Atlantis

The Comfort Suites were we slept were clean, comfortable and quiet. Our room had a coffee maker and a little refrig which was a life saver since food in Paradise Island was obscenely expensive. At least this way we could take leftovers back to our refrig to eat later. Our "package deal" included a continental breakfast which consisted of cold cereals, bagels, donuts, coffee, fruit, hand boiled eggs and juice. Needless to say, I was a happy camper.
I was expecting the Atlantis waterpark to be really crowded, but it wasn't. It got a bit busy later in the day. Since we are both "early birds' we would arrive at the park when it opened at 10:00. This way, we got first dibs on all the popular water slides. Honestly, I felt like a little kid racing from one slide, pool, lagoon, aquarium to another in excitement. The slides were something else.
The slides and "water rides" ranged from:
Fun ( the "rapid ride" which you sit on a float and this wave machine splashes you around the park on a mile long journey on "rapids". This was a blast. Every once in awhile a wave would hit you as if you were body surfing in the ocean. We went on this a bunch of times).
Cool (a slide on the Mayan temple that takes you down a curvy slide shooting you into an enclosed tube into the shark tank. This ride I went on at least 20 times. It was awesome).
Pee-your-pants-scary (big slides on the Mayan temple. I went on this once. That was enough), Shit-your-pants-scary (OMG. I had no idea what I was in for at the "power tower" slide. It was a totally vertical drop .Once was clearly enough on this bad boy)
There must have been at least 10 pools with different aquatic themes that you could swim and splash around in with waterfalls, mini slides with various 'ruin" motifs.
They had a dolphin encounter park which we did not participate in but I just wanted to see the dolphins. Apparently from what I read that 5 of these dolphins were rescues from Katrina. Six dolphins escaped from the New Orleans aquarium during the hurricane floods. One had died due to injures and infection as a result. At least now these dolphins were safe and had a home. I must say I was amazed at how clean and efficient everything was in this enclosed 'city"
We did do a snorkel in their 'ruins' GOT. (They did not allow scuba diving there but they do allow supervised snorkling) That was actually pretty cool. The variety of fish in this underwater ruin city was amazing. All kinds of sharks, rays and fish. That was worth doing.
I'm not sure how many buildings Atlantis owned I am guessing seven. Each building was absolutely amazing. The detailing, the artwork and the aquariums were something you just have to see. I am not into gambling but the casino was a fascination in itself with it's exquisite aquatic decor.
They had a lot of tunnels connecting you to each building with aquariums surrounding you. I spent alot of time just watching the fish. I just had to eat lunch in the (super expensive) "cave" just to watch the fish. I also insisted on eating lunch at the outdoor "lagoon" with it's giant shell canopie decorated with all this fabulous artwork over looking the "shark pond".
There were all kinds of la de da restaurants but they didn't interest me nor did the night-clubs. I'm sure they were really nice but we opted for the Atlantis in-house movie theater with first run movies for evening relaxation. We were constainly doing stuff all day. It was pure sensory overload.You just crashed once your head hit the pillow.
(Next time I will write about activities outside of Atlantis)