Bahamas

Monica and I just got back from a week in Orlando and Atlantis in the Bahamas. Thus no poker in a while.

Orlando was same old same old. Saw the family, went to Disneyworld, bought a bunch of stuff for Monica's nephew and nieces. But we had never been to the Bahamas.

Atlantis was beautiful and while the weather wasn't perfect - it rained Wednesday and was very windy Thursday - it was nice to get away from Seattle winter. That said I think we were both dissappointed. The prices were pretty outrageous; we were essentially paying "ballpark" prices all week. $4 for a bottle of water, $28 for the breakfast buffet. To me, everything was inflated about 100%. I wondered if I missed an exchange rate but I didn't. That said the food was excellent almost eveywhere we ate.

But I don't think we were disappointed as much by the prices as that service was disappointing almost eveywhere we went except for fine dining for dinner. The spa, the activities, the casual dining by the pool, housekeeping and maintenance all left something if not a lot to be desired. Our room was $$$$ and came with a cracked toliet seat.

One thing we did consistently notice was that the high prices did lead to a higher class of people. While Disney is expensive, you get visitors from almost every walk of life and lack of courtesy and common sense is the default. Can't remember the last time I didn't see a parked stroller with a camera in it begging to be stolen.

At Atlantis people had brains, were thoughful, nobody rushed to be first and it wasn't until breakfast the last day that we saw kids that weren't well behaved.