Hyatt Zilara / Ziva Rose Hall (Jamaica) REVIEW - MASTER THREAD
Feb 21, 2015, 4:45 pm
#797
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: New york
Programs: Hilton gold, delta gold, spg gold, , Hyatt diamond,
Posts: 29
just got home last night.
7 days at ziva. butller jr suite. this was my first AI experience so my perspective is based on that. we opted for this sale deal and deal stacking to go here after pricing beaches/sandals which seemed outrageously expensive even with the high % off sales.
as said previously here, everyone is so damn nice. I find it a little strange and wierd but it was very pleasant.
pool great.
butler a bit annoying but cool to try.
beach sucks by my standards through with the break walls the little swimming areas created are quite nice for kids. sand is like crushed shells and gavel for most part with some softer areas, but not a lot. They did get fresh new cushions on the beach recliners on my 5th day there...those were nice.
bar was medium sucky. not what I expect for a 4-5 star rating. rare medium shelf liquors and only when prompted. all frozen drinks from premixed bottle mixers. even the rums were mostly lowgrade. Dewers and Jonny available but special request only. same with kahula in the white russians (not sure what mystery stuff they put in my first one), and same with vodkas (best was skyy or absolute and get only when prompted). without request its well vodka and well everything else. no mojitos. no mint. garnishes generally sucked unless it was a pinapple slice, and caprinhas sucked. and the wine is definitely total crap.
room fridge is stocked once a day with 2 red stripes and 2 lights, and then they switched to just 4 cans red stripe i think to overcome the bottle opener situation. we didnt have one in the room when i arrived and i had to ask the butler for one which really seemed absurd.
fitness center...go to ziva side. and that one is great...very much like 4 star hotel quality. nice new treadmills and gear.
the food is edible but NOTHING SPECIAL at all and even a just a bit dumb. def not 4-5 star resort food but i guess in industry the standard for AI resorts is different. the choices buffet is a great buffet. the restaurants all pretty much do this wierd "Truman show" type vibe with funny menus and food that is edible but not what it should be.
I could have been happy eating the buffet everyday and pizza at the italian joint. the italian place, di roza, or whatever, they sit you, take your order and then there is a small antipasta bar there in middle of the room, but NO ONE invites you to have some or help yourself....its really strange to me....same at the calypso restaurant (great red snapper sandwich). Jerk stand is awesome.
the ocean jr suite was, i think, newly renovated and done with a modern style flair which was somewhat neat but yes poor craftmanship with smears of caulk and paint everywhere. I didnt care as long as all the power outlets works etc. one rain shower worked, the other did not. and the door to the fridge was half cockeyed so it didnt close.
for us it was all about warm weather and a pool to splash in with our 2 yr old and no stress, so that we got for sure.
all in all i am not sure I personally would have paid full price for this experience. even room aside. but for the stacked discounts and the ability to afford a room with a butler which may never happen again for me, it was a nice to play the travel game.
While I might try AI again for the low stress vacation, maybe even a ziva at different location as long as had a real beach, I dont think I would ever go back to ziva rose hall.
not enough there to pull me back, especially at full prices.
and I dont know why you would go to any combination resort if you were looking for an adult only experience.
7 days at ziva. butller jr suite. this was my first AI experience so my perspective is based on that. we opted for this sale deal and deal stacking to go here after pricing beaches/sandals which seemed outrageously expensive even with the high % off sales.
as said previously here, everyone is so damn nice. I find it a little strange and wierd but it was very pleasant.
pool great.
butler a bit annoying but cool to try.
beach sucks by my standards through with the break walls the little swimming areas created are quite nice for kids. sand is like crushed shells and gavel for most part with some softer areas, but not a lot. They did get fresh new cushions on the beach recliners on my 5th day there...those were nice.
bar was medium sucky. not what I expect for a 4-5 star rating. rare medium shelf liquors and only when prompted. all frozen drinks from premixed bottle mixers. even the rums were mostly lowgrade. Dewers and Jonny available but special request only. same with kahula in the white russians (not sure what mystery stuff they put in my first one), and same with vodkas (best was skyy or absolute and get only when prompted). without request its well vodka and well everything else. no mojitos. no mint. garnishes generally sucked unless it was a pinapple slice, and caprinhas sucked. and the wine is definitely total crap.
room fridge is stocked once a day with 2 red stripes and 2 lights, and then they switched to just 4 cans red stripe i think to overcome the bottle opener situation. we didnt have one in the room when i arrived and i had to ask the butler for one which really seemed absurd.
fitness center...go to ziva side. and that one is great...very much like 4 star hotel quality. nice new treadmills and gear.
the food is edible but NOTHING SPECIAL at all and even a just a bit dumb. def not 4-5 star resort food but i guess in industry the standard for AI resorts is different. the choices buffet is a great buffet. the restaurants all pretty much do this wierd "Truman show" type vibe with funny menus and food that is edible but not what it should be.
I could have been happy eating the buffet everyday and pizza at the italian joint. the italian place, di roza, or whatever, they sit you, take your order and then there is a small antipasta bar there in middle of the room, but NO ONE invites you to have some or help yourself....its really strange to me....same at the calypso restaurant (great red snapper sandwich). Jerk stand is awesome.
the ocean jr suite was, i think, newly renovated and done with a modern style flair which was somewhat neat but yes poor craftmanship with smears of caulk and paint everywhere. I didnt care as long as all the power outlets works etc. one rain shower worked, the other did not. and the door to the fridge was half cockeyed so it didnt close.
for us it was all about warm weather and a pool to splash in with our 2 yr old and no stress, so that we got for sure.
all in all i am not sure I personally would have paid full price for this experience. even room aside. but for the stacked discounts and the ability to afford a room with a butler which may never happen again for me, it was a nice to play the travel game.
While I might try AI again for the low stress vacation, maybe even a ziva at different location as long as had a real beach, I dont think I would ever go back to ziva rose hall.
not enough there to pull me back, especially at full prices.
and I dont know why you would go to any combination resort if you were looking for an adult only experience.
Feb 21, 2015, 4:55 pm
#799
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: New york
Programs: Hilton gold, delta gold, spg gold, , Hyatt diamond,
Posts: 29
Sure here you go (sorry it's LONG and foodie centered.)
We travelled to the Hyatt Zilara from Feb. 6th through the 13th. All in all it was a very good trip. It wasn't without its issues but most things we knew about in advance. I'm also one of those people obsessed with reviews so this is going to be long.
Travel-We flew in on Delta and used Club Mobay which made for a quick trip through immigration. We had a bit of trouble with the shuttle but it wasn't Hyatt's fault. Our travel agent had booked us another private shuttle from the airport to the resort (not realizing it was included.) That really threw the folks at the Zilara airport waiting area off though. We said we would just ride the regular shuttle but they insisted we use the one the agent booked which actually took longer than the hotel shuttle. We got to the resort fairly quickly though and check in was flawless. We were in our room in about 15 mins led by our Butler Ricardo and Courtney with our bags. They have a real gem in Courtney, I can't imagine a more friendly face greeting you as you arrive at the resort.
Our Room-We booked and paid for an Ocean FRONT King Butler Suite. Now honestly I think we ended up with an Ocean View Suite which I was ok with. I will post a couple photos of our view vs. the Ocean Front view some other folks that we met had. We were in the new building and the room was HUGE. Cavernous almost? It had a very large open dining area with table and chairs, a den area with L-shaped couch and tv, that area had a 1/2 bath. Then there was a separate bedroom with king bed, a couch-y thing, tv, and full bathroom with large shower with rainfall shower head, a large (non-jetted) tub, two closets, toilet room and double sink. The balcony was large and had a table, one chair and a very large cushion-y lounger thing that would easily fit two people laying down. At times we had a couple issues with the room, not enough to ruin the trip but I will mention them for others. We had no trash cans for a couple days which was odd, we were also missing any kind of clock in the room. There were no bedside clocks so you had no clue what time it was. We also had no cold water for a day, which was fixed very shortly after we called. Later in the week a small clock arrived as well as a scale and laundry basket. Finally and this is odd (we were in room 4412) at night there was this very strange noise like a sqeaking or something from about 10pm til 6am. I have no idea what caused it, we were like crazy people trying to figure it out and finally just stuck pillows over our head. As others have mentioned there is a motion sensor light in the bathroom that will stay on about 15 mins after you go in there. Luckily we had a door we could just pull closed so it wasn't a problem. Housekeeping was very good (although somehow my contact lense case disappeared on Day 2 and I was unable to find any kind of replacement, not sure if it was accidentally thrown away?) The wi-fi service in our room was spotty. It didn't work inside the room but did work on the balcony. It worked down by the pool and in the lobby as well. I was fine with going outside to take care of email/work stuff online.
Butler Service-Our Butlers were Ricardo and Alex. We didn't see Alex much but Ricardo was great. He decorated our room one night with candles and towel swans and flowers, so pretty. He also fixed our chairs by the beach each day and fixed us a cooler of waters and even brought us a surprise lobster lunch on the beach one day! They took care of our dinner reservations which was a nice touch. I don't think you HAVE to have a Butler at this resort though, everything they did was over the top great but not crucial.
Food-(I'm a real foodie so there are going to be a lot of details here.)
Buffet-The buffet was very nice. At breakfast they had pretty much any breakfast item you could want. Eggs cooked to order, pre-made omelets and custom as well. A toast and bread area with about 8 kinds of breads, bagels (a couple kinds), english muffins, jams, spreads, cheeses, meats. Also waffles, pancakes and some extra tasty french toast. They had about 5-6 kinds of juice and some wonderful pastries. Try the banana bread, it was great. There was a fruit area, yogurt and about 4 kinds of milk as well as even a small salad bar. The buffet also had local breakfast specialties and plenty of other hot dishes as well as one carved meat a day (try the turkey breast at breakfast!) Lunch varied but always had a nice salad bar, 3 pasta or bean or cold type salads, a custom salad station of the day, fruit, 2 soups usually, cold cuts and cheese and sandwich fixings. Also there was a chilled seafood item each day at lunch, crab legs, shrimp and I think clams were all on different days. The hot line usually had 3 meats, various starches and veggies, some kid friendly foods like chicken fingers, fish fingers, fries, etc. A pasta station. One day we saw nachos and one day we saw pizza. It would have been great to have a pizza option everyday?? There were tasty desserts and ice cream (2 kinds that varied) each day at lunch. We had dinner at the buffet one night (we had been told some Saturdays there was lobster on the buffet and there was.) Similar selection as lunch but with some added seafood. The lobster was cooked out side on a grill and it was a little tricky because they kept running low and people would kind of swarm the area but all in all we had our fill of lobster as well as other dishes for dinner that night. That was the only dinner we ate at the buffet.
Special Event-On the night we arrived they had a special poolside buffet to celebrate Bob Marley's birthday. There was a great salad bar, lots of local favorites, lobster and some whole grilled fish. Since it was our first night it was a little overwhelming and hard to see what the choices were and where to get drinks but they did a nice job with it. They seem to do these on special occasions and holidays. It was held around the Ziva pool area.
Horizons-This was by far and away our favorite place to eat. Shout out to Jodi-Ann who always had a smile and wave for us. We also had great service from ALL the servers and staff. We dined here quite a few times and some of the stand outs were the eggs at breakfast which were always cooked exactly to order. DBF enjoyed the steak at breakfast (he's a real meat guy.) At lunch don't miss the strip steak and sweet potato fries. At dinner we had filet and lobster, I had the Dorado fish one night. The bean soup at dinner is great (I had it three times.) We didn't have a bad meal here and we never waited for a seat no matter what time of the day.
Brazil-One of our few disappointments. We were shown the salad bar and fixed our salads and then told the server we would like to have all our food together, as in enjoy our salad with our meat, well he basically said no, eat your salad first? Much later they brought a very small portion of starch type dishes but it was an hour before they brought any meat. They brought chicken, chicken wings and sausage and we asked if we could please have some beef (remember I mentioned DBF and his love of steak.) Well an hour and 20 mins into it still no beef and just slow service. We actually just finally left. We went back to Horizons.
Petit Pariz-We had dinner here twice and had wonderful service from Winston and Basil. I think we sampled all the appetizers which included scallops, beef tartar, french onion soup, a nice salad, and a couple I am forgetting. For entrees we had the filet and one night I had the duck which was cooked perfectly and served with some very interesting and tasty wild rice pancakes and a cherry sauce. We shared the chocolate mousse both times.
Di Roza-This was another disappointment. We heard rumors that it was very loud in this restaurant but we wanted to try it and trust me folks. It's loud. We arrived and sat down and literally could not hear each other across a table for two. We got up to leave and the waitress said why are you leaving? I told her it was just too loud, she said, no joke "I'm sorry I didn't hear you, it's so loud in here." Ha. We ended up back at Horizons. I will mention they had a very nice antipasto "bar" area for appetizers that was help yourself. I thought this was a nice touch. They just need to do something about the acoustics in that room.
Flavorz-We had breakfast here one morning and it was very quiet and empty. We didn't have lunch or dinner here as they really focused on some specialty Jamaican food and that just wasn't our thing.
We did not dine at Calypzo or Fuzion.
We sampled the lunch at the Jerkz shack and it was very good. Consistent and tasty.
Shout out to the restaurant manager Maksym (sp?) No joke that guy was everywhere. Watching over things, helping as needed. I think there were two of him and I joked with him that he was everywhere I seemed to be.
Drinks/Bars-This was an area I think needed work. I had emailed ahead of time to be sure they had Patron tequila (I'm a very picky tequila drinker) and I was assured they did. Well I only found it one night at the Potionz bar. In fact I think after that they even poured another tequila into the bottle to try to pass it off, but folks if it is something I drink on a regular basis I know what I am drinking. That being said the service at Potionz was excellent, especially by Marsha and Kenny. We just found the availability of drinks to be varied and inconsistent. The wine was pretty bad. Luckily we had access to the Club Lounge because of our room category. Callela in the lounge was great and they had premium liquors up there but almost no mixers. So you could get good vodka but you couldn't have a martini? We also had excellent service at the Fez bar by Clarance and that was a pretty neat area we only discovered a day or two before we left. Beach drink service on the Zilara side was very good.
Beach-Well if you have been reading reviews you know the beach area isn't great for swimming. We loved spending every day, all day on the Zilara beach though. Reading and sunning and playing games. If you want to swim on the Zilara side you need some water shoes, there are some pretty major rocks and I did see a couple people fall down. But there are plenty of chairs and umbrellas for those that want them. This isn't a "take a long stroll down the beach" kind of place but it didn't keep us from enjoying beach time. In fact we spent very little time by the pool.
Activities-We saw very few activities on the Zilara side, we heard some music by the pool a couple times. We did enjoy the watersports crew, especially Dwayne who took us on a couple boat rides and a quick snorkeling trip. They really need to get a boat with a motor for snorkeling though. If it's calm they don't take the Hobie cats out and if it is windy then the visibility for snorkeling is poor?
Check Out-we got a notice in our room that our shuttle was at noon and then we got a phone call at 11:15 to tell us we were late for our shuttle. Turns out this had nothing to do with Hyatt and it was the same shuttle service from our arrival (even though we told them we didn't need a ride back to the airport.) We hurriedly checked out and left, I felt a little bad for rushing off.
We had a very nice vacation. 5 star? I don't know. A solid 4 star. This is the most we have ever spent on a vacation, even at 1/2 off and I just don't know that it was worth that. But this is just my opinion. I'm not sure if we will be back or not but I do think the brand is good, the service is excellent and we may try the Zilara Cancun in the future.
We travelled to the Hyatt Zilara from Feb. 6th through the 13th. All in all it was a very good trip. It wasn't without its issues but most things we knew about in advance. I'm also one of those people obsessed with reviews so this is going to be long.
Travel-We flew in on Delta and used Club Mobay which made for a quick trip through immigration. We had a bit of trouble with the shuttle but it wasn't Hyatt's fault. Our travel agent had booked us another private shuttle from the airport to the resort (not realizing it was included.) That really threw the folks at the Zilara airport waiting area off though. We said we would just ride the regular shuttle but they insisted we use the one the agent booked which actually took longer than the hotel shuttle. We got to the resort fairly quickly though and check in was flawless. We were in our room in about 15 mins led by our Butler Ricardo and Courtney with our bags. They have a real gem in Courtney, I can't imagine a more friendly face greeting you as you arrive at the resort.
Our Room-We booked and paid for an Ocean FRONT King Butler Suite. Now honestly I think we ended up with an Ocean View Suite which I was ok with. I will post a couple photos of our view vs. the Ocean Front view some other folks that we met had. We were in the new building and the room was HUGE. Cavernous almost? It had a very large open dining area with table and chairs, a den area with L-shaped couch and tv, that area had a 1/2 bath. Then there was a separate bedroom with king bed, a couch-y thing, tv, and full bathroom with large shower with rainfall shower head, a large (non-jetted) tub, two closets, toilet room and double sink. The balcony was large and had a table, one chair and a very large cushion-y lounger thing that would easily fit two people laying down. At times we had a couple issues with the room, not enough to ruin the trip but I will mention them for others. We had no trash cans for a couple days which was odd, we were also missing any kind of clock in the room. There were no bedside clocks so you had no clue what time it was. We also had no cold water for a day, which was fixed very shortly after we called. Later in the week a small clock arrived as well as a scale and laundry basket. Finally and this is odd (we were in room 4412) at night there was this very strange noise like a sqeaking or something from about 10pm til 6am. I have no idea what caused it, we were like crazy people trying to figure it out and finally just stuck pillows over our head. As others have mentioned there is a motion sensor light in the bathroom that will stay on about 15 mins after you go in there. Luckily we had a door we could just pull closed so it wasn't a problem. Housekeeping was very good (although somehow my contact lense case disappeared on Day 2 and I was unable to find any kind of replacement, not sure if it was accidentally thrown away?) The wi-fi service in our room was spotty. It didn't work inside the room but did work on the balcony. It worked down by the pool and in the lobby as well. I was fine with going outside to take care of email/work stuff online.
Butler Service-Our Butlers were Ricardo and Alex. We didn't see Alex much but Ricardo was great. He decorated our room one night with candles and towel swans and flowers, so pretty. He also fixed our chairs by the beach each day and fixed us a cooler of waters and even brought us a surprise lobster lunch on the beach one day! They took care of our dinner reservations which was a nice touch. I don't think you HAVE to have a Butler at this resort though, everything they did was over the top great but not crucial.
Food-(I'm a real foodie so there are going to be a lot of details here.)
Buffet-The buffet was very nice. At breakfast they had pretty much any breakfast item you could want. Eggs cooked to order, pre-made omelets and custom as well. A toast and bread area with about 8 kinds of breads, bagels (a couple kinds), english muffins, jams, spreads, cheeses, meats. Also waffles, pancakes and some extra tasty french toast. They had about 5-6 kinds of juice and some wonderful pastries. Try the banana bread, it was great. There was a fruit area, yogurt and about 4 kinds of milk as well as even a small salad bar. The buffet also had local breakfast specialties and plenty of other hot dishes as well as one carved meat a day (try the turkey breast at breakfast!) Lunch varied but always had a nice salad bar, 3 pasta or bean or cold type salads, a custom salad station of the day, fruit, 2 soups usually, cold cuts and cheese and sandwich fixings. Also there was a chilled seafood item each day at lunch, crab legs, shrimp and I think clams were all on different days. The hot line usually had 3 meats, various starches and veggies, some kid friendly foods like chicken fingers, fish fingers, fries, etc. A pasta station. One day we saw nachos and one day we saw pizza. It would have been great to have a pizza option everyday?? There were tasty desserts and ice cream (2 kinds that varied) each day at lunch. We had dinner at the buffet one night (we had been told some Saturdays there was lobster on the buffet and there was.) Similar selection as lunch but with some added seafood. The lobster was cooked out side on a grill and it was a little tricky because they kept running low and people would kind of swarm the area but all in all we had our fill of lobster as well as other dishes for dinner that night. That was the only dinner we ate at the buffet.
Special Event-On the night we arrived they had a special poolside buffet to celebrate Bob Marley's birthday. There was a great salad bar, lots of local favorites, lobster and some whole grilled fish. Since it was our first night it was a little overwhelming and hard to see what the choices were and where to get drinks but they did a nice job with it. They seem to do these on special occasions and holidays. It was held around the Ziva pool area.
Horizons-This was by far and away our favorite place to eat. Shout out to Jodi-Ann who always had a smile and wave for us. We also had great service from ALL the servers and staff. We dined here quite a few times and some of the stand outs were the eggs at breakfast which were always cooked exactly to order. DBF enjoyed the steak at breakfast (he's a real meat guy.) At lunch don't miss the strip steak and sweet potato fries. At dinner we had filet and lobster, I had the Dorado fish one night. The bean soup at dinner is great (I had it three times.) We didn't have a bad meal here and we never waited for a seat no matter what time of the day.
Brazil-One of our few disappointments. We were shown the salad bar and fixed our salads and then told the server we would like to have all our food together, as in enjoy our salad with our meat, well he basically said no, eat your salad first? Much later they brought a very small portion of starch type dishes but it was an hour before they brought any meat. They brought chicken, chicken wings and sausage and we asked if we could please have some beef (remember I mentioned DBF and his love of steak.) Well an hour and 20 mins into it still no beef and just slow service. We actually just finally left. We went back to Horizons.
Petit Pariz-We had dinner here twice and had wonderful service from Winston and Basil. I think we sampled all the appetizers which included scallops, beef tartar, french onion soup, a nice salad, and a couple I am forgetting. For entrees we had the filet and one night I had the duck which was cooked perfectly and served with some very interesting and tasty wild rice pancakes and a cherry sauce. We shared the chocolate mousse both times.
Di Roza-This was another disappointment. We heard rumors that it was very loud in this restaurant but we wanted to try it and trust me folks. It's loud. We arrived and sat down and literally could not hear each other across a table for two. We got up to leave and the waitress said why are you leaving? I told her it was just too loud, she said, no joke "I'm sorry I didn't hear you, it's so loud in here." Ha. We ended up back at Horizons. I will mention they had a very nice antipasto "bar" area for appetizers that was help yourself. I thought this was a nice touch. They just need to do something about the acoustics in that room.
Flavorz-We had breakfast here one morning and it was very quiet and empty. We didn't have lunch or dinner here as they really focused on some specialty Jamaican food and that just wasn't our thing.
We did not dine at Calypzo or Fuzion.
We sampled the lunch at the Jerkz shack and it was very good. Consistent and tasty.
Shout out to the restaurant manager Maksym (sp?) No joke that guy was everywhere. Watching over things, helping as needed. I think there were two of him and I joked with him that he was everywhere I seemed to be.
Drinks/Bars-This was an area I think needed work. I had emailed ahead of time to be sure they had Patron tequila (I'm a very picky tequila drinker) and I was assured they did. Well I only found it one night at the Potionz bar. In fact I think after that they even poured another tequila into the bottle to try to pass it off, but folks if it is something I drink on a regular basis I know what I am drinking. That being said the service at Potionz was excellent, especially by Marsha and Kenny. We just found the availability of drinks to be varied and inconsistent. The wine was pretty bad. Luckily we had access to the Club Lounge because of our room category. Callela in the lounge was great and they had premium liquors up there but almost no mixers. So you could get good vodka but you couldn't have a martini? We also had excellent service at the Fez bar by Clarance and that was a pretty neat area we only discovered a day or two before we left. Beach drink service on the Zilara side was very good.
Beach-Well if you have been reading reviews you know the beach area isn't great for swimming. We loved spending every day, all day on the Zilara beach though. Reading and sunning and playing games. If you want to swim on the Zilara side you need some water shoes, there are some pretty major rocks and I did see a couple people fall down. But there are plenty of chairs and umbrellas for those that want them. This isn't a "take a long stroll down the beach" kind of place but it didn't keep us from enjoying beach time. In fact we spent very little time by the pool.
Activities-We saw very few activities on the Zilara side, we heard some music by the pool a couple times. We did enjoy the watersports crew, especially Dwayne who took us on a couple boat rides and a quick snorkeling trip. They really need to get a boat with a motor for snorkeling though. If it's calm they don't take the Hobie cats out and if it is windy then the visibility for snorkeling is poor?
Check Out-we got a notice in our room that our shuttle was at noon and then we got a phone call at 11:15 to tell us we were late for our shuttle. Turns out this had nothing to do with Hyatt and it was the same shuttle service from our arrival (even though we told them we didn't need a ride back to the airport.) We hurriedly checked out and left, I felt a little bad for rushing off.
We had a very nice vacation. 5 star? I don't know. A solid 4 star. This is the most we have ever spent on a vacation, even at 1/2 off and I just don't know that it was worth that. But this is just my opinion. I'm not sure if we will be back or not but I do think the brand is good, the service is excellent and we may try the Zilara Cancun in the future.
also, can u please tell me about the activities and entertainment.
which ocean front suite room number do u recommend? how many floors does building 4 have?
Feb 23, 2015, 1:52 pm
#800
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 19
Entertainment
There was some sort of nightly entertainment every night at 9pm on the Ziva side. Sometimes a band, sometimes a dance group. We really didn't pay that much attention (sorry.) There was little or nothing to do during the day (at least on the Zilara side.) There were not any paddleboards but there were kayaks but you could only take them out if it was super calm. There were some wind surfs but I didn't see anyone with them out either. The new building has 5 floors although they were not using the 5th floor at all a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure on the Oceanfront room numbers since I am convinced we were not in an "Oceanfront" room.
Feb 24, 2015, 1:47 pm
#801
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 25
hi, we ate vegetarian but eat white fish, such as salmon, sole, snapper. were those items available? which restaurants would better suit us?
also, can u please tell me about the activities and entertainment.
which ocean front suite room number do u recommend? how many floors does building 4 have?
also, can u please tell me about the activities and entertainment.
which ocean front suite room number do u recommend? how many floors does building 4 have?
I am here now if anyone has any specific questions...
Last edited by Ministryofgiraffes; Feb 24, 2015 at 1:53 pm
Feb 24, 2015, 3:05 pm
#803
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 25
forgot to mention, occasionally they have jerk snapper fillet in the jerk hut. it is really quite good.... as is the jerk pork.
Feb 24, 2015, 4:11 pm
#805
Formerly known as iahsumr
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 520
Won't be a problem at all. Have fun!
Feb 24, 2015, 5:26 pm
#806
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 25
The above answer is not entirely accurate. You cannot dine with them in the zilaria restauraunts, even if you don't have your kids with you, but your friends can eat in any restauraunt.
Feb 25, 2015, 9:56 am
#807
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: NH
Posts: 56
i would like to see more fish to be honest, the calypso only really has lobster tail, but its very decent. better than the excellence playa mujeres lobster tail. other than that there is some fish on the buffet bar but none in the brazillian ( unsurprisingly) or the asian restaurant. Anything 'seafood' seems to be mussels, conch and octopus. there are some lobster fritters as an app, but if you are looking for a different type of fish each night ( grilled sole/ salmon/ swordfish etc) i think you will be disappointed. I should add that the buffet has a lot of lobster for dinner. i went in last night and there was a mountain of cold cracked lobster tails.
I am here now if anyone has any specific questions...
I am here now if anyone has any specific questions...
We will be staying in a swim up in the old building. Do you know if (a) you can swim from these rooms directly to the larger pool, or are they cut off? And (b) do these suites get sunlight later in the day, or just the morning?
Thanks again.
Feb 25, 2015, 11:56 am
#809
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Portsmouth, NH
Programs: Delta Platinum, Marriott Rewards Lifetime Titanium, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 319
Feb 25, 2015, 5:14 pm
#810
Formerly known as iahsumr
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 520
How strange...didn't ever see or hear anything like that mentioned on our stay. Seems like a weird rule given that Zilara guests can have both, but who knows.