During the first few days at Atlantis we got lost in this maze of endless lobbies, boutiques, galleries, tunnels, pools and lagoons. Those who come here with a child should bring a stroller. It took us a while to figure out the shortest way from Royal Towers to the beach, even with the map on our hands. Unfortunately the shortest way was not stroller friendly since the elevator to the beach level was always out of service. Well, that’s fine, after sitting in front of computers for months, long walks were good for us.
The Dig, located underneath the Royal Towers lobby, is a misterious dark tunnel representing the lost city of Atlantis. You can see here lots of exotic sea creatures staring at you through the glass. Thousands of brilliantly coloured tropical fish swim along with enourmous groupers and magnificent rays. On the way to the beach, at the Predator Lagoon, you will find Hammerhead Sharks, Barracudas, Blacknose Sharks, Caribbean reef sharks and Nurse sharks.
Atlantis Aquaventure Water Park, is one of a kind non-stop aquatic thrill ride. Some of the water slides are so incredibly fast and thrilling you can nearly blank out for a moment. Make sure to keep your bum up all the time, otherwise it can hit you when least expected.
In spite of the overall luxury of the place and ridiculous prices at the restaurants, the food at Atlantis is not all that great. While the dinner at the buffet is $55 per adult and $27 per child, the choices are quite poor compared let’s say with Mexico or Dominican Republic. There are some cheaper places where they offer sandwiches, fries, horrible pizza and other junk. Usually, only 1 or 2 items on the menu would be more of less all right, if you are lucky, or if the chef is in a good mood, and everything else would be too chew, too dry, too spicy. Well, forget it. If you want to eat well at Atlantis, go to fancy restaurants. This resort is designed for rich and idle who can afford spending big bucks on food, shopping and entertainment. Don’t be surprised to find an ordinary dress for 6 grand or a tiny little diamond for three thousand dollars. It’s not because these items are so valuable. It’s because the visitors can afford to spend that much. After all, what is a $6,000 dress compared to the amounts played in the casino, or at the poker tournament?
During our stay at Atlantis we witnessed the annual poker tournament sponsored by Pokerstars, the online poker giant. Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure 2012 attracted over thousand professional and amateur poker players who flew from all parts of the world to take part in this 10-day poker battle. Each of the players contributed $10,000 to the prize pool. The $100,0000 buy-in Super High Roller was one of the central events at the tournament with 30 world’s top players. The big winner of the tournament’s Main Event was John Dibella, a stock trader from the USA who scooped the massive $1,775,000 in the first place prize money. Although Dibella is not a profesional player he said it was easier for him to make money at the poker table than in his everyday job.
Amongst the famous poker players who took part in the Super High Roller event were Canadians Daniel Negreanu and Jonathan Duhamel, members of Team Pokerstars Pro. These poker celebrities have been winning huge amounts of cash in many poker events. While being so rich and popular they are also kind of weird and gullible fellows. Negreanu, for example, was seen buying canned fish at a grocery store outside Atlantis. The same store where we got our oatmeal and bananas to save money on breakfasts. Another poker pro, the 23-year old Daniel Duhamel was recently robbed and beaten in his Monreal residence. They say the attack was organized by his former girlfriend, a 20-year old Bianca. The muggers took an expensive Rolex watch, 100K in cash and a souvenir bracelet won by Duhamel at one of the Pokerstars previous events. Luckily, the thiefs were caught and all stolen iitems returned except for the bracelet.
While the poker players were sweating at Atlantis’ Grand Ballroom, their wives, girlfriends and supporters had fun at the casino. The famous Atlantis casino filled with tourists, pretty ladies and smoke. The casino and its night club were open till 4am. I don’t know what was going there at night as I wasn’t there, but I could see that every morning they were spraying the slots with the sanitizer, so who knows!
On the last day of our stay at Atlantis, Pokerstars threw a huge party at the central pool. The offered all-you-can eat and all-you can drink, and I finally had a chance to try Bahama Mama. I don’t know what they mix in this drink but it’s much stronger than any cocktail you can get in Cuba. They also had a marmaid swimming in the pool all night, a girl enclosed in a giant balloon and non-stop female dancers dressed like aliens. In spite of the fancy spotlights it was very dark so we couldn’t see what we were eating there, but whatever it was it was good.
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