Atlantis Travel Diary

     This past Tuesday I returned from my family’s four day spring break trip to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.  This trip was a big Christmas gift this past year from my grandparents, so they came with us.  We had an absolute blast and I’m so excited to share our adventures with you today!  I have recapped each day, inserted highlight pictures, and created a video which you can watch below.  I recommend you watch the video in HD by clicking the HD button in the bottom right corner of the video.  I also linked many of the restaurants we ate at and activities we did, so you can read more about them on Atlantis’ website or consider them if you’re booking your own trip!  Enjoy!

This video was created using iMovie.  All of the underwater clips were taken with a FujiFilm FinePix XP120 and all the rest of the clips were taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T6 and a EF-S 18-55mm lens.  The background song is “Stay” by Chet Porter featuring Chelsea Cutler.

Saturday

     We left the house for the airport around 10:30 a.m. and stopped at Chick-fil-A on the way to the airport to get lunch for my family and my grandparents.  As you’ll see in a picture below, I wore one of my favorite of Jadelynn Brooke’s new tee shirt releases, their “Beach Bound” tee.  I love the beachy details and bright seafoam color, plus it’s so soft.  Purchase your own here 15% off with my code “FLSHS16”!  We arrived at the airport around 11:00 a.m. and my grandparents’ flight came in from Texas around 11:45 a.m.  We all ate together, then our flight to the Bahamas left around 12:30 p.m.  I realized upon boarding that this was my first international flight and my first that would go over an ocean.  The flight was absolutely gorgeous because we flew over so many stunning islands and the color of the water was constantly changing.  We touched down in Nassau around 2:00 p.m., then took a taxi to Atlantis.  It was around 3:00 p.m. by the time we checked into our rooms in the Coral Towers.  I shared a room with my little sister.  Our rooms were so nice, but my favorite part wasn’t the king size bed or the huge TV, it was the view.  You could see a little shark filled lagoon, a ton of palm trees, and the ocean from our balcony – talk about breathtaking.  We changed into swimsuits and coverups before meeting up with the rest of the family and going to explore the resort.  We located the closest beach entrance to our rooms, the Predator Lagoon tunnel, some gorgeous details of the resort’s interior, a ton of animal enclosures including stingrays, sharks, and sea turtles, and a few restaurants.  We ended up eating at this restaurant on the marina called Bimini Road which was really good and had a ton of options.  My little sister and I shared their loaded nachos (although we asked for half of the things that make them “loaded” to be left off) and a side of baked macaroni and cheese.  After dinner, we wandered around the marina area some more and I bought a tee shirt from one of the carts.  We walked back to the beach and walked around and took pictures for about half an hour.  After the beach we went back to our rooms, showered, and went to bed to prepare for the long days ahead of us.

The pictures above and below this caption are of our room’s view, I’m still obsessed.

Sunday

     Sunday morning my little sister and I woke up around 8:00 a.m., quickly got ready, then met the rest of our family in the hall at 8:30 a.m. to walk down to the marina for breakfast.  We ate breakfast at Murray’s Deli.  I ordered the french toast and it was such a large, delicious serving.  After finishing breakfast, we walked back to our rooms to make sure we had sunscreen, sunglasses, room keys, and other necessities before hitting the water park.  We spent the majority of our first full day at the Mayan Tower section of the waterpark.  This contains the famous Leap of Faith as well as the Serpent Slide, the Challenger Slide, and the Jungle Slide (read about all of Atlantis’ water slides here).  My little sister and I rode all of them and they were a ton of fun.  My favorite of these slides was the Leap of Faith.  Let me tell you, the slide is basically a wall, the drop is that vertical.  The Serpent Slide was cool because you get to take a longer look at the sharks in the tank surrounding the Leap of Faith and Serpent Slide, but it wasn’t really fast enough for my taste.  While in the pool/waterpark area, we ate a lunch of chicken nuggets and fries that we bought from a little food stand in the area.  I also ordered a virgin piña colada which totally hit the spot, especially in the Bahamian heat.  In the afternoon we went to a smaller kiddie pool and lazy river since my younger brother wasn’t tall enough to ride any of the main slides in the waterpark.  After a couple hours we returned to our hotel rooms to clean up for dinner.  We ate dinner at Virgil’s Real BBQ where I ordered a kids grilled cheese.  While waiting for our food, my little sister and I took some pictures in front of a lagoon (you’ll see them in a blog post later!).  After dinner, we went to Ben & Jerry’s for some quick ice cream, then went back to our rooms and went to bed.

I adore this bikini that I wore on Sunday (pictured above), especially because of the straps in the back.  Shop the bikini top here and the matching bottoms here.

Monday

     My little sister and I woke up at 7:00 a.m. to get ready and head to the beach before meeting our family for breakfast at 8:30 a.m.  We had a little photoshoot on the beach (you’ll see some pictures in a blog post later!) then returned to the room to pack our backpacks for the day before leaving for breakfast.  We used our Jadelynn Brooke backpacks as carryons and beach bags for this trip and they were perfect; super cute, super convenient, and super durable!  I know you probably think I’m just saying that as a rep, but in all honesty Jadelynn Brooke backpacks have become my travel necessity, especially for the beach.  We ate breakfast at Murray’s Deli again and this time I ordered scrambled eggs and toast.  After breakfast we went to a little cove area that was connected to the ocean (basically a beach without the waves because my little brother was scared of the tall waves).  Here, my little sister and I went snorkeling.  Even though we weren’t in the real ocean, we saw a ton of fish and it was super fun (plus it was only $12 an hour to rent the snorkel mask, life jacket, and flippers).  After we finished snorkeling, we met my grandparents by a pool near the Mayan Tower.  A couple animal trainers brought a parrot to the poolside, so my sister and I went to go see and take pictures with it.  After eating another poolside lunch (this time I ordered pizza, really nothing spectacular) my grandparents went back to their room to relax and my family went to the Power Tower.  The Power Tower is the second slide location and it contains The Abyss, The Surge, The Drop, and The Fall.  In my opinion, the must-rides out of these are The Abyss and The Surge.  Be warned that The Abyss gets a ton of water up your nose (I rode it twice and got a nose full of water both times, even though I held my nose the second time), but I really liked The Surge.  The Surge, The Drop, and The Fall all lead into The Current, which is a super fun lazy river with rapids.  After riding all the slides and The Current a couple times, we headed back to our rooms to prepare of dinner.  We ate dinner at Bimini Road again and this time I had the shell pasta with cheese sauce and peas.  After dinner, we walked to Virgil’s Real BBQ for dessert.  I had the apple pie and it was so good.  After dessert we walked back to our rooms and packed to leave the next morning before going to bed.

Tuesday

     Tuesday morning my little sister and I woke up around 7:00 a.m., got ready, finished packing, then went down to breakfast at Starbucks.  After we ate our croissants, we went back to our rooms to make sure we had everything and grab our bags.  We headed down to the lobby, checked out, and got in a taxi to go back to the airport.

Thanks for reading about my adventures at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas!  I had a great time and I loved making the video as well!  If you’re interested in seeing more pictures from the trip (yes I took even more than what you’ve already seen, believe it or not), feel free to view my Atlantis VSCO journal here.  Also, to see my travel pictures before they make it to the blog, be sure to follow my Instagram here and check out my travel hashtag, #farawaywithfaith.