The Deep End Of Decadence

A suite can cost as much as $100,000 a night at Dubai’s Atlantis the Royal, but don’t you dare just stay in your room.

- Lisa Fleisher

From the moment you step through the front entrance, Atlantis the Royal puts on a show. Water pours down inside glass walls, while fire periodically flashes up. The pressure to post to Instagram is immediate, because you’ve arrived at the self-titled “most ultraluxury” resort in the world.

This isn’t the world, though. It’s Dubai, where “ultraluxury” has a specific meaning and nouveau riche aesthetics are giddily embraced. Wealth like this was made to flaunt, not accrue silently in savings accounts. Ultraluxury is over the-top, clad with gold and marble.

That’s what the $1.2 billion Atlantis the Royal, the latest property from Dubai-based hotelier Kerzner International Ltd., delivered with a “Grand Reveal” show in January starring Beyoncé. And it’s what guests have experienced since its 795 rooms opened in mid-February.

The journey of opulence begins in the hotel lobby, where the unifying theme of water (Atlantis, remember?) is hammered home with a towering aquatic sculpture and pool cutouts in the floor into which guests occasionally tumble. Check-in occurs at unmarked golden counters, which require constant buffing with microfiber towels to remove dreadful indicators of human presence such as fingerprints.