Welcome to another Tales of the Traveling Tote,
where a lovely group of bloggers take their wonderful
MacKenzie-Child's totes with them to explore
and share all kinds of new places.
Whew, we have had too much fun this spring.
Hope you enjoy traveling along with Miss
Madi K and me!!
Welcome to the Royal Towers of the Atlantis Resort!
(Our room was in the left set of towers.)
Miss Madi K and I found our new happy place
this spring as we traveled to the Bahamas and
stayed in this wonderful resort.
One of our friends and neighbors (on your right)
is an engineer and architect and he is famous for
engineering resort swimming pools. He has worked
one the Atlantis pools and is currently working on
the pools for a new Atlantis resort being built in
Hawaii. We have talked about going to visit the
Atlantis, and hubby and I had stopped there on a
cruise - but truly we only had a few hours there,
and knew that we wanted to come back for a stay.
The Atlantis is a popular destination for cruisers because
of its amazing waterslides and waterpark. When we had
visited on a cruise, we were dropped off at 8:00 but were
then told we couldn't get in the water until 10:00. It
appears they have changed that to 9:00 now. Within
two rides, a downpour began - it was a deluge and they
made us evacuate the pools as the lifeguards could not
see well enough to keep us safe. Even after the rains
stopped, we weren't allowed back into the pools, so we
had spent about $200 each and got two rides. The cruise
was great and gave us half of our money back when we
explained the situation.
Needless to say, we hadn't received much of an experience
there. While it was raining, we were able to explore The Dig -
amazing underground fish tanks that pretend that they
really have found Atlantis, and they show you
some of the relics.
They even have the sound of digging and tinkering
in the background, similar to Indian Jones wait line.
The lobby and architecture follow this theme of a
found Atlantis. We found that to be just awe inspiring.
I enjoy architecture more than art, so this was such a
fun place to go and to explore as every little space was
filled with architectural details.
This is the fountain at the front of the resort. Definitely
an over-the-top experience all around.
Because there are so many cruisers there from early morning
until about 4:00, we found an out of the way oasis that
became our favorite spot - The Coral Pool. The Coral Pool
is located on the older end of the property by the Coral Towers,
which were presently undergoing renovations. You can tell
that the Coral Pool had recently been renovated.
We decided to splurge on a Cabana, since there were two
couples and we could share the cost. It was perfect for
the gentlemen who needed to plug in their computers and
do a little office work while on vacation.
You can see the cabanas in the back of this picture.
These fun sun pads were at the edge of the pool, but
offered no shade from the intense sun in the Bahamas.
This was another fabulous sunning spot with
all of these beds on the platform. Of course Miss Madi K
and I had to try them all out.
But in the end, we loved the luxury and partial shade of the
cabanas, and ended up renting one each day for the rest
of the week!
Each cabana had a very attentive steward who
made sure we had cold water, fresh towels and
of course drinks and lunch. We enjoyed these chocolate
shakes daily!
I have never experienced a more varied and fun pool area.
These are the main pools and they are huge. There were
always lounge chairs available, despite the crowds.
Of course with a week, we had lots of time for slides.
This is the shark tank at the bottom of the pyramid
slides. If you took the enclosed tube, it dropped
you here to the left with the square tube and it was a
slow ride through the sharks. If you took the
open ride, you raced through the round tube on
the right and never really saw the sharks. We enjoyed
the ride on the left.
Here is a close up of the square tube. The sharks would
just lay on top of the tube watching you go by.
The rooms in the Royal tower were nicely done
and spacious.
And the baths were beautiful too. I had read some
reviews that really complained about the rooms, so
I had to do a review and show pictures as a rebuttal.
We thought they were great.
As seafood lovers we enjoyed fabulous meals every night.
There were also a lot of bad reviews about the price
of the food, but there were many options - some fancy
restaurants, but plenty of places to get pizzas, burgers
or Italian that were reasonable.
And of course, there were exceptional desserts.
One place not to be missed was their darling ice cream
parlor. They had the smoothest, creamiest ice cream.
After we found it, we brought ice cream out to the pool
every day.
Just a small example of a fabulous dessert!
The Titanic at the most delicious Italian restaurant -
Carmines. This restaurant was very family friendly
and reasonable and every bite we had was amazing.
Of course, you know me, I started scheming on
how I could take my kids and grandkids here.
We love the pools at the Grand Wailea on Maui,
but I think they would love this even more. It was
a magical week.
Next we went the opposite end of the spectrum and
Miss Madi K was dragged down to the desert
outside Moab, Utah, for Glamping. This was one
of my bucket list items, and it didn't disappoint.
Our large tents were on wooden platforms and
came with a wood burning stove (in the shadows
to your right).
Since it was April, the small wood burning stove did a
nice job taking the chill out of the air.
I said I might only do this once
in my life, so I wanted to try out the tent with the
bathroom. They had nice bathroom trailers with
showers too, but it was wonderful not to have to
walk to the bathroom.
The showers were so nice after a day out in the desert.
The decor was so attractive and comfortable in each tent.
This was their amazing lobby where you could go and
get warm drinks and fruit in the morning,
or enjoy a gas fire and live music at night.
They also had a nightly campfire and the makings for
S'Mores around the campfire every night. It was fun to
gather around the fire and meet people from all over
the world who had come to see the beautiful red rocks
in Moab.
You just wouldn't believe where these machines
and jeeps can take you.
Miss Madi K quite loved her Glamping experience.
To find out more about Glamping visit
through the West.
On our final spring trip, Miss Madi K got to travel
to the MacKenzie-Child's mother store in NYC.
My first exposure to MacKenzie-Childs was in Las
Vegas at Bellagio's Giardini Garden Store. I instantly
fell in love with their whimsical items. We were so
excited to get to come to the store in New York.
Sorry the pictures weren't that great because,
of course, there was scaffolding.
The sales clerk loved my vintage bag and said people
come in looking for it all of the time.
We had fun shopping and filled our shopping bag,
which was hand-carried onto the plane
on the way home.
I have always loved traveling to New York at
Christmas time, but it was so exquisite in April.
We had light rain a couple of days, but
look at how magical it made these flowers.
There were magical blossoms everywhere!
Even in Chelsea Market. There were no blooms left on the Highline, but that was still fun to walk on.
On our outing that day I had to take my sister and niece
to see The Plaza, so Miss Madi K wanted her picture taken
on the checkerboard entry.
One of my foodie bucket lists was to eat at Black Tap -
up toward Central Park and MacKenzie-Childs,
so we were right in the neighborhood.
I follow them on Instagram. My favorite silly comment on
reviews for their shakes were that they were too much sugar!
Duh!!! Look at what you are ordering. They were so delightful,
and definitely make a mess while consuming. The burgers
were great too, but it was the shakes that had lured me here.
I had worried about an hour wait time in
line, but when we walked up, there wasn't a
soul in line. When we left, this was the line.
I think the rain blessed us that day!!!
I already did a post about our theater experience there,
seeing Harry Potter and the Curse Child, Frozen and Hamilton,
but we also got to go to a taping of Jimmy Fallon. That was
a really fun experience, and he was so gracious and friendly.
He spent a long time in the audience answering questions
during a break in taping. I would highly recommend that
experience.
Miss Madi K came home and wasn't even exhausted from
walking ten miles a day!
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Traveling Totes
have been.
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Hope you continue traveling with us each quarter
as we take our Traveling Totes to all kinds of places.
Thanks for visiting today. It is always fun to
have you.
