The Daisy Family Suites at Ocean Coral Spring

Traveled to Ocean Coral Springs April 2nd through April 8th. I am not one to leave reviews but if this helps one family then I feel like I did my job here. This is a long review but it accurate - you might save yourself some anguish if you read this. There was good in this trip - I just don't know if this trip was worth what we paid. The Good: As soon as we arrived at the resort, we were greeted by Courtney. A very pleasant man who is there to help you and never asking you for a tip (even though we did tip him because he deserved every penny and more). His smile was unmatched on the rest of the trip and his kindness made our vacation much more pleasurable. The views of the ocean and pool were absolutely gorgeous and on our last day we got to see horses walking in a line in the ocean from one end of the resort to the other and it was magical (even if it doesn't really sound like it - trust me everyone was in absolute awe of this). MOST of the staff is friendly and appreciative that you are there. The food at the buffet is pretty decent and the wait was never horribly long. The weather was AMAZING. It rained every day for about 10 minutes in the 5PM hour but there was only one day that felt "hot". The ocean and the pool temperatures were just right (not too hot or too cold). Did the Dunns River and Blue Hole excursions - they were AMAZING and I highly recommend these. Something you will remember for ever and just hope that you get Danica as your tour guide, she is TRULY amazing! She even helped us navigate through the market where people were trying to swindle the foreigners. The Bad: Be aware that you are 12 levels of vacation that this hotel offers and you are purchasing one even if you don't know it. If you don't know it, you are likely purchasing the lowest possible level which means, you will not be able to get a beach chair and you will not likely be able to get a beach towel. When I politely asked for a towel at about 2PM, I was told to walk across the resort (pretty far away) to get a towel from the other pool (the one with the slides that are so boring that my 13 year old son decided to try one time and that was enough for him for the entire trip). Parents can not go down the slides at all and 2 year olds have to go by themselves). When I ask the staff there for a towel, I am told there are no towels there and that I should go back to where I just was to get a towel. I was ping ponged like this back and forth promising that there would be towels available in 30 minutes at each spot. Finally at 4:30 I am told "I have no idea why they told you to come here, they know we close at 5). For the rest of our time here towels and chairs would be impossible to obtain through regular channels. By Day 2 everyone is aware that you have to be up by 5:45am to get a chair for the next morning - this is not a joke - this is real. Some people are holding chairs the night before and the staff does nothing to prevent his - they do not post signs that this behavior is forbidden so what you have the next day is hundreds of pool chairs that are saved but no one is using...ALL. DAY. LONG. The staff is well aware this is happening and they do nothing to discourage it. People have been caught reserving a chair and leaving for the entire day for an excursion and still nothing is done. There are several restaurants that you are supposedly able to eat at however you can not get a reservation. You are told when you check in that you can't book a reservation until 8AM the day of - you and your entire family can be on your phones at start time and by 8:01 there are zero reservations available so you are stuck eating at the buffet for every meal. We were able to get our second choice of Hibatchi one night and the person cooking was so lack luster and boring. We met a couple who dealt with the same guy and told us the same exact thing the very next night! I ordered shrimp, he gave me 3 pieces. I asked for more, he was not happy and begrudgingly gave me two more. He then took the rest of the shrimp that was on the grille back on a plate for someone else who was not apart of Hibatchi. The drinks on the drink list are the same at every bar unless you are in an upgraded package. At the pool, the drinks are ALWAYS limited. You can only get what ever flavor slushy they have decided to make for that day and every drink is sugar laden from a mix - nothing fresh even though the sign on the lazy river calls their drinks "smoothies". The only drinks available are the caliber of spring break. While they tasted good - I felt horrible after having a few from all the sugar and fake ingredients. The ocean "view" room is not a ocean front room. You can "see" the ocean if you look to the right but they positioned the chair swing on our balcony so that it was right behind the pillar - could not see the ocean from the swing - you had to stand to see it. All of the drink sizes are miniature. It makes sense that they do not want people to waste things however - you literally need to order 3 drinks to get the size of a real one. The Ugly: There are some staff members that just do no like you if you are not Jamaican and they do not understand that you are helping to get their economy back on track - they give dirty looks, ignore you, tell you they are no longer open when they are supposed to be there for an hour longer. This happened at the pool to a women who had just checked in. This poor women was just trying to get the lay of the land and asked the pool bar if any of the drinks could be made virgin and every time she asked she was given this line "you have to come back tomorrow we are closed" (this was at 4Pm, the pool bar supposedly closes at 5). The lady said "Oh I didn't want a drink now but for tomorrow are you able to get virgin daiquiris." The women behind the bar answered "no" and I spoke up and said "that is not correct, you can absolutely get any of those drinks with out liquor" and the women behind the bar gave us both a dirty look and told us to go to the bar at the red snapper. I walked there and the bar tender was very nice and explained that they do not open until 7 and that the pool bar is open until 5 (supposedly). While I did see staff brushing some of the tiles in the pool two of the days we were there, there is tons of mold in the grout around the entire pool on the walls. The grounds still had some trash from hurricane Melissa, over by the rocks overlooking the ocean - there is a lot of trash that was never cleaned up. All in all we wound up having a great vacation because we made the best of it but this is in no way a luxury vacation...you really need to upgrade big time if you want to be able to get towels which should be a basic amenity. Read less