This is an impressive hotel situated in an even more-impressive sprawling Baha Mar complex. The grounds and facilities are spectacular. As for the rest, I'm reminded that they were chock-full during a very busy vacation week, and I think our expectations for something more relaxing were probably misplaced.
This isn't necessarily a serene retreat. It's too close to the rest of the Baha Mar complex, and while it's separated from it, you see and feel the activity on the other side of the wall. It felt more like the smaller nicer hotel in an otherwise blingy and impressive Las Vegas-style resort.
So expectations of a quieter and relaxing environment were a bit off, But there were a few things that left us with a not-great taste, mostly to do with interactions with people working there. Some of the team members were just unfriendly - and maybe some of that's to be expected on a weekend in which they have to staff up. We had a really surprising experience with a staff member who started blaring loud pumping music near the beachgoers on a Friday afternoon in advance of a newish Friday afternoon event they do at their beachfront restaurant. Every single person on the beach couldn't believe how it went from quiet to dance club within seconds, and the man who was setting it up was, like, surprisingly rude in his response to us. He said something to me I won't repeat here, Finally, a lovely manager came and helped resolve it after a while and managed to tone the music down a bit, But by then we were all rankled by the experience with this staff member and by no longer having one spot to be able to relax in quiet.
Sometimes it's the little things and this $2 one bugged me. (I can't believe I'm writing about $2.) At the breakfast the menu says that coffee is $10 (!) and if it's drip it includes refills. So when I got the bill (without refills by the way) I see there's a $12 charge. Now I don't really care about an extra $2 when i'm paying over $2k per night for a room to start with, but I looked again at the menu to see if I'd maybe missed something, and then asked the wait staff over to inquire about why the extra charge when the menu doesn't reference it. I didn't get a clear answer other than it was to cover refills, but when I asked another staff member about it, he said it looked like a typo. So,that's about when I started to feel a bit nickel-and-dimed by this place, like maybe I was being taken advantage of, and it just didn't feel very good. Like this little $2 charge with no explanation or transparency really landed poorly with me. And that's when I knew I wouldn't return.
But - would I recommend it for a family that wants luxury accommodation, isn't looking for the serenity but rather wants some of the action in an incredible Baha Mar facility? I actually would.
