The outside portion of the resort itself is very pretty. Great pools. There are nice activities for the kids, almost as a cruise on land. When you walk in the lobby you are greeted with an insane amount of perfume, air freshener, who knows what. Beyond overwhelming and extremely bothersome- instant headache and you quite literally cannot breathe in the lobby without inhaling an insane amount of fragrances. Think walking into the cosmetic area of the mall times 100. The fitness centers are “ok”. Only one has weights but is a small space, the Augustine fitness center is bigger with a bunch of cardio machines. I did not visit the key west area fitness center. The staff can be friendly at times*, which is very rare. More often you’re made to feel like you’re inconveniencing them, or that having to say “hello” is a problem. They are also extremely pushy to sit in their vacation club presentations, which was not appreciated. Took me 45 minutes to check in due to having to listen to their vacation club spiel. This is not what anyone wants to deal with after being up at 4am to begin their travel day. I signed up for the presentation for the free night reward, and was then potentially unable to make it- at which point I was essentially threatened to attend or I’d “lose late check out” and told “they want me to reschedule” multiple times not allowing me to cancel-when I told them my family was arriving and I could not reschedule. Ultimately I sat through the presentation, did not see the value in it. They also didn’t remove the night stay as promised despite my reminding them multiple times, so be sure to check your receipts prior to checking out. The restaurant waitstaff is very slow. Takes about 20 mins to be greeted, and no one checks on you after ordering. We had to get up and search someone out, or go to the bartender, to ask for a side of sauce, drink refills, etc. My guest and I sent two Amazon packages here as surprises for the kids, we were absolutely shocked to learn we would be charged $10 per package, to simply be handed our package. Absolutely shocking! After literal hours of conversations with the staff, we got the charges waived. That was a terrible experience and a waste of about four hours of our time which we should have been enjoying. The food is insanely overpriced priced. $19 for only 6 wings, and $3 more if you want all flats. The market place charges $16 for a dozen eggs! I understand “paying for convenience”, but that’s a rip off. Sure, we could have gotten or ordered grocery delivery, and then paid $10 per package to receive them… Ludacris. We did not rent a car, as you’re charged daily for parking on site. Most of the food was decent, at best. There isn’t any value in adding protein to the wraps, for $6 I got three shrimp added to my wrap, for $7 a small sliver-maybe 2oz- of Mahi. The Poke Bowl was my favorite. The air conditioning does whatever it wants no matter how many times you set it. It will suddenly be 60 degrees in the room, and then 75 overnight so you’re sweating profusely. Inside the room overnight, neither myself nor my family could breathe. I woke up with extreme nasal congestion and a very bad sore throat each morning, assuming due to the recycled air, and would feel better once outside in the fresh air. Only to repeat that cycle the entire trip. The room smelled musty and moldy, wet.. We constantly felt horrible in the room. I broke out all over my face, which hardly ever happens to me, due to their pillows. I assume there’s dust mites, or could potentially be from whatever they use to clean the sheets or whatever is in the carpeting. The pillows are also 100% horrendous. Terrible neck pain after using them. I’d honestly bring your own. My family felt the same about the pillows, with my guest stating “worst pillows ever”. You can also hear every single thing the guests above you are doing, very loudly. Difficult to sleep when you continue to hear every footstep, word and toilet flush. The water in the shower is ice cold for a good 3-5 minutes once turned on, so be sure to start running the water early. We did not have shampoo in our room. After asking for it to be brought to us, it was left at the door for us to figure out how to attach it to the wall. The internet service is very poor, even on their WiFi. When we asked for a luggage cart upon arrival and departure,, they wouldn’t bring it to us nor assist with our baggage. We had to find one and roll it across the resort ourselves. This place is huge.. huge. Absolutely unacceptable. This seems more of a do it yourself and pay us resort as opposed to let us assist you and make your stay enjoyable resort. Overall, I’d recommend finding a different place to stay with staff that happily greets you, doesn’t overwhelm you with perfume spray in the lobby, believes in good customer service, clean rooms with thermostats that work, and attentive servers so you can have an enjoyable experience.
