First let’s break it down – front door to front door, I snuck away for 36 hours; I was in Nassau for 24 and at the resort for 20. With 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in who knows how long, that gave me 12 hours of island time to soak up and get one of my oldest friends married to the most amazing man! Sophia is about 7.5 months old, and this is my first time away from her for more than a few hours (I didn’t take a night away from Layla until she was about 20 months). Saying that, you have two camps of people: some look horrified in an “I could never go that long without some me time” kind of way and the rest nod in solidarity. I almost cried at every baby I saw at the airport on both travel days. It was a struggle to get Sophia to take a bottle and I do NOT want to pump more than I have to but we all got the hang of it and the girls had a blast and were beyond taken care of while I was away, which I knew they would be 😉

Now that I’ve gotten my tears out of the way, let’s get into it! Atlantis isn’t just Atlantis, there are 5 resort buildings conglomerated together with a variety of purposes – the family area, romantic/adults only, “elevated luxury”, a little more party, etc. Although none of us brought our babies, the girlies and I still chose a room at The Coral, the “multi-generational” or family friendly building, which was the most cost effective in comparison to other areas of the resort. Room prices ranged from about $345-$25,000 per night (the priciest known as the Michael Jackson suite as he used to stay there when he was alive). There is a continuous shuttle between the various resort lobbies, even though it was absolutely walkable if you didn’t mind breaking a little sweat. In addition to the buildings of hotel rooms, there is a casino, about every kind of restaurant/bar/cafe you could ask for, night clubs, shopping – both kitschy souvenirs and designer brands – and more. There were 11 different pools (how they fit it in I have no idea), a lagoon, of course the ocean, and giant water slides. You could purchase a variety of different excursions as well. The resort is family friendly and they have kid activities, areas, and childcare if desired!

As far as attending/participating in a private event at Atlantis, I give it a 5/5. It was a 30 min shuttle ride from airport to resort and as soon as I arrived I went straight to the Bride’s room and was just in time for her hair appointment. Her stylist was 15 minutes early, had amazing energy and created a beautiful look for the wedding day. Everyone who worked at Atlantis knew her resort wedding coordinator and he kept things on point and handled the only snag (timing of the limo to pick her up from the resort lobby to go to the ceremony location) with ease. The beach ceremony set up was beautiful and officiant heartfelt. Every single staff member was attentive and personable from the bartender to waitstaff to DJ to photographer to setup and break down. Every morsel of food was delicious as we sat for a family style dinner and there were a variety of desserts to choose from, and there was no way you were choosing just one! Not only was it the dream wedding for the bride and groom, but everyone in attendance had an amazing time start to finish!

Here’s where my opinion will be controversial – for my time outside of the private wedding event, I’d give Atlantis a 2/5 max and that’s strictly because it was the most beautiful clear ocean and beach of anywhere I’ve traveled. Otherwise, it was so crowded that it almost felt stressful and if you didn’t look out the windows at the amazing ocean views a lot of the common areas and resort rooms felt bare bones and in need of a facelift. I will say there must be something to it because the place was packed every night and day. There was live music at some of the bars and the casino area looked newer and clean. Everything was very pricey (a muffin, prepackaged fruit cup, and prepackaged Caesar salad without a protein was $38 and a basic picture frame from a souvenir shop with a couple fake shells was $30…maybe I’m just being cheap but it was shocking); acknowledging that we chose the cheapest room, it was still $100 per person in resort fees + $345 per night for a non-inclusive experience, and i feel like I’ve stayed at or researched other places at a similar price point that have a cleaner modern/updated look and are all inclusive.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt because I definitely prefer a more relaxed vibe when I go away for vacation. With my limited time I also didn’t get to experience much – Friday was strictly wedding business and my time was short on Saturday as I was set to get on the top-of-the-hour airport shuttle at 10am. But we really hit a sweet spot first thing in the morning. We were all up and ready for the day around 6am (still running on mama-baby time), got some coffees and took a nice long walk on the beach. The ocean was absolutely breathtaking and the clearest water and beach I’ve ever seen! We went as far down the beach as we could and also took several laps all around the inside of the main level of the resort through the casino and by the shopping/restaurants/etc. only passing by a few other early risers. It didn’t start to get that crowded claustrophobic feeling until a little after 9am. The pools are only open from 9am – 6pm and a majority of the shops seemed to be slowly opening their doors around 9am (explaining more hustle and bustle around the resort) but at that point we were hitting up the resort diner for breakfast and getting packed up to meet the shuttle.

I definitely wouldn’t be able to call this a true “review” of Atlantis, because I just didn’t experience enough of it, but I have a few insights if anyone is heading down that way:

• The resort will provide you with a refillable water bottle to use; there were water fountains all over or you could have it refilled at bars and restaurants (I heard some restaurants might charge you for waters if you didn’t have your bottle but didn’t experience that). It’s a super smart idea to really cut back on the number of single use plastic bottles and is a cute take home!
• Call the front desk ahead of your arrival and reserve your spot on the airport shuttle. It’s $33 round trip but it’s definitely cheaper than just getting a taxi (someone at the wedding didn’t know about the shuttle and it was close to $50 each way for her taxi) and kept me more at ease already having transport set up
• DOWNLOAD. THE. APP. Seriously, this place is huge and the app was super convenient to help you figure out exactly where you were going or see all of the different offerings on the resort grounds, hours of operation, etc.
• Many areas of the resort do not accept cash, and those that do often require exact change, so have a credit card with you or put it on your room

It feels so bitchy leaving a “bad” review! Overall, I enjoyed my time because I got to spend it with some old friends and wouldn’t have missed the wedding for the world, but for my vacation style and price point it’s overhyped. That crystal clear beach would definitely have me considering a different Bahamas location though!