There are just some places where the human race has managed to create something special. A place you can really get away from reality. Disney World is like that. Atlantis is another. I cannot speak highly enough of it. They spent hundreds of millions building it, but it is truly a special place. It redefines Beach Resort in a way that will ruin all other resorts for you.
Every morning I woke up to the sun at about 7 to 7:30. I would walk down from my room in the Coral Towers and go to Starbucks for a coffee. The Starbucks is in the harbor next to Atlantis. I would then sit and have coffee and watch the crews working on the line of multi-million dollar boats that pull up at Atlantis every day. I will never have enough money to own one but they are sure cool to look at.
Then I would return to the hotel rooms (we had two) to take a shower and start prepping A and RP for the day. C1 and C2 would sleep late but A and RP were ready to go by 8:30. We would head out either to the beach or to the kid's areas of Atlantis. On the beach (really a cove not a true beach) A would chase fish around the rocks by the shore. He never caught one but he sure tried. It was great to watch him endlessly chasing fish but just never quite catching them. Meanwhile RP would endlessly dig in the sand and enjoy herself. She always managed to get a truly impressive amount of sand on her. She has the ability to spend hours just digging in the sand.
By lunch time we would go to the same hamburger stand and have lunch. Food at Atlantis is the real issue. You can get cheap flights and you can get cheap rooms (relatively) but eating is super expensive. A $100 meal there for a family of 6 is a deal. We found a cheap place to eat so we went there every time. a, RP and I would eat our food and then walk over to the shark tank to watch the sharks and sting rays swim around. Sometimes the Wife joined us and sometimes not.
As an aside here. The Wife and I have very different views of vacations. She is happy lounging in her room and going out occasionally. I am an experience addict. I need to gather every experience I can before my vacation ends. So it has always been our routine that she enjoys her break in the hotel room and I drag my kids all around wherever we are. So at Atlantis the Wife rarely left the hotel room before noon. She read a ton of books that week and watched a bunch of movies on her laptop.
In the afternoon it was nap time for A and RP. Sometimes the Wife went with me and sometimes I spent the time with C1 and C2 while the Wife napped. I had to prove my Dad cred by riding all the scary slides with C1 and I even got some alone time with C2 so it was cool. I rode the Abyss and the Leap of Faith there. Truly terrifying rides but fun once you were done!
I took C1 and C2 on the water ferry over to Old Town in Nassau. We rode these rickety boats across the harbor and then walked around in the Straw Market. It was okay but nothing special. A huge number of very expensive designer handbags that they were somehow able to discount to $20 or less. A heaven for a woman who wanted to buy a lot of fake bags but not much else worth buying.
One afternoon we went snorkeling with the Manta Rays. I really recommend this. It is cheap at $79 per person and a great experience. You get to snorkel in the main tank with a bunch of huge Mantas and some sharks. By the end of it C2 was really feeling his oats. He decided that the Mantas were too calm and he wanted to try sharks! So we went to the main shark tank and got to Walk with the Sharks. Personally, I thought the Mantas were better. But I considered it an investment in my son's ego. He has been strutting ever since and talking about how he went diving in a tank full of sharks.
In the evening we would make C1 and C2 babysit (which was an adventure in and of itself) and the Wife and I would go out to a movie. Atlantis has a full size movie theater on site so you can go catch a movie whenever you want. They even have a concession stand where you can get popcorn and drinks.
The final evening was one of my favorite memories. At 5 I took A and RP to the beach. The sun was coming down and the weather was perfect. We sat on the beach until 8 and just had fun. RP finally got the courage up to splash in the ocean and the three of us had a blast making sand castles. Too bad they are too young to remember the day but I will probably never forget it.
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