jeanned

We are taking my mother in law to Atlantis for a four day weekend to celebrate her 70th birthday. There will be 8 of us-- 7 month old baby, 6 year old, 7 year old and 5 adults. A couple of questions:

1. Should we go with a meal plan at Atlantis? Which meal plan is better? How expensive are the restaurants if one choses not to use a meal plan?

2. Can you recommend some restaurants that would be good for casual meals?

3. We want to have one nice dinner-- can you recommend a restaurant that has high quality food/atmosphere, but would be okay with three young children?

4. What activities (besides those at Atlantis) are there on Paradise Island? Is there any good shopping? Snorkeling? Etc.?

Thanks for all of your help.
Jeanne

girlonthego

There are two meal plans. We just went in Oct. We did the Gourmet plan which allows you to eat in any of the restaurants. My inlaws and brother's family did the regular plan which is cheaper but you can only eat in certain restaurants (mostly buffets). It is a very expensive meal plan, but every meal is expensive. I definitely over ate thinking I had to. I think we got our money's worth. Okay, I would not choose the meal plan again if I were traveling as a group or family. Just my husband and myself maybe. I think you could do better by just eating when and where you want to. Some nights go buffet with the kids and casual. Maybe have a nice dinner one night, maybe dinner by the pool one night. If you do the meal plan, you feel like you have to eat fancy every night because you paid for it! I recommend doing the breakfast buffet daily at the Marketplace. It had everything. We pigged out and I was fine till dinnertime. I recommend the Bahamian Club as my favorite nice restaurant. The Villa de Este was good but not as good. The Bahamian club is steaks. The most expensive(five twins) does not allow children and to be honest was not our best meal. The service was extremely slow and that was irritating.(45 minutes to get a check) Casual meals at any of the buffet restaurants would do. The food is okay. Near the pools, there was a family hamburger meal (four burgers, four fries and four sodas for 22 dollars. This is a steal and by far the best meal deal at Atlantis) If dining with children at the nicer restaurants or any, eat early! We ate dinner about 6:30 every night. The kids were good (mine are a little older-10 and 12). WE had one night with 14 of us eating together. We ate at one of the buffet restaurants. This was accomodating to everyone's meal plan and my brother's kids are young like yours. They can get up and get as much as they want, etc..If you are only there for four days, stay and enjoy the resort. The pools, beach and there is a beach that has calmer water to the left of the pools and there are lagoons too. We did not shop and Nassau looked very dumpy. It is mostly tshirt shops. The hotel has some shopping. I am sure you could hire a snorkel boat trip although I can't give you a name for that.
Oh and have a Wahoo drink by the pool. It was a delicious frozen concoction!!! Have a good time.

girlonthego

One more thing, make some dinner reservations before you go. Especially if all of you want to dine together. You can always cancel when you are there.

Dreamer2

Sounds like a lovely celebration, JeanneD! Your older kids will absolutley love the water park.

GirlontheGo hit the nail on the head, and I also wanted to let you know there is a post very similar to yours already here if you search. You may get some additional info. I agree that either meal plan it pretty much a waste, along with Five Twins. And definitely call for a couple dinner reservations a month before you go.

I also think dinner at Fathoms is very nice. Not as elegant as the Bahamian Club, but a really cool atmosphere. Kind of like eating in grotto, and the kids will be entertained by all the activity in the aquarium. As I recall, it had a large fish menu with some alternative choices.

For casual dining, we found our best deals, service, and quality at Murray's Deli. I even ordered off the Kids' Menu there once, and it was plenty and yummy!

We pretty much stayed on the grounds. We took one day to go downtown to shop (nothing special) and bring the kids to the Straw Market. They thought that was interesting. Unfortunately the old structure had burnt down, and it was housed under a tent a couple years ago. Don't know what's there now. We brought masks and flippers with us, so the kids could flop around in the little man-made interior beach. Not much there however! Father and daughter played the putting green, but know that it costs extra, along with the gym, and spa facilities. There are excursions, but we didn't use them.

Have fun!

schmerl

I ahve stayed at Atlantis both with and without the meal plan. We spent less money without a meal plan. Our favorite "nice" restaurant is Villa D'Este. Murray's Deli is a good recommendation for casual. We are not big breakfast eater, so we brought granola bars, etc.for breakfast. We would have a good lunch at one of the outdoor places--The Cave, the Lagoon Grille, Shark Bites, and then have a nice dinner. You can walk across the street and have some meals at Anthony's Carribean Grille. There is a shopping center down the street where you can pick up things at the market. There is also a place there called the News STand that has very reasonably priced breakfasts.

jeanned

thanks for all the great feedback!

Annabel

for a nice meal that will please everyone, my recommendation would be Fathoms. The children will love watching the fish and the food is really good.

I like Atlantis...it is a perfect long weekend getaway.

We have ben there twice, and ahve always gone with the Gourmet meal plan and always glad we did. We have always found it saved us money...but that is me. We like to dine in upscale restaurants when on vacation. When we added up what we ordered to what we paid we saved money. We also do not like venturing of Atlantis property for a less expensive meal. I know you have children, but you might also enjoy 5Twins. The food is excellent and you can dine outside on the balcony. %Twins is also on the gourmet ,meal plan.

I have always read that people spend less without the meal plan, but withus, we have always saved money on the meal plan. If ou wish to eat burgers at Sharkbites for dinner, then yes you will definately save money over buying a meal plan. If you like to get a bit dressed and have an upscale dinner at the restaurant listed in the plan, then yes you eill definately save money. It all depends on what and where you want to eat.

jeanned

topping

schmerl

We have always eaten ALL our dinners at the gourmet restaurants at Atlantis and still spent less without the meal plan. We really over ate with the plan feeling we had to get out money's worth. Remember in addition to the cost of the meal plan, the tax and tip are based on what the actually cost of your meal would have been! It adds up to quite a bit more than just the cost of the plan.

girlonthego

I must comment that it is because you are all going as a group that I recommend no meal plan. We did over eat on the gourmet, BUT since we prepaid it, we weren't fretting over costs while on vacation. If everyone agrees to spend the money on the gourmet plan, than go for it. You won't have to think about what each thing costs while you are there. This is good if you are especially big eaters. You are given an appetizer, soup or salad, entree and dessert. We usually boxed our dessert up for later. The lower priced meal plan is not worth it because it locks you into buffet eating which is very mediocre. The buffet breakfast was good and very plentiful with varied choices. We only ate at one evening buffet and I could take it or leave it. Nothing too great. We did eat more than it cost us for the plan. But we are big eaters. With a group that had different meal plans, this was more difficult. Either all get the gourmet or skip the meal plan altogether. And definitely make reservations for dinner ahead.

nylee

We went to the Atlantis with our children when they were 8 months and 6 years. I would definitely recommend the meal plan. If you plan to eat three meals a day, then the meal plan is certainly worth it. Meals at the Atlantis are VERY expensive. For example, the buffet breakfast was $20 per person. We did not go with the gourmet plan because, let's face it, gourmet restaurants are not kid friendly. We did take the kids to Villa D'Este, the Italian restaurant because we felt like having a nice night out. The kids did not enjoy it. Not much variety for them. The buffet restaurants have more variety and they can always find something. Certainly many people find the meal plan expensive only because you will find them eating lightly by the pool (eg. buying granola bars or food on the outside). We enjoyed the buffet restaurants in the Royal Towers (forgot the name). None of the nice restaurants at the Atlantis are kid friendly but if you have just one fancy night out, they should be fine. We took the kids on the dolphin encounter with we loved. Highly recommended, expensive, but worth it. Book before you go or as soon as you get there as it books quickly. There are many nice shops on Paradise Island. YOu can also go into Nassau if you'd like but it isn't necessary.

jeanned

Thank all of you for your feedback!