I have a stay there in a couple of weeks. I am not too thrilled about this. I wonder what happened? We love Auberge so this is a bit disappointing.

Was announced in early Feb..... they could not come to terms to renew contract.

Do you mind elaborating on what you didn�t like about Pine Cay and when you visited? I�m trying to decide on a Caribbean honeymoon destination that�s easy to get to from NYC with a great beach and am between Pine Cay and Cap Juluca. It�s a lot harder to find information from people who have been to Pine Cay. Thanks!

Cap Juluca would be a better choice. The beaches are beautiful at both; everyone raves about CJ. Pine Cay is isolated and I love that *usually* (I thought it would be similar to Amanpulo). I also love TCI (I usually stay on Provo but have stayed on Big Ambergris, too). The new rooms/villas are just ok. They needed a bathtub. We were in a newly built one-bedroom. The food was pretty bad and the portions were small. They didn't serve much island cuisine like fish or conch. One of the dinner dishes was shrimp fried rice with only 4 small shrimp as an entree. The entire experience felt cheap. They advertised snorkeling trips daily, but that didn't occur during any of our 6 days. They kept telling us it was the weather or wind, but the weather was perfect and we watched Island Vibes and Caicos Dream Tours take out their tour boats twice/day past the island. My partner kite surfs and it wasn't even windy enough for that. I thought about calling one of those companies to pick us up for a trip. Everything at PC was run down. Even the beach bikes they advertised were rusty. I posted about my experience on TripAdvisor forum and it got deleted. They are able to delete any bad reviews. We booked a package that included alcohol. Between when we booked and our stay (4 weeks), they decided it didn't include alcohol. My confirmation paper specifically stated that it did. It took 2 of our 6 days to resolve that they would include beer and wine. The owners of Pine Cay own the resort although it's managed by a management resort company. It's clear that they don't put money into the guest experience at all. It felt like an island prison to us. If you go to TCI, have one of the tours take you on a private tour of the north side of Water Cay. THAT beach is amazing.

Can you tell us when you stayed at Pine Cay? I have picky friends who�ve just returned and they had only praise.

I agree this place looks dreamy in the pubs and pics. Been watching.

Saw a short blurb in one of the big us travel rags, CN i think, among 'hottest new hotels' or some similar list.
They've been working in it for awhile, feels like i started hearing about planning during the Bush (GHW Bush) administration.

Love T&C but have never found my 'ideal' hotel there. Looking forward to reading more about it here. Lepmd's thoughtful concerns have me wary, off the bat.

EDIT: blurb was in T&L

Late April 2022, less than 1 year ago. Maybe your friends aren't that picky? I think there's Aman and One&Only luxury, then there's Ritz and Four Seasons luxury. Maybe they're the latter, although I think the service at the Ritz on Provo was better than Pine Cay.

Well, I wouldn't sign off unreservedly on the differentiation. For me, it's also a bit too simple.

Not to at all discount Lepmed's disappointment w PC, but I'd have to register strong agreement, Offerendum.

Without even getting into how all the chains mentioned here rate against each other. (Still an Aman virgin but multiple stays/locations across the the latter 3 - not sure I'd equate Ritz to FS or whether I'd put O&O above those.)

More and more these days, it really comes down to individual property and each's management/upkeep. Strikes me as increasingly difficult (if not pointless) to rate any of these 'luxe' chains - or any hospitality entity with, say, more than 7 or 8 properties - against the other. Moreover, it's starting to feel similarly futile to even meaningfully compare within the group (seems even heavenly Aman has started to finally chip at certain properties, at least from reading this forum).

There have always been big differences within the chains, of course, and RC, for example, no longer has a very good overall reputation with me. I still appreciate FS very much, I actually always have good stays there.
Otherwise, I have to agree that a lot depends on the property and the management.
Now you can have different opinions about Aman, everything there is not gold what glitters, but without question it is a very good chain and my last stay was far too long ago.

I'm not old enough to know from 'always', i'm still just the spry 55 YOA, but i think it logical there must have been a time when there were much bigger differences between luxe chains. If only because of scale - across the board, there were fewer of them, and they were fewer properties within each chain's portfolio.
(Again, expansion - or managing it, managing growth, protecting the marque - seems to be pretty key here.)
I only find it harder to tell these days. I've stayed in fabulous RCs and a single O&O i was indifferent at best towards.

My own experience with FS has ranged from impossibly great (George V, Bev Wilshire) to pretty dang good (Park Lane, NYC (OG, not downtown)) to generally disappointing, on level w a higher-end IC (Mexico City, Austin).

Aman is a brand I can't hold an opinion on, at least a truly informed one, as I've never stayed. Only one viewing - lunch at Amanyara, seemed similar to Parrot Cay where i was staying. But from decades of lore and untold amounts of love here on FT, I believe it to be the 'best' and most consistent of the 'larger' luxury brands. It will be interesting to see how long this lasts, seems unlikely they will be closing anything (Sveti?) soon, and expansion continues... properties, sister brands....

This was a full-on hijack by me. Maybe it would make an interesting post/thread title of its own. 'Which luxury chain is most consistent'. Could make for a seatbelt-fasteningbumpy night, too!

I’m an Amanjunkie and our “picky” friends, who stayed at Pine Cay stayed at Amankila in high season and it wasn’t up to their standard. They are very picky. But I can imagine it may be too isolated for some. I’ll be there in a few weeks and will report back.

I think spinning off the conversation on luxury brand comparisons is a great idea. I’ve mostly had great, once in a lifetime experiences at most Aman properties both pre and post takeover with Amanpuri being the exception. I have loved revisiting their properties a decade later and comparing pictures of how young we all looked with staff that’s still there, but it does feel as though there is change afoot. Couldn’t agree more that it comes down to management, whom we follow from property to property irregardless of the brand.

Hi there, globetrotter949 ... wondering if you've yet made it to Pine Cay, and if so, what your thoughts are? It's a considerations for us, but there's precious little information out there on it, at least from trusted sources a la this group.

We're looking at the Caribbean (not normally our favorite spot, but time constraints being what they are for us, "it is what it is") for some R&R, and truly struggling on where to go. With rates exploding (at least to when we were last traveling), it's somewhat hard to stomach seeing certain spots - I'm looking at you, Yara - charging what they are.

We like the idea of Pine Cay, but at $1700/nt, I wonder if we ought to just chuck in a few $ more and head back to Amanera, or try Cap Juluca. All other suggestions are welcome, though we really don't care for "Classic Colonial Caribbean".

I still owe my feedback on the two Belmonds.
Let's start with Cap Juluca. The service is overall very good, there were only small weaknesses (Whats App were ignored). The beach is certainly the highlight of the hotel, even if it is rather boring under water. For this you walk out of the room and are directly on the beach, sunbeds are reserved. Our room was nicely furnished, but too small for us.
The real archillis heel of the hotel are the restaurants. None is really good, it is partly pathetic. In the Cipriani, for example, the cheapest chemical ice cream is served, to eat that I would normally have to be paid.
Here the details:
General
Villa
Room
Coconut
Beach
Snorkeling
Pool
Pimms I
Breakfast
Uchu
Cip�s by Cipriani
Pimms II

Offerendum, Thank you. Interesting, despite ownership change and renovation their two weaknesses remain — food and service. But I still would return for the gorgeous rooms/suites and that glorious beach. If only getter to Anguilla from SFO weren’t a nightmare.