HI, What a great forum on travel!! We are heading to Atlantis in October with our twins son age 11. We are in a one bedroom villa with the American meal plan. It seems like the meal plan is a must?? I have been reading a lot of negative reviews on this resort??? It looks beautiful and my sons love the water, slides ect. My Husband and I just want to relax, lol. I will pack snacks, water ect. for the kids. What about cocktails, should we bring our own?? Is there a market nearby?? Are the food lines long, ect. What is the best way to get into town and what would you recommend we see? Lots of questions, any info would be much appreciated! Thanks! Nat

There are two meal plans. One gives you mainly the buffets, the gourmet gives you all or them. We have gone with and without the meal plan and spent less money without it. However, we did not have children with us. We are not big breakfast eaters so we just took granola bar type things with us. You can easly walk to the Hurricane Hole Shopping center and get a reasonably priced breakfast at the News STand. WE then would have a nice lunch at one of the outdoor places at Atlantis and then always had a nice dinner.
There is a market down the street at the Hurricane Hole center.
You can walk to the ferry and take that into Nassau if you want to go into town.
We happend to enjoy the Atlantis whenever we are there. The chairs around the pools get taken early, but we are beach people and there were always plenty of chairs there.

There is a shuttle everyday to the local supermarket. It leaves at 10 (maybe 8 on Sundays). You get an hour. So dont bother packing more than snacks. Buy water at the store.

We didnt do a meal plan, and ate breakfast everyday and most lunches in our villa. Much cheaper to buy eggs and bacon than pay 25.00 for a buft

BTW, the slides are great for adults too!!!

Go to the fish fry one night. All the taxis will know where. Great food.

We did the gourmet meal plan and ate our fill! Our oldest was 11 and our youngest was 10 at the time. (So, basically the same.) The gourmet meal plan has nicer food selections. The american meal plan is all buffets. Your family may like that. We did not leave the resort. We were there for a long weekend (four nights) and just ate what we had on the plan with a few lunches by the pool. We drank the frozen drinks(I like these).Since I am not a big drinker, a few of these a day, did not break the bank. If you have a villa, I would purchase some snacks and sodas for the room. The pools are fun and so was just relaxing on the beach! Have fun.