Our family was very excited to head to Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas at the end of June. This was our first big family vacation since our Italy trip at the end of 2018! We were all looking forward to traveling together again. Look how gorgeous it was when we flew in. We knew we were in for some fun!
We landed on Thursday afternoon in Nassau and took a shuttle over to the hotel. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived since it was before check-in time. Not a problem; we headed out to the pool for a late lunch while our bags were stored. They called us a little bit later to say our room was ready, so we headed up to check it out and unpack. We were all pretty excited about this view; it's beautiful!
The Reef rooms are geared towards families. We had a nice king bed, a sofa that pulled out into a double, and a lounger at the end of the sofa that Mia used for her bed.
We appreciated having a little kitchenette in the room. There was a two-burner stove, sink, dishwasher, plates, basic cooking sets, Keurig, toaster, and microwave. We used Instagopher to deliver groceries upon our arrival. This allowed us to make breakfast in our room each day (except a Starbucks treat one morning), and gave us plenty of snacks to enjoy.
We were happy to finally be here!
The famous royal towers from our room. Everything looks very spread out on maps and even as you're looking around. However, we found it all easy to navigate, and it didn't feel as spread out when we walked around.
We decided to spend the afternoon and evening walking around the property and getting our lay of the land. Everywhere you look, there's something beautiful to see. The grounds are kept immaculate. The flowers are lovely. There's so much sea life to see. The hotels are bustling and have lots of interesting things to see. Here's lots of pictures from our time walking around, both this evening and other days of our trip.
Lily and I enjoyed sitting outside in their big oversized chairs one evening reading.
They have a two different aquarium areas. One is under the royal tower, and it's called The Dig. It was fun to walk through.
There was also a combo indoor/outdoor area called Predator Lagoon. There were a few scary looking guys in here!
We spent most of our time on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at The Cove's pool. It was huge! It had waterfalls you could swim through and sit behind. It also had "ruins" throughout the pool with seating around them which made for such a relaxing time. We all got tons of reading done as we enjoyed time relaxing under some umbrellas on the chairs by the pool too.
The girls figured out they really enjoyed the non-alcoholic daiquiris: strawberry for Lily and mango for Mia.
Mia and I decided to give some of the waterslides a try too. First up was the famous Leap of Faith. You climb to the top of their Mayan Temple, then slide almost straight down and through their shark tank. It's fast and so much fun!
I went down first (above) then Mia followed (below).
We rode a innertube ride down the Temple too which was really cool. We rode together which was fun. It goes pretty quickly down but then it slows so you can actually see all the sharks swimming around you while you're in the tube. We rode this one a couple of times! Another day we went to the Aquaventure Park which had several fun innertube rides that we enjoyed. They dipped, curved, dropped, and went through blackout areas. It was so much fun! Atlantis also has a "rapid river" which was pretty cool. We rode it many, many times, and Lily joined us on some of those rides. It has some lazy river feels to it where you are just floating along, but then several times you are pulled into some rapids. You bounce around, spin around, and float from side to side. All of these rides were a good time!
We decided to spend all of Monday at the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous! We spent a lot of time in the water, and we even snorkeled a bit which was fun. We also enjoyed reading up on the beach.
This is a great place for Ryan to enjoy a Bahama Mama, and the girls to enjoy a frozen drink!
We also enjoyed several good meals while we here.
We went to Seaglass twice because we liked it so much! We loved their charcuterie board and their cheese plate. Ryan and Lily enjoyed their wings a lot. I liked their peach and goat cheese bruschetta. Mia liked the popcorn appetizer. It was a really good spot. We totally enjoyed this s'mores dessert too. It was perfect!
I decided to try their signature cocktail which was called "Pineapple Passion." It came in the coolest looking pineapple glass! It also tasted absolutely delicious: absolut elyx, John Watling's paradise rum, licor 43, luxardo maraschino, passion fruit puree, crushed pineapple juice, lime, and peychaud's bitters.
One evening we went to the Burger Shack. Man, it was good! The burgers were huge, the sweet potato fries were spot on, and the milkshakes were quite tasty.
We couldn't wait to try the Italian restaurant from New York: Carmine's. It did not disappoint. It's all family style, so we decided to share the chicken parmesan, olive oil and garlic spaghetti, and sautéed broccoli. Every single bite was delicious.
One evening as we were in the Marina area, there were a few independent artists there selling their wares. I saw one lady who was selling homemade doughnuts, and I couldn't resist. I bought a guava cream cheese bruleed donut. It was amazing!
Our most favorite activity was on Saturday afternoon. We had booked an experience at Dolphin Cay. This gave us the opportunity to play with a dolphin! Cherie the dolphin was the alpha female. She was beautiful. We got to pet her, instruct her, feed her, and learn about her. It was an incredible experience, and I'm so thankful we had this opportunity!
Her belly was so soft.
We all had the chance to feed her which was really cool.
Cherie performed all sorts of tricks for us to as she followed the commands we gave (with the assistance of her trainer).
I think all of us would say this was our favorite part of the trip!
On Monday evening after dinner, we took our time walking back to our hotel room, just enjoying the scenery around us. We saw a beautiful sunset which was a perfect way to end our time here.
On Tuesday morning, we enjoyed room service breakfast as we packed up. We had to leave our room at 11, so Ryan and the girls hung out in the lobby while I went back outside to read in the oversized chairs for a bit. Our shuttle arrived right at noon, and we headed back to the airport to head home.
This was such a wonderful trip, and so many great family memories were made. We are so thankful we were able to travel together again, and Atlantis was an absolutely beautiful and wonderful choice!