Aside from the basketball, I did not enjoy Atlantis. The weather was monsoon-like horrible (rain and high winds every day that closed the beaches and some other outdoor activities); it was very casino-centric and kid-centric (I dislike casinos and you had to walk through a huge one to get from any point A to any point B); and one had to walk a mile to get a cup of coffee in the morning. After swimming with the dolphins once (and what a logistical hassle that was), there was not much else that I wanted to do there.
I realize many people like casinos .. and/or want to vacation with their small children whom they can leave at a "kids club" for much of the day ... but I am not one of them.
Maui, on the other hand, was amazing. Especially if you fly out a week early and take time to explore both Maui and some other islands such as Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island.
I have the same take. Atlantis felt like I just had my wallet out handing money over for EVERYTHING.
Maui was much more relaxing and the gym felt like a college basketball court. Not a large conference center converted into a court.
Def worth taking the flight. Maui was the best college basketball experience I have had.
Agree with both of these takes. The game atmosphere was amazing, and having every Cuse fan in the building walk down the hall and all hit the same bar after the games was a ton of fun. But holy cow was that place expensive. $27 red bull vodkas and I think there was a $90 pizza.
The prices were so crazy that even though I had a non refundable room in the townhouses, once I found out that Sonnary and my brother/is gf were joining it made more economical sense to book a room at the all inclusive place next door. The main perk for me was that it allowed us to eat 3 meals a day, plus snacks without going broke. Not many Cuse fans at the all inclusive place, as most were next door at Atlantis, so even though we had free drinks at our resort, I spent most of my time at Atlantis with everyone, paying crazy drink prices. Luckily, since I had that other room, we had some wrist bands that allowed us to enjoy the Atlantis property. If we didn't have those, it would have been pretty lame. We would have been allowed in the casino, but most restaurants and bars were not letting folks enter if they didn't have a wrist band (maybe that was only after a certain time of night, or just a weekend thing though, can't remember).
As cto mentioned it's their windy season so the weather was insane. I think we had one nice day, the first day we arrived. After that, I'm not sure if I went outside again the rest of the trip.
Having never been to Hawaii, I've been eagerly waiting for our next Maui trip. Sonnary finally gave up waiting, and demanded that we hit Hawaii in March.
If the team went to Atlantis again, I'd really have to sit down and think if it would be worth dropping all that cash again. I think if I knew that a good amount of my friends or other cuse fans were staying at the all inclusive place, and would actually spend time there enjoying those perks, I might do it. Obviously you'd still want to have pre and post game drinks over at Atlantis, but I spent ~5 hours a day at the Coral bar, and my evenings at the bars off the casino, trying to hang with and meet as many cuse fans as possible.
The atmosphere in and around that casino the night we won the final game, was one of the coolest cuse experiences in my life. Orange everywhere, everyone was on cloud 9, players walking around high fiving and hugging people, taking pictures. JB walking around with a massive smile on his face. I was in Orange heaven.
In closing, I'd like to go literally anywhere but NYC for these tournaments/late November games for a few years... I think it's time for another location.
