DC777Fan

OK, so I have some final thoughts.

As I mentioned, SPG treatment was very good. I asked for, and was given, a tour of the villa and during that time had occasion to ask a manager about occupancy, and he said it was roughly 35-40% at the moment, so that likely explains the on demand upgrade situation. Still, it's nice to know that they will do that if they can... really all you can ask for an upgrade.

The physical plant of the hotel is gorgeous. I like that the resort is spread out along a long stretch of beach -- really contributes to making it feel not too crowded and feel as remote as the location really is. Speaking of which, I had the worst 1hr20 minute drive of my life to the airport yesterday. It's really bad, and if you get even a little bit car sick, I would probably recommend renting a car so you can drive. I only get car sick in the absolute worst environments, and I was ready to vomit when I got out of the car.

If you're fine with the ride, the hotel cars certainly look more comfortable than the taxis parked outside the property. We booked the family car and received the Range Rover (pick up) and Audi Q7 (to the airport) at no charge. It said "Q7 Special Rate" on the bill, so it may be worth asking for the "special rate" and seeing what happens.

The service was generally very good. Our butler was fantastic. We ordered tea and coffee the first morning, and he asked us if we'd like it every day at that time... which was done. There was also the concierge, as I mentioned, who took great care to see that our camera was fixed if at all possible. We were regularly addressed by name by almost every member of staff there.

One thing that really bugged me was that our doorbell rang what seemed like a dozen times per day. You would think that if we order in room dining, somehow word would get out to stop ringing our doorbell, but no ... each of the 2-3 times we did it, our doorbell rang at LEAST 2 times. Once with tea that was literally 3 hours late... Otherwise, the towels were refreshed, and then turndown was done every time we had in room dining. Just not exactly how we wanted to spend our dinner with somebody else in the room almost the whole time...

Sometimes requests to butler service required one or two follow up calls, and often times our tea and coffee order was completely botched--which is amazing because I confirmed it in French as well as English after it happened the first time AND they repeated the order back to me. The last two afternoons, we ordered:
-1 english breakfast tea
-1 peppermint tea
-1 coffee
-1 bucket of ice
-1 plate of tea cookies (which is chargeable btw ... only StR I've ever seen that doesn't serve any sort of tea cookies as part of butler service)

What we received--both times--was one mint tea, one coffee, and no english breakfast, bucket of ice, or tea cookies. How is that possible to omit 60% of the order?

Again, I didn't think that our dinner being interrupted by a mouse was really handled properly. It was actually lucky, that time, that turndown service was there, as he had a broom. But I was sitting on the coach sort of "quarterbacking" the search effort, and on more than one occasion they tried to tell me the mouse was gone from the room because they didn't see it, and it was only at my insistence that they kept looking where I said it was (and of course it was).

They refunded that dinner and on check out acted like it was the biggest accommodation in the world. I would think that given the fact that we barely touched the dinner before my fiancee curled up in the bed and closed the door between the rooms, that refunding that dinner was obvious. On check out, which is, to be fair, probably a little later than I should have, I asked if they could refund the cash only portion ($180) of the cash and points for that night only, and was told no. The manager did offer some vague offer to "see what he can do" about a future reservation we have, but honestly I'm not sure what's going to happen, as I don't believe he really sees a mouse in the $1500/night room at a 5 star resort as a big deal after speaking to him. Obviously, we didn't see eye to eye there...

In terms of rooms, having been in 3 different types, to me the key is to be in a St. Regis Suite or above. There's not a ton of difference between a St. Regis Suite and a St. Regis "Grand" Suite, and as I mentioned above I do prefer both of them to the Manor House Suites--though I guess you're less likely to get a mouse in the room up there...

In all, this is a great resort, and if you live in the UAE, South Africa, etc or are visiting those countries already, it's definitely worth a visit. I still think it was a good visit for us because I place such a high value at being in a very different time zone on vacation, but for others that may be less of a concern. It's a good value for C&P, and they do take excellent care of Platinum members where the full breakfast and 500 point amenity are offered. It's also not a bad value for the base level rooms if you can catch a ~300-400 EUR rate which I saw a few times for our dates which are supposedly in the beginning of peak season (and you're platinum since you've got a good chance at upgrade).

But there's not a chance in the world it's worth the retail pricing on the suites which are in the 1500+ EUR/nt range. At that rate, you have your pick of some excellent world class resorts, and this just isn't there.