Last October our family took a trip to Atlantis. There were 18 of us that went, ranging from Grandparents to Grandkids. It was to celebrate my In Laws 50th anniversary. Before we went I was nervous about a few different things. When you have 3 kids, this is a pretty normal reaction to anything out of the ordinary. I knew it was going to be amazing, of course. I just was hoping there would be enough to do for both the adults as well as the kids. If you are a parent, you know that there is no such thing as a relaxing vacation. There needs to be plenty for the kids to do because the goal of parenting is to wear your children out, each and every day.
Atlantis was the place to go. Our trip was 5 days long and the kids could have spent every last second in the water park alone called Aquaventure. This is one of the best water parks that we have ever been and it was within the confines of the resort. There were tons of slides scattered all over the resort. There were pools everywhere. 2 of the highlights of the water park are the water slide where you come out inside a shark tank. The other being a lazy river ride that is anything but lazy. There are waves, twists, turns, and tons of action on this ride.
One day the kids swam with the dolphins at Dolphin Cay. They had never done this before. The parents all sat around on beach chairs and had a great view of the kids. All of the kids got their own mask and snorkel that they could take home. We ended up using the mask and snorkel to do some snorkeling at the resort, so that came in handy. They divided all of the kids into different stations where they interacted with the dolphins. In one station they got to kiss the dolphin and another the dolphin pushed them by their feet across the water. There were about 5 stations in all. The kids absolutely loved this experience. It was not cheap, but we considered it a once in a lifetime event. I highly recommend it.
We spent another morning exploring the amazing aquarium and lagoons. The kids were able to touch starfish and walk over a rope bridge where underneath there were sharks. There are sea turtles in one pool and stingrays in another. We spent about 3 hours just in awe of the floor to ceiling aquariums and learning about all of the different fish and sea life.
We didn't spend much time at the beach, though there were comfortable chairs with umbrellas everywhere. The kids were too enthralled with the pools. One of our favorite things that we did was find a snorkeling area called Lagoon Beach where they brought their snorkel gear. You could also rent snorkel gear. The kids swam with tiny little fish all around. They absolutely loved it and spent hours exploring the area in the water.
So what did the adults do? We spent a lot of time with the kids doing the water slides and rides. We did make the trek every morning to kind of setup camp in front of the Royal Towers which is the most central location to all of the fun. We found a bunch of chairs and parked the grandparents and they went in and out of the water, ate and drank most of the day. We came in and out taking turns with the kids. We were able to let some of the older kids ride and just check in with us while the younger kids swam in the pool with us in front of the Royal Towers. We had plenty of time to sit and listen to music and enjoy our favorite Bahama beverage, called the Goombay Smash and it sure would get you Goombay Smashed. I will post a recipe below. These were delicious and we drank them all day!
The only drawback of this resort, which you will hear from most people is that it is huge and you do a lot of walking to get to the different attractions. The grandparents really struggled with all of the walking. There are shuttles that take you from one building to the next but even with those you still need to walk quite a bit to get to the pools.
On the way from the airport, we had our driver stop at a grocery store and we were able to purchase tons of snacks for our room as well as breakfast foods (bagels, coffee, cereal, milk, etc.) We also got some liquor at the duty free store at the airport. Our rooms had a small kitchen and eating area so we just did breakfast in the room. Lunch we usually ate at the pool. The kids got ice cream treats at the Ben and Jerry's onsite. For dinner we splurged one night and went to Olives. It was an excellent dinner but the last place the kids wanted to be after a long day was sitting through a 3 hour fancy dinner. We ended up going casual the rest of the time there, even doing pizza in our room one night. On our last night our driver from the airport picked us up and took us to a local place where we were able to sample some really fresh seafood. I don't remember the name of it or where it was (too many Goombay Smashes). If you were just a couple traveling without kids, I would definitely say to splurge a bit more on fancy dinners but with kids, it's a little bit trickier!
Our trip to Atlantis was absolutely incredible. The kids talk about it all the time. I hope that we get back there sooner than our 50th wedding anniversary! Here are some of the pictures that I took on our trip.
This was our view from The Reef where we could see the other tower The Cove
This turned out to be one of our favorite things that we did: Snorkeling at Lagoon Beach
Snorkeling at Lagoon Beach
The amazing aquarium picture taken by my Brother In Law http://www.dougschneiderphoto.com/
Inside The Royal Towers (main building)
The long palmtree that we passed each day on our walk from The Royal Towers to The Reef (the building we stayed)
The rope bridge over the shark habitat
All of the cruise ships dock just outside of Atlantis. It is cool to see them in the port.
Goombay Smash Recipe
Ingredients
MAKES 2 SERVINGS
Ice cubes
6 tablespoons pineapple juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup Malibu rum or other coconut-flavored rum
2 tablespoons light rum
2 tablespoons gold rum
2 tablespoons dark rum
2 pineapple wedges
2 orange slices
Preparation
Fill cocktail shaker with ice; add pineapple juice, orange juice, and all rum. Cover and shake until very cold. Fill 2 short glasses with ice. Strain cocktail mixture over, dividing equally. Garnish with pineapple wedges and orange slices.
Recipe taken from http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/goombay-smash and approved by me
Thanks to 