Ever since watching Holiday In The Sun (yes, the Mary Kate and Ashley movie) when we were kids, we’ve always wanted to take a trip to the Bahamas and stay at the Atlantis Resort. That dream became a reality last weekend when we headed south to the Caribbean for a few days of fun in the sun. We’re so excited to share our Bahamas travel diary with you guys today!
We flew in early on Saturday morning, and immediately checked into the hotel. Since it was so early in the day, we were thankful they had an available room for us. They even upgraded us for free, which was a nice perk. Our first impression was that this place is huge! It was probably a 7-8 minute walk from the lobby to our room located in the west tower of the Royal Towers.
We quickly changed and headed straight to the pool. Well, one of many pools. The Aquaventure waterpark on the property offers 18 water slides, 11 pools, and 2 river rides. We grabbed some lunch and a pina colada and parked ourselves in a lounge chair for the next several hours. We walked over to the beach for a bit to play in the waves before headed back up to our room to shower and get ready for dinner.
We had a delicious dinner at Chop Stix, an Asian Fusion restaurant on the property, before walking through The Dig- a stunning marine life exhibit located off the lobby of the Royal Towers.
We woke up on day two feeling refreshed and ready to go explore. We grabbed a filling breakfast at Poseidon’s Table before walking over to the Dolphin Cay to say hi to the dolphins.
We spent the rest of the day switching off between relaxing by the pool and riding the water slides and river rides.
We met up with our Dad who flew in town for a conference, and had dinner at Case D’Angelo. Good food, good wine, and some family time, capped off with a delicious Bahamian rum cake for dessert.
After dinner we played slot machines in the casino for a bit before calling it a night (and losing all of our money).
Day three = dolphin day!
We grabbed an early breakfast at Posiedon’s Table again. Check out the pastry buffet alone! You’ll definitely find something for everyone here, and the friendliest staff!
We spent the morning by the pool drinking pina coladas before heading over to the Dolphin Cay for our scheduled swim time.
We booked the deep water swim which included a brief orientation from a dolphin trainer followed by our dolphin interaction and swim. The whole process start to finish was about an hour, and you spend about 30 minutes of that actually in the water with the dolphins.
Meet Minus (pronounced MEAN-US), our new dolphin BFF. He’s a pro at posing for photos.
We’re laughing in this photo because he turned over and in rubbing his belly we found his tickle spot and he started shaking his flippers similar to how a dog does when reacting to the same thing.
Ever the proper gentleman, Minus gave us each a kiss on the check before asking us to dance.
We put on our snorkels and swam out into the water, lead by one of the trainers, who signaled Minus to swim and interact with us.
We ended with the highlight- the “foot push” where Minus propelled us across the water. It was SO FUN. Be sure to watch it in action in our travel vlog below.
I highly recommend booking a dolphin interaction if you visit Atlantis, and the deep water swim in particular, because they limit the group to 6 people, giving you more one on one time with the dolphin over some of the other interaction options.
After dinner, we headed back to our room to shower and relax for a bit, before meeting back up with our Dad for a drink prior to grabbing dinner at Nobu. We were bad bloggers and forgot to take photos at dinner. While the food was good, I think overall Nobu is a little overhyped.
After dinner we headed to the casino for a bit before calling it a night.
We woke up almost with the sun on our last day, anxious to get an early start to make the most of our day prior to having to head to the airport to catch our flight back to NYC. We grabbed one last breakfast at Poseidon’s Table and then headed to the pool, had one last pina colada, had our last trip down the water slides, and our last walk down the beach.
We had such a good experience staying at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. There are plenty of activities for the whole family, great food, and truly some of the nicest staff we’ve ever encountered. Swimming with the dolphins was definitely the highlight. Be sure to watch our travel vlog to see even more!
-Ash xx
