Atlantis Bahamas Review: What It Really Cost Our Family (And If It Was Worth It)
Atlantis is one of those places everyone already knows is expensive.
Atlantis is one of those resorts that almost every family has heard of. It’s big. It’s flashy. It has water slides, aquariums, beaches everywhere, and it looks like the kind of place kids would absolutely love.
It’s also known for being extremely expensive.
This isn’t a resort you accidentally book thinking you’re getting a good deal. If you’ve ever looked up prices for Atlantis, there’s a good chance you closed the tab immediately after seeing the total and thought, “Yeah… not happening.”
And that’s exactly why so many people are curious when they hear that there are ways to stay at Atlantis without paying full price. One of the most talked-about strategies over the past few years has involved casino status, and it’s something our family has actually used.
We’ve taken our family to Atlantis twice, so this isn’t just a theoretical strategy for us. This is what the trip looked like in real life: what the casino status actually covered, what it didn’t, what we still paid out of pocket, and whether I’d personally do this again.
By the end, you should have a much clearer idea of what an Atlantis trip really costs and whether it makes sense for your family.
How casino status made this trip possible
Atlantis has its own casino and rewards program, but it also partners with Caesars Rewards. That partnership is what made this particular strategy possible for us.
Caesars has several status tiers, and a few of them come with an Atlantis benefit. In our case, I had Caesars Diamond status, which is the level most people used to aim for because it came with a pretty solid Atlantis perk.
But it’s important to understand something right away: Caesars Diamond never made Atlantis completely free. What it did was reduce the room rate to zero. You were still responsible for taxes, resort fees, and housekeeping gratuities, and none of your food or activities were included.
With Diamond status, you could book up to a four-night stay in the Coral Tower through the Caesars partnership. Depending on the time of year, the value of this benefit changed. Some months were much better than others. For example, in peak months like March, April, and July, the offer usually required you to pay for two nights before getting two free. But in most other months, you could get up to four nights with the room rate reduced to zero.
For our trip, we stayed four nights as a family of four. Once we factored in resort fees, taxes, and gratuities, we were paying about $70 per night out of pocket. That’s obviously not free, but it’s a very different experience from paying full retail price for a room at Atlantis.
The casino play requirement
There’s an important catch with these casino-rate stays. You’re required to complete four hours of tracked play in the casino. If you don’t hit that requirement, the resort can charge you the full retail rate for the entire stay at checkout.
Your play is tracked through your players card, so every minute you’re at a slot machine or table counts toward that total.
At first, that sounds intimidating. But over a four-night stay, it’s actually very manageable if you’re intentional about it. It comes out to about an hour per day, or even less if you split it up into shorter sessions.
You can also check your progress at any time by taking your card to the casino services desk. They’ll tell you exactly how much tracked play time you have.
For our stay, we actually ended up about eighty dollars ahead after completing the required play. That won’t always be the case, and you should assume you might lose a little money, but it’s still a very different scenario than paying thousands for the room.
One important thing to know is that Atlantis doesn’t allow you to charge casino play to your room. You’ll need to bring cash or use a debit card at the casino ATM.
Our room in the Coral Towers
We stayed in the Coral Towers in a double-queen room with a resort view. You’ll see a lot of negative comments online about the Coral being run down, but that really hasn’t been our experience.
We’ve stayed there twice, and both times the rooms were clean, comfortable, and perfectly fine for a family.
Our room had two queen beds, a mini fridge, and a coffee maker. The bathroom had a shower-and-tub combo, which we definitely prefer when traveling with kids. And something that doesn’t get mentioned enough is that there’s a microwave in the Coral lobby. That might sound like a small thing, but when you’re traveling with kids, being able to heat something up instead of buying another overpriced meal can make a big difference.
I haven’t stayed in the other towers, so I can’t compare room quality. But I can say that the Coral worked very well for us, and I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again. Personally, I don’t feel the need to pay extra just to be in a different tower.
Flights were almost a non-issue
Flights are where points really shine, and in our case they made this trip much more reasonable.
We booked our flights entirely on points through American Airlines. Each ticket cost about eight thousand points plus taxes each way per person. That meant flights were essentially a non-issue in the budget.
If we had paid cash for four flights on top of everything else, the total cost of the trip would have climbed very quickly. Using points is what kept this trip in the “reasonable” category instead of the “why are we doing this” category.
f you’re new to points and miles, this is exactly the kind of trip where they make the biggest difference. And if you’re not sure where to start, grab a copy of my free Beginner’s Guide to Points and Miles. It’s a simple, step-by-step PDF that shows you how families are using credit card points to take trips like this without draining their savings.
The real shock: food prices at Atlantis
The part of the trip that surprises people the most is the food. Atlantis food is shockingly expensive, and the quality is mostly just average.
It’s not just the menu prices, either. On top of those prices, the resort automatically adds a 15% gratuity and a 10% VAT. So every meal is effectively about 25% more expensive than what you see on the menu.
Even something as simple as Shake Shack adds up. We ordered two burgers, two orders of fries, and an order of chicken nuggets, and the total was about fifty dollars. And that was before drinks.
If you eat every meal on property, this trip becomes extremely expensive very quickly. So we don’t do that.
When we stay at Atlantis, we’re very intentional about food. We bring snacks. We bring things we can eat in the room. I even bring easy items that I can cook myself.
By being intentional and bringing food with us, we kept our daily food costs to a reasonable amount.
You also have options off property. Marina Village is within walking distance and has a few cheaper restaurants. There’s a Dunkin’, a small grocery store for basics, and even a Wendy’s food truck nearby. Those extra options make a big difference when you’re traveling with kids and trying to keep costs under control.
Why Atlantis works so well for families
This is the part where Atlantis really shines.
Our kids were two and four years old on this trip, and honestly, it was fantastic for that age. There are beaches everywhere. You’re never far from water. And the entire property is basically an open-air aquarium.
You’re constantly walking past fish, sharks, and stingrays. There’s an underwater tunnel you can walk through, and many of the main pathways run alongside giant aquarium walls. Even some of the casual restaurants are set up this way, so you can be eating and watching fish swim by at the same time.
For young kids, that’s huge. They’re entertained just by walking around the property.
There’s also a dedicated water play area for younger kids with shallow water, small slides, water jets, and a big dumping bucket. It was perfect for our kids at that age. Atlantis also provides complimentary life jackets in multiple sizes, which saved us space in our luggage.
As kids get older, the experience shifts more toward the big water slides, the lazy river, and Aquaventure as a whole. There are also optional paid experiences, like animal encounters, that can make the trip even more memorable for older kids if it fits your budget.
Atlantis really does work for kids of almost any age. It just hits differently depending on where they are developmentally.
Would I do Atlantis again?
Yes. Absolutely. But only with the right deal.
I think it’s a great property for families. There’s a lot to do, and it’s especially magical for younger kids. But I would not pay full price, and I would not eat every meal on property.
The only reason this trip made sense for us was because:
The room was heavily discounted through casino status
Flights were booked with points
We were intentional about food
If we had paid retail for everything, the math would have looked very different.
If you’d rather watch this whole breakdown in video form, you can watch the full Atlantis review on my YouTube channel. I walk through the room, the food costs, the casino requirement, and exactly what this trip looked like for our family.
Can you still use this casino strategy today?
This is where things get more complicated.
In the past, one of the easiest ways to get Caesars Diamond status was through the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business credit card. That card gave you Wyndham Diamond status, and you could match that into Caesars Diamond and use it for Atlantis.
But that shortcut is basically gone.
As of February 1, 2025, Caesars and Wyndham changed the rules. You can no longer match Wyndham status to Caesars just because you hold the credit card. It now has to be status you actually earned through hotel stays.
So for most people, this exact strategy is much harder to replicate today unless you already have some form of casino status.
That’s why I created a separate guide explaining how to get to Atlantis for way less money without relying on casino status. You can watch the youtube video here.
Next steps
If you’re planning an Atlantis trip, here are the best places to start:
Atlantis can be an incredible trip—but only if the numbers make sense.
