I came to Tripadvisor before we left for our visit to Harborside to get a few tips for keeping our trip cheap and efficient. I have to say I was really nervous considering a few reviews that mentioned how dirty and outdated the rooms were. Happily, we had the exact opposite experience.

The really clarification here needs to be if you are staying in Phase I or Phase II of Harborside. Phase I is older and has a bright Carribean decorative scheme (a little tacky and definitely more worn). Phase II is beautiful - a very neutral scheme - carpeting and upholstery is clean and very current. Phase II is a little further removed from the front entry as well and it was so quiet we didn't even know we had neighbors. If you don't own a timeshare definitely request Phase II!

As far our travels, my husband and twin six year old boys managed to have a fantastic time - without spending a bundle of $$ (much in thanks to the wonderful tips I found on this site). Here are a few of the ones we used and found most helpful.

- Order from Dominos one night! We ordered two larges and got two meals and a lunch out of it for less than $40!

- Definitely take the $7 bus into the grocery store. You get an hour to go to a local strip mall - enough time to buy the fairly reasonable groceries and even hit the liquor store. (I should note that I'm from a major US city so that should be kept in mind when considering what is "reasonable"). I went by myself and they packaged everything in boxes. The bus took us back to our buildings so it was fine to just send one representative for the family.

- Definitely do the OFF site swimming with the dolphins! Here's the kicker - our Harborside concierge recommended it! It only cost $85 to take the ferry from near Harborside to a gorgeous island about 1/2 hour ride away and we had the experience of a lifetime with the dolphins! (FYI - check out the cost of the Atlantis experience - about $140 per person!)

- Thank you, thank you to the guest who recommended going to the slides later in the day! My family had a fantastic time because of this! We would go to Harborside's pool in the morning, head back to the unit for lunch and then take the shuttle to the Cove (covered separately below) Beach and then off to the lazy river/rapids and slides around 4:00 - no lines, less crowd - a great time!

- To all families with little kiddies who enjoy the beach as well as the pools - definitely head to the Cove Beach! So absolutely beautiful and there is an "arm" of land that comes out (to the right side (by the Power Tower) that protects an entire section from the waves so it's PERFECT for kids to float and play. Don't be afraid to pack pails and big shovels if your little ones like the sand. We brought big shovels and every little one on the beach watched my boys with envy. Honestly, they didn't take that much room in our luggage and we spent hours in our lounge chairs pulled right up to the water's edge while they played in the sand. FYI - water shoes weren't needed for this beach - in retrospect we wouldn't have brought anything but flip flops for this trip.

- DO explore the Atlantis property thoroughly! Everytime we walked, we found different caves and tanks and lagoons to explore. Take the path least travelled - it probably goes to a rope bridge or a waterfall with tiny baby stingrays swimming in it! : )

In the end how much $ you spend is entirely up to you. We eat two meals a day in our room and enjoyed another out. This trip is completely do-able if you do the same. Enjoy! (I know we did!)

My husband and I just returned from a trip to the Atlantis. We took our two children - a 15 yr old boy and 8 yr old girl with us, and it was awesome. The service throughout the resort was wonderful. We stayed in the Beach Towers, and the room was great with an awesome view. Each evening someone from housekeeping stopped by to check to see if everything in our room was okay. With four of us staying, we went through a lot of towels, etc and each time we called to ask for more we got them almost immediately. The staff here was great. I talked with one gentleman at guest services a LOT, and he was so helpful and friendly. I wanted to take back souvenirs for my classes and decided to take them back some coins from the Bahamas. The girls in the sundries shop saved out as many as possible for me and called around everywhere to find me more. Even when I returned after 11 pm one night, she still remembered and was still saving them for me. The food is good, Atlas(off the casino) is a great place to eat - the ribeye chop was delicious. It is a bit pricy, but not more than what we have seen in similar resorts (Vegas was ridiculous) and the drinks were cheaper here than in Vegas. You can get a soft drink for $4 at the grills by the pool and there are free refills all day. (We took a suitcase full with us to have in the room) A mixed cocktail is $9, but in Vegas we found them to be 14 or 15. Carmine's is as good here as in NYC, and keep in mind that the $40 pasta dishes will serve between 2 - 4 people depending on your appetite.

We did the shallow water interaction with the dolphins and it was one of the most awesome things I have ever done. My daughter LOVED it. Electra (our dolphin) was so SWEET!!! My son and husband did the jet skis off of the beach for $60 a half hour - they will try of course to get you to do an hr but they were both exhausted from riding it after a half hour. The pools are great! Our favorite was the one right in front of Royal Towers with the suns on the bottom. The boys LOVED the slide into the shark tank. The current(the rapid "lazy river" is a little rough, but fun until my daughter and I were dumped out of the raft and she went under, so I'd skip that if you have a child who is not a confident swimmer. Be sure to go to the beach early because it was much calmer in the early morning but by after noon very rough close to shore.
We took the shuttle down to the Ocean Club to see the Cloisters and the gardens there - beautiful and great photo op. Have the photographers in Atlantis follow you and take pics if you'd like to do that, if not, there are a lot of them in the hotel in the evening taking pics.
We took a taxi into Nassau one evening for dinner($5 each person) - our driver suggested we go to the "Fish Fry" - which is really a row of restaurants. The one he took us to was the Twin Brothers, and the food was AWESOME - conch fritters were 2.50 for 6 and delicious, and then our fried shrimp was great. My son got the grilled grouper fingers (in foil with sweet potatoes, onions, plantains, etc) Delicious flavor! Great pina colodas!

Our second visit to the Atlantis and a fun time was had by all! The fun time was due to the fact we went with four other families and spent 85% of our time outside and riding down the slides! The kids loved the new slide area and we enjoyed the Marina Village.
As far as Harborside Resort...it is terribly out of date! Our room was NOT what we paid for, and we had a discounted rate. I agree with the other post regarding the dirty carpeting and floors. We stepped out of the shower, walked around for 5 minutes and our feet were black. It was so gross. We also had multiple light bulbs out, the hairdryer didn't work and I hate to even touch on the sleeping conditions. The pillows were hard, comforters worse than a cheap hotel and the pull-out couch had about a 1/4 mattress and an empty bottle of rum under the couch/bed. I hate to be so picky...normally we are very complimentary.
Our friends stayed at the new hotels in the complex and had nothing but praises! Wish we had done the same.
One a positive note...the employees are very friendly, we had great dinners and lots of fun. I would recommend The Atlantis but not Harborside. It wasn't worth the money.

Just got back from a family vacation at Atlantis with my husband and 2 boys (7 and 9). Stayed at the Harborside building 2 (room #4730) in a Premium 1 bedroom. I do NOT recommend staying in the unit we had – no view, very dark inside (had to turn on lights even during the day).

Now for my novella on Atlantis:

I. HARBORSIDE, MISC.:

A. VIEW vs. NOISE
Many reviewers recommend requesting a quiet room, but I say try for a room with a VIEW! Late-night returning revelers can make ANY room ‘noisy’. What’s the sense in going all the way to the Bahamas just to get a “quiet” room with a view of nothing? Ask for a room overlooking the water (either Atlantis Marina with its fantastic yachts, the lovely Harborside pool area, or Nassau Harbor and the bridge). We got our “quiet” room which overlooked the balconies of another Harborside building and regretted not being able to sit out and watch the boats or swimmers or SOMEthing.

B. TV:
Check out the resort’s own television station on your TV. It has a fascinating and informative show on the history of the resort. Watching it gives you a much greater appreciation for all that you will see as you tour the grounds.

II. AQUAVENTURE & POOLS, ETC.

A. CHAIRS
Don’t bother sending someone out at the crack of dawn to ‘stake out’ lounge chairs unless you are incredibly picky about where you sit. There were chairs available every day of our stay at every pool. Since very little of our time was spent sitting down, we weren’t all that worried about where our stuff was stationed.

B. POWER TOWER
At Aquaventure, there is one point where you can float left to continue riding The Current or go right to The Power Tower and ride down The Falls, The Drop or The Surge tube slides. Day after day, when we chose the Power Tower, we were squished together with hordes of other guests in our tubes waiting in the interminably long ‘line’ for the conveyor up to the Tower. It wasn’t until our 4th day that we realized you could take your tube and simply walk up the stairs to slide down. If you don’t mind taking the stairs, doing this will save you about 15-30 minutes PER SLIDE (seriously!) depending on how long the queue is!


III. COST:
I echo all of the other comments about how expensive EVERYTHING there is, but want to add a few specifics I didn’t see mentioned here previously:

A. Be forewarned that a gratuity is added onto pretty much EVERYTHING at Atlantis – not just your sit-down restaurant bill! We were charged $20.50 every day of our stay for the room gratuity. Also, 15% was added onto the cost of our ice cream cones at the Creamery and onto all of our food purchases… even the $9.00 (!!!) Ziploc sandwich baggie of fruit we grabbed at the makeshift outdoor barbecue by the Splashers pool.

B. Practically NOTHING at Atlantis (other than use of the pools and water slides) is included in the cost of your stay. Be prepared to pay extra for things like: all non-motorized water sports ($30-45 per ½ hr.); a quick, one-time try of the climbing wall ($15 for about 8 minutes); entry to Club Rush for the kids ($15 per child); fitness classes; etc.

C. Since so few activities are complimentary, take advantage of the ones that are, including:

1. Movies at Atlantis Theatre (about 4 different movies each day) While we were there, family films playing included: The Water Horse, Nancy Drew, Bee Movie and August Rush among others. Your best bet with a family is checking out one around 7:00ish AFTER the pools have closed.
2. “Seakeepers Sanctuary” – These narrated and/or interactive marine-life feedings take place throughout the resort. Check the daily schedule for times and locations. We enjoyed the narrated nurse shark feeding at the Mayan Temple.
3. The Junkanoo entertainers (each Friday and Saturday at 9:30, I think). Very Bahamian and a great photo op! The dancers parade s-l-o-w-l-y through Marina Village and will stop to dance and take photos with onlookers.
4. Various games around the resort – None of these were convenient for our schedule, but we noticed things like BINGO for prizes, complimentary arts & crafts, a pilates class, and a basketball skills challenge.
5. Guided Group Tours (OTHER people’s) – If you are checking out the marine habitats and a guided tour passes by, stop to listen! We learned a lot about things we never would have otherwise were it not for crossing paths with a narrated group tour.
6. The Beach – This may seem obvious, but so much emphasis is placed on the water park activities, that the spectacular Atlantis Beach seems overlooked. When pools & rides closed at 6 pm, we made our way over to the beach and enjoyed playing in the sand and surf. We practically had the place to ourselves and the lighting at that time of day was simply GAWgeous!

IV. CLUB RUSH
Our boys were dying to try out this seemingly ‘cool’ pre-teen club, but ended up hating it. We paid for them to check it out one evening ($15 ‘cover charge’; open 4-7pm for 6 to 12 year olds) and they said it was incredibly boring. The ‘disco’ was completely empty and some of the video games weren’t working properly. What they disliked the most was that the “club” closed at 6:50 that evening (we’re not sure why) so they had to leave the club area and sit in a small reception area waiting for us to come pick them up for 10 minutes (which felt like an eternity to them).

V. STAFF
For the most part, everyone we encountered at the resort (and on the island in general) was extremely friendly, attentive and helpful. There were a few exceptions (as there are ANYwhere), but one worth noting was a couple of the lifeguard staff. Two of the lifeguards stationed at the Baths Pool were flirting so heavily and for so long with some female guests, that they barely glanced at the swimmers in the waters around them. Having 2 kids who are not the strongest swimmers, I was not able to relax and simply enjoy my surroundings whenever my boys were swimming in this area that day.


VI. FOOD & DRINK

A. BRING IT WITH YOU!
As others have recommended, bring as much food & snacks as you can from home! Bringing a big, collapsible cooler FULL of stuff from home saved us SO much money and was NOT an inconvenience given the kitchen in our suite. [NOTE: A 4-cup packet of coffee was provided in the unit but was not replenished after the first day. The coffee maker in our unit used the bucket-type filter, not cone-shaped. However, our #4 cone-shaped filters from home still worked fine in it.]

Freeze juice boxes or bottles of lemonade or iced tea overnight. Pack them with your snacks/sandwiches for the day. They’ll keep everything cold throughout the day and will be melted & ready to drink by late afternoon. At lunch time by the pool, my kids especially liked having “Uncrustables” peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (frozen and individually wrapped) and frozen tubes of Go-Gurt.

Easy dinners from home included: Macaroni & Cheese with a side of frozen broccoli, a ham steak with side dish of mashed potatoes (both frozen), and ravioli with homemade marinara (we brought a small container of frozen sauce). Just three evenings of eating in saved us a lot (dinner & drinks for 4 at the Marketplace Buffet was $200… hard to stomach when your kid only eats a slice of pizza and two cookies!).

B. BUY OFF RESORT
We didn’t bother wasting the $7 per person to schlepp back across the bridge to Nassau for groceries. We just bought a few items across the street from Marina Village at the Paradise Village Shopping Center. Along with Anthony’s Restaurant and your typical gift shops, the center has a mini mart with some basic groceries and a couple of duty-free liquor stores. [The Pina Colada Bacardi Breezers made a tasty tropical treat by the pool during the day.]

C. WATER
The tap water at Atlantis is completely safe and drinkable. We had no issues whatsoever drinking it. Unless you are extremely sensitive, don’t bother spending the money to buy bottled water.

VII. MISC.

A. DRESS CODE
While swimsuits, cover-ups, shorts and other beach attire are entirely appropriate, be aware that many, MANY people dress to the NINES in the eves. around Atlantis. You may want to bring something a bit dressier to wear at least ONE evening, even if you don’t plan to go clubbing or gourmet dining.

B. EXPLORE!
The resort is enormous and it’ll take a little while to get your bearings. Once you do, however, resist the urge to go the same way to the same ‘spot’ each day. We kept discovering new things every day we were there and were so glad we took different pathways to get places. Refer to the Resort Map (available at the guest services desk at Harborside and each of the hotel towers) and try to check out all of Atlantis’ amazing nooks and crannies. There are new and interesting sights around every corner.

C. CATS
Have the animal lovers in your family look out for the many stray cats that roam the Atlantis property.