This is my concern if I stay at St Regis or RC - the beach isn’t as perfect as the W and there is no reef or not a good one and that will be a let down. And I’ll have spent my points or more money and been let down even if the rooms are much better.

I feel like after the W that is what I expect. Maybe the Halcyon is similar to W in that it’s a small island and has a similar size to it with the water villas separate and it is meant to have a great reef too but that resort is right in the middle of points pricing between W and RC.

Been here for two nights so far. I stayed in Nov 2021 and was not impressed. Bad food, lots of wear and tear and the plunge pool was unusable. It was a lot to look past for the amazing marine life and house reef.

Well, they’ve basically fixed all the problems. The villas still aren’t as extravagant as the top tier properties like Waldorf Astoria or the tier down from that like StR but they’re still quite nice and the renovation completely fixed the plunge pools by tiling them which is how they should have been in the first place. It does seem that they ran out of time or money though because they swapped the categories of the left and right side OWVs and the left side did not receive the same extent of renovations in the bathroom or the deck.

Food is really good too. I have to imagine they gutted the culinary team because in 2021 the food was seriously bad and the people who were making it are not capable of making the food they have now. I’ve eaten at Fire, Fish, SIP, and Kitchen and enjoyed the food at each. Don’t do Kitchen for dinner though, it’s the least worth. The prices are too high for this level of resort as well. Somehow a can of coke costs more than at Waldorf Astoria.

Reef is as good as ever, and good dive center although they will try to force you into an “orientation dive” claiming it’s by law, even if you’ve dived in the last 3 months. I had to demand they show me the actual law on paper and when they did, I pointed out how it explicitly says only if haven’t dived in 3 months and they relented.

Also, at check in they offered packages of 500 credit for 400, or 1000 credit for 750. Based on the food prices, I took the latter for my 4 night stay and it’s definitely worth it and brings the food prices down to a much more reasonable level. Not sure if this is offered year-round.