Just got home from a week’s stay at The Reef - group of 10, 5 adults and 5 kids 11-14, everyone’s first time there.
We used Swift Transportation from the airport (communicated through Facebook messenger), they were great. Stopped at the grocery on the way and got some fruit, cheese and crackers, breakfast items and gallons of water.
The Reef:
PROS - Away from the congestion, nice calm beach, larger rooms with kitchenette (sink, mini fridge, toaster, microwave, Keurig, small dishwasher, electric cooktop). We requested 2 queens for all 3 rooms but got king’s with queen pullout sofa. It worked out fine. Bathrooms are large, separate tub and shower and separate room for toilet. We had a Harbor View studio but still had views of the ocean. Starbucks in the lobby. You get 2 water bottles to use and keep. Beds were comfortable and rooms were quiet.
CONS - This is the farthest building so it was a lot of walking. But the shuttle is pretty frequent so we ended up taking that a lot more toward the end of the week. Not ton of food options in this building. They did set up a breakfast table in the lobby each morning with coffee, tea, and pastries. No restaurant (except Starbucks).
We packed a TON of travel size sunscreen. The sun is hot, you need it. Aloe and SPF shirts help too.
The ground is not hot to walk on. I went barefoot most of the time. However, with all the walking your feet get sore. We did not need water shoes for anything, including the beach/ocean.
We brought our own snorkels and the kids used them a lot. They snorkeled at our beach (lots of shells, fish, saw turtles and sting ray once), Paradise beach, and in the lagoon (by the Royal) and they all preferred our beach more.
Chairs were VERY hard to find, in our experience. I would guess 75% of them are unoccupied with someone’s belonging on them. There are signs that items left more then 2 hours unattended will be removed. While they didn’t strictly enforce that, I asked the staff on multiple occasions to help us find some chairs and they removed people’s items for us. My advice is: if is just towels on the chair move them yourself, if there are people’s belongings on chairs find an attendant and they will help you.
The water is chilly at first, you get used to it. They rode the slides a lot, yes some were closed at times, they rotated them. The lines moved fairly quickly, no one complained. The rapids river was super fun. They have double and single tubes.
The water has a slight smell to it if you’re sensitive. We all drank it and no one got sick. There are water fountains and bottle fill stations around the property.
If you don’t have dinner reservations, food options were limited. Room service was surprisingly good food. Sip Sip was good, Marina Pizza was good. Poseidon’s buffet was fine but expensive. Our last night my husband and I got a lucky last minute reservation at Fish and it was fantastic!!
Don’t miss the Junkanoo parade in the Marina Tuesday and Friday nights at 9!
Our 3 girls, 12, 14, & 14, did the teen nightclub Crush one night. My daughter is 12 but less than a month until her 13th birthday. I went there around 5 (during the younger group hrs) and spoke to a manager and he was very nice and let her go with her older cousins. We did have to show passports, they accepted a photo. That said, they did not enjoy it at all, they left early and said it was very boring (it was a Saturday night). There was supposed to be Easter games and TikTok challenges and they said none of that happened (they stayed 9-1030).
WiFi was spotty and unreliable, except in our room. It would disconnect often and you have to reconnect it. Around the pools there was mostly no issue. But the beaches were spotty and even just walking around it would often drop signal.
I found all the staff to be very nice and friendly!! Did not encounter any rudeness.
There is a 10% VAT and 15% gratuity included in ALL (food) transactions (even if you don’t see it). They took Apple Pay (kids have Venmo cards) everywhere they bought food or drinks.
Shoutout to Tropical Breeze Tours! Highly recommend them!! It was a comfortable catamaran, we went to (a) pig island and fed them, snorkeled, they made bbq chicken lunch with green salad and pasta salad, drinks (including alcohol) included. We went on a windy day (when other tours had canceled) and I was skeptical but trusted them and I’m so glad we did!! It wasn’t that bad and felt safe the whole time. The tour guides were super fun and friendly!!
Opinion: My husband said the Royal felt like Vegas lol. For me, Atlantis is like Disney, you’re either a die hard fan or you’re not. We had a great time, the grounds are beautiful. Glad we went, had fun. It’s very expensive. And a little too Americanized for me, when I travel to the Caribbean/international I prefer more authenticity. I would have loved to hear reggae/local music played around the property instead of lounge music, but that’s just me. While I have no plans to return, I’m glad we did it.
