Review - Atlantis Pemba
Introduction
All pictures from Aria Christen, rights reserved
Atlantis Pemba is one of several new SL beach resorts that have opened to coincide with the Northern Hemisphere Summer.
The opening announcement generated a fair amount of excitement on Facebook, and so Aria and I were keen to take a look.
We were able to come during the resort's soft opening, which meant we were the only guests. That also gave us the chance to explore and for Aria to take pictures.
It's difficult to get cut through when it comes to Second Life Beach resorts, but Atlantis Pemba succeeds, with the spa and underwater restaurant being particular highlights.
Website for bookings and more information
The pictures are from Aria, the words from me, but the conclusions come from both of us.
New to Second Life Hotels and want to know the difference between a closed and open hotel or resort? Click here.
Overall look and feel
As mentioned, Atlantis Pemba is on a private sim, you are given a group tag when you check in, which is 3pm SLT - 11pm for me and 5pm for Aria, so that time actually worked for both of us.
We arrived at an airport check in desk, were taken through some check-in RP and went to the resort reception. Here the same check-in routine happened again with many of the same questions. Obviously they are still in a soft launch mode, and this is something that can easily be ironed out.
We also both experienced a fair amount of lag in the main reception / spa building, something we didn’t encounter to the same extent in the rest of the resort. We’d recommend the owners look at this, as the reception really forms one of the guest’s first impressions.
Aria wondered if there are items in the second floor office that are heavily scripted and are causing lag, and if the office or even the reception itself could be moved to a sky platform.
With all that out of the way, we will say that the resort itself is beautiful.
The landscaping is really well done, with a good selection of tropical flowers. Aria (who is a designer / landscaper herself) complimented the glam / tropical design and in particular the colour scheme, which flows together with a nice selection of natural woods, greens and whites.
I myself liked that there is a lot in the resort, but it doesn't feel crammed in or cluttered - something you often see in SL resorts where you get the sense that activities or features have been put in for the sake of it. That's not the case here. Everything has obviously been thought out and planned.
Our two favourite spots were probably the spa and the fantastic underwater restaurant. The pool also does an excellent job of mimicking an actual RL hotel pool, and is one of the best we’ve seen.
Overall - 4 / 5
The rooms
We stayed in a Marisol Oceanside villa at 1750L. Prices for the villas range from 1550 to 2200L, which is more than fair for what you get. In fact, it’s cheaper than a few other SL beach resorts.
Our villa had a large living / bedroom, a bathroom (with separate WC), and a terrace with two spa pools. The terrace overlooks the water and also has a private bar and a sitting area.
We also had a phone with a phone directory, where you could ring any of the other villas, as well as the restaurant and management. The Marisol Oceanside villas are built on private parcels, with ability to change the radio station.
We liked that our villa was not cluttered, and the yellow and green and natural earth colours used in the design.
From what we could see, all the villas can fit three people (so basically a couple). We wondered if the owners shouldn’t also add a group villa, which can house a larger party.
(Edit, 25 July. A reader contacted us to tell us that prices have doubled, something we double checked on the website. Costs are now 1750 pp per room for the villa we stayed at, so for two people it would in fact be 3500 per night. This makes the resort one of the more expensive places to stay in SL)
Overall - 3 / 5
Facilities
Because we came during the soft opening, we didn't take part in any RP activities.
However, add ons include yoga, sip and paint, RP dinner, a butler service in the room, an underwater dive tour and a premium spa experience.
Facilities include an amazing underwater restaurant ("Al Mahara"), a nightclub ("The Wet Dream"), a crab shack and a large swimming pool. The pool and spa are among the best we've seen in SL.
Overall - 4.5 / 5
Animations
Our room had a Cyber star Black Nest bed. It's a good brand and different from the standard Ruckus beds you see in many SL resorts, but we will say that the anims of this particular bed were good but not excellent.
There was also Loft and Aria furniture in the main living area, and the bath was from Chez Moi - this we did like, with lots of cute couple anims,
Note there was no furniture with FF or MM options in our room.
Overall 3 / 5
Other considerations
Lag. The lag in the resort as a whole wasn't too bad, I (a mac user) was able to run high graphics on the standard Second Life viewer (I had more problems when using Firestorm). Aria was able to take pictures in most of the resort in Black Dragon without too many problems. The one area, as we mentioned, we did have a few problems is the main reception building.
Privacy. Good. As this is a private sim, only guests and staff have access.
Adult. The resort as a whole is moderate, but there are adult options in the rooms.
Price. 1550L-2200L, which we thought is reasonable.
Since writing the review, we were contacted by a few people who had a few customer services issues (missed bookings, the resort publishing a whole chat transcript on Facebook in response to a complaint). Hopefully these are not typical experiences.
Overall
A lot of beach resorts in SL basically look like carbon copies of each other. That’s not the case with Atlantis Pemba, it looks and feels different.
It’s really nicely put together, a lot of thought obviously went into the layout and design, and there is lots to do.
We did identify a few issues, which should be easy enough to fix.
However, if you come and stay here you will find lots to do in a really nicely designed setting.
