My wife and I got away for a 4 night get-away...When we travel we don't mind spending the money, in fact we are of the mind-set that when you get away you do it right and try not to skimp because you are there to enjoy yourself. The positives are the rooms are very comfortable and very nice, we had a 1 bedroom suite that was priced at $900+.....Bobby Flay's Mesa Grille is excellent......the down-side: service is not very good for what you would expect from a hotel that charges what they charge....room-service food was not good at all.....pool was nice, but nothing extravagant and the pool personnel were not very friendly, the rest of the property is flooded with people not only from the hotel, but from the cruise ships as well... in a nut shell over-hyped, over-priced, over-sold and under-served.

We visited Atlantis and stayed in a one BR Suite at the the Reef Atlantis over Spring Break 2008. Upon arrival our MB toilet was clogged. We asked for it to be fixed and it was not until 8 p.m. The sofa bed was not made up for our two kids and after waiting 5 hours it finally was. There were never enough towels for 4 people in the room. When we asked housekeeping for additional towels they said their was a shortage. The same was true for beach towels by the many pools. They were out of beach/pool towels everyday. We would vacate our room by 8 a.m. and return by 3 p.m. and our room was not made up. We called the Prompt Response line 5x and no one answered. We called for the Hotel Manager and was told they were busy. After waiting for a return call for over 1 hour we called the Front Desk and asked to be put thru to a Hotel Mgr immediately. We spoke to Mr. Adderly, Hotel Mgr and he put us in for early housekeeping which solved this issue.

We ate at Mosaic for $188 for 2A and 2C (both 3 years old) which was insanely overpriced. Poolside lunch of chicken nuggets and hot dogs ranged from $45-55 which did not include beverages. The Cascades Snackbar opened at 11a.m. but most days there was no food ready to be served at 11. Upon returning to the US we got takeout at the Outback Steakhouse which cost $45 and was the cheapest meal we had eaten in a week.

They was bickering everyday at the Cascades Pool over lounge chairs by various guests.

We booked our Shallow Water Dolphin interaction in January 7, 2008 for March 27, 2008 via 1-800-ATLANTIS. We left a hefty deposit on our AMEX card. We got to the Dolphin Cay and was told our booking was cancelled. We spent 4 hours on the phone trying to resolve the issue first with the 1-800 number then with Quality Assurance. We were told that unless we booked by directly calling the Bahamas number our reservation was not guaranteed. The booking was made somehow for January 27, 2008 a date and time we would not be in the Bahamas. To date, this issue is unresolved.

We will never return to Atlantis.

We went to the Reef on our kids spring break and we all loved it. Ya it's a little expensive, but if you do your research before you go you won't be surprised by this. The pool scene and weather alone are worth the trip. The service was awesome. shuttles to take you all over the property, friendly bahamian staff. We had no complaints. One tip I might give the avid gambler, take less cash for food, room charge everything. We found out that our gambling had given us a credit of over 200.us dollars that they took right off our room charge bill. (not bad) Our 10yr old son loved the river rapids ride the most, which also has a bonus feature of leading to one of the waterslides. (the power tower) The fact that the Reef has their own kitchens inside the rooms saved us money on the daily. We ate breakfast in every morning and sometimes lunch if we were there. At night they have activities for the kids (at a price of course) but if you want to get away for some adult time, it s well worth it. Another tip if you want to go into downtown Nassau to the straw market take the "ferry" for 3 bucks. It was a wonderful vacation, that's going to be hard to beat next spring break. I definetly recommend it for anyone with kids 5-16 years of age. What I like the most about the Reef and the Cove are they have their own private pools that only guests of those hotels can use. So it was nice not to have to fight for a chair or a spot by the pool.

We stayed at the Reef end of March/beginning of April for 4 nights, and it really was better than expected! This was our first family vacation to someplace tropical and I read all the reviews and we debated the right hotel to choose in Atlantis. I am so glad we decided on the Reef.

We are in our late 30's with a 5 year old son and wanted an easy, fast, not too chaotic vacation, but we still wanted to have fun. Atlantis looked perfect for these reasons, but normally I'd run from such an organized, "bahamas in a box" experience. Don't get me wrong - the property was amazing, the fish, the buildings, the pools, the artwork. But normally I'd like a bit more relaxed environment with a chance to eat at local restaurants.

I thought we might have problems with service and expected the property to be very busy. Instead we checked in without an issue (although our bellman was a bit of a talker and all I wanted to do was get my bathing suit on and get to the pool!). We had booked a terrace room, which I think means we were supposed to be on a lower floor, but were given a beautiful room on the 15th floor with views of the ocean and Nassau harbor (my son loved to watch the cruise ships). The room was great- everything worked, plenty of towels, room was made up each day, and the only complaint is that there wasn't a bottle opener in the room. It was really nice to have a fridge in the room - we had the cab driver stop at the supermarket and liquor store on the way in ($35 cab ride total) and we got some snacks, water, dark and stormy mixers, beer. It was nice to have snacks and drinks on the deck after a day at the beach/pool.

Overall, service was excellent - everyone was friendly and helpful. We also didn't have any problems finding seats at the pools. I suspect we were there at a slower time, but that worked great for us.

My son did get sick on our last full day there (food poisoning or stomach bug?). I kept hoping he would bounce back, but at 7:00 PM we called the front desk and were told there was a nurse at the Cove. I got him as far as the lobby before he threw up all over me and the lobby floor. The staff was great and cleaned up, got the nurse on the phone, but ultimately they recommended we take him to the hospital (liability?).

We ended up at Doctors Hospital later that night - not a great way to end a vacation, but thankfully it wasn't anything serious. We were told before we went that we would need to pay with a credit card so that wasn't a surprise. The nurses and doctors were really good and took good care of us. I was surprised that the Reef didn't have any sort of courtesy shuttle to get us to the hospital - we ended up having to call a cab, but I guess that is The Atlantis Way.

Overall, the healthy portion of the trip was magical - we did the dolphin encounter and it was well worth the expense. The dolphins were so neat. The pools were great - we enjoyed the lazy river ride and the kids pools. They were amazing - especially the kid pool with the playground in it. The food was fine - nothing great, but we didn't eat at any of the nicer places. We had planned to have dinner at Nobu, but that was the night my guy was sick - so no Nobu.

The reef really met our needs for a quieter retreat with ample space for a small family. And it really wasn't too difficult to get to the other parts of the resort - shuttles were frequent and we also enjoyed walking. If I go back, I'd certainly stay at the Reef.