Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas opened its $5.5 million Atlantis Kids Adventure facility last weekend.
Sessions are priced from $40 to $65 each for Atlantis guests ages 3 to 12. AKA programs include a hands-on culinary adventure; an imagination station with Lego construction, a friendly story-telling tree and a grocery store; a performance room with interactive games, movies and jam sessions; computer stations; game rooms; and arts and crafts.
Even the restrooms have kids' artwork and holograms that appear in the mirror to talk to children while they are washing their hands.
AKA and the refurbished Seagrapes restaurant are the resort’s newest attractions this year. Atlantis hired 150 people to work at both sites.
Currently the 3,141-room Atlantis employs 7,700 full-time workers and is the largest private employer in the Bahamas, according to George Markantonis, president and managing director of Kerzner Bahamas.
The new jobs come a year after the property laid off 800 employees when the economy turned south.
"Our leisure business held up because of all the promotions and value packages," Markantonis told the Nassau Guardian. "However, we could not make up the amount of rooms that canceled because of the softness in the convention business market."
Group business remains flat and will continue that way until 2011, according to Markantonis.
The resort has launched several promotions aimed at the leisure market and recently rolled out a yearlong marketing campaign dubbed "Only in Atlantis."