Staycation at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

The husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary recently. Though we could not take more time off, we did manage a mid-week stay cation at Atlantis, The Palm Dubai. One of the most beautiful days we’ve had for sure.

Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

Reservation

Our reservation process was so painfully easy. All we had to do was log on to their website and book ! We also got an exciting Master Card offer, which is what prompted us to book in the first place.

Check-in

Though our Check-in time was at 3 PM, we managed to wrap up work and land up at the hotel only by 8 PM. The front office manager was kind enough to give us an upgrade to make our special day even more special.

The front office associate who showed us to our room was quite strange – he seemed to have learnt his spiel and was not too responsive with our specific questions, minus points for this.

We were given a very sweet welcome in the room with a small delicious cake and a lovely greeting card.

Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

Rooms

Our Ocean view room: Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

As I mentioned above, we were upgraded to ocean view rooms and almost on the 17th floor. The room was fantastic with a brilliant view overlooking the expanse of Arabian Gulf. With a private balcony, the early morning is simply breathtaking ! The 4-fixture bathroom is very cute and spacious.

The hotel

Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

The interiors of the hotel are quite garish and not really as per my liking. Though every corner has been thoughtfully made, maybe it suits someone else’s taste. I like more chic and cleaner interiors, over the more classical designs. Though, I doubt if it gets better than this.

Check out this post by My Toronto World on How to spend 2 days in Dubai! She’s summed up the best things to do and if you have a layover, that’s what you need to be doing!

Getting from one place to another

This can be quite a task. Mind you, buggies are available to shuttle you between places inside the hotel complex. We were not aware of this until after our walk to Aquaventure. But I do not discourage the walk – it surely is an exciting place to be at.

The pools

The pools at Atlantis are peaceful – more so being a weekday. We enjoyed a couple of hours before breakfast, soaking up the early winter awesomeness.

Dinner

We were given complimentary dinner and decided to try out Kaleidoscope. The buffet spread was elaborate and had many options to choose from – from Mexican to Indian to Arab. Loved the cheese fountain at the Mexican counter. There are also some live counters that jazz up the buffet. The dessert spread is quite interesting, topped with 1 chocolate fountain. The place was lively and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as we did ! Only drawback is the restaurant shuts at 11 PM, so we had just about 45 minutes to wrap up dinner which was quite unfortunate.

Breakfast

The super-awesome breakfast was at Saffron. We’re both suckers for Asian food and this was like candy-land for us! What variety and such a vibrant ambiance. This is one of our most favorite places in the hotel and would love to come back for a meal for sure. Thumbs up to the staff that make this happen…

This place is a must-try people!

Aquaventure Waterpark

{Sorry no photos available as we were too busy having too much fun}

Ok here’s one from our GoPro 🙂

Aquaventure, The Palm Atlantis, Dubai

We gifted ourselves a GoPro Hero 4. This was our first purchase from souq.com and their response and delivery time is unbeatable.

This was the most epic part of our stay at Atlantis – and our 1st anniversary. We spent about 6 hours at the Aquaventure park and oh boy, what a ball we had ! Each ride was as exciting as the previous one and we just could not get over it. We met some lovely people along the way and made friends with a German family of 3 generations! We tried to cover most of the rides but we chose to skip the deadliest leap of faith…. I’m not sure if I would ever be able to do that one.

Our new GoPro !

Our new GoPro !

The Lost Chambers Aquarium

Lost Adventures, Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

This was a lovely experience but I would not really recommend paying just to come here. Maybe a good experience for kids but I would totally skip it over

Dolphin Bay

Dolphin Bay, Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

Though we did not technically enter dolphin bay, we did watch a couple of dolphins do their thing. We had no time to squeeze in this activity after all that we had already done! I just hope the dolphins are kept happy and safe 🙂

Check out

The check out process was fairly easy as well. We requested a late check out since we were to spend time at Aquaventure and they were kind enough to let us keep the room for a couple of additional hours.

Nassimi Beach

Nassimi Beach, Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai

After check out, we wanted to stay on for a couple of more hours and we thought the beach bar would be the perfect place to unwind after a long, fun day.

Like every other place, I wish I could have stayed just another day to relish the grand Atlantis, The Palm.

But hey, hugsband says we can always go back (maybe)!