We just returned from a 6 night stay at this property. While we found some time to relax and connect with each other, in general it was a frustrating experience that didn't meet our expectations. I'm not one to really complain and have a lot of patience when an "off night" happens. This wasn't that.
Here's the good, the bad and all the rest.
The Good
- Alexandra was our Ambassador and she was excellent. Kind, attentive, responsive. She really did a great job with the resources she had. I think she had off one day during our trip and the responses we got to our inquiries were delayed and "short". Not unkind, just not kind.
- Stephany was by far the best server we had. She was kind, attentive, and apologetic when breakfast took an unreasonable amount of time to arrive. She even brought us a fruit plate when our hot food was taking a long time.
- Ian was also great in RoMarley. He was friendly and a great server.
- The spa is small, but the staff was attentive and the couples massage was great. We also did hydrotherapy a few days and that was wonderful.
RoMarkley's Rock Shrimp was the best bite of the week.
The Bad
We desperately just needed a few days to sit by the pool and relax. I envisioned being able to order lunch and drinks to our pool chairs and read and decompress, but this is not what happened. The poolside "grill" menu only had fruit, salad, ceviche and guacamole on it. No hamburgers, no tacos, nothing of substance. And, the one day we ordered from the limited menu to eat poolside, our order took an hour and 20 minutes to arrive.
The rooftop pool was supposed to open at 9, but when we arrived at 10:30, it was locked up. When we got someone to open it, there were no towels. And there was no service for at least an hour.
Despite advertising 3 restaurants, there is only one open at a time and Kiin Rooftop was never open during our stay. There was no sushi available, despite being on the website.
Dinner was atrocious, every night. There was only one option for dinner, the food was terrible and the service even worse. Every night we had to remind our server of our order, the wrong food was brought out more than once and our water was never filled unless asked (repeatedly). One night my soup arrived after my entree, it was just a mess.
The filet, was overcooked and tough. Like chew for 30-45 seconds before being able to swallow tough and it was served with brown gravy on it and a different white sauce under it. The white sauce was also covering my husband's sea bass. I think they tried to cover the proteins in sauce to make up for the fact that they weren't quality.
One night we had the Epic Tomahawk dinner which was advertised to come with potatoes, it did not. We got the meat and a few root vegetables. This is supposed to be their exclusive members dinner.
We had a Bali bed that was reserved, but there was never anyone in the hut to help us understand the process, show us which bed we were to use etc. So, we finally just took the one that had a "Reserved" tag on it. A little while later a staff member came out and asked if we were guest at the hotel, if we had the bed reserved, and what our room number was. Which is fine, but if there had been an attendant in the hut, that confusion would have been avoided.
We were able to spend a day at their sister property, which was more the experience we were expecting for an all-inclusive. That location has appropriate staffing, more than one food choice and the staff was attentive and excellent.
Maybe this location is better during the high season, but we won't return. There is better value for your money at Secrets/Dreams.
