HotelChatter

Room Reaction:: Our room was a good-looking suite on the sixth floor (all rooms at The Cove are suites) with top of the line amenities, a plush bed, a spacious bathroom, two flat-screen TVs, a minibar chock-full of goodies beyond chips and candy and a killer view of the resort and the beach.

The only bad thing was that the air conditioning was blowing like crazy. We are super sensitive to cold air and we are always cold so anytime we hit up a hotel room, we immediately turn off the fan. But in this room, we turned off the fan only to discover more cold air blasting in the closet. Seriously. In the closet. There was no shutting that off.

And it was so powerful that even with the closet door closed we could still feel the cold air blowing. So we rolled up a towel and shoved it in front of the closet door. This might sound nutso but the closet was right next to the bed and we were just getting over a throat infection. (Ok, TMI.)

Internet Connect: Sadly we had to spend most of our morning working and we didn't have much time to explore the grounds as we would have hoped. But we did find out that internet was only ethernet and at $10 a day.

Pool Scene: The great part about staying at The Cove is that you have your own pools to play in. And to keep any of the Atlantis riff-raff out, every guest has to wear a special wristband given out at the towel huts. These bands will denote whether you are Cove or Atlantis.

Cove guests have full range of the Atlantis pools and rides as well as their own pools including the heavenly "adults only" pool called Cain at the Cove. We spent an hour chilling at this grown-up haven. While it was certainly better than the child-infested waters over at the Atlantis, it wasn't that relaxing.

For starters, we were seated next to a speaker that pumped annoying music, the kind you often hear in a lobby of a W Hotel. Second, there were several waitresses walking around but our drink order took 25 minutes to get to us. A better bet is to get up and get it from the bar yourself. However, whether you get it or the waittress gets it, the price will kill you. Here is our bar bill.

Beach Scene: If we had money to blow and the time to spend it as well, we would get one of these beach cabanas. While the rest of the Atlantis resort has to tough it out on puny beach chairs, Cove guests can opt to rent a beach cabana for the day. These include daybeds, sofas, patio dining tables, entertainment center with flat-screen television, DVD/CD player and a Bose 3-2-1 entertainment/ audio system, a private bathroom and on-call Cabana Butlers.

Dining: The Cove features a Bobby Flay Mesa Grill, as well as restaurants from Nobu Matsuhisa and Jean-Georges Vongerichten in the greater Atlantis resort. We did not try any of these because we hate to dine alone in public.

Yet there's also a ton of other food options from casual to poolside to fancy. The in-room compendium actually has an entire chart for their dining options detailing where they are located, how much they cost, what kind of food is served and what is the appropriate attire.

Service: The service was mixed. We ordered room service and the server was very gracious. The doormen were also very friendly and helpful.

Then again, down at the pool ther service was practically invisible. And in the morning, FOUR different people knocked on our door. All wanting to either clean the room or check the minibar.

Ditto for the front desk. We were scrambling to check-out by 11am and we gave the front desk a call to tell them we were going to be a little late (at this time it was 11:15am). We couldn't reach anyone at the front desk until 11:20am.

When we did finally make it downstairs to check-out, we asked to store our bags for a few hours and this took some major difficulty. Our clerk must have been completing his first week on the job as he had no idea how to get the bellman to do this.

Bottom Line: No doubt The Cove is much more our style than the Atlantis. We especially loved the open-air design of the teak wood lobby with its gardens and small ponds scattered about. Walking through this felt soothing and tropical, even if the rest of the place did not. The rooms were also luxurious and we would have no problem shacking up there for a few days.

But we would have a problem with the hotel service and the nickel-and-diming that often happens at such big resorts like this. It gets really annoying after a while knowing that everything you want to do comes with a charge. Except swimming. And going to the bathroom.

Additionally, whether you stay at The Cove or at the Atlantis, the resort grounds are hectic. We missed the peace and quiet and the utter darkness at night when we stayed on Eleuthera.

For $500+ a night, you can have two villas at The Cove at Eleuthera or Pineapple Fields and a private beach. Now, what sounds better?

See more of our pics from The Cove in the HotelChatter Flickr Pool.

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