fdem

Thunderroad

LOL! But in my limited experience, how true!

I didn't realize this was a Marriott "innovation," but upon reflection I'm seeing the consistent lack of email addresses across some upcoming stays, unless the hotel has first reached out to me.

Zol

Did you not receive an email from The Butler following your reservation? they would be able to accommodate all your requests.

Thunderroad

You're right, of course, though I've found the communications from that department not that helpful, consistent or well-informed. And regardless, sometimes managers have more knowledge and leeway. But no big deal. I'll post a review after our stay.

SEA-Flyer

We stayed there last week and had a nice experience. As mentioned on the hotel’s website, breakfast is now included, which is a very nice improvement from our stay 2 years ago.

Lore

Which type of room did you get?

I booked on a Full Board rate but I hear beverages are not included. Practically speaking, does that mean we have to pay for water, soda, beer, wine, cocktails, etc? How is the pricing of beverages?

SEA-Flyer

zemb

Any recent experiences with upgrades on points stays? I'm currently PPE + ambassador.
I stayed there in 2014 and was upgraded to a St. Grand Suite using my SNA...

Lore

Hi everyone,

My wife and I recently returned from a week's stay at the St Regis Mauritius and overall we were very happy! We booked a junior suite with full board and used my Suite Night Awards which bumped us up into a ocean-view junior suite. Due to my status as a PPE, they gave us a St. Regis Suite on the top floor of one of the buildings far away from the main area. We were given the option to switch to two different St. Regis Grand Suites but both were on the ground floor so we opted to stay where we were. (BTW, there are two versions of the St. Regis Grand Suite - one with a huge terrace which has a day bed and one without.)

Here are my thoughts in a condensed format - if you have any questions just ask!
- Hard product was fantastic: good bed, really nicely appointed living rooms, and good shower pressure, good bathroom, etc. The property is beautiful. Beach and pool chairs were great, and you always had access to a clean towel.
- As I mentioned, we stayed in one of the buildings towards the end of the complex, which is further from the main area, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. It's nice being so far away because it's quieter and you don't have many people walking in front of your unit. And yes, it's a little walk, but not far at all. I remember reading complaints about the walk and was thinking it was 10 minutes away. It's not nearly that far, and it was nice to walk through the well-decorated gardens and fountains.
- Before I arrived, I had requested a ground floor unit. I was disappointed when given the top floor but in retrospect, the top floor is much more private and the balcony was a nice touch. This was the main reason we turned down the two ground-floor St. Regis Grand Suites that were offered.
- We received a bottle of sparkling wine as my platinum gift.
- Full board all the way. You have to eat and the food can be quite pricy, so the full board worked out in our favor. You still have to pay for beverages (even water)... on average we spent about $30 for two people on beverages per meal. As a PPE, we were able to eat a la carte breakfast at the Boathouse Restaurant. Drinks are included at breakfast -- even sparkling wine! They need to work on their eggs benedict though - the yolks were cooked all the way through.
- Service at the restaurants is a bit hit or miss. Everyone is super friendly and they try hard, but you get the sense that this is their first restaurant job. I didn't mind it so much because everyone was so nice, but we heard some guests at nearby tables who were a quite snarky towards the personnel.
- We tried all the restaurants except the Japanese one (Atsuko) which wasn't included in our full board rate. Of the four restaurants, Simply India and Le Manoir were on the top of our list! Pay attention to the weekly program in your room - some restaurants have buffet nights and we didn't like that as much.
- Beverage pricing is definitely on the pricey side, so we brought some of our own champagne and beer which helped offset the price... but hey, it's vacation so you're bound to spend. You're given a lot of water in the room and on the beach though - and all that is complimentary.
- Our butler team was friendly but we only used them for the morning beverage service (coffee). We placed a standing coffee order at X:XX am and they were always at the door right around that time. Their eButler service via Whatsapp is super convenient - you just text them. That's what we used for everything - far easier than calling on the phone, especially when you're on the beach or outside of your room. My wife was sick one day and didn't want a full breakfast, so we asked for a fruit platter. They sent it over for free which was really nice of them.
- Water sports were great - we kayaked a few times, tried the SUP, and went on the snorkeling tour (which happens 2x a day). They provide gear for the tours, but we should have brought our own so we could go out ourselves. The water is really shallow so you can walk out far without the boat. (The boat doesn't really go anywhere either, so you might as well walk into the middle of the lagoon yourself).
- Bring water shoes - also a miss on our part. The dead coral is scattered all over the place and it is SHARP. Careful!

All in all - we loved it and would stay here again in a heartbeat.

Sallycat

Lore

Oh, we used Mauritius Taxi (Mauritius Taxi: +230 5839 5223 / [email protected]) which was mentioned in an earlier post. It cost MUR 1200 each way - make sure you have cash. Drivers spoke good English and were very friendly.

When you arrive, exit the airport and get cash from the ATMs there. It's a much better deal than going through one of the exchange desks. Get enough cash for the round trip by taxi (2400) and then enough to tip your butler and housekeeper. And worst case, if you have too much cash left over, you can settle your hotel bill with it.

Thunderroad

I'll piggy-back on Lore's excellent recent review (below), which with a few exceptions is pretty consistent with my own impressions, and add some observations of my own. I won't repeat all of the many wonderful observations Lore offered, but do want to endorse them.

My wife and I returned from the St. Regis Mauritius about a week ago. Having spent a week there ourselves, I guess we overlapped with Lore. Sorry we didn't meet you and your wife there!

In any event...

The Good:

- We'd booked a Junior Suite, but with help from the wonderful Jotee at the Butler Service Desk and my Platinum status were upgraded to a Beachfront Junior Suite, which has a much larger balcony than the other two categories of junior suites (Island and Ocean) and is right on the beach. (Island is furthest back and Ocean not as far back. Even those two other categories have partial ocean views.) I don't think you can count on such an upgrade due to availability limitations, but we lucked out.

- The upper level for the suite afforded us a lot more privacy, as compared to the lower level suites, though I do understand that some folks like being able to walk out directly to the beach from their (lower level) patios.

- With one minor service personnel caveat noted below (under The Bad), we considered the Boathouse Restaurant breakfasts the best of the many we've ever had, even compared to many other great resorts. This was due to the generally great waiter service (especially by a fellow named Sebastion); the wonderful selection of a la carte items, pastries, fruits, etc; the complimentary champagne and the fantastic views looking right out on the beach.

- As long as I'm on the topic of food, I should note that while some reports on the St. R suggest that there are not good dining alternatives nearby, we had a few very good meals off-site at:
1) Wapalapam is a great, friendly, informal place a 40-minute walk away from the hotel, going along the beach and nearby golf course (anyone interested in directions is welcome to PM me) or about a five minute, $12 taxi ride away. A nicer ambiance and set-up than is conveyed by its website or Tripadvisor photos. We happened to have very tasty lamb and chicken curries (spiced a little bit differently from the Indian variations) and great calamari and green papaya appetizers, but the menu is more extensive than that. Prices are about 50-75 percent of those at the St. R restaurants and the food is better than what we sampled at the hotel. The only thing I don't recommend there is the overpriced and fairly tasteless frozen drink made with rum.
2) Face a la Mer is about a 15 minute taxi ride away. A very nice Mauritian-French fellow named Jose prepares delicious dinners in his home, for folks who make reservations in advance (and he makes lunches too, I believe, though I'm less clear on his arrangements for those), and joins guests for dinner and conversation. It's all at one table, so you might meet some fellow-visitors to Mauritius in the process, which is nice. I forget the exact price, but it was very reasonable, and included pre-dinner drinks and generous amounts of wine.
3) Just on the other side of the Lux Hotel (which is very near to the St. R), Emba Filao has counter service for broiled fish, chicken paninis, fish curries, etc, for about $4-10 per meal. Maybe a 10-minute walk from the St. R. Lots of tables on the beach to sit at, await delivery of the meals, and dine at. It's only open until about 3 or 3:30 pm, but when we were there they were just finishing a modest expansion and starting to serve meals on Friday evenings (you might need to reserve that). Good, tasty and certainly very affordable food.

- A very long, beautiful beach to walk along in both directions (or, if you prefer not to trudge/stroll along the sand, you can walk through the paths of neighboring resorts on both sides of the St. R), in one direction taking you to the imposing, impressive Le Morne mountain and easy paths that either form a bit of a loop for your return walk to the St. R or that take you up the mountain if you're so inclined. (You can get perhaps 75 percent of the way up the mountain with some exertion on manageable paths; the last 25 percent is doable but trickier, in parts quite steep and more challenging.)

- Overall, the hotel offers a beautiful spot, fantastic service (with the one Boathouse exception noted below), wonderful advice and service from the concierges and very nice rooms, to make those long stories short.

The Bad:

- Water shoes are highly advised, as the beach is uncomfortable to walk on with bare feet. And while you don't absolutely need them while in the water, if you don't have them to do have to be very careful about the corals. So I strongly suggest bringing them.

- Back to that one exception to the rule regarding great service: Two of the hosts (whom I assume were also managers) we had at the Boathouse during breakfasts were the most officious hosts I've ever had. One small difficulty was that they refused to open up the tables in half of the smallish restaurant, so that a few times it was not possible to sit right by the beach - though setting those tables would have been very easy. But that's a minor matter. The far bigger problem was the attitude - generally unsmiling, standing around doing nothing while the wait staff was running around busy, acting like the smallest courtesy of pouring OJ (for instance) was a great favor. Having worked at restaurants in the past and visited many nice dining establishments and hotels over the years, I'm pretty confident at saying the these two fellows could write a book on how not to do the hosting job.

- Not a great taxi service through the hotel (though again, the concierges who set it up and helped us in other ways were wonderful). One hotel taxi driver took us on a tour of part of the island, insisted on his priorities rather than our own for places to visit, and tried to push us to dine at a restaurant that I kind of assume he would have received a kickback from. The other taxi driver was fine, but a glitch in the hotel's system meant that we had to wait about 15 minutes after our appointment time for him to show up to take us out to dinner. I'd strongly suggest finding a private taxi service instead.

- I fully respect the hotel's right to require certain standards of attire for dinner, such as long pants for men (and I believe even additional standards for the Boathouse in the evening). But on a tropical vacation when it's quite warm in the evenings, we prefer to be relatively informal and to dress as comfortably as possible. That's one reason (second to the food, though), that our best meals were off-property. Again, though, this is really just an observation regarding our preferences, and not a complaint about the hotel's policies.

Lore

Ah, what a shame! I'm sure we saw each other once or twice at the Boathouse if you also had the platinum breakfast!

You know, now that you pointed it out, this also stuck out in my mind. The hosts/managers were typically the ones with the white dress shirts, right? I noticed the same thing - they generally ran around to welcome and seat people but we didn't notice them do anything useful. There was one lunch towards the end of our stay that was absolutely a catastrophe. Everyone came at the same time and they had a real problem getting the orders right. The next morning, I noticed right away that there were new hosts/managers in place, although I wasn't really sure what they'd be able to do.

Although it was kind of a pain to change into pants, I was able to wear polo shirts (and observed many people with t-..... even) without an issue. Was it more that you wanted to wear shorts?

Thunderroad

It doesn't surprise me that you had that problem at lunch, though my bigger problem was with the host/managers' attitudes. (I believe that they were wearing white shirts, but don't recall for sure. They did stick out in terms of being somewhat older than the wait staff and clearly supervisory.) For one of the seven days we were there we had a much nicer fellow as host; he stuck out simply be being smiling, helpful, welcoming - in other words, just acting as a host normally does. The other two I mentioned were far from that.

As for the dress code, I don't want to make too much of it since it was just one of a variety of factors that led us to select room service or to eat elsewhere. And I realize it's not a great imposition to have to don long pants. But yeah, in that climate I much preferred shorts.

milehighflyer88

I booked this as the first leg of a honeymoon trip (Mauritius/Tanzania Safari/Maldives) at a rate of 240,000 points for 5 nights.

TO me the property looks amazing but Im thinking I can do better with 240,000 points. If I compare this hotel with the St Regis Maldives or the LM Bora Bora it doesn't seem an equivalent value in points.
As such, would you guys recommend I downgrade to the Westin Mauritius or the LM? It would save me 100K+ Points. How does the Westin compare?