I have mostly great things to say about our most recent trip here. Staff was all really wonderful (though the whole hand over the heart thing was a bit much) and I was generally impressed with all of the food (except for the French restaurant which was stuffy and generally bland).
I sent an e-mail about two weeks before our trip to the concierge asking about any room upgrades that would be available. We were booked into the Ocean Front Double on cash so I figured I may as well ask and see if anything better was an option, though I didn't have any expectation as I am an explorist. The concierge forwarded our request onto the room controller who offered a Club Ocean Front Double for free and I happily accepted.
When we arrived I was a bit surprised to see that we were assigned a room in the pyramid building - it was beautiful but I wasn't sure why we were offered an upgrade and then not properly assigned. I sent a quick e-mail to the room controller politely letting her know that what happened. She apologized and said there was some kind of change made to our reservation and it reset our room type, but she had blocked out a swim up room as well as a club room for us to tour and decide where we wanted to move to.
I can say that between the club room and the standard ocean front room I probably would prefer the standard ocean front room. It is markedly closer to the actual ocean and the only real difference I noticed was an upgraded nespresso machine vs the standard room's basic coffee pot. Though I'm really not sure why you'd use either when the coffee bar makes excellent espresso beverages all day. The swim up room was really incredible, though, and we decided to move there. The pool was heated and it was really amazing to come back to your room late a night and just hang out in the pool for a bit. The personal hammock was pretty awesome too!
We'll absolutely be back and will be booking straight into the swim up pyramid room or possibly giving the turquoize swim up room a shot!
Just a few last minute notes:
- Aqua body board yoga/fitness was terribly embarrassing but fun as all hell
- The gym was very well equipped with a bench, incline bench, crossover machine, and leg press
- Bring reusable straws as the resort does not provide any! We bought a pack of 12 on amazon and used the included cleaning brush to wash them every night. All of the staff mentioned how great of an idea the reusable straws were and I was glad we had them
- For three people, we went through less than $100 in tips over four nights and I felt like we were being quite generous while drinking a fair amount ($5 per full service meal and $1-$2 per round of drinks seemed fine)
- The pools close at 8:00 but if you have a swim up pool you can keep going (just be respectful to people sleeping in the rooms above obviously)
- I'll echo the poster above - USA Transfers was easy/affordable and I was shocked by how well put together their app was. It has a GPS tracker for their greeters at the airport and allows you to confirm your pickup times/notify them of your landing
