Just finished a 5 night stay at this property using SPG points. As a Platinum member, I was upgraded prior to arrival to an ocean front room on the first floor. SNA wasn't available - which I suppose is no surprise given that this stay was over Thanksgiving week.
The physical property is quite beautiful and is a jungle meets beach feeling. The rooms are in individual smaller buildings. It reminds me a bit of the Nam Hai in terms of the beach and landscaping. I was in building 12, which is farthest from the Plantation house with the bar, Fern, check in desk, and concierge. The landscaping was quite nice and seemed to be very thoughtfully designed, giving us a view of the beach and ocean from our first floor room while still providing privacy. If I return here, I will request a room on the second floor for improved beach view.
The room is nice, with a huge bathroom. I honestly thought the enormous shower/bath area was a lot of wasted space and needed more jets/shower heads to deserve such a large space. I also would have liked to have an outdoor shower. This property just seems to cry out for outdoor shower and I wonder why the architects selected a larger indoor space instead.
Fern definitely has a great selection of breakfast items and we appreciated the Platinum credit. The credit allows for the continental breakfast (pastry, coffee, juice, and fresh fruit) or for an $18 credit. We used the $18 credit and still ended up spending about $40+ for breakfast out of pocket as the french toast and egg dishes were just too tempting. The patio outside has a nice view of the beach. Though beware of the birds that love breakfast as much as we do!
The pool area is also nice, set along a series of pools at different levels. There always seemed to be plenty of chairs. While a cabana might be nice, they do not really have beach views. We didn't think one would be good value. The hot tub is spacious and kind of hidden in some landscaping between the pool and the beach. The beach is nice and I enjoyed swimming. The waves were fairly large and the water was rough. I did not experience any rip currents. It's definitely more for confident swimmers. Beach service for chairs, towels, and f&b was quite good and attentive.
Really the only draw back of this property is the service (except for beach service). For the quality of the property and prices charged, the service really lacks. While I could go on and on, I'll just mention a few examples. Requested ice and bath amenities and they were never delivered. Made dinner reservations and turn down service would always show up while we were getting ready - this is just a lack of good management, training, and communications between departments. Asked for a sharp knife. Got a butter knife. Requested a package be delivered to the room as soon as it arrived (requested this at check in). Had to call MULTIPLE times to get it delivered to the room on the day DHL dropped it at the hotel. All of these, while minor, add up to an experience much less than what I would have expected at a St Regis.
The worst was probably the concierge/tour desk. First, the concierge cannot book tours like the bio bay or rain forest tour. You must go through the tour company located at a desk right next to the concierge. The tour desk has more limited hours. Why have a concierge that cannot book these trips?
So when we did finally meet with the tour person to book the bio bay tour before breakfast, she told us that "she was very busy today" and seemed annoyed that we were bothering her. She said she wasn't sure if they had availability but would check. I thought she would have checked and come up to tell us what she was able to find while we were eating. Nope. We went back downstairs, she said she did have a trip and was ready to charge us $95. I said we were going to drive ourselves (which she had forgotten) and the price should be lower. In fact, it was only $65.
I recommend booking your tours on the many tour companies available on the web as they are all about the same and the prices are lower if you book directly (for example, bio bay tours can be had for about $40-$45).
The bio bay tour is awesome, unique and I highly recommend it!
While we enjoyed this trip to PR, I would probably not return from Denver given the lack of non stop flights and distance. From the East Coast and Midwest this is a good choice. It could be a great choice if they really improve their service.