Originally Posted by platbrownguy

Stayed 2 nights this past Friday and Saturday. Booked on points (something like 102,000 per night) and paid $350/night extra to confirm a suite (i.e. a points + cash upgrade rate).

Pros:
-I had booked an Astor and was proactively upgraded to a St. Regis suite (422 -- one of the best rooms IMO for proximity to everything and view of ocean from room)
-Your24 was approved for 1pm check-in and check-out (this is huge in my book, even though it's just 3 hours early and 1 hour late... those can be really tough hours to get at this place)
-We were able to check in upon 12:30pm arrival with no trouble, crib was waiting in the room
-Saturday was wife's birthday... we had dinner at Paros (fantastic) and when we came back there was a cake and balloons including a giant E balloon (the first letter of her name). Very very cool, we were both impressed
-Service was the best ever. We used palapa number 14 (discussed up thread -- first come first served, not a proper cabana, just a thatched-roof hut thing with beach chairs) on Friday and Saturday... had the towel guys set them up each day. Bar service doesn't technically go that far but they made it happen anyhow (I tipped accordingly). That was all fine and good, but Sunday I went down to the palapa (visible from our room) and was kind of annoyed because it looked like they hadn't cleaned anything off from the previous day... but when I got there I was surprised to see that they had set up the three chairs in advance for us. Theoretically anyone else could have come and used them but those palapas never saw any use other than by us (as opposed to the two over by the beach bar, which were heavily used). That kind of proactive anticipating-your-needs service is special. We really felt like everyone went out of their way to make the weekend awesome.

Cons:
-pre-arrival emails were frustrating -- we had big trouble getting a crib last time we stayed, so I tried to get some confirmation in advance that they would actually have one available this time, but the agent simply refused to commit and said it would be based on availability. I was like "can you see how many you have and how many crib requests you have and give me an idea" but was told no, have to wait and see. So we brought an extra suitcase to bring our own (rather than risking it or wasting time renting one), and it ended up not being necessary, but that seemed like such a simple problem not to have in the first place
-the birds at breakfast are worse than ever
-that's about it? this was pretty close to flawless. I only left the property once to get supplies (side note: the famcoop grocery store has great booze selections -- I picked up a 2013 Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque rosé for $175).

Will be back.