Just finished a 4 night stay here as diamond.
Fruit basket for us was a bunch of small bananas, 3 mangoes and a dragon fruit. And Macarons. We also got the embroidered robes and slippers. Very nice touch.
4 drink vouchers usable at Azure or Zest.
Assigned rm 211, close to Zest. This is an 'upgrade' from the waterfront villa we booked(using points and free weekend night) Met Marco at the gold/diamond cocktail reception(tues and fridays). He asked if we were happy with our room. We were not unhappy at all, but commented that we know they have some beautiful villas here. He said they do like to upgrade returning diamonds to higher units when possible, but that they were totally full that day and the following day(somewhat impressive as it's the tail end of low season-2 prior nts in a Chaweng hotel and that resort seemed very quiet) He also mentioned that 5 of the two-bedroom villas are being renovated(we noticed passing by them on the paths but heard no noise from the work). Said they can upgrade us to a two-bedroom villa for our final two nights if we are willing to move. We accepted that offer.
Room 211 was pretty good for privacy. Window of room 212 peers over the wall a *little* into our pool deck, their villa is a little higher. Not a big deal really. For most of the villas, some part of the pool and/or deck will be visible from other rooms. Especially when in the pool at the infinity edge. The pool umbrella blocks a bit of the looking down from above.
Upgrade was to Villa 403. Beautiful and we felt more private than some of the others. Again, very few if any of the villas have perfect privacy in the pool/on the deck. But as another poster said, you'd be hard pressed to make eye contact with another guest on their deck/pool area here.
We are fairly fit and walked around to/from zest/pool/beach and along the buggy paths behind the 100/200 level villas for exercise. Above that you would probably need to be a super athlete.
Zest breakfast setup has changed a little from our previous visit in 2015. Now the smoothie/juice bar, dim sum/noodle cart, pancake/waffle grill are out front. I gather this leaves rooms for a few more tables, which seems reasonable. When seated you are presented a menu for ala carte egg dishes- eggs benedict, thai omelette, cantonese omelette. That's in addition to the regular omelette station and buffet. Everything still seemed quite good and many of the dishes/pastries changed daily.
The Pier- Looks like the concrete work is done but still needs a good bit of finishing-railing, boat dock/ramp. Additionally it doesn't look like they have done much of the work to connect the walkways/ buggy paths to the pier. Currently not allowed to walk past a certain point on the promenade. One of the managers at the reception speculated a Q1 2019 finish but he was new and I don't think very connected to the project.
Another manager let us know that they plan to move the fitness center to the location of the kid's club in 2019. Only 1 treadmill, 1 elliptical, 1 bike and a handful of other weight machines and a good rack of weights. Morning one the bike was out of service, morning two the treadmill was also out of service. After that we were a bit discouraged (and also under the weather) so never visited again. I get that it's not a huge resort and may not get quite the use that a big city property fitness center might, but it could use some improvement.
As written about here, Marco was great and approachable. He helps all over the facility, busing tables tables here and there, driving guests to/fro and all sorts of things. All of the other staff were really great too, always happy to help.
We dined at Jahn on our last night. We were really looking forward to this, on our previous visit we felt it was too pricey. Firstly, the location, ambiance, staff, service, and presentation are all REALLY good. But for the price we were not wow'ed by the food. There were certainly items that we thought were very good, the appetizers and palate cleansers. But the signature items like the tom yum soup and wagyu massaman disappointed us. The Tom Yum soup is beautifully presented(broth made at your table-see youtube) but was too salty for me to finish. The wagyu is seared with an iron tableside which is really cool. But I was not blown away by this dishes mixing of a very fine/expensive cut of meat and a massamun curry. I think either are probably great individually, but combined did not make it something as built up as it is in reviews. We are foodies but not really fine diners(e.g. - I accidentally ate the tiny orchid on the papaya salad appetizer), so maybe our palates aren't refined enough. Don't let my opinion spoil your experience. :-)
We had room service a couple of times, the tom ka gai and cashew chicken were both pretty good. We noted that pizza was no longer a room service option which is disappointing. Since it was one of the cheaper dishes and halfway decent hotel/comfort food I would guess it was popular and not as profitable. Now you must get your brick oven pizza fix at the poolside restaurant(Azure).
Watching the full moon set over the five islands in the predawn hours is a memory we won't forget.
Two Conrad Turtles were presented at checkout.
Overall, great experience and hope to return again.