Harborside Resort Timeshare Release

Villa bathrooms terrible.

Small kitchen, washer and dryer leaning, not balanced.

Cable TV sucks.

New carpet already stains all over.

I went to owners update and they wanted me to buy more.

I really like Atlantis and this was 1st time I stayed since I purchased in 2016 .

I know this timeshare is valuable and that is why I bought buy the condition of the villas are very poor. Does not justify 2000$ a year in maintenance fees.

We’ve been owners since June 2001. Always loved this resort but this time the Harborside Management let us down.

The first week was great the second week the worse ever.

We moved from a Deluxe Villa to a Premium Villa right next door. We were ready to leave our room for dinner when we realize my husband had left his money clip with approx: $250-300 and his Credit Card wallet with ID, Credit Cards and Gift Cards back into the safe. I was not aware of this. My sister saw him put it into the safe while we were waiting for our rooms.

We double checked our new room and did not find it. We went to the Front desk within 2 1/2 hrs of leaving the deluxe side. We notified them what we had done. They said they would notify Housekeeping and the current Guest that was now in that room. No immediate attention was taken. They never got back to us.

We checked daily with Management. Management seems to have dropped the ball. Lack of Concern, No Immediate Attention, NO incentive, NO Compensation, No follow through. We felt like they didn’t care. My husband was the best person to be around during this vacation.

On the fifth day, I spoke to a Security Officer at Atlantis. They said I need to call the Security Dept., so I did once I was back in my room. Called Security and got the runaround, tried again and got a hold of Security at Coral Towers. She was able to help. Two Security Officers (Officer Bryant) came to our room that afternoon. My husband filled out an incident report. Very disappointing that many days had passed with no one physically searching that safe. Mgmt didn’t want to inconvenience the other guest

But we were totally inconvenienced. Friday before we left we wanted to talk to a Harborside Manager. Louise (Not a Mgr) listen to us and called the Security Officer Bryant. He indicated that it is now out of his hands. Management Blanche would be taking care of this. Around 5:50 pm that same evening we spoke to Blanche gave her all the information again.

Shortly after returning home I notified Vistana Corporation to escalate our incident. Spoke to the Resolution Dept. which turned it over to Consumer Affairs. It’s been 2 1/2 weeks since the incident and they now said that it s being turned over to Risk Management. When I looked back at the “Incident Report” the Security Officer NEVER signed the “Incident Report”.

What a shame that such a large Corporation can’t take care of their OWNERS. So very disappointed in Harborside Management. A Resort that was once our favorite vacation spot is now our worse. We wish to not return to Harborside. The money no big deal but the other stuff. It took us 5 1/2 hrs at DMV, the cancellation of credit cards, Gift Cards we can kiss goodbye. It’s been a learning experience and big disappointment on Harborside Resort Mgmt attention they give to their owners. We needed their help and we were greatly let down.

We just checked in yesterday. Hair in the tub, dust everywhere.

The linens and the furniture are the original from when the place was built. Ditto the iron and hairdryer.

Have heard for years about this place and cannot believe this is it.

Things to do are ok but the rooms are awful. Atlantis must not care because of the high traffic from day passers. But I care and will make sure everyone knows what a dump the rooms are.

Next time go to Baha Mar…visited there…beautiful. They know how to do things right.

The resort and water park were wonderful. We had an issue every day with keys.

Had to go back to the front desk twice a day.

Staff said we were demagnetizing keys.

We kept them in the envelope at all times.

This was my families final trip to this resort. We have been to Atlantis 12 times, Beach Towers, Royal Towers and the Cove all great! But this Harbourside, which we have visited twice is a joke and a tourist trap.

We arrived at 2:45 pm with groceries and 4 teenagers after travelling since 4am that day and were given a room at 6:15pm, after begging, pleading and then crying for our room.

Our dinner reservations had to be cancelled, we lost most of our 280$ grocery because they put the food in a fridge not turned on. When we walked in at 6:15, our shower, fridge and dryer were not functioning, the kitchen sink was leaking onto the floor and so we had repairmen in and out all night.

Next day the list went on with broken or missing necessities, they cleaned 7th day we left the 9th and its only because once again we conplained.

They say all of this is due to renovations?? Our room was grossly outdated and dirty, used kleenex found behind the couch, moldy tile in bathroom, and an air conditionning was spitting black pieces of mold on our bed everyday. Worst trip of our lives! Never, ever again.

Just back from my timeshare at Harborside and the whole time we were there our key card was not working on the Atlantis side to go to the water park etc. The attendant could not manually key it in herself and had to call a manager which sometimes resulted in us standing there waiting for 20 minutes to get a wristband. Every time we charged something they had to manually key it in. We kept getting new cards but none worked.

Additionally, the concierge called our room 2 or 3 times at about 8 or 830 am waking us up as we are used to another time zone. I contacted the front desk and asked for a manager to call me and I stopped by there requesting the same and they never bothered to call me as I was told they would. I stopped by again checking out and was told once more a manager would call me. Never did.

Expensive needs repair, service lacking

My family of 4 just returned home from a vacation to Paradise Island… not paradise at all.

1. Transport – plan your transport from the airport ahead of time with a reasonable transport company or take a taxi outside the terminal – because Atlantis and some transport companies are WAY WAY WAY overpriced. You should not pay more than $50 for the ride from the airport to the hotel for 1 vehicle (3 adults, 1 child).

2. Groceries – If you are planning on staying at Harborside, and no matter how tired you are after your flight, stop on the way to get groceries before you get to the hotel. Again, if you wait, you will be overcharged badly by some of the taxi and the arranged transportation. We did not know this and ended up paying $40 for a ride to a grocery store from a private taxi! The grocery store that the harborside transports you to ($7 per person) is very nice, and modelled after Whole Foods in the US… only problem is – prices are 3x as much. For all the money you think you will save in eating in the condo – you will end up spending in transport and inflated food costs. We felt like we were bleeding money from the day we arrived. The cheapest thing to do is call Domino’s pizza… meet the driver in the lobby – get a pizza for $20.

3. The Condo – We stayed in a premium one bedroom villa. It was a nice layout and close to the pool which was very convenient. There are elevators for those travelling with people with mobility issues. When we arrived, our condo had a wet smell to it and was quite muggy….we later figured out that the air conditioning wasn’t working.

Let us just say everything was ‘worn’ at this hotel – but as they call themselves moderate, we went with the flow. We called 5x over 2 days to have this fixed. Finally mid-afternoon day 2, we returned to a cool (and better smelling) room. Only one problem…. the ceiling was dripping a ton of water, and by the looks of it this wasn’t the first time. So we got back on the phone and the maintenance guy came up at 8pm to figure it out. Bless this man – he flushed our A-coil and was very polite. He had it all fixed in 30 min. Success – we had air conditioning and it was dry! Our beds (and the hideaway) were all worn out and springy. All adults in my family are hurting from these beds – but is to be expected from a high-use hotel.

4. Housekeeping – if you book through Atlantis – housekeeping is included, even though you will get a book that says it is not. This is for the timeshare folks who own properties. They pay daily for housekeeping. We thought we were rolling solo so when we came back to a clean room – we were surprised. That being said, housekeeping did miss us 2x but that wasn’t a big deal.

5. Must haves – bring your own laundry detergent, dryer sheets, coffee and any groceries that fit in the suitcase. It costs a lot for everything. Luckily we brought our own laundry detergent as we knew our son would go through clothes like crazy – and it worked great. Handy small load washer/dryer is in the suite.

6. Atlantis – Everything costs money and more than you are used to. For a family on a budget, we felt broke the entire trip. We have done the all-inclusive route and will do this again in the future.

For meals, we ate out, every time it was $100 for a moderate meal. You cannot escape the prices and surcharges. Even though the accommodations, flight and transport were paid for upfront, we ended up spending hundreds of dollars a day to stay afloat – and didn’t even gamble. That all being said – the resort is beautiful and has a ton of pools, waterslides, kids pools, etc. There is a FREE bus that stops at each hotel at Atlantis that helps with the mobility – as things are like Vegas… they look close but are really far away.

This will be our first and last trip to the Bahamas. It was nice, but a lot of stress about money and costs and the little things. Vacations are supposed to be relaxing. Felt like people were trying to take advantage of us a lot. Nicest interactions with people were the bus drivers, poolside cafe and the maintenance man. They just seemed to care without looking for a buck.

Good luck.