My Love Hate Relationship with Atlantis

The Atlantis Resort / Casino is amazing. Just look at <a href="http://www.atlantis.com">this picture</a>. Proof.

I took the $3 ferry over to Paradise Island (which seems to own roughly half the island), passing some celebrity houses on the way (Mick Jagger and Nicolas Cage. Although the ferry drops you off under a bridge with no clear path to the resort, the island is very done up for tourists.

Cute pastel townhouses grouped together in a mini little neighborhood abut a "citywalk" lined with fancy and familiar stores (notably: Starbucks, Ben and Jerry's, and Jamba Juice) lead you into the casino which is opulent, to say the least.

Actually, it's stunning. Beautifully done inside and out, it curls around a 177 acre waterpark and magnificent beaches (supposedly). I can't give you more details because you basically cannot leave the casino or shops area unless you are staying there, or bought the day pass.

$100. That's what it costs to get access to the waterpark and beaches. Well, I think you can get beaches only for $50, but I cannot recall having ever been told I needed to pay to walk out onto the beach. So sad.

I could walk around the outer moat of the waterpark which teemed with fish, small sharks, the occasional scuba diver, and two giant manta rays with 6+ foot wingspans. There is something so fascinating and majestic about watching rays - they're like the birds of the sea. (I did see some that size from a foot away on the Great Barrier Reef in 1999).

There is also a section inside the public part of the hotel where you can walk downstairs and catch an underwater glimpse of what is going on. Pretty cool.

Then it began to rain, again, so I killed some time reading a magazine in one of the hotel libraries, and then took the ferry back to Nassau.

I promptly checked the weather, which showed rain all day tomorrow, and moved my ticket up 1 more day (and incurring a $100 change fee, which basically is only costing me $15 since I would have had to pay another $85 to stay at the Towne Hotel an extra night.

Back to Boston, 4 days earlier than I had originally planned.