"I had read the reviews on here prior to going, and assumed that the less than positive reviews much have been very picky people. Unfortunately, I was very wrong. This resort is extremely beautiful. The location, the property, the buildings, the rooms, all stunning. Many of the folks working here were great as well. Most greet you and are happy to help. I found that many of the issues we had in our 9 day stay could be addressed by management and better training. I have a ton of examples, but will list only a few.
The breakfast buffet is awesome. So many options and the folks working are running around like crazy. That said, as others mentioned, there is no coffee / tea station. Each cup of coffee has to be ordered from an individual and then delivered. You cannot order a pot. Some days we waited over 30-40 minutes to even order a coffee. Then for the coffee to actually come was another 30 minutes or so. That said, you could almost never get more than drink. Many people might like 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning. A self service station could easily address this solution. The folks working there suggested we come earlier. We had breakfast at 8am two days and still had the same coffee delays. It is really unfortunate (and fixable) and ruined an otherwise stunning breakfast buffet.
There is an ice bucket in the room with a note that says to order ice from room service. The first day we tried to do this. You cannot order ice through the app (more on the app later, but basically it hardly ever worked, and you could not book spa appts or anything with it). Our room phone did not work - this was fixed. Once we ordered the ice, it took well over an hour for it to come. The second night we waited 1.5 hours before trying to call to cancel it (we decided to just go to dinner). The called to cancel went unanswered. The balance of the nights we walked to a bar or restaurant to get our own bucket of ice - no easy feat as it is quite a walk. This could be addressed by installing ice machines.
We rented a car one day from the front desk. We went the day before and were asked what time we would like the car. We said 9am. The front desk woman confirmed 9am. We came at 9:15 the next morning (island time). The same woman looked as us blankly. She said, you called and changed the time. No, we did not. In fact our phone did not even work. She then said she would call to order one and it would come in about an hour. What?
We brought laundry to the front desk on Sunday. We were told it would go out first thing Monday morning and be back Tuesday morning, by 9am. When we asked about it Tuesday morning at 9:30, it was not back and we were told we should have put a rush on it (and paid extra). I am only asking you to deliver on what you said. If you told me afternoon, that would be fine.
One day we wanted to order drinks from our sun chair. The chair did not have a number on it. I walked to a server and asked if they could take a drink order. I mentioned that our chair by the ocean did not have a number. He said, I will take your order but for future reference your chair is number 400. We had the drinks and wanted to order another. I went to the app, and it gave me an error saying that the chair numbers only went up to 320 or something. So I then walked to the bar and let that same server know, that I got the error. He said, yes, the app doesn't work for the 400 chairs. OK, so why did you tell me to use that number for future reference?
Housekeeping was a mystery. Again, super nice folks. But some days we got the 2 included bottles of water, some days we didn't. Some days they took our towels and gave us new ones, other days they didn't (we always left them in the tub). We had turn down service a few of the nights, but not others. We used our glasses in the room on the first day. They were taken away on the second day and not replaced until day 7, though I left a note each day asking for new glasses. The coffee/tea was only sometimes replenished. It seems they need better training and a checklist of items to complete in each room each day. We also had spiders and dead bugs under the bathroom sink that lived there the entire stay. I took photos of this.
The private pool was not heated and was too cold for us to use. The adult pool was supposed to be heated but I also found too cold. The indoor pool at the spa was also cold.
I used the What'sAp to reach out to the concierge and this was only sometimes answered promptly. He seemed very overwhelmed. One day he promised a surprise in the room due to all of the delays. This never came.
The spa is free to use and this is a great benefit. The gym is also excellent. We found the restaurants to be very good, though a high price point. There are a few restaurants you can walk to, about a 5 minute walk, that are much more reasonable and have larger portions. We especially enjoyed Veranda. The minimart was also convenient, especially on days we did not get our included bottles of water.
Such an uneven experience and not what you would expect from a JW and at this price point. For those reasons I would not recommend this resort unless you are quite patient. When we were there it was not at capacity, so I can only imagine how overwhelmed they will be in high season."
