I always read reviews before going anywhere, and honestly, I was nervous about staying here after reading some of the reviews. I'm really glad I gave it a chance because we had a great experience overall.
The hotel is gorgeous, and our room was spacious, clean and comfortable. Most importantly, I didn't see a single roach during our entire stay anywhere. The staff were very busy, but for the most part they were friendly and kind. I found that they give you the energy you give them, so make jokes, smile and be patient for a better experience.
We had a few small issues with our room, and whenever I messaged through the app, someone responded quickly and the problem was usually fixed within 5-10 minutes. Calling directly was much slower and sometimes resulted in miscommunication between staff members.
Bring your own shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. The products provided were very thin and shampoo and conditioner left a waxy feeling on our hair.
Slippers — the floors can get cold.
Your own refillable water bottle. There are water stations near the rooms, but the large glass bottles they provide are awkward to carry, especially without a tote bag.
A reusable straw. The paper ones aren't very good.
If you plan on using the bathtub, bring your own bath bomb or bubble bath. The provided gel soap doesn't really bubble.
If you go to the beach, be prepared for some sand in your room. It seemed like the floors were mopped but not vacuumed, so sand from our balcony eventually made its way inside and near the beds. We had to lay towels down to constantly rub the sand from our feet.
Overall, we enjoyed the food. The main buffet had lots of fresh, flavorful options. The biggest issue was that the meat and fish were often on the dry side.
Aunt Ruby's was our favorite in terms of service and presentation. Unfortunately, the lobster and T-bone were both dry. The Italian restaurant was disappointing for us because the pasta was very heavy on cream and light on flavor. The Greek restaurant was okay — the lamb was excellent, but the other dishes we tried weren't as good.
We were also there to celebrate my husband's 50th birthday. We let them know ahead of time, they said they would put a banner on the door and provide a cake. Unfortunately, after seeing no banner on the door, the morning of his birthday, I went to guest services only to find out they ran out of banners and the cake would be left in room with no way to light it. Hopefully they improve the communication around birthday celebrations because I would have happily brought my own banner if I'd known ahead of time.
Thankfully, I mentioned his birthday at Aunt Ruby's, and they brought the cake out at the restaurant with a sparkler and sang! That ended up being much more special than having the cake sitting in our room.
The location was very convenient — only about 30 minutes from the airport — and for what we paid, I thought the overall value was excellent. They are doing some construction right now, but it didn't bother us too much. I love how authentically Jamaican it was in terms of music by the pool and the funny sayings on the pillows at the cafe. There was one woman working the cafe and she's amazing, I recommend going there for coffee and tipping her as she deserves it for all her hard work. It seemed that tipping was expected throughout the resort, so bring lots of small bills.
There was one guy trying to get us to go to the breakfast presentation but we kindly explained to him that we were not interested and that was that. There was no sales pressure that we experienced which I really appreciated.
Despite the little issues, we had a really good time and I would absolutely go back. We're actually thinking about returning in the near future - maybe for my 50th!
