Deen on Deck. It's a travel blog.

Hey, everybody! Back from my most recent trip on the excellent Mariner of the Seas and ready to share one of my best budget travel secrets with you. I mentioned in a previous post that myself and three of my friends went to Atlantis Resort for the day, had full access to the main facilities (waterslides, pools, river rapids, The Dig Aquarium) – and we didn’t spend one penny to get in. No, we didn’t jump any fences or listen to any timeshare spiels! So how did we do it, then?

The secret lies in a different hotel altogether — The Comfort Suites Paradise Island. Okkkk, I’m sure you’re saying — are you supposed to stay at this humble little neighbor hotel and just stare longingly at the mighty fortress of Poseidon across the street? Crying and wishing you could get in? Nahhhh… If you book a room here, you CAN get into Atlantis. Free. For your entire stay. For up to four people per room booked. I’m not sure how or why they allow this deal to still go on — but it absolutely IS still going on at the time of my posting this. See for yourself: https://www.choicehotels.com/bahamas/nassau/comfort-suites-hotels/bs003

The one-night price for a room at Comfort Suites is (if we booked today) is $318 (cheaper than that in advance – roughly $250) Four adult day passes to Atlantis Aquaventure (if we booked today) would cost us $1000. So, right there, with very little effort – we’ve saved $682 and we just got ourselves into freaking ATLANTIS! That’s pretty amazing already. BUT, you might be thinking, Deen, that still ain’t free. True, my friends, true.

So, how do we do it for ABSOLUTLEY FREE? Well, this involves a little more advanced planning and obtaining the Choice Privileges Visa Signature Card. (I don’t work for this company nor am sponsored by them in any way) – but I do have this card and have found it extremely useful for cheap travel over the years. The points add up fast! If you don’t already have one, the sign-up bonus is 32,000 points — that’s plenty for your night at Comfort Suites Paradise Island right there. I double (and triple… and quadruple) checked, and you STILL get your free Atlantis passes even if you pay with points. This is exactly what we did and it worked great! No problems at all.

Couple final thoughts to leave you with — the first being very important. You CANNOT book Comfort Suites the same day and still get into Atlantis. You must book in advance. I believe the Choice website says at least 24 hrs in advance, but I’m paranoid, so the earlier the better. Also, you’ll get better prices in both cash and points.

Some have expressed concern that they’re somehow “cheating” by doing this and it will be frowned upon by the staff at Comfort Suites or Atlantis. Not at all – they’re completely aware that people do this and it is clearly marked (and staff is very helpful as well) on how to make the short walk to Atlantis resort and to complete the process. They could not have been more helpful and even told us that we didn’t have to come back to the Comfort Suites to check out if we had a cruise ship to get back on. Couldn’t have been easier.

One last thing for you — check in time is listed as 3pm — can you get your Atlantis passes before that? Absolutely, you can. We were told to show up at 9 am and they’d be available any time after that and they were. Smooth, easy process and a great day for an unbelievable discount!