Atlantis / Baha Mar... NFC is too lazy to do a recap TR, so he’s going Bill O’Reilly on this one

But... but... weren’t you JUST in Vegas?

Yeah. I was. There are still items and possibly some sub-$1 TITOs sitting in one of my bags from that trip that I haven’t bothered to unpack.

I wanted to do a recap report of this trip, but I know myself well enough to know that my ADHD tendencies would prefer to do 25 updates that take five minutes each (125 minutes), rather than spend the equivalent amount of time of about two hours to write up a recap from scratch.

Which led to me going “Bill O’Reilly” and saying...



For those of you who don’t understand, here’s the video from which that originated in the early days of the internet:

I was just in Florida visiting my grandpa, who has lived here for decades.

I’m at FLL airport now about to head to Nassau on Southwest... first time flying with them, and I’m very excited based on all the good things I’ve heard.



First, I’m doing three nights at Atlantis in the Coral tower. That’s on the CET Platinum “comp”, which comes to $182.82 after tax/resort fees/maid gratuity for Fri/Sat/Sun. Not bad at all, IMO. I’ve got a dinner reservation at Cafe Martinique (literally the only reason I packed long trousers on this trip, for their dress code). Also got $225 in free slot play (long story), still deciding how exactly I’ll use that. Probably some long shots in high limit. There will be slot porn.

After that, I’m going to Baha Mar to stay at the Grand Hyatt. That’s on the Boyd Sapphire BOGO “comp”. That came to $580.92 for four nights all-in. I’ll be hitting the famous Daq Shack just outside for the second time (also did it when I went to Nassau last year, loved it)... and I’ll be doing the $140 day pass at Sandals one of those days too. So excited for that! I remember seeing Sandals commercials as a kid and saying how much I wanted to go and constantly being told to just forget about it.

All things considered, I think this is a pretty good deal at just under $109 USD per day all-in, including a weekend.

This will only be a semi-live report, as I’m planning on relaxing as much as I can this trip. Though I’d love to share my adventures to the best of my ability, whether that’s casino footage, food photos, a look at the resorts, or anything else that may be of interest. I’ll happily take photo requests, including for the menus with prices at the restaurants, since they put menus without prices on the website.

Here’s a photo dump of Florida/pre-Nassau footage, to get the ball rolling...

Some Florida scenery







Thought it was interesting to see how Publix approaches tipping culture



Ordered some PBR hard coffee, which is brand new and you can only get it in four states, one of which is Florida. Had this delivered and it arrived on the second day. This stuff is awesome with breakfast.





It came bundled in a bunch of bubble wrap. My adult child instincts kicked right in, and you all can probably guess what I did with this...



Had this land on me randomly as I was sitting at my AirBnB’s dining room table. Yiiiiiiikes!



Packing time. I brought this suitcase full of clothing donations for Hurricane Dorian refugees, which they’re collecting at Baha Mar.



I’m also not about to spend the $25+ per day that breakfast at a Nassau resort will cost, so I brought some snack bars, cereal and disposable bowls/spoons to make my cost for breakfast this trip a flat $20-ish plus whatever a carton of milk costs there.



Also, right after I got past security, I saw these and absolutely HAD to buy them! Readers of my past TRs will know exactly why. Too bad I don’t have the shirt with me one downside is that it doesn’t have pockets. But hey, the way I see it is that women make do just fine with most women’s clothing having either inadequate or no pockets. So I’ll find a way to make it work, one way or another.





All settled into an aisle seat on row three now. Ready to roll! See y’all in Nassau!

 

Love your reports, have a great trip. Nice to do both Atlantis and Baha Mar!!

 

Your trips are more like little adventures.

The title should be restated....LOL

Have a safe trip!!!

 

Also, for those of you who weren’t following the baccarat bankroll thread... I got Richard Wilk’s book about being a host in Vegas on Amazon, and this will be my initial reading for the trip.

Richard Wilk is the guy from the Louis Theroux BBC documentary about Vegas. The label obscures his face, but the second shows it pretty clearly.

 

Looking forward to your reports on the resorts. I keep getting Atlantis offers, but have not yet given them a try.
Good luck!

 

Real fast update.

Safely at Atlantis now. Realized I made a major goof on arrival though. See, since I’m staying at both Atlantis and Baha Mar, I can’t take a round-trip shuttle to or from either one. So my dumb ass thought to myself “Ehh, I’ll just figure it out once I get there, there are probably shuttle operators at the airport”.

No. There aren’t. Shuttles must be arranged in advance. Absolutely no way to get one from the airport. Only realistic option was to take a taxi. Luckily, I was able to split the fare with a lovely couple from Austria who has a holiday apartment here. The other advantage of taking a taxi was that I could stop at the grocery store on Cable Beach which charges “locals” prices, not the crazy prices you’d pay on or closer to Paradise Island. They were cool with waiting the five minutes. My share of the taxi after tip came to $35 USD.

Some grocery store footage. Nothing special, but I just get a kick out of doing “locals” type things such as this.







Came to BSD $28. The fruit is where it got costly... about $8 for the grapes and $6 for the apples. Still, I’m happy!



Spotted a Dominos pizza on the way... amongst other American restaurants





Got a room with a SICK view. Water view, but secluded... and I get to see sharks pass by in the river. I’m beyond thrilled, camping out on the patio as I write this.







The fridge in the room has a freezer shelf with an ice cube tray. Thought that was really cool!



Now about to head out to the plaza just down the street to grab some beers for the beach tomorrow and Sunday, and get something to eat. Hitting the 8:00 pm slot tourney after, then a bit of work (again, it never stops)... then off to the casino for the rest of the night, probably going to play some video poker.

 

Picked up my beers no problem. At the plaza just east of Atlantis (maybe a five minute walk from the Coral tower), it’s a much less swanky feel compared to the main Atlantis property... with prices to match.

The liquor store was a “store within a store” with a convenience store. Limited selection, but it had exactly what I needed.





This came to $18.50 BSD. Funny how they don’t have “actual” six packs... but rather a bunch of random six-pack cardboard cases, and you can simply fill up your own. Works for me. Got six Kalik beers, we’ll find out tomorrow how they are.



More American food joints



Ended up having dinner at Anthony’s in the plaza. Their prices were shockingly reasonable compared to the main Atlantis property. Seems they have a pretty good happy hour too, with two for one drinks.





I did the fried conch, which I’ve never had before. Really liked it. A bit tough, but the oil/breading didn’t mask the freshness at all. This was $30 and change after VAT and automatic 15% gratuity.



Turns out the slot tourney doesn’t run on Fridays, so I’ll be doing the morning one tomorrow instead. Also paced through the casino only to find very little video poker. Couldn’t have been more than 30 machines total, including the bartops in the sports book.

@tringlomane, I’d like to ask your advice here if I may. I already know this is an awful paytable for bonus poker (6/5)... but I’ve never encountered a machine on which you have to bet ten credits just to get the “full” value royal. Five coins here pays 1,500 credits.

Like I said, I already know this is a bad game. But video poker is all I’m feeling for tonight, as far as playing for fun goes. What’s my best play here? Just single-credit all the way, since I’d gain relatively little from betting five?



Just going to do some work for a couple of hours and then head down to the casino, and we’ll see where things go from here.

Also, I realized earlier tonight that I made another goof. The apples I bought were rung up at $1-something each, even though I specifically recall seeing that they were four for $1. Because I was in a rush to get back to the taxi and not keep that couple waiting, I wasn’t really paying attention... and it resulted in me paying the “loose” price of almost quadruple.

Luckily, I have my receipt and I’m going back there to get some supplies when I’m at Baha Mar anyhow. So hopefully they can fix it, since if they’re four for $1, there’s no reason for six of them to be rang up at the “loose” price. Even if they can’t... at least we’re only talking about a $4 or so error. I can live with that

Also, for those who have been to Nassau and/or Atlantis... any advice on getting to the Fish Fry area during the day?

 

$18.50 for a domestic 6 pack? *Faints*

Actually 35/6/5 Bonus isn't terribly awful (97.36% max; 96.125% 1-4 coins; 96.23% 5-9 coins if 300 for 1 Royal). But yeah, basically you want to bet whatever you feel like for entertainment sake if you don't want to bet 10. I'd bet 1 myself.

 

To leave Paradise Island you can either take the water taxi that you need to walk down to the dock to get, I think was about 6 dollars plus they go around with the 'tip bucket', or you can get the shuttle type bus that we got right outside the casino front door that drives over the bridge. These will take you across to where the straw market and stores are. You then get the #10 Jitney right by the straw market on Bay Street for $1.25 which stops right outside the fish fry shacks. There is no bell on the jitneys to stop, just let the driver know you want the fish fry when you board. This same jitney also goes down cable beach to Baha Mar, so you can take this same route when you move to Baha Mar instead of taking a taxi.

 

Hi NFC, enjoy the trip. Murrays deli in the village is pretty good also. not too expensive and we always found the food to be decent. The vp machines at the $1 level when I was there last, playing one coin was ok. Good luck in the tournament.

 

Not a whole lot to report. Finished the work I needed to do last night, and blew off some steam in the casino… was definitely refreshing.

For video poker, played single-credit at the $1 level to keep it interesting compared to playing $0.25 (playing $1 got me a 7/5 paytable too... so there’s that)... sadly, $60 disappeared in probably less than 15 minutes. Funny, I was catching jacks-or-better pairs and full houses no problem… but wasn’t catching any two-pairs. Ah well. Not even any hands worth photographing.

Played some old-school slots too, this was probably the best hit



Put $10 into a lock it link machine to play $0.50 per spin… first spin I get a bonus round with a “jackpot” win.





Took that $26 into the high limit, and promised myself I’d play exactly five spins on a $5 double diamond machine at one credit. Got it up to eight credits. My degenerate ass said “hmm, okay, five more spins”. Four credits. You see where this is going

Slept in, and did some breakfast on the patio. This seriously has to be one of my favourite hotel rooms ever… I cannot get enough of this patio.



Headed down to the 11:30 am tournament and placed sixth. The rules are a bit different from what I remember them being last year. Last year, you could play as many tournaments as you want, but if you win in the top three places, you cannot play again for the remainder of a Mon-Sun week. The way they do it now is that you can play exactly once in a Mon-Sun week… top three places get $100/$50/$25 free slot play, and everybody else gets $10. So now I’ve got $235 in free slot play, I’ll likely be doing that tonight after dinner.

Absolutely unbelievable sight at one of the roulette tables this morning… 27 red came up SIX times in a row! Just had to get a picture of that.



Now running off to the beach for a bit.

 

Enjoy the beach. There is a bank of quick hit machines by the bar, on the same side as the tournament machines. My wife always does decent there.

 

Anthony’s is a great little place

 

I need an Excedrin.

 

Dinner at Martinique was awesome. Did the four course tasting menu for $65 as part of the “EAT” promo they’re running... and this was a positively memorable meal.

Hit the happy hour at Moon Bar beforehand, 5-7 pm where all cocktails are $9 (regular $15). Had the mojito, great job. +1 for using Diplomatico Venezuelan rum... though I’m surprised they didn’t use a Bahamian rum like John Watling’s.





Then headed to Martinique. Started out with the seafood bake. Consisted of shrimps and calamari steak in a tomato base. The white stuff is burrata... didn’t think that was an especially good ingredient to have with seafood. Wondering why I didn’t ask them to hold it, it just didn’t strike me in the moment.



Second course was mussels in a tomato broth. I’d rather have had the mushroom dish for this course, which was the other option... but it had potatoes in it, so I couldn’t have it. This was great though... very good broth. Can’t go wrong with mussels.



Main course was grouper. It looks unexciting, but this is one of the best fish dishes I’ve ever tasted. Fresh as fresh can get, done in a delectable lemon-caper sauce, and seasoned just right.



Dessert was a chocolate mascarpone... thing. I forgot the name of it. It was amazing though. Rich enough to “feel good” along with tasting good (if that makes any sense). But not too heavy either.



Solid 9/10 meal. Service was awesome too. Only shortcomings were the burrata in the seafood dish, and a relatively limited set of options in the fixed menu. But it all worked out just fine, and I’m more than satisfied with what I had.

Back at Moon Bar now having a margarita... slot porn to follow!

 

Side note regarding the six-time roulette hit... seems it happened seven times in Vegas in 2012, and it made a news headline, as below. Those odds were one in about three BILLION. Six times is “only” one in 79,235,168... but that’s how rare that was to have happened.

 

If the dude didn't watch the spins personally, I wouldn't be convinced it was 6 in a row. When they test, they often are testing a single number repetitively.

 

I may not always agree with your ideas of what's fun to do on Vegas trips, or how to handle minor inconveniences that may arise during said trips, but I damn sure agree with your choice in breakfast cereal.

Smart Start is the shit.

 

It was later confirmed that the wheel didn't actually hit the same number that many times in a row. The casino confirmed it was a board error that kept displaying the same number repeatedly. That's why there is a small disclaimer on all those boards (and bacc too) warning you that it may be inaccurate

 

That cracks me up, I was thinking/going to say the exact same thing!!!