solarbear

If this is true (and I have no real evidence to dispute it), it makes my tour upon arrival yesterday a bit weird. I booked a Garden View on points (their base level room), and was given a tour via golf cart of the property, including pointing out specifically the oceanfront rooms, the suites, and the big villa. I get they're trying to remind you there's more here than a base level room on points, but seems odd to do that if it isn't bookable. Related, the resort is empty, pools are near empty, beach is empty, but every room time besides the base is sold out. So clearly they either have bookings straight into those rooms, or they've given out their upgrades to people all higher than me (not complaining about my lack of upgrade, I didn't expect one, just noticing that it feels empty).

anyway, short review that hopefully touches on some questions others had above:

1. Pools are nice, I'm surprised there's no hot tub on the whole property. Pools are open until 10pm, but it's chilly by then with a breeze, especially after it rained, and a hot tub would've been nice.
2. Beach isn't great, it's not large, it's pretty rough sand, but it certainly has the uninhibited view of the open ocean.
3. Given how far set back the oceanfront rooms are from the actual ocean (at least 40 yards), and that the waves break farther out from the beach so you don't really get that big wave sound, I don't feel like I'm missing out by not having the oceanfront room (which are only about 72 of the 480 rooms, excluding suites and the villa).
4. Restaurants are better than I was expecting, given some poor reviews above. Nothing spectacular, but higher quality and less overpriced than I was expecting. I wouldn't necessarily spend the time to leave the resort to find other food unless you were going out anyway. Or if you really wanted Puerto Rican food, which this is not.
5. Pool bar is significantly less expensive than what I was expecting based on the Baha Mar a couple years ago ($15-$18 for a drink there, $10-14 here). But you can't beat a couple bottles of rum and a carton of juice poured into your own bottle, and the staff didn't seem to notice or care that we brought our own booze. Just no glass containers.
6. The resort overall is nice and quiet, mostly because it's horizontally spread out, unlike some with large towers (I think I was on the 15th floor of the Baha Mar, and we could hear children screaming on the beach from our balcony). Only complaint re: noise is that while the golf carts meant for shuttling guests are electric, the ones for staff (housekeeping, pool maintenance, pond cleanup, etc) are all gas engines, and pretty loud over the little pond fountains and gently swaying palms.
7. Whatever the big floating adventure course was, it's totally gone. I can see on google maps where it would have been in the water, and there's no trace of it. So I guess safety permits fell through and they scrapped it entirely.
8. Regency Club is still not open.
9. We didn't have hot water a couple times while showering in the room. I fear the engineers / builders said "why would more than one person in a building want a hot shower at the same time in the tropics?" and decided that a single 50gal regular residential water heater was enough for 24 units. If there was a hot tub to warm up in, maybe I could have overlooked this...
10. Through no fault of the resort, I busted my flip flop and the resort store had $10 flipflops on sale for $30. I had had some adult beverages by that point, so just paid the upcharge instead of trying to drive out to a store where I could've gotten the same thing for probably $8. That's where they make their money I guess. I feel like the booze is a more predictable cashflow, but who am I to question the business practices of a billion dollar company.
11. My SO had a minor foot injury caused by clumsiness, and the front desk sent essentially an EMT in a golf cart to patch it up with alcohol wipes, antibacterial wipes, and bandaids. We now have a fat stack of spare bandaids in case we need some more. Had to fill out an injury report, which honestly felt odd for some bandaids, but maybe this is a contracted out service and they need to prove to the resort that they actually have things to respond to. Definitely glad they have this guy (and presumably more than just him) with the kinds of shenanigans kids can get up to.
12. Overall takeaway: a steal at 12k/night. Unfortunately nobody will ever get that rate again, as a few months ago it went up to 15k. I think it's still pretty good for that price, if you want something a little more relaxing than a crowded beach in (for example) Florida.