Before my trip, I received an email from the virtual concierge, asking if there was anything I wanted to tell them in advance. I said that I had 2 back-to-back reservations, and could they please be combined into 1 (the reservations person said they couldn't help me). And that my flight was arriving at 9:42am - was there any way to get an early check-in. They said they'd do what they could.

Well, I got there and I had 2 reservations, and no knowledge I had requested them to be combined. They said I could check in, in an hour and get the basic room I'd reserved, or wait until 4PM and get an uprgrade to a higher floor. We figured we'd wait. In the meantime, they offered to hold our luggage, and said we could freshen up in the spa upstairs.

My husband thought it was the best men's spa he'd ever seen. There was a quiet comfortable waiting area plus a hot tub, steam room and sauna. (He went down there every day during our stay just to sit in the hot water and soak up the heat in the steamroom.) We were each given a key to a locker in the men's and women's spas. Inside each locker was a spa robe, a towel and a razor. The showers were tiled in beautiful brown with metallic gold flecks. Very luxurious. There were hair dryers, mouthwash, body lotion, more like being at a private health club than at a hotel fitness centre. It was maybe 10 feet from the doors to the outdoor pool, and my husband was pleasantly surprised to find it was heated.

When we finally checked in, we were very pleased with the size and amenities of the bathroom. We were surprised to find a 2-burner stove and ice-making freezer, along with a full set of dishes, cutlery, kitchen tools, a kettle and pots and pans. I'd brought raisin bran with me on the trip, to save costs on breakfast, and was pleased to see I'd be eating breakast in style with the nice dishes and cutlery. The bed was amazingly comfortable. For those of you who are interested: Sealy Posturepedic Palatial Crest Plush Europtop. We had an amazing view of the ocean from our 11th floor balcony.

It was a little cool, about 71F as the daily high, and of course, cooler at night. We tried to turn on the heat, but only cool air came out. When I called down and requested a space heater, I was first told they had none, but an engineer could come up and look at the heating unit. I said fine and he came up. Finally he said it would need a new heating coil, and that would be a couple weeks, but would we like a space heater? I said that would be great, and he brought one back immediately. It worked like a charm, but I wondered why the service desk had told me there wasn't one.

Housekeeping overall was very good (bathroom, bedroom perfect), but I was curious how they'd clean the dishes, as there was no dish rag and no liquid detergent in the room. I think perhaps there is none, period. Each time I pulled out the dishes or cutlery from the shelf, I had to re-wash them myself, as they always had food on them, or grease, etc. Oh well.

As I mentioned, we were trying to travel on the cheap. For anyone else doing this, and thinking of the waterbus, I'd recommend the waterbus only on your first day. After awhile, the relentless narrative focus on the cost of every house you pass by begins to feel tiresome and crass. I'd much rather have heard interesting stories of the people who have lived here, about the native wildlife that we saw (iguanas and all kinds of interesting-looking birds), interesting bits of history about Fort Lauderdale, etc. Plus, you're not guaranteed a seat. A couple times, our captain had to turn people away because there weren't any more seats. Imagine having already waited for this waterbus and having to wait another hour for the next one!!! After trying the city bus, we realized how very, very slow this mode of transportation was.

We ended up switching to the city bus. For $1 you can ride downtown quickly. The #11 bus passes by every half-hour and the hotel can give you the schedule for it. Not as scenic, but we met lots of friendly locals on the bus, which gave me a much better feeling for the real Fort Lauderdale than I would otherwise have been able to see.

About 10 minutes walk north on A1A, you can hit a bunch of convenience stores (one of them actually sold paperbacks - in case you're interested, it was the one just past the laundromat - take note if you're a reader, because this was one of the only places to buy books among many, many places I looked), a pizza place (very good), and "Thai on the Beach" just above it (also very good). Walk a bit west on Sunrise and you hit a 7-11 (source of milk for cereal, juice, water and beer) and a Mexican restaurant. Walk even further over the bridge, and you hit a natural foods store and a pharmacy.

I did make a long-distance phonecall to Canada, but used my calling card (a little tip I learned from Frommers), so the total cost of the call on my bill was $2.50 + tax.

I would definitely return to this hotel.

DOn't use the phone- 3 minutes=$21.00
No cell reception in hotel
Nice room
Pool is in shade by 2:00 each day and picture is misleading- the pool is on the 5th floor
Very noisy- street traffic
Food was good
Oh yeh- $10 for the M&M's and $21 for the orange juice
The condo owners gouge you on the small things leaving an impression that they are just cheap.
We had group of 25 and it was unanimous that we would not come back. You don't get the Ritz Carlton service for the price you pay.

We stayed at The Atlantic for 3 nights during our trip to the Orange Bowl. All I can say is WOW!!!! This is an amazing hotel that really understands what it means to treat a guest in luxury and style.

Before we arrived, I recived an email from the concerige staff asking if there is anything they could do for us. We asked for an early check in if possible so we could use the beach. We arrived at the hotel at 12:30 pm (check is is normally 3 pm) and we were checked in immediately and given a grand deluxe oceanfront room on the 6th floor. The room was amazing! It was huge, had a great tub, walkin shower and the most amazing bed (better than the Westin Heavenly Bed). It also had a private balcony overlooking the pool with a great view of the ocean.

The hotel is directly across the stree from the beach and has lifeguards as well as a chair rental service (not connected with the hotel) that was $7 for the day. We enjoyed using the beach and having it so close to the hotels front door.

The conceirge service provided was top of the line. We wanted to pick up chicken wings before the game, and the women at the desk directed us to a couple of choices that had exactly what we were looking for. I figured it would take them some research, as it was an unusal request, but they responded very quickly.

The morning after the Orange Bowl we arrived back at the hotel from the game at 3 am and the valet staff was immediately available to park the car for us. We then called down to the front desk for a 4:30 am wake up call (early morning flight home) and they had no problem in delivering. In fact, each day our wake up call was given by an individual, not an automated system.

After we got home and I had a chance to review the bill in more detail (hard to do at 4:30 am when you are exhausted), I noticed that they accidently charged us for 4 days of parking instead of 3. I called up the hotel and within 2 minutes the front desk clerk had our bill pulled up and fixed the error. What great service!!!!!

We can't wait for an excuse to go back and spend more time at the fabulous property! It ranks right up there with some five star places we have stayed all over the country.

I’m a Starwood Platinum member. I travel all the time and I get very nice room upgrades. For the New Year’s Eve I decided to take my wife at The Atlantic in Fort Lauderdale. The room was can. $ 999 a night (about $ 850 US). For that amount of money we got the deluxe room. At booking they asked for the exact time of check in order to surprise us (it was what they said). When we showed up (after we confirmed 48 hours before) the room wasn’t ready and we had to wait for almost 3 hours. Furthermore we did not get any upgrade (“because the manager does not allow it at this resort” where the words of one employee). We asked the time of the check out and we were told that we have to leave at 11 AM. When I checked the bill at home it was written that we checked out at 4 PM. Finally in the room, while making coffee, we realized that the coffee expired 6 months before. We called to complain and they replaced the coffee but not before they checked in the garbage for the expiration date. One out of 4 little cream containers placed beside the expired coffee was open and half empty. At about 8 pm the manager sent us 2 apples and a bottle of water to cheer us up…amazing!
Now some good things: the view was beautiful, the room was spacious and nicely decorated. So was the bathroom. That’s all that was good because on closer look I was able to see dust everywhere, the handprints of the previous guests in the dust and even the place where their glasses were. The carpet looked very bad (stained) for a hotel just 1 year old.
Now if you thought that this is it you were wrong… We went to bed at about 3 am to realize that the bad smelled like pee… In the morning (about 9 am) we went to swim in the pool. There was dirt around the pool as well as some leftover food from the previous day (or days!).
This is what I had to say about this hotel that is rated 4 stars and it is a category 6 SPG. I still prefer Starwood to Hilton but I will never return to this hotel.
Hope this helps.