April 2019 trip report
We stayed here for 3 nights in April. I used 2 Chase free night certs and 70K points for the 3 nights. We reserved a standard room with 2 queen beds. We were upgraded to an ocean view room with 2 queen beds since we were IHG Platinum. I didn’t ask for a suite since I’d rather have 2 beds in the room instead of a pullout.
At check in we were welcomed with a glass of Champaign for the adults and small bottle of water for the kids. We got to the hotel around 130pm and the room wasn’t ready. The standard check in time is 4pm. We changed and the kids went to the pool/beach. There is a really nice and clean changing room/restroom behind the check in desk area and across from the marketplace.
On the 1st evening we were given a welcome gift. It consisted of a fruit and cheese plate plus some chocolate cake like things. I never made it to the desserts since the kids devoured them.
We were charged the $60 per night resort fee at checkout. There was no mention of the fee during check in but in reading the posts above I was expecting $70 so mentally prepared. I don’t know why I got charged $60 and others got charged $70. Did $70 folks have IHG Platinum or any status? I can see how someone can get upset at check out when the fee shows up. The resort fee includes valet parking (we rented a car; more on that below) as well as the non-motorized pool/beach toys such as pool floats, stand up paddle, snorkeling gear, sea kayak, water bicycle, etc. Also speaking of charges, I got a $15 credit towards the mini-bar for being IHG Platinum. They forgot to mention it at check in so it ended up being a $15 credit towards the final bill.
The service at this hotel is fabulous on the level of what I experienced at the Savoy in London years ago. They hired away a lot of people from the Ritz. Everyone here will do whatever they can to make your stay pleasant from the front desk staff to valet and pool staff.
Lot of little details such as by the pool there is both water and sunscreen for use. The pool attendants make your chair for you with wrapping around a big towel and then giving you a 2nd beach towel for use.
Pool chairs were generally easy to get but the covered cabana needs to be paid for like most places. However, there are about 5 black chairs that can be sort of like the cabanas with the overhead umbrella that are free on 1st come 1st serve basis. 3 of them are on the right side of the pool (when looking at the ocean) and 2 on the left side. You need to get down there by 7am (or a little earlier) to snag it. When the pool attendant comes by he will make it for you and you can leave your stuff there. The pool attendant will say be back by X time (usually 1.5 hours so you can eat breakfast) in order to keep it. Then it is yours for the rest of the day as long as you are using it. We learned this the last day and made good use of it. Very relaxing!
The hotel has a shuttle that goes to the Cayman Turtle Center up the road. The free shuttle goes twice a day in each direction at a specific time. Since we rented a car we drove ourselves up there. The kids enjoyed this place including touching and swimming with sea turtles. Note the swimming in the turtle center is in a pool type structure and not the picture of someone snorkeling behind a sea turtle that you sometimes see.
Regarding driving, I was excited about getting a chance to drive on the other side of the road after many years. We rented a car from Hertz. Note most car insurance from the USA is not valid in Grand Cayman; do your homework before you get here. I used my AMEX credit card to cover the collision and damage to the rental car part of the insurance. I bought the liability insurance from Hertz for about $16 per day. This 2nd part covers you if you get in a (major) accident and hit someone else (which the credit card portion won’t cover their car). Though we didn’t need to claim on the policy the peace of mind is worth it.
The main thing about “driving on the other side” is the wiper and turn signals are switched so I kept turning on the wipers every time I wanted to use the turn signal. Also, look both ways when making a right turn. Folks from North America are usually used to looking 1 direction only for right turns. The last part is exiting the round-about rules. Watch the video on this one because it is still confusing to me how you can exist from the 2nd inside lane.
I had hoped to drive to the hotel from the airport using the tourist map expecting signs to 7 mile beach. No luck here and perhaps it is because I didn’t know what I was doing. After going around for 15 mins or so I finally had to turn on the cell phone GPS and give my carrier $10/day for the international cell phone usage. Once we had the GPS the driving was really easy.
Monday nights the hotel has a dinner (buffet) show on a deck by the beach. It includes all you can eat, the food is generally good quality include steak, fish, shellfish, and the desserts are awesome. They have a fire dancing show and then do salsa lessons. We enjoyed this dinner/show combo.
We had a great experience at this hotel. I am glad I used my Chase free nights certs here before they switch over to the 40K only per night and would encourage others remotely interested to do the same and look past the $60 resort fee. 3 nights was enough for us since we also got ½ a day on arrival to use the pool/beach. In all we had a good time here and I am glad we good use of the last batch of “use anywhere” IHG free night certs. We are mostly a Hawaii family so most likely don’t plan to go back unless there is a super good deal.
Last edited by miles_navigator; May 5, 2019 at 5:13 pm