I am here to share our trip to the Bahamas with our whole family!! I surprised Matt and the kids with this trip on Christmas morning.  It was a last minute decision and something Matt and I had talked about and then I just told him it was too much and we really didn’t have enough time.  Well, I did a little more research and managed to get it all booked for just a short 3 night trip.  

Matt was so surprised on Christmas morning and the kids were so excited.  We have been wanting to take them here for such a long time because it is a place that Matt and I have always loved.   We made the decision to bring all 3 kids including or baby Molly who is 16 months old.  We knew she would hold us back a bit when it came to some of the slides and extra stuff around the resort, but we knew she could still have fun.  Another big thing to remember with kids going to Atlantis is that all of the big slides have a 48″ height requirement.  Our oldest, Brody, is 6.5 years old and is exactly 48″ if that gives you reference. So that meant that Madelyn (4.5years old) was not tall enough either.   But guess what??? It didn’t stop her from having so much fun. I think the rapids lazy river was both of their favorites and we rode it no less than 5 times and they also loved the kiddie areas with slides and jungle gyms for them to play in.

I will do a separate post about traveling with toddlers and what worked for us.  Sometimes nothing works which happened to us for a bit on one of our flights.   She was overtired, and maybe having ear troubles for about 30 minutes before she finally cried herself to sleep on one of plane flights ! No fun!

T H U R S D A Y

This was our travel day and it was probably about 4pm by the time we finally arrived to the hotel and got checked into our hotel room.  It was just enough time for us to settle in and then head to dinner that evening in the hotel.  We went to bed early and got ready for our first big day on Friday.

These things were definitely the highlight of flying for the big kids.  They were amazing .

Suitcases

A tired family of 5 that finally arrived in the Bahamas !!

We stayed in the Royal Towers which we loved and had easy access to the Marina which was great.

We had a standard ocean view room with two queen beds.  They brought in a crib for Molly that we put in the corner and used our Slumberpod tent over that to give her privacy (and us!).  It was a tight fit and a pretty small bathroom for all five of us in there for three nights but it was doable.  When we checked in, I did ask if they had any upgrades available.  We ended up staying in this room for one night and then got upgraded to a one bedroom suite with a pull out sofa for the kids for the next two nights.  It was really nice 🙂

The first night after we checked in and put our bags in the room, we had dinner at Virgil’s BBQ which is family style and then we walked the aquariums with the kids which they loved!

 

F R I D A Y

On our first morning, I scheduled for us to have a dolphin experience first thing!! Dolphin Cay where they do the experiences is located in front of the Cove Building, but you can also walk there from the Royal towers where we were.

I wasn’t sure exactly how this would turn out and its pretty pricey at $140 per person I believe.  Molly is free.  I only signed me and the kids up because I was worried that Molly wouldn’t be able to do it and that we would need an adult to hold on to her.  But it turned out that it was perfectly fine for her to join in!! We put on our wet suits, listened to a short tutorial from an instructor and in the water we went (about waist deep). 

We snapped photos, fed the dolphin, pet the dolphin, let the dolphin kiss our cheek and really got to be right there with her.  It was pretty impressive.  They did a short little show for us and it was really cool to be that close.  My kids were a little nervous and scared to let the dolphin kiss them, but plenty of kids their age were all into it!

We spent the rest of the day exploring all the pools, slides, rides and everything Atlantis had to offer.

The kids had a blast playing at the kids area, riding the Rapids lazy river and exploring all the areas with sharks, stingrays and sea turtles. 

We called it a day after spending 8am to 5pm out doing all the fun things!  Molly was a trooper.  We just brought her stroller and let her fall asleep in that for her nap.  She didn’t take a super long nap any of the days, but it was enough to get her through the days without having to come back to the room!

A stroller is a must for little ones because you do a TON of walking.  The place is huge! You will have to take on some stairs with the stroller throughout the day, but that is just part of it.

This was our new one bedroom suite that we were pretty excited about :). We had a walk-out balcony which was really nice, a BIG bathroom, and then our own private King Bedroom plus a big room for the kids with a TV and half bath for them.

That night we hired a babysitter through the hotel.  She was AMAZING.  We loved her and within 1 minute of walking in our door, she was on the floor with Molly.  The kids were SO exhausted, I knew they wouldnt take much to go to sleep.  We ordered them all room service for dinner and then Matt and I headed on property to Seafire Steak House.  That would not have been my first choice but we were limited on reservations because we did everything so late.  I would have loved to have gone to NOBU.  The food at Seafire was not great and the restaurant was super loud. We were exhausted from a long day and really just ate, gambled a little bit and went to bed!  The kids were all sound asleep when we got back to the room!

 

S A T U R D A Y

For our second full day, we had no plans and just wanted to tour some more of the property.  We walked around, found a real lazy river, another kids pool and then planted at the beach for a bit.  The water was a bit chilly, but we all warmed up to it quickly. 

 

After another full day of slides, pools, beach time and more rapid lazy river rides; we called it a day and headed back to the hotel to shower, dress and head out to an early dinner at Carmine’s Italian restaurant.  We LOVED this spot and had been there before.   It is a family style italian and Matt and I had the Chicken Parmesan that was delicious.  I even had all three kids eating plain pasta which was a win because Brody claims to hate pasta.

S U N D A Y

Sunday was our last day and our flight wasn’t until 3pm but they want you to the airport pretty early to do customs and it is about a 35 min drive to the airport.  So by the time we packed up all of our things, had a nice lazy breakfast delivered to the room; it was pretty much time to head to the airport.

When we went out to meet our ride to the airport, they had run out of SUV’s so we got this big stretch limo to ourselves.  The kids thought it was the coolest and basically all laws don’t apply in the Bahamas so Molly was just sitting with the big kids!

And just like that, our quick weekend was over!   We were there for 3 nights and I really think 4 nights would have been perfect.  Mainly because we only had two full days to enjoy all the fun stuff.  I think 4 nights and 3 full days would be perfect.  We really lucked out with the weather and had gorgeous weather the whole time.  The high was 80 and the lows were 70.  I would go back this time of year again, but because it was still winter break; it was definitely a more crowded time to go.  We went from January 2-5th.  Here’s a little recap of our stay so you can see it all in once place.

A C C O M O D A T I O N S

Atlantis Hotel & Resort – The Royal Towers

We loved our stay here so much!  We were so excited to take the kids and they truly had a blast.  A few things to keep in mind…this place is huge, the food and drinks are expensive, there are lots of people.  The best thing I can compare it to is like the Disney World of the Bahamas.  This trip was for us but it was mostly for the kids.  We knew it would be busy and it was non-stop with three kids.  You walk a ton, you go from morning until evening and there is tons to do.  I’m all about keeping expectations in line, so I just want to mention all of that.  This is not a relaxing or chill beach vacation.  Or at least it wasn’t for us with a 6,4 and 1 year old.  But we knew that going in and we we’re cool with that.  This was all about the experience and I am so happy with our experience.

We loved staying in the Royal Towers.  There are 5 different towers I think.  I can’t really compare them to the others since we didn’t stay in them, but I can tell you the pros of the Royal towers to me.  

I loved the location of the towers because it felt very central.  I loved that we were still attached to the casino, tons of restaurants, and all the big shops.  We were also right there by the marina area that has tons of outdoor walking space with restaurants and shops as well.  It is a great place to walk at night. 

D O / S E E

Dolphin Cay Excursions
Beach
Pools Galore
Aquariums
Kiddie Pools
Rapids Lazy River
Shark Slides
Casino
Shop
** We didn’t do any other excursions off property but they offer all kinds of different things.  I have done a booze cruise catermeran excursion before that was fun too if you are going without kids or have a babysitter.

*** We arranged a babysitter for one evening through the hotel and we were so happy with our sitter.  She was awesome.  You pay a lot for a sitter there, but it was worth it to us to enjoy one night out by ourselves!

E A T

Virgil’s BBQ
Carmine’s
Nobu
Poolside Grills
Seafire Grill

**A reader told me about a grocery delivery service down there before we arrived.  It is called Instagopher.  We didn’t end up using it since we weren’t there long, but did have our taxi driver stop at a grocery store on the way from the airport to the hotel.  We just needed some milk for Molly and a few things and we were able to store it in the mini refrigerator in our room.

S H O P  T H E  P O S T