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

Many thanks! Baha Mar, not too crowded at all. I'd say about half of the occupancy here was for a convention. Didn't feel crammed by any means.

Cafe Madeleine, I passed by it... doesn't really look like my kind of thing. I'll see if I can snap some photos for you though, let me know if you're interested in any particular aspect of it.

 

Thanks, NFC, we've eaten there , just wondered what you thought about it.

 

Great job on the report. The view from that library looked awesome.

 

Another interim update. Got a bet down on the Broncos for tonight’s game. Bold, I know.



Tomorrow I’ll be up at some ungodly hour to pack, get to the beach ASAP for one last kayak ride and swim, then catching a ride to the airport at 9:30 am.

Getting one last look at the fountains at night.



Also, in a random turn of events, I took a ride in the back of a pickup truck for the first time today with a group of people from Chicago. Here’s a preview. Dude on the left actually left his wife behind. Yes, seriously. Full story sometime this weekend when I’m not worn out as shit.

 

Literally as I sat down at Baha Mar’s bar to watch the game, this guy hits a royal flush playing dollars... and the crowd goes wild!



Surprisingly... the video poker bar at Atlantis’ sportsbook doesn’t comp drinks at all. But here at Baha Mar, they’re comping me playing $0.25 single credit. Go figure.



Broncos off to a good start with a touchdown that early. Sucks they missed the two-point conversion though.

 

Another interim update. I was down to my last $1. Literally. As in, I had to redeem $1 from my points just to play a few more hands at $0.25.



Got kept alive with this



And just cashed out with this

 

Sunrise

 

Have a safe flight to Vegas! Turn that Tito into millions

 

Spoiler alert... no such luck. Buffalo Grand chowed down on that money pretty fast. Though I was a hair away from another amazing turnaround. You’ll see.

 

@notfromconcentrate Too bad about that Bronco's result. But I enjoyed following along. Given the price of drinks in the Bahamas, you were in an advantage playing single quarter VP. Did they limit the kinds of drinks you could get, I see you are drinking a can of beer but would they have comped a "Bahama Mama"?

 

Thanks Fab! You’re correct, I was thinking to myself actually that single-credit quarter VP is the most cost-effective way to get drinks there, compared to the $8+ most places would charge for even a 335 ml can of Sands like that.

They did limit the types of drinks. I switched to liquor after that beer, and the best they could comp for whiskey was Dewar’s, and the best for vodka was Tito’s. Which isn’t bad at all.

As for cocktails, I’d consider a Bahama Mama to be unlikely as it would require multiple spirits (unless you want it with just rum), as well as pineapple juice and OJ. I doubt they have grenadine either. It was a very “basic” bar, maybe two dozen bottles of liquor in total, it doesn’t strike me as the type of bar that would serve such cocktails. I didn’t check for one, but I can also guarantee they didn’t have a blender either.

 

Another interim update... home safe and sound. Made the mistake of wearing shorts today, so I got an unwelcome surprise when I arrived into Toronto.

First order of business, as usual after almost any long-ish trip for me... get to the kitchen. Feels so good to have a home-cooked meal!

Wrote up a good part of the final recap on the way home, I suspect I’ll have that posted sometime tomorrow.

 

Another great report! Congrats to your bartop neighbor with the Royal!

 

Tomahawk, babe?

 

Paging @notfromconcentrate

 

Sorry all. Getting destroyed by work this weekend. Final update was 80% written up on my way home. It’ll be up here Monday or Tuesday.

 

Ok, last full update was after I got back to the hotel from Sandals. That was only three days ago, but as I write this part of the update on the bus from the airport in Toronto, it feels like forever ago.

Based on my phone’s photo album, it seems I just KO’ed and did some work for a few hours on Wednesday morning. The first photo I have following my sunburnt forearm is this snack I had on my balcony.



It’s worth mentioning now that I initially did the whole grocery run thing mainly for the cost savings. But having spent a week eating cereal on the balcony every morning, I have to say it’s a game-changer for reasons that make cost savings a mere side benefit.

What exactly did I love about it? For one thing, I don’t have to get dressed to go to breakfast (or get myself into the right state of mind to be around people). For another, I don’t have to run the risk of waiting for a table at a breakfast restaurant, or being held up by possibly slow service. On top of that, it’s WAY healthier than eating restaurant breakfasts every morning. Plus, if you’re doing a grocery run anyhow... you can pick up the exact snacks you want, including healthy snacks like sliced pineapple and watermelon.

Of all the things I could get used to from this trip, this is probably it. Though I’ll have to remember to bring a proper bag clip for my corn chips. Had to get a little creative here...



That afternoon, I went down to the pools and the beach, and got my first glimpse at the flamingoes. Photo dump...



Got hungry again, and got a burrito bowl from El Jefe, one of the food trucks by the beach. Not too bad for $16 all-in with VAT and gratuity



Thought it was interesting that all of the food outlets were cashless. It seems a lot of places are going this direction nowadays, and understandably so.



I’d mentioned earlier that the pools and beach were redeeming qualities for Baha Mar, despite my dissatisfaction with many other aspects of the resort... so I’d like to provide a bit more detail on that.

Aside from the kayaks, they also have flat loungers, snorkelling equipment, and paddle boards - all free of charge for hotel guests. I tried the paddle board but couldn’t stop trembling and lasted about four minutes before wimping out

The pool chairs also have these flags on them as an easy way to show the chair is “occupied”, which I think is far better than just randomly laying down a towel.



They also provide sunscreen, which I thought was an awesome touch



Also, where Baha Mar shines compared to the other resorts is the bathrooms near the pools/beach. They’ve got these self-contained shacks all over the place, which I think is really convenient. They also offer both paper towels and air dryers, which you rarely see.



When night started to fall, they lit this up, which I thought was super cool



Caught some fountain footage from my balcony that day also. They don’t beat the Bellagio’s fountains, but they’re still pretty cool.



Then headed down to 3 Tides for dinner. This was supposed to be my “indulgence” meal, and I was planning on ordering a whole lobster. But it turns out the only seafood restaurant in the resort doesn’t offer whole lobster. That was a bummer.

Nevertheless, I had a great meal. Started out with the ceviche and a spring roll made with the spiny lobster. They sure did not skimp on lobster there, and boy was it freeeeeesh!

Then had the snapper filet. Not as good as the grouper from the other night, but still a great entree.



Some footage of the restaurant



Their patio leads out to the fountains, which are a different experience both at night and on the ground.



Then off to the casino. They have signage everywhere indicating you can get $50 free slot play or match play for signing up, though that doesn’t apply if you’re on a casino offer like I am. Bleh. Whatever. Got this cool pen though.



They also said I’d qualify for a beach bag after I earn 100 points. Didn’t think I could do it, but asked anyway how the points work... it’s one of those “it varies by machine” systems.

Decided to play anyway. Played a Triple Diamond penny machine for $0.40 per spin and scored some free games. Got a double multiplier hit that brought me close to even on my $20 buy-in.



These machines also have the self-order drink system. Though it’s waaaaay confusing compared to the CET ones in Atlantic City. I ultimately ordered a Corona, and my order sat “pending” for several minutes. A server came by and I asked her what the deal was. Turns out the order didn’t go through because they don’t comp Corona. Uhh. Ok. I asked her what beer she could comp. She said Sands. I said done. Got it promptly.



Then took my TITO over to Invaders Return from the Planet Moolah machine, and got a pretty decent hit on a bonus round, again.



Then over to Piggy Bank again. More losing, I’m now down to about $30, with the $20 I started with, but I did get my 100 points... so I collected my beach bag.



Then decided screw it... I’ll take my $30 to the $10 blackjack table and see what happens. Managed to play for about an hour, getting it up to $125 at one point. Ended up busting out, sadly. I remember as I counted up my $125 I thought to myself I should take some long shots in the high limit... hindsight, lol.

There were these two women in their fifties at the table who seemed to be pretty affluent and sophisticated... apparently they play blackjack all the time, but they had NO idea there was such a thing as basic strategy! Like, not only that they don’t know it... they don’t even know it’s a thing. For instance, they’d get dealt a 14 against a dealer 5 and say things like “Ohhh, I want to hit. But I’ll probably bust. (To the other) You usually get a little card when you hit 14, don’t you? Ugh, I hate 14! So many decisions”. They accepted my “suggestions” for play and ended up thinking I was some kind of genius. I told them to download any basic strategy trainer app on their phones... I learned it in an hour, and there’s no reason why they can’t too.



On my way back to my room, I noticed that the casino carpet had one of my favourite things on it...



Now here’s where we run into some trouble. I get back to my room, and I was planning to get to bed right away, with plans to get up early to hit tomorrow’s 9:30 am flamingo parade again. I have my luggage stored by the door. I had to get something out of my duffel bag... and I reach in to find that the bags and their contents are SOAKED!

Wondering how that could be, I quickly pieced it together. I got put into a handicapped room with a roll-in shower, for some reason. It seems that when I showered, somehow the water made it ALL THE WAY out to the hall, at a great enough volume to be absorbed by the bag and the items inside of it. I didn’t need anything from either of these bags until now, which is why I only noticed it now.



So that was a whole kerfuffle with the front desk and the manager. We inspected all of the items together and noticed no major damage. I was most worried about my shavers and their cords, which I store wrapped up in a hand towel, and it was dripping wet... luckily the shavers still ran fine. He agreed to credit me $80 on my folio for the trouble, and we filled out an incident report with security in case I was to realize any damage later on and needed to make a claim.

I was also concerned about the bags being fully dry for when I leave. So I had to get creative with securing them to the balcony, in hopes that they could dry by sun/air.



Next day was flamingoes at 9:30, back to the room for work, and then off to the fish fry.

To be honest, I wasn’t that impressed by the fish fry. It reminded me of almost any touristy “market” type area that I’ve been to, where people are standing outside aggressively chatting up passerby. It also seemed that most vendors were offering things like conch salad and conch fritters, as opposed to actual fried fish, as the area’s name might have suggested.

Ended up getting this conch salad from one of the smaller, counter-service vendors. Pretty generous portion for just $13... really enjoyed it!



I wish I could have stayed longer... at a place called Brother Eddie’s, I could have gotten one of these whole lobsters for about $20-ish... though it would have taken half an hour to prepare. Next time though... especially because the guys who run it are really cool fellas, I chatted with them for a bit.



Then off to the bus stop to head to Daiquiri Shack. This is where I met the group from a Chicago. Two couples, we hung out for a few minutes and discussed possibly splitting a cab between the five of us instead of waiting for the bus. That’s when a pickup truck passed us, one of the men flagged him down and asked if we could ride in the back... and we all hopped in except for the other guy’s wife, who didn’t want to. She was visibly mad. I sure wouldn’t have done that if I was her husband... not cool at all to do that to anyone, but especially to leave a woman by herself on the side of the road in a place in which she’s a tourist. I’m sure he got his ass whooped later that day.

Pickup truck footage



Daiquiri shack footage



Had my first shot of Fireball too!



Headed back to Baha Mar and caught a few cool photos on the way





Sadly, being about 6:30 pm, none of the food trucks were open, so other than Starbucks, there were only sit-down food options available. Went to the Swimming Pig and had this lamb burger... which was DAMN good. Didn’t feel so bad paying $26 for it.



Then, game time. I already reported how the video poker went, while I was watching football. Excellent “alcohol value”... and as you saw, made a real comeback being down to my last dollar.

Here are the quads that ran me up all that way, after the four deuces that kept me in the game. I don’t know if it was my tiredness, or that the Tito’s was really hittin’, but I actually have no memory of getting this many quads. Good thing I took photos!



Took my $63 over to Buffalo Grand and donked that all off in no time at $0.75 per spin.

Luckily, I managed to scrape together another $1 in free play, which keep me in the game for at least one more spin.



And then this happens...



You can imagine my excitement right now. Sadly, it didn’t pan out. Ten free games, that yielded about $5, which I promptly lost. Oh well. I don’t think I was even $40 out of pocket on the night, including tips for the alcohol. So I went to bed relatively satisfied. Part of me was mad for not playing the $63 on something “smarter” like blackjack, but I honestly would have fallen asleep at the table.



Had to get up super early, both to finish packing, and to get one final swim in before getting picked up at the airport for 9:30 am. Since I rarely get up early, I’d actually forgotten what a sunrise looks like. The beach and pool areas were deserted as well, so I had them all to myself.



On the way out I made sure to snap a photo of this jellyfish lighting fixture in the lobby, they had several of them. I rarely get excited about such things as lighting, but I loved this!



And that was that! Got on my flight home no problem, landed safely in Toronto on Friday afternoon, and back to life as usual.

Thanks everyone for following along! I’m happy to answer any additional questions you may have about either property, or about Nassau in general.

Next trip is presently indefinite. Likely Vegas in January, but I’ve got far more important short-term priorities right now... so we’ll see what happens in the coming months.

 

Exceptional! As a guy who likes to do trip reports to provide a quick escape to others who are stuck at work or home, I appreciate the effort you put into these bad boys. I also like the close up and details in many of these pics that are of things most people may not consider taking pictures of.

Does Vegas in January mean Super Bowl? I know a degenerate guy from the Calgary area that may get the green light from his new wife to have a boys only Super Bowl trip. Just saying....

 

Thanks Gaggles! Much appreciated. January would likely be in the middle of the month... not quite Super Bowl time, more like conference finals time.

Let's see though. DM me closer to that time, perhaps our trips may wind up overlapping.

 

I noticed this when I stayed at Secrets, another "five star" resort, in Mexico a few years ago. All luxurious and seemingly generous with the inclusive stuff... but they weren't shy at all about trying to upsell you. It's a shame one gets treated that way when they're spending that kind of money.

I've heard some higher-end cruises like Regent Seven Seas offer a bit more of a "Please, enjoy your trip" type experience, as opposed to a "Here are the many ways that you should upgrade the trip you already paid for" type of thing.