I wrote this review shortly after my visit here December 15, 2009. This large imaginative resort is a fantasy recreation of the mythical lost civilization first described in ancient Greece that was reported to be a technologically advanced society situated on an island that sank into the ocean. The resort is composed of multiple themed hotel and condo towers as well as a casino, shops, swimming pools, a waterpark, a marina, and convention facilities; all of it set amidst lush gardens and along several beaches on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, connected by short bridges to the nearby New Providence Island and the country's largest city, Nassau. Much of the resort is nicely themed and detailed, and of specific interest to Zoochatters are the multiple AZA-accredited large aquariums and lagoons as well as a swim-with-dolphins experience. The design architect for much of the project was Wimberley Allison Tong and Goo, a large firm specializing in resort properties; they have also designed the newer Atlantis property on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The resort claims that their aquatic environments contain 50,000 animals, mostly fish. I have seen figures that the total volume of the habitats is 11 million gallons! Figures for the sizes of the habitats are few, but I have seen that the swim-with-dolphins attraction covers 14 acres, that the large central aquarium tank viewed from the lobby is 2.7 million gallons, and that another large tank is 500,000 gallons; I suspect several of the lagoons and dolphin pools surpass these figures. By my count there are 39 habitats, ranging from several small wall aquariums to a large lagoon that is connected to the ocean. Although the aquatic habitats are spread out through the resort and interspersed with swimming pools and waterslides, they can be described as being in 5 clusters. They are mostly excellent exhibits, although fans of naturalistic displays will be dismayed with the large amount of fantasy cultural theming and they do not generally represent specific geographic areas. A greater problem for many including myself is the almost total lack of informational and identification signage; unfortunate because the resort is home to the Kerzner Marine Foundation, whose education mission is diluted by the lack of readily-available education messages in their own exhibits! Despite this, these waterscapes create an undeniably exotic and transporting experience brimming with variety and activity. The central hotel highrise is the showpiece Royal Towers which acts as the hub from which the grounds and other towers radiate, and to which the casino and shops and the major aquarium attraction connect. Its lobby is a tall rotunda and barrel-vaulted hall called the Great Hall of Waters and it features views into a large aquarium from its lower level, and this area can be considered the first of the clusters of aquatic habitats that includes this large tank as well as 2 shallow lagoons, 12 smaller wall aquariums, and 1 small open-top touch tank. The lagoons are called Royal Ray Lagoon, one on each side of an outdoor formal walkway that exits the lobby and leads to a formal swimming pool on axis. Both sides of the lagoon are similar in size with a backdrop of informal low rocky outcrops and palms with multiple small waterfalls spilling into them. They are shallow sandy bottoms with scattered reef-like rocks inside, which make for nice habitats for spotted eagle rays in one half and stingrays and blacktip reef sharks in the other. Like most of the smaller lagoons at the resort, they are only viewed from the surface but are clear and shallow enough to easily see the inhabitants. Back inside the Great Hall of Waters, a wide symmetrical layout of 13 large viewing windows fills the entire width of part of the lobby to reveal the 2.7-million gallon Ruins Lagoon, the signature tank of the resort. Inside is an absolute wonderland of recreated Atlantean ruins and artifacts, through which a riot of large schools of saltwater fish swim. It holds a wide variety of species, especially open-water ones rather than the wildly colorful reef fish that are featured later. It also features spotted eagle rays and zebra sharks, and at one time manta rays, although I did not see any which I assume means they are not there on exhibit! Their absence did not diminish the joy of watching the mesmerizing activity of this habitat. At one end of the viewing window row is the entrance to the major aquarium attraction of the resort, which deserves its own paragraph. The Dig is the most highly detailed area of the entire resort, composed of 12 smaller wall aquariums and 1 small touch tank as well as 13 more large viewing windows into the other side of the Ruins Lagoon previously seen from the lobby. They line the dark interior passageways that compose this wonderfully themed set of exhibits which inhabit recreated chambers of the lost city, complete with various creepy sound effects that evoke the chambers original uses returning to life. The fantasy backstory is that it was first discovered by archaeologists in the 1920's but their efforts came to an end and were forgotten during the Depression. When the resort began construction in 1997, they rediscovered the passageway to the original dig and its well-preserved discoveries. Now it is open for touring, and is filled with lavish detail; ancient Atlantean artifacts that prove their advanced technologies line the hallways and rooms as well as the interiors of the aquariums. The exhibit path starts in the South Anteroom, themed as the archaeologists base camp with research desks and a stone seal believed to be the way the ancient Atlanteans waterproofed their sinking city. This leads to a timber-supported shaft not unlike a mine which the archaeologists cut through solid limestone to access the site. The first aquarium is a tunnel display with windows on both sides and above that match the shape of the shaft; this space was the organic disposal, where the ancients would deposit waste in the grates of the water chamber for the spiny lobsters to devour. This display is brimming with the crustaceans on all sides and is a delight. The next chamber has two small wall tanks, one being the boulevard terminus of a former market street now inhabited by lionfish and spotted scorpion fish and long-spine urchin, the other being an iconic statuary behind which Atlanteans would conceal their written wishes, now inhabited by Cuban hogfish, queen angelfish, and rock beauty. An interior hallway with a large wall fresco detailing the ancients interest in exploration leads to the fountain pump which now houses a beautifully lit tank of lookdowns. The laboratory is next, with artifacts including a georesonant clock and pendulum and model airship in the room and a wall tank for goliath and Nassau grouper that seems too small. An adjacent room was for crystal machining, where stone would be precision-cut by light directed through slabs of crystals; the cooling trough along one wall has open grates above it, allowing visitors to reach through and touch the sea stars and horseshoe crabs that now inhabit its very shallow depth. Next are the back alleys, a few hallways with the smallest tanks; two dark tanks were storage chambers for charts and now display moon jellies in one and purple-striped jellies in the other; there is also a small intimate reef tank, and even smaller ones for clownfish and seahorses. Another larger storage room filled with pots and urns that once held wine is now filled with moray eels who delight in popping out of the shards. Next is the Treasury, a gated formal room where the civilizations treasures were sealed, which included records and instruments of science rather than jewels. This is now a small gift shop, with one wall occupied by a large window into the records chamber now guarded by a nice exhibit of red-bellied piranhas. The next room is a formal octagonal chamber called the Submarine Room with no tanks that has 4 Atlantean diving suits and a one-man submarine mounted on its walls. These beautifully crafted setpieces surround a central round hatch in the floor that bellows fog, supposedly opening to an underwater passage called The Abyss. Above this is suspended an ancient diving bell, skylit from a small dome above with perforations in the shape of the Atlantean hieroglyphics that also cover archways and walls throughout the exhibit. Several more hallways with more windows into the Ruins Lagoon lead to the final Navigational Chamber with niches facing a central globe and model of the city where they would wear special headgear with lenses for charting their future explorations. The attraction is then exited to the outdoor waterscape, where stairs can be climbed to walkways that surround Ruins Lagoon for surface views of The Dig’s largest habitat that includes several shallow shelf areas not seen from below. The show designer for this attraction was Olio, a firm that has also worked on select detailing for Disney, Universal, and several Las Vegas hotel casinos. Obviously, all of this is mock-immersion rather than educational, but the outcome is still a delight to experience. Of all the resorts tanks, these would benefit the most from signage to indicate the species exhibited. Away from the Royal Towers in the vast waterscape near the resort beach is another cluster of marine habitats including 3 lagoons and 2 small wall tanks. Paradise Lagoon is the first, a large (7 acre?) shallow inlet directly from the ocean that I believe is filled with native fish. I am unsure whether these fish can come and go as they please or whether they are netted in at the mouth of the inlet; either way, snorkeling from a sandy beach on one shore is allowed. A walkway separates this from the Waters Edge Lagoon, a smaller (but still sizeable) sandy-bottomed shallow habitat for what must have been about 50 cownose rays as well as some bonnethead sharks and seastars. Their website states that blacknose shark expectant mothers are moved into this lagoon too. The most impressive habitat of this area is Predator Lagoon, seen from the surface or underground passages. A large canopied theme bar called Lagoon Bar features a beautiful fresco of sea creatures on the interior of its dome; this acts as the entrance to formal stairs with detailed metal moray eel-shaped banister supports leading down to a rotunda with three large underwater viewing windows into the habitat filled with tarpon, grouper, rays, smalltooth sawfish, blacknose sharks, and schools of smaller deep reef fish. A 100-foot long tunnel with an angled bend then leads under the deepest part of the tank with views of the rocky outcrops that help divide the large exhibit into grotto-like sections. On the other side, an underground rocky passage provides further viewing windows as well as two small wall tanks of spiny lobsters and others before leading back up outside. Walkways surround areas of the surface edge of the habitat, the large shallowest part of which is divided by low gates into a separate display area for two great hammerhead sharks. I found it odd that their largest sharks are exhibited in shallow waters and can only be viewed from above; stranger still, that visitors could easily step over some low shrubs and immediately walk into the lagoon and visit the sharks. Many of the resort lagoons have no railings or barriers, and are located right next to swimming pools for people, which makes me very curious how frequently they are accidentally entered or stepped into! At any rate, one of the hammerheads, with large erect dorsal fin completely out of the water, cruised within four feet of where I was standing, quite a thrill! At the far end of Predator Lagoon is Predator Falls and Rope Suspension Bridge, a scenic backdrop to the habitat that can be crossed above the hammerhead section. Another less impressive cluster of habitats (1 large lagoon, 4 smaller ones) is located in an outdoor area between two older hotel towers and the detailing is cruder. They are interspersed between a swimming pool, kids pool, and a lazy river floating circuit. The largest is Seagrapes Lagoon, which is a 500,000 gallon fairly deep rocky lagoon tank for colorful reef fish as well as rays. It includes a cave-like passageway with underwater viewing windows; unfortunately, I could only see this tank from the surface because the cave was flooded! Nearby are the four shallow sand-and-rock habitats: Reef Lagoon, a long narrow one for nurse sharks which is too crowded; Estuary Lagoon, with southern stingrays and bonnethead sharks and seastars as well as occasional newborns; Stingray Lagoon with southern stingrays; and Hibiscus Lagoon, a decent habitat edged by a sandy haulout for green sea turtles and a few fish. The main waterpark area at the resort is Aquaventure, composed of mutliple swimming pools and waterslides and a floating river circuit with rapids and waves called The Current. Aquaventure has two centerpieces, both with aquariums at their bases. One is the Power Tower, a themed structure that playfully recreates what the lost city's energy generation center may have looked like. It is actually a stairway up to platforms for the beginning of four thrilling waterslides that include several with uphill water-propelled sections. One of the splashdown areas for a Power Tower waterslide is in a subterranean cave from behind a waterfall into a pool called Cenote; it is surrounded by two nice rocky walled small aquariums with alligator gar, pacu, cichlids, and redtail catfish. The other centerpiece is the Mayan Temple, reached by stairs that features four more waterslides, two of which plummet through enclosed clear tubes inside a large square-walled aquarium at its base filled with nurse and Caribbean reef sharks as well as jacks. One side of this tank has three large underwater viewing windows for close views of the watersliders entering the underwater habitat. It is a nicely detailed attraction but is at odds with the rest of the resort's theme. The final cluster is the separately-gated 14-acre Dolphin Cay, reached from the resorts grounds. It is composed of a large sandy half-circular beach that surrounds three large shallow lagoons for paying guests to swim with Atlantic bottlenose dolphins for a typically exorbitant fee. There are also 8 smaller holding pools in the center, all of it backed by a low rocky wall and palms planted beyond. There is also a swim-with-California sealions experience available; whether they have their own separate holding pools is not clear to me, I did not experience it and could only view the habitat from the small visitor center and check-in building at the beach edge. It looked nice though. Atlantis is a delight to explore and its aquarium attractions are excellent despite their often obtuse themes and lack of graphics. In my list of the 35 aquarium attractions I have visited, I rank it at number 9. It would rank higher with a stronger educational element. For my list of 25 favorite individual fish exhibits, Ruins Lagoon is number 4 and Predator Lagoon is number 15. I have posted plenty of pictures in the gallery. I will extend this review with details on how to visit this expensive resort. Their cheapest rooms in slow periods seem to go down to around $180 dollars (U.S. or Bahamian Dollars are accepted at all the facilities and are of equal value). Part of the benefit of staying there is that guests get to explore the entire resort at their leisure including the aquariums and waterpark (but excluding Dolphin Cay, which is only for paid swim-with-dolphiners). Strangely, there is an adjoining hotel called Comfort Suites that also includes admission to all of Atlantis' features, and is cheaper, going down to about $160 at its best. Visiting the resort without staying there is possible, either while staying at a hotel in Nassau (there seem to be several that go down to the $70 dollar range), or as a short 2-mile taxi ride from the cruise ship dock. Most Bahamas cruises stop in Nassau. Free areas of the resort include Marina Village (shops and restaurants with a Bahamas theme), the casino, shops adjacent to the casino, and Royal Towers lobby area including the Great Hall of Waters with a large viewing area of one half of the Ruins Lagoon aquarium (the other half of which is viewed inside The Dig attraction). There is also a free terrace area outside the lobby and casino for surface views of Ruins Lagoon. Things get confusing for day-trippers who want to see the entire resort's beaches, swimming pools, aquarium attractions, and waterpark, most of which are interconnected rather than separately gated. Officially, there are three options for visitors wanting to see areas beyond the free ones. First is the Discover Atlantis Tour for $35 that allows access to The Dig, Ruins Lagoon (remember that free views of half of this large aquarium habitat are from the lobby), and Predator Lagoon. Second is Discover Atlantis Beach Day Package at $60, which includes the above as well as access to all the other aquarium lagoons and the actual beach, and lunch. Third is Discover Atlantis Aquaventure Package, which includes the above (except lunch) and a photo and access to the waterpark and swimming pools. Access is determined by presentation of a room key or a wristband depending on the package purchased. From what I observed, there are 3 basic checkpoints for keys or wristbands from the Royal Towers/Casino free area into the paid areas. However, once inside the paid areas, I saw no other checkpoints so I am unsure of how they separate basic aquarium visitors from beach or waterpark visitors; perhaps attendants at the top of each waterslide check for wristbands for riding the slides, for instance. Indulge me in a description of my visit. I spent $12 at the resort. I visited Nassau on a Bahamas cruise, in this case Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas with a generous port call of 8 AM to 11:30 PM (Carnival Sensation was also in port for this duration). I loaded up on breakfast and smuggled rolls and fruit in my backpack and got off the ship at 8 AM and immediately took a taxi to the casino entrance, the shortest route. I walked through the casino into the Royal Towers lobby and immediately entered a pay area, The Dig, before 9 AM when they post an attendant at its entrance who checks for paid admission. I then leisurely saw this attraction and exited out its back entrance into the bulk of the resort's waterscape and spent the whole day out there exploring the lagoons and eating my smuggled food. I was careful not to go back into the free areas past the checkpoints because I would not be able to get back out into the paid areas. The checkpoints were at The Dig lobby entrance, the far end of the Royal Towers lobby, and the terrace just outside the Casino. True, I did not ride the waterslides or swim in the pools, but could walk around all of them and even up the Power Tower and Mayan Temple, and certainly was able to enjoy all of the aquarium habitats (which was my main reason for visiting anyway). At about 5:30 PM, the checkpoint outside the casino was abandoned and visitors could walk the grounds for free just as I had been doing all day; I entered The Dig for a second time (it was really cool in the evening too) from its back entrance in the waterscape and walked it backwards, and by the time I got to its lobby entrance the checkpoint there was abandoned. The $12 I spent? It was for a souvenir book of pictures of the resort and its details. NOTE: THE PHOTOS ARE NOT UPLOADING TO THIS GALLERY YET. CHECK BACK.
Thank you geomorph for the extensive review, and your photos are now uploaded. I was hoping a ZooChatter would soon post on Atlantis. I've seen so many travel shows on it, and it's an intended destination for my wife and I, hopefully in the not-too-distant-future.
