and now they are one of my must-have items for a beach trip. Not only do they keep water away from your phone they also protect it from the sand.

We were able to use our phones while they were in the waterproof pouch. I was even able to take pictures and videos on a couple of the water slides.

The bags aren’t very expensive and a great way for you to be able to keep your phone safe with you and be able to take photos and videos while at the beach.

Explore the Pools and Beaches

The resort has A LOT of different pools and several different beaches. We definitely found our favorite pools and beaches but I’m glad we explored most of them.

Pools

I found that the pools for the most part were the same, the crowds at each pool were the biggest difference.

We spent most of our pool time at Poseidon’s Playzone and the Mayan Temple Pool. We did explore the other pools but those were the two favorites.

Beaches

There are multiple beaches to visit on the island and we were able to explore several different beaches.

Paradise Lagoon Beaches

On our first day at the resort, we spent most of the day at the Lagoon. It was definitely a favorite for all of us the sand is soft and perfect for playing and the water in the lagoon is calm.

We were able to take our snorkels out and see some fish near the rocks which was really cool.

Atlantis Beach

Atlantis Beach is the one closest to the cove and it’s beautiful. My husband and I walked it several mornings and we spent a morning playing in the waves. The waves on this beach were really big and kind of crazy for kids.

After talking to one of the lifeguards we found out that the waves are always bigger on this beach than at Cove Beach.

Cove Beach

If you want to try some body surfing, find shells and sea glass, or play in the ocean waves Cove Beach is our pick.

We spent hours at this beach and had so much fun. We saw a couple of sea turtles swimming in the water, did a little bit of snorkeling, and body-surfed.

At the beach, there were multiple places to get life jackets which made it easier for our kids to go out and enjoy the ocean.

Don’t Miss the Gym

When you’re on vacation visiting the gym might be the last thing you think of but the gym at the Atlantis resort is really nice. There is a variety of equipment in the gym, as well as a lap pool.

I believe two people per room are able to use the gym at no additional cost (be sure to check if you have more than two adults staying in a room.)

One of our favorite things about the gym is the fact that they had canned water and purified water you could drink while working out.

The free water you can get throughout the resort isn’t always the best tasting. (My kids call it Florida water if you have stayed in Florida you probably know what we are talking about).

A Few More Atlantis Bahamas Tips

Alright I know I said I was only sharing 10 tips so this post didn’t get too long but I want to quickly share a couple of other things I wish I would have known before our trip to the Bahamas.

Dig for Shells

My kids (and I) love finding shells on the beach. At first look, the beaches at the Atlantis resort didn’t seem to have very many shells.

As soon as you start digging down a little bit in the sand you find hundreds of shells. Just make sure that they don’t have anything living in them before you add them to your collection.

Arrange Transportation to Resort Before Your Trip

In the Facebook group, there were several different transportation options suggested for getting from the airport to the resort. I’m sure many of the options are great just make sure to arrange your transportation before you arrive for a less stressful travel day.

Don’t Forget the Drink Mixes

When we arrived at the resort they gave each person a refillable water bottle and there are filtered water stations throughout the resort.

I mentioned above that the water wasn’t always the best tasting. Some of the filling stations tasted better than others (we found the one by the coral pool to have the least of an aftertaste).

Adding a powdered drink mix packet to the water took away the funky taste and made it so much better. Our favorite drink mix was these individual mixes, but any of your favorites will be great.