Crackedhead

5 night rewards stay booked at the 240k for 5 nights rate. SNA's cleared and we were upgraded to an oceanfront villa. Looking forward to a long overdue vacation.

GarudaSoars

How many days before your stay did you apply your SNA?

Crackedhead

Applied like a month ago. They cleared five days before check-in (which is when Marriott says they process the requests).

boolean64

Did a quick search of this thread and didn't see anything...has anyone used a babysitter at this property? Did you go through the concierge or find a reputable sitter/nanny service on the interwebs? Definitely want one or two adult nights while we are there.

Thanks in advance.

7summits

The lady who runs the onsite kids club is fantastic and will babysit outside of kids club hours. Her name is escaping me at the moment. We are going in mid March with our 3 kids and will certainly be using her. Kids loved her.

wizzy

Just returned from another great 5 night stay. Some comments from this stay:

• My SNA's cleared, but it was messy. I received notice at D-5, but my reservation disappeared, and no one could tell me what room type I was upgraded into. Ultimately I was placed into a Jr Suite Garden View, which I didn't remember selecting, but a call to CS confirmed that I had. Hotel was sold out or high 90% occupancy for the duration of our stay.
• There was a fair amount of noise through the adjoining door; we hadn't noticed this on prior stays because we'd been in one bedroom suites. When I mentioned this to the butler he acknowledged a problem with that and the hotel was working on a solution (it wasn't just our room)
• I borrowed a bike twice. The first time I didn't have to fill out any paperwork, the second time I did. The first hour is free, but I wasn't sure if it was per visit or per day; didn't matter as I was only "on record" once.
• There's no more golf cart ride to Sufi. Our waiter said the Portafina neighborhood (where the restaurant is located) made them stop. They've also banned all Sufi reservations from outside the gates, so if you stay at the W, you can't get in to Sufi. The restaurant was only 1/3 full on a Saturday night so clearly feeling the impact; it had been packed on our prior two visits.
• The Friday "fresh off the boat" fish presentation wasn't as good this time. They pulled out a cooler (rather than bringing it in by boat), and there were only two fish types (Mahi and mackerel) on display.
• There's no more pillow menu (used to offer ~5 different types of pillows) but they found a memory foam pillow when I asked.
• Dinner at Carolina was a mixed bag. We went for the chef's tasting menu with wine pairings. There were 10 courses, most of which came off the menu (caveat that the menu was new as a of week prior). The wine pairing was a full glass of champagne for the first 3 small courses, and then one per course; course 4 didn't include a glass and no comment made when we said we were ready for more wine other than to bring out a glass with course 5.
• The excursion company has changed since our last stay; used to be Punta Mita Expeditions, now it's Punta Mita Adventures, an offshoot of Vallarta Adventures. Our guide and captain for whale watching were great, but the boat/snacks weren't as luxe.

You might say "how can you call the stay great with all these problems" but most of these are being picky or calling out different experiences from prior stays.

mad07

anyone have an email to their concierge vs. the general corporate site? I'm looking into a trip there in April and had some questions about surfing..

bhrubin?

thanks!

Aventine

Might be better off asking in the official thread in the Bonvoy forum!

RichardInSF

Going to move this to the Bonvoy forum where it should get more viewers;

RichardInSF, moderator, luxury hotels and travel

DSI

Josh15

Has anyone stayed at the St. Regis Punta Mita in June? I'm curious because I want to take my family there in mid-June and wasn't sure what the weather will be like or if the hotel will be full (chance of an upgrade). Any help is greatly appreciated.

jdrtravel

They have been saying they are going to fix this for years and has been my biggest complaint. We were once stuck next to four young buddies sharing a room who were partying until late hours and we had to be moved into a downgraded room without a connecting door so that we could sleep.
It is a terrible design flaw and it really bothers me that this has not been given real attention given the property that it is. We now refuse upgrades and stay in standard rooms just to avoid this problem, because all suites have adjoining rooms. If you ask them, they do have some pieces of foam that they will place between the two doors to try to block noise. This reduces sound by like 25-50%, but it is by no means a full fix. They need to have the doors rebuilt, or, preferably, remove many of them completely.

That's very sad to hear! It was always such a nice way to go to dinner.

Carolina has been mediocre for a long time. I wrote upthread that it's time to close it and try a new concept that they can regularly execute at a high level without fail. Something seriously less precious. And I like a fancy meal when it is done well, but I don't think they have the staff--or the customer demand--to really do it.

spgplat21

I have done late-May and August in the past and the weather was pretty sunny both trips. It rained some on both trips, but the showers generally came through pretty quick. Over the course of those two weeks, I think we only had one washout day. As far as occupancy, it still seemed somewhat busy in the summer, but I was upgraded to a suite both trips and the hotel was not full either time.

Note that it will be oppressively hot that time of year though if that's an issue. It was very humid and the temperatures were in the 90s. I still distinctly remember one very uncomfortable round of golf.

mad07

thanks for the tip DSI!

MaxFlying

I liked Carolina. I didn't think it was trying to be high end, nor was it. Just a decent hotel restaurant at a decent price with a nice setting. No, its not Michelin star but not that price band. We are back next week and will likely eat there twice and have all other dinners somewhere in the hotel. I just find this a perfect place to relax. When I want really high-end food I go to France, Spain or London.