I returned home last night from a very pleasant two day stay.

The Goods:

• Proximity to the beach – What a beautiful property. That in itself says it all. The beach is right there with tons to do.

• Food – The food was fantastic, consistently very well done and the staff was quick and friendly. Room service was outstanding as well was Maribel’s restaurant.

• Room – I thought the room was very well done. The beds were comfortable, the bathroom was spacious and the AC cranked big time. I had an ocean front room with a balcony. Very, very nice indeed. It sounds like the rooms have been completely redone. I did find it funny that they kept the curved Westin shower rods.

• Service Level – Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The staff is very well trained by Wyndham. Outstanding would be an understatement.

• Shuttle – It took about only 10 minutes for airport shuttle to arrive. It was a very efficient to get back and forth.

• Shops – The gift shop was nice, there was a kiosk selling gifts, a little place to get coffee and cookies, etc.

• Cleanliness – This must have improved with Wyndham because I found the place to be spotless, all around.

• Prices – The shuttle was $60 round trip to the airport for the ~45 minute to 1 hour ride. Not a bad deal at all. Food prices were in fact very good for what you got.

• Quite a ways from the Airport – That’s good because once you turn off the main road and you go through the gate, you are in another word altogether.

The Bads:

• Broadband internet – Internet service was horrible. $14.95/day for in room service that consisted of a cable modem that kept losing its IP, not sending emails because of this and disconnecting my VPN. It is very old architecture that would take a lot of money to replace so I can see why it is the way it is but if you are planning on traveling and would like to get some work done, best of luck to you. There is also WIFI for free in the immediate and I mean immediate lobby area but that kept going up and down all the time as well.

• Noise from lobby – There is music and a band that plays in the lobby. If you have a room on lobby level, I suggest you ask to be moved to another floor if you prefer something a bit more quiet in the evenings.

• Tile floors – Other than the area immediately around the beds, the rooms have tile floors. They look really nice but it sounded like they were moving a piano above me each night at times.

• Loud slamming doors – The room doors were of the type that made quite the clicking and slamming noise every time they were closed, even if closed softly.

• The Beach – There were lots of cigarette butts on the beach when I walked out there and it just didn’t look super clean.

• Quite a ways from the airport – Make sure you give yourself enough time to make it back to the chaos called the airport. It’s a long way out with traffic and speed bumps and all.

• Casino – It was closed for renovation but they offered free shuttle service to another resort with a casino.


The Down The Middles:

• Check in – Inconsistent is I guess the best way to describe it. The folks to the left of me while checking in received a lot of information about the resort, where the restaurants were located, etc. My check in consisted of providing my credit card and ID and off I went. No information whatsoever. Granted everything I needed was in the guide book in the room but it would have been nice to have been given this up front in case I had any questions. I don’t think it’s a downside of the hotel in general; it was just an untrained associate.

• Ocean – The water was nice but not clear in any stretch of the imagination. Not Wyndham’s fault of course. There was a sign that said that a lifeguard was on duty. The beach area was about 400 yards long. There is no way a lifeguard, a single lifeguard, can patrol that entire area effectively. I would rather they did not advertise the lifeguard as I would hate for parents to let their own guard down because of this “feature”.

In conclusion, this was an outstanding resort experience and I would recommend it to anyone. I worked most of the time so I could not partake in any golf, the spa, water sports or the like but would return with my family any time.

Mike