Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I couldn't understand why anyone would want to stay in a hotel underwater or one in
the highest building on earth so, for a different brand of opulence, Bill and I visited the
Atlantis Hotel. This is the second Atlantis built by a South African millionaire—the first
is in the Bahamas and is advertised ubiquitously as if it were the original Atlantis surfaced
from its watery grave. The Dubai Atlantis is a megaresort on Palm Jumeirah, the world's
largest artificial island, which cost the government $12 billion to build from desert sand
and millions of tons of rock. To the consternation of environmentalists, native sea life was
destroyed during the dredging. The government said that new, foreign fishes have since
colonized the waters. As we drove down the causeway, we passed new residences and vil-
las built in an architectural style that might be called modern Ali Baba. Then through the
heat haze and across a snaking narrow bridge the pink-palazzo-colored Atlantis Hotel rose
into full view, an image straight out of a James Bond movie.
The hotel fosters that impression. Its opening in November 2008 was an extravaganza of
fireworks seven times larger than the display at the Summer Olympics in Beijing that year
and reportedly big enough to be seen from outer space. Two thousand celebrities came,
including Denzel Washington, Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro and Michael Jordan, al-
though a few declined, saying it might not be a good idea during the Great Recession to
decorate the opening of a hotel that charges $37,000 a night for its penthouse suite.
We arrived on a mildly sweltering morning. Tour buses and taxis were lined up outside
along the seawall. Giant bubbling fountains marked the entrance, past the security guards
who were easily appeased when we said we had come for lunch. The lobby is the size of
a small auditorium, defined by icing-white palm columns that disappear into an arched
canopy over a 40-foot Dale Chihuly sculpture. Its crystal-blue glass twists ending with a
golden flare gave the place the feel of a high-class Arabian boudoir. Gold leaf decorated
murals and mosaics with seahorses and other underwater creatures. The piped-in music
had an underwater sound as well, the kind you hear at a spa. Then we turned around and
saw the point of the décor. There was a truly gigantic two-story aquarium, home to 65,000
fishes and sea animals, including flapping manta rays and whale sharks. (The whale sharks
were later released after protests from animal rights groups.)
We slid into the crowd in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass panels, next to a Sikh family
from the Punjab, a young French couple and two Russian tour guides planning a package
tour to the hotel. Everyone was pointing and exclaiming “Ooh” or “Aah.”
After all of the artificial and make-believe of Dubai, it was amazing to see real fish. The
hotel also has real dolphins, flown in from the Solomon Islands so guests can swim with
the mammals in “Dolphin Bay.” In this instance, the people trying to protect wildlife wish
the hotel had not pulled the dolphins out of the sea. There is also Aquaventure, a water
park with a “Lost Civilization of Atlantis” water slide, a Royal Pool Beach, Zero Entry Pool,
and an activity schedule rivaling anything offered on a cruise ship: hula hoop contests,
touch rugby for teens, potato sack races, limbo contests, a movie lounge, video arcades,
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