I am typing this from the Royal Beach Club pool at the moment - how's that for recent?

I will post a more detailed response after I get back home, but if you can book the resort for $250, I would do so. We're paying nearly double that, and don't find that to be a bad value. $250 is a steal, but you may also be looking at the rainy season (depending on when you are planning to go).

I have no real complaints at all, except for the restaurant reservation system. That said, right in the middle to typing this out, our concierge brought us a reservation slip to the pool cabana for tonight at the French restaurant.

We saw the regular non-RBC rooms from afar when walking around, and they look just fine. Admittedly, we have a 3rd floor jacuzzi suite which we find to be terrific so I would try to get into the RBC if possible. A week or so before arrival, the SPG reservation system changed our room from a non-RBC jr suite to a RBC room. Upon arrival we were automatically upgraded to the RBC suite without asking.

Post-Vacation UPDATE:

So here's a synopsis of our experience:

Arrival -- we took an Ecotours shuttle service to the resort for $25pp each way. Immediately upon stepping off the van I was approached by someone with a clipboard asking my name. He quickly looked it up, told me to please board the resort transportation to the Royal Beach Club. Our suitcases were loaded into a trailer attached to the shuttle, along with those of another couple and off we went. When we pulled up at the RBC lobby, there was someone waiting for us to arrive who opened the door, said "Welcome to the Royal Beach Club Mr. and Mrs. ___" and had two mojitos on a tray for us (that was a nice welcome!). We were checked in at a small table that sat 4 in the lounge area of the RBC, and the person checking us in explained all of the necessary things very clearly and professionally. She then put our bracelets on us and then walked us to our building and introduced to the concierge on duty.

The Room -- we booked a regular jr. suite, and the Starwood app showed a RBC room about a week before our arrival. Upon check-in we were pre-assigned a RBC suite, which is the nicest/biggest room with the private jacuzzi on the balcony. The room was very spacious -- basically a nice 1 bedroom / 2 full bath unit. It was very nice, very clean (I hate tile floors in resorts since my feet/socks are always black after a few minutes of walking around -- this was NOT the case here at all). The was a plate of fresh fruit and a decent bottle of Chilean reserve cabernet.

The grounds -- very nice, very comparable to other tropical resorts we've stayed at. The RBC is two "towers" (3 story buildings) that sit on either side of the RBC pool, with the RBC lobby at one end and the Italian restaurant at the other end. The RBC grounds were very nice, and comfortable (padded lounge chairs), etc. The rest of the grounds outside of the RBC are also nice, and since the regular non-RBC rooms are basically 2-story bungalows (4 units/floor), and there are probably around 50 or so of those buildings, it's a pretty large resort. Transportation shuttles abound, but we walked everywhere except back to the main lobby where the French restaurant was.

Bar Service -- There are ample bars (one at each pool, one outside the buffet, one in the main lobby, the sports bar, etc.). Drink service was very good and the selection was pretty good. While I prefer Grey Goose at home, I was happy to find Kettle One and Stoli at an all-inclusive. The mojitos were very good - I don't like sweet drinks but the Asian mojitos were great (made with ginger/mint/sour instead of sugar); my wife enjoyed her 3-4 passionfruit mojitos/day).

Meals:
Breakfast -- the Italian restaurant serves the RBC breakfast buffet, which is a nice spread of most breakfast items. There are about a half-dozen sliced fruit options, about a half dozen hot steamers (eggs, bacon, sausage, two rotating Costa Rican inspired meat/tortilla dishes, etc.), a guy making omlettes and french toast to order, a decent array of cerals/yogurt parfaits/yogurts, and a cold station with great smoked salmon and cold cuts/vegetables).

Lunch -- again, Italian restaurant serves an a la carte menu with a small but good choice of dishes. Three of our four days we both ate the cerviche of the day as an appetizer and the fish of the day for the entree, all of which were great. They also had a tuna tartare appetizer on the menu which we ordered to share, which was also very good. The menu has an array of salads, a couple of sandwiches (including a burger) and a few entree choices. One day we ate the main buffet since we ate very late (3:00), and that's all that was open. There were lots of choices from a good salad bar, 4-5 hot entrees, plus some other cold choices. While I am not really a buffet fan, this one was actually pretty good. And despite the late hour, our steak from the buffet was cooked a perfect medium despite probably having been sitting in the chafing dish for a bit.

Dinner -- as others have said, the restaurant reservation process is ABSOLUTELY THE WEAKEST LINK IN THE CHAIN. We ultimately ate in the three restaurants that were of interest to us (Mediterranean, French and Italian). I tried calling myself on 3 separate occasions between 8:00 and 9:30 and none of the calls were answered. I left voicemails 2 of the 3 times, none of which were returned. Our concierges always got us reservations, but usually not at our first choice, and usually not when we wanted (I always asked for 7:00, but always got either 6:00 or 6:30). Nonetheless, we showed up 10-30 minutes late each night, and there was NEVER any hint/suggestion/comment that we were late; rather we were happily seated.

Dinner service was pretty consistent across the restaurants, and overall we were very pleased. Contrary to comments from almost a year ago, every meal started with water and being offered cocktails/wine. When those arrived, we then ordered, and every meal overall met our expectations. Every order arrived correct, and we also ordered a third appetizer to share or a second appetizer, which always arrived with the others and was properly placed in the center of the table. I can't tell you how many NY area restaurants can't handle this (2 patrons, 3 appetizers and 2 entrees), so I was very pleasantly surprised that they got it right. Also, we follow a low-carb lifestyle so we substituted vegetables for the starch at every meal, and again everything arrived perfectly . As noted above, the fish was consistently great, and the steak in the French restaurant was a little tougher than most Americans like it to be (though it was very tasty and cooked perfectly) -- tough beef is a Costa Rica thing, they aren't Argentina!

Concierges -- ours were great. One person comes on in the morning, and they switch at 3:00. Every request that spanned the shift change was fully transparent, so these guys communicate with each other very well. While I think they had to work too hard behind the scenes to get us restaurant reservations, they did it without complaint and were always eager to help. For a platinum amenity, we selected wine/cheese and although we had to request it a day in advance, it was waiting in our room at the time we requested it. They also reminded us that we got a free day pool cabana as a platinum, and when we asked for one for our second to last day, they walked us over and asked us about location preferences.

Wrist bands -- Everyone at the RBC except us one other couple we noticed had gold wrist bands; ours were platinum. The non-RBC folks generally had green/white wrist bands during our stay. None of the staff really seemed to care about the color, which is to say I never really saw them look at my wristband to see if it was okay to give me Ketel One or not (some post on the SPG site I recall said that the liquor options varied by wristband color). While I hate the concept of wearing a plastic bracelet during my stay, this is not the first resort that uses this system, and I see the rationale for them)...

Overall service -- very good. Everyone was friendly, helpful, professional. We really enjoyed our stay and while it wasn't the pinnicle of luxuty and fine service, it also was comfortable, casual and certainly not stuffy.

The nits:
1. The two days I ordered omlettes for breakfast, the grill attendent made a less than happy face. Nonetheless, he made me very good omlettes both days, and I certainly gave him no reason to make a face so this was a little unprofessional and unwelcomed by me.

2. The gym is nice (typical Starwood with LifeFitness equipment), but the A/C couldn't keep up so it's close to 80F in there.

3. The spa is expensive and nothing special -- my wife's 80 minute massage was about $160, before the $25 coupon.

4. We spent a little over $125 on coffee for us and trinkets to bring hoem for the kids in the giftshop. We had the choice of cash, credit or room charge. We opted for room charge and I watched the cashier key in the amount (in dollars) to charge to our room. At checkout, the amount that appeared on our bill was about 3% higher, which I didn't argue since it was only a few bucks, but this really seems sleazy to me (especially since it wasn't disclosed).

All in all, I would go back, even with my family. The non-RBC rooms look just fine from a distance, and one person that I spoke to at the RBC said they were even nicer than the RBC rooms (I assume they are comparing RBC room to the standard jr. suite).