Mers

Just wondering on opinions about the meal plan at the Atlantis. Most people say to take it. It is $57 per person. We have 3 children coming that are over 12 so they will be charged as adults. We aren't big eaters, but we have been told that the meal plan is still the right way to go.

Does anyone remember the average price for maybe the breakfast (I'm assuming that most of them are buffets) and also for dinner?

Pamlur

Food at Atlantic is very expensive; I want to say that breakfast is over $20. When we went a few years ago, they had two different meal plans, one covered the "standard" restaurants for three meals a day, and the other one (the more expensive one, BTW) covered two meals a day at the higher-priced restaurants. For breakfast, we were limited to which restaurant we were allowed to eat breakfast in, according to which tower our rooms were in.

That being said, we had kids and grandkids with us, and thought it would just be easier to have all the meals prepaid. Wrong. When we all had dinner together, they not do separate checks, so all the charges hit the bill for our room. We spent more time standing at the front desk, trying to straighten out the billing mess than we did enjoying the resort.

It was so inconvenient that I wouldn't do it again. It got so bad that when I called their group sales company after we got home, they refunded one complete day's stay because of it. And we had three regular rooms and one two-bedroom suite, in the most expensive of the three towers.

Dreamer2

Full breakfast buffet ran about $20 pp, continental around $12. If you are not "big eaters," I wouldn't recommend the meal plan. Try to keep juice pax and granola bars in your room for breakfast, and eat lunch by the pool. Dinners are fairly expensive, but at least you won't have to commit to either all buffets or all fine dining. Enjoy!

barbfam

Hi, I stayed at the atlantis twice without food plans, though one time we had vouchers from my husband's company. Though an admitted "foodie" I found the restaurants that were on the regular meal plan mediocre to outright awful. None of the good restaurants were included on the regular plan. the chinese place and the italian place were much worse than say, an olive garden, and the buffet at (seagrapes) was even worse. atlas and murray's deli were acceptable, but they were not expensive ala carte. if you get the high priced plan, even the best restaurants often only give you a $$$ amount of credit, which you can easily go over, so your meals are NOT taken care of necessarily. with teenagers, unless you are a millionaire, I recommend packing snacks, poptarts, single serving cereals in the little bowls , entenmanns, as even if you get meal plans, they will be hungry all the time and you can only buy so many 6.00 popsicles. one time, i happened to go during a week that was an orthodox jewish school holiday week, and many of the families on the plane actually had packed all their kosher food for the entire trip in cardboard boxes that they checked as luggage. that might be too extreme and too much work for the average person, but when I got there and saw the ridiculous prices, I wished I had brought some snacks for myself. I actually lost weight on vacation as I seriously skimped on breakfasts and lunches. When i went, there was a little inexpensive bar/restaurant at the bottom of the hill outside the atlantis gate, and they had a decent happy hour with appetizers and you could get a decent burger for a reasonable price. not sure if the place is still there - if atlantis were smart, they would have bulldozed it as it could cause them to lose some business. oh yeah, the other problem with the meal plans is that if you go during a busy time of year, the restaurants are always booked until very late, so you have paid for meals, but can't get into the restaurants you want to go to. ( and not every restaurant is open every night) and word gets out which are the acceptable places. to add insult to injury, the management could not care less. on a positive note, I think your kids will just LOVE the beach, the pools, the slides, the dig and the aquarium. not to mention putting greens, tennis, game rooms, etc...karen

Scubagirl

There are plenty of dining options OUTSIDE the gates of Atlantis, but within a 5 minutes walk. Anthony's Grill has great food and fun ambiance, there's upscale Blue Lagoon at Club Land'Or, which is the best on Paradise Island. For breakfast/lunch, there's the Cozy Corner or News Cafe at Hurricane Hole Shopping Center, Zio Gigi's Pasta/Pizza at the same location.
At the Hurricane Hole Marina is Green Parrot Bar and Grill with Burgers and Shrimp basket Open air with a view of the harbour.
Check out some menus at www.bahamasgo.com (restaurants/Bars)

schmerl

I have been to the Atlantis both with and without the meal plan. We actually spent LESS money WITHOUT the meal plan. If you always eat an appetizer, entree and dessert, then get the meal plan. If not, just bring some breakfast bars, etc. and eat lunch at one of the outdoor places. The gourmet meal plan allows you to eat at the nicer restaurants and get an appetizer, entree and dessert. However, you must pay the tax and tip on the "real price" of the meal. This is is ADDITION to the price of the meal plan. Scubagirl has given you some great restaurant recommendations.

girlonthego

Just returned. Two adults and two children was 66.70 for breakfast buffet at the marketplace. We had the gourmet plan. If you like buffets, get the regular meal plan and let the kids eat till they get sick. You will get your money's worth. We had the gourmet and it was pricey. We did eat everything coming to us and we ate the pepcid ac's later. ha ha. I don't recommend the meal plan. Go to the breakfast buffet and then have dinner where you want. You are locked in with what restaurants you can choose on the meal plans. Dinner by the pool four hamburgers, four fries and four drinks was 22.00. Now that could be one night right there. (maybe get two family packs.) I think it would have been nice to just wing it. Have one nice dinner night and a couple of buffet and than a night with just hamburgers. It is up to you. We had a group with all different plans and it was confusing who could eat where. I just think we would have done better without one.(We may have spent the same, but we could choose what we wanted to do that day ,and if you get the lower plan, you can't eat in the nice restaurants)