Atlantis Trip Report-skip the Harborside
 

Just returned from five night stay at Harborside Resort in Atlantis. We chose the Harborside Resort over Royal Towers and oh what a mistake it was. We loved the Atlantis resort, and my wife, 3 children and I had a blast. But the Harborside Resort should be avoided. I read many posts here over the months talking about "is it good", "is it too far a walk", "is it worth the money saved", etc. I would recommend to everyone that you stay at Royal Towers or the new Cove. The Harborside Resort insults included: 1) an inconvenient walk that I wouldn't wish on any family with small kids 2) horrible service, especially when you dial "guest services" on the room phone - only once during a five day stay including about 10 calls did they pick up the phone 3)three sets of stained sheets... yes 3! My 13 yr old daughter was sleeping on an aero bed and I called for sheets - the first set was dirty and stained, then the second. They finally delivered a clean set of sheets, and then the maid accidentally took them away during cleaning- the next replacment set was again dirty. I can tolerate a lot but it was flat out disturbing to recieve filthy sheets. ( I never even showed or told my wife). 4) Horrible shuttle service that you can't ven get onto if it's the end of day Lastly, the poor design of the grounds that has an underground shuttle bus service tunnel popping up right behind building 1, the noise is unbelievable, and you hear everything right through your door. In summary, I'm not some bitter guy out to get even, I just want to save other good families the pain of this place. I can be contacted at [email protected] with any questions as I don't check in here every night. I'm happy to offer ideas for families with kids,opinions, debate those who want to challenge my legitimate issues, etc. I stongly urge you to pay extra for Royal Towers and stay close to the pools and fun.

If you think the Royal Towers would have better Customer Service, think again. The resort is too big and the walking is just too much with little ones. Shuttle or no shuttle. Rooms have paper thin walls, and the Western Royal Tower looks out over the cement silos with pounding construction noises starting early in the day.
Even the Cove is lacking.

This place has just gotten too big for itself.

A valuable trip report! Thank you!

I am not sure how valuable of a trip report that was. We have been to Atlantis 5 times starting when my daughter was 4 years old and have never had anything less then a magnificant time there. Service is stellar (slow-but you are on "island time"!!) An inconvenient walk?? It is a stunning-amazing walk that never gets old-the yachts parked at Atlantis are amazing to say the least and it is not even a far way to walk (maybe 10 minutes)-the shuttle isnt even nessesary-but when needed-they come every few minutes and have never had more then a handful of people on it. We have never needed an aero bed (the rooms have king beds and pull out couches) but I am sure that the issues were rare or maybe picky?? We have stayed in most of the buildings on property and have never had a noise issue unless you sleep with your window open. Yes it is a very large operation but I certainly dont think that it is getting too big-it has it all for everyone from the little ones in the family to the adults. Dont let the disgruntled poster dissuade you from the most increadible vacation you could have. I dont find any merrit in any of the complaints!!

Interesting that travelinfamily admits to being an owner at Harborside in another thread.

Atlantis seems to get pretty bad reviews on this site as well as Tripadvisor. It hardly seems that cpme's view is in the minority.

Except that cpme really LIKED Atlantis. It was Harborside Resort that he was complaining about. He said the next time he would stay on site at Atlantis.

I had a great time at the atlantis when we went. The place is huge and over the top in many ways. We did have a great suite which was a luxury and it was my birthday, and i did have my family show up all just for me, so I had a great weekend. But the resort itself was fun and had good food and nice property amenities. I did not see Harborside. I do think the Royal towers was a convenient place to stay. My brother stayed at the Beach towers for two nights and had young kids and hated the walk back. He also found the beach towers rather crummy accomdations. He did like the royal towers.

How is it "interesting" that I "admit" to owning at Harborside. Doesnt it just prove that it is an awesome place. Would you buy somewhere that sucks?

It's interesting because you completely dismissed the poster's experience and basically said they must be lying.

It's fine to chime in with your experience but not ok to basically say another poster is lying. I doubt you were in the room with them to see if the sheets were indeed dirty right?

We also just returned from Harborside. I went with my husband and 3 year old son. We had a wonderful vacation, however I agree with the first poster about Harborside. We stayed there for 5 nights, and during our stay our room was cleaned only twice. The service was horrible. The first day they wanted to clean our room during our son's nap. We asked them to come after 4pm, they never did. That day we called and asked the housekeeping manager if they could arrange to clean our room before noon as our son naps from around 1pm to 3. They said no problem, however it never happened. I have had better service at Comfort Inn. We complained to the manager twice to no avail. We frequently travel with our son and have never had a problem like this before.

In general, we had a great time. But, I really think the service at Atlantis was pitiful. The shuttles are very slow. People wake up at 6am to place personal items on lounge chairs around the pool, so there was always this constant scramble for lounge chairs. There are long lines to eat at the restaurants. The restaurants were so-so and expensive. Plus, the kids menu at some of the restaurants only featured fair food (come on - deep fried mac and cheese for dinner?!?). We went to restaurants off the resort and had great food. They are adding more rooms to this place, and unless they work on the service it will only get worse.

All that being said, we had fun. Our son loved it and didn't want to leave. I just think if you are paying that much to stay somewhere you should get better service than that. This wasn't about "island time." This is about a resort providing service to its guests, and in my opinion it was lacking

We are staying at Harborside to avoid all the action at Atlantis. I've stayed onsite before and want the convenience and quiet. You can easily get to the the slides from Harborside. Plus you get the convenience of a a suite with a kitchen, etc. and more places to eat. I think there are advantages to this.