BACK from Puerto Rico!
Hearty thanks to all who pointed me to this resort. I started a thread last summer looking for the best warm weather resort option within a 5 hour non-stop flight from Boston (or something like that) and had a few good suggestions, but this one was the obvious winner. We collect points all year in NYC and visiting family and occasional business trips and use the Bonvoy card so we can cash in points for big deals like this.
We arrived at San Juan airport last Sunday around 1PM. Picked up our Hertz car at the airport and took the beach road (187) to the resort. The (toll) highway would have taken half the time but we wanted to see a bit of the island and didn't need to arrive too early to check in. Great drive down, past all sorts of beaches and open air restaurants (if you own a fryer and a grill you have a restaurant). Got to the hotel around 2:30 (pull up all the way to the drop gate to have it go up) and gave our name to the security man at the entrance kiosk. Of course this meant being greeted by name at the main property building. Led inside where the two desks checking folks in were full, offered beverages by what seemed to be a dozen different smiling associates. Checked in after about 10 minutes, given a "golf course view" garden room, room 113, which was along the golf course, but no view except from the patio. This is about a 5 minute walk from the main house. A butler came along with us, our larger bags (carryons) had already been delivered and he tried to take our personal bags (laptop sized) from us, but we were capable of doing this ourselves, so he told us all about the property and showed us around the room and the controls.
This room was HUGE, it's in a building with 6 or 8 rooms, with half on the 2nd floor reached by a stairway (they likely have better views than the ground floor). King Bedroom was enormous -- we've had bigger rooms, but they need 65" TVs, the set is so far away from the bed! Short hallway to the bathroom, with a closet en route with a safe and lots of hangers. Bathroom also was big, with a rainshower head and a handheld. Big soaking tub, but no jets, we didn't use it. Lots of towels and Remede products. WC is off of the bathroom in it's own cubicle. Frosted glass except on the edges was weird, as someone desiring complete privacy might have had a problem with that. We had inquired about SNA's but as mentioned they don't do them here. No idea if this is a standard room or an upgrade over the standard king.
They do sushi on the back deck of the main house on Thursday-Saturday, so we decided to have that for dinner. About 12-15 options, prices were high ($12-25/roll) but the portions were large and the quality was high and the view was excellent. We had spent a few hours exploring the beach and pool before dinner and then checked out the stars before turning in.
Sunday morning we discovered the bathroom and shower had no hot water. Lukewarm at best (70?). Called it in and it was fixed before evening. We are Platinum (newly) and getting the $27 b'fast buffet included was great ($270 for 5 days? Oh yeah). I upgraded for the $9 to the full buffet, my wife is crazy about fruit and the items on the basic so she was happy with that. Another day of beach and pool (and back and back) and long walks along the beach, finished with dinner at the Beach Club, about a 12 minute walk from the main property. This was not our best meal of the week. I had their version of Mofongo which didn't have any meat or added veggies and was pretty bland, rest of the meal was not memorable. Nice views over the pool to the ocean. Was dark when we were done and we had them call a golf cart shuttle to take us back.
Monday we took a half day trip to El Yunque Rainforest, booked through the onsite tour company. Was us and one other couple from the resort with a driver/guide in a comfortable van. Supposed to end with swimming in a stream at a waterfall, but recent rains had stirred up sediment so it wasn't appetizing. Instead we went to La Parilla (like Debbie, above) which was excellent, for lunch.
Dinner on Monday was at Paros upstairs in the main building. Very good meal, she had the whole Branzino (her favorite), I had the lamb chops, which were good. Branzino is usually served whole (head on) and you filet it, they did serve it whole, but had deboned it for us.
Tuesday was another hard day at the beach and pool, and they did an added Sushi night as a large corporate group was onsite and had requested it, so we enjoyed that again. There were groups on hand each of our days, but other than seeing them in large groups on the various lawns they didn't really take away from the ambiance of the resort as can often happen. Folks we met did say one of the groups was pretty rowdy in the pool cabanas but we didn't see that. Our sushi server (Yolanda) was always wonderful when we'd see her around the place and brought us a handwritten list of restaurant suggestions in the area as we mentioned we were hoping to leave the property the next night
Wednesday morning one of the servers at bfast (Steven) wouldn't let my wife get her usual fruit plate, he told me to make sure she stayed at the table. Turns out he and one of the chefs had put together a beautiful assortment of fresh fruit, most also available at the buffet, some from other days, but not presented so wonderfully. That evening we took the 25 minute drive to Richie's Cafe, overlooking the Wyndham, with incredible views of the ocean and resort, and the best Mofongo we had in PR (ended up having it 4 times). Check out was Thursday morning when we headed to Old San Juan. All the charges ($85 resort fee, $22 parking, 4 dinners plus tips on the breakfast, no alcohol, came to $1100, which feels reasonable for the quantities and quality of what we ate.
Other comments: There was a big jug of Aloe at the pool towel desk near Sea Grapes restaurant which came in handy as we each got sunburned the first full day
There were jugs of 30 SPF at that desk and at the beach shack where they provided towels, tables, and umbrellas for guests relaxing on the beach
We went to the pool at the Beach Club one day, they make you sign for and return towels there. Different towels than at the St. Regis pool/beach
Room had a light (smoke detector?) that flashed green all night, every 8 seconds or so. I appreciate safety but this thing illuminated the whole room. If I had to find 3 faults with the room it would be this light, the "not totally frosted" WC window, and the hot water issue. Not big deals.
If you eat at Sea Grapes or at any outdoor venue keep a close eye on your food! There are very smart blackbirds all over the property who will take anything you leave on the table. They will even hop on the table when you are sitting there, so be alert. For b'fast we never both left the table at the same time as they would hop on your silverware and peak into your coffeecup to see if there was anything they could take. Same thing at the pool and at the beach club.
We did attend the nightly champagne Sabering twice. They tell a nice story and then pass out glasses of champagne to everyone. We didn't see an organized fish feeding, but did see the fish being fed one morning. The firepots in the pools near the main house were lit our last two nights, but not the first three. None of the pots along the road were lit and the fountain wasn't running. Lots of construction on new "Residences" but you didn't hear anything, nor was there dust or dirt from the work to affect our stay in anyway.
Most of the kids we saw were under 3. Very few older than that, so can't really advise Phasers. There were two girls around 10 and 12 we saw in the pool and hottub and some teens, but no idea if they had any activities for them. There isn't a newsletter or board of things to do that we saw