Bahamas 2015 Day 1

Welcome to the Bradley Family 2015 vacation to the Bahamas! 

We were supposed to leave at 5:30am, but Orbitz didn't have a flight confirmation record for us, so I called United to find our flight was rescheduled to 6:08, which made our connecting flight DANGEROUSLY short.  So, I rebooked our flights to a later flight which got us into Nassau at 1:30 which was two hours later than we planned.  No biggie - at least we didn't lose a day. 

When we got to the island we took a cab to the Atlantis resort - we actually are staying at the Comfort Suites next to Atlantis which is a great deal because the rooms are cheaper, we get free breakfast, and we get full access to Atlantis just like Atlantis guests get.  Our cab driver was very friendly (common theme, will repeat), but drove DANGEROUSLY on the left side of the road.  Her car was a left side steering, but other cabs we took were full on freak-show right side steering.  As a former British Colony, they chose to keep this strange custom and even though it is super scary for people from the US it is normal for Bahamaians and you likely will not die.

We got to the hotel and
checked in - they have a pretty strict 3:00pm check-in time - so we checked our luggage and had a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant.  I thought "suite" would mean a little larger room with a separate living area for the kids (and technically, it did), but it was like a normal room with a little partial wall between us.  Not enough to have any separate privacy - for us or for them.  Anyway....

We went to some shops across the street to buy some snacks for the week (ie. beer and Monster drinks) and found out a couple of things: 1) Bahama dollars to US dollars are 1:1 - no exchange rate - which makes it super helpful to travel here.  You can use either currency to buy stuff and you will get change in either currency.  2) It is wicked expensive to buy stuff here.  A box of Cheez-its is $10.  An apple was $1.88.  (not an Apple computer, an actual apple).  But we did our biz and bought some stuff and stocked the fridge in the room.  Unlike some hotels, the fridge is actually a place YOU can put food you bought (at exorbitant prices), not just where you buy food pre-stocked at exorbitant prices.

We were ready to go explore Atlantis.  So we went over to the Atlantis (three min walk from the Comfort suites).  Our first stop was to find the kids club because when we go on cruises, Shellie likes to gamble and the kids like to hang at the kids club as much as Shellie like to gamble.  The Atlantis has great kids club options - for our kids who are 11 and 12, Club Rush is available.  Nine to 12 year olds can play video games, dance to a live DJ, play dodge-ball, watch movie, and have all kinds of fun.  Our kids love hanging out away from us for evenings and feeling independent, and they loved this place.  It was about $50 per child for the whole week and they had the option to buy snacks at the Club Rush store up to a dollar amount we set.  Hours were 7 pm to 11 pm.

Then we played some video games at Gamers Reef and went our separate ways for the evening.  Mom and Dad played in the casino and lost our ass.  But we signed up for the casino promotions so eventually got some back - more to come!

11 o'clock came and we all went back to the hotel.  We were greeted by Steve, the cat, who looks like a smaller male version of our housecat BonBon - gray with tiger stripes.  I told the kids not to pet the cat, because it's DANGEROUS.  Then I petted the nice cat and we went to bed.