Travel with a Cocktail

We visited this property in April 2022. We were only there for 3 nights so our exposure to all that this resort has to offer is more limited.

Check In/Check Out: We were taken to the Preferred Club for check in. It was very fast and easy. We liked the app feature and that we didn’t have to get tan lines from a wrist band. Our morning flight had us arriving to the hotel at 11:30 so our room wasn’t ready. We ate lunch in the Preferred Beach Club and finally couldn’t stand the heat and temptation of the water any longer. We went back to the main entrance and pulled out swimsuits from our luggage and changed in a main lobby bathroom. We were drinking and swimming and having a great time but still not update on our room. Finally, around 5:30 I went back to the Preferred Club and they said they didn’t know what happened but gave us a physical room key to use until they could sort out why the app wasn’t working (its supposed to notify you when the room is ready).

Check out was extremely easy and fast as we didn’t make any additional charges. The only thing I didn’t like is that they didn’t give an itemized receipt showing no charges when we left but they did put a $500 cc hold when we checked in.

Property: Beautiful landscaping. We loved seeing the “shy raccoons”. There were many birds around but we didn’t find that they stole your food (like many other reviewers experienced) unless you abandoned your plate of crumbs.

The multiple buildings of rooms was a nice feature but its important to note that while the property has a beach, I wouldn’t consider it beach-front. If you are in any part of the property other than the first 2 room buildings on either side, you can’t even see the beach. You also can’t see it from the swim up bar pool. There are a few dips in the dunes that do allow you to see peaks of the ocean from the quieter pool.

Pools were beautiful and clear. They did not smell like chemicals and were refreshing but not freezing. We were very pleased with the pools.

The decor of the entire property is gorgeous. Very luxurious. Finishes felt higher end and ultimately felt appropriate for the price point.

Rooms: We got a Preferred Club ocean view 2 double bed room. For some reason, I thought this would be 2 queen beds as the other bed size option is a single king. Its definitely not. These rooms have 2 beds that are “double” size. These are basically a little wider than a “full” size bed. This was our misunderstanding but if you choose this, be aware.

On a related note, beds were a little hard for our liking but not unbearable.

Rooms were beautiful and clean, with no moldy smells. We always pack everything we need but I was really impressed with the included toiletries, which included standard fare but also mosquito spray (we never needed it) and spf 15 lotion.

There is light that comes on automatically to ensure you don’t trip on the step down. This went off all night the first night on its own. We discovered that the suitcase stand, which is placed at the end of the tv cabinet/dresser, was an inch too far to the step. Once we moved this over, the light seemed to work as intended.

Speaking of lights, if you are sensitive to light in your sleeping environment bring a sleep mask. The smoke alarm light flashes every few minutes, the phone has a light, and the thermostat has a red light on it.

Odd note- because the buildings are short and limited rooms, the elevators were extremely fast and never taken. Very nice experience.

Oceanview – we were in the PC 25 block. It was a beautiful view. I don’t think you would see the ocean at all if your building was any further back.

Drinks: We love fresh juices and daquiris on vacation. I was really excited because people were raving in reviews about the cocktail selection.

We found the drinks to be straight syrup. No fresh juice in site. We ordered a few pineapple daquiris and, while they were tasty enough, they had an unexplained banana flavor. We did not see any bananas or extra juices added when they were making the daquiris.

Overall, we were extremely disappointed in drink quality. I ended up ordering Bacardi and Fresca’s for the remainder of the trip.

Also, the bars don’t start serving alcohol until 10am. We usually like to have a fruity rum cocktail while we walk on the beach but this was not available at this resort.

A note on wine – we are big wine drinkers and had read about how horrible the house wine was and how expensive the upgraded wine was. We also found this to be the case. We flew in with a wine case of our own bottles and glasses. We opened the bottles in our room, split the bottle between our 2 glasses, and took them to dinner. We were only quizzed by one waiter about where the wine came from and why we had our own glasses. We were ultimately able to avoid all corkage fees and were happy with the choice to BYOW.

Food: After checking in, we went to the Preferred Beach Club for lunch. We were not impressed with the food and my partner described the lamb slider as disgusting. We never at at the Beach Club after that.

The first night (Thursday) they had a Mexican grill in the hammock area. The area was beautiful and they had a fireshow. The food was very lousy and we ended up going to Oceana. We loved the marinated shrimp there, as well as the catch of the day. Fiance had the surf and turf and said that was delicious as well. We had dinner at Seaside Grill the remaining 2 nights as we loved the catch of the day and the ribeye tacos appetizer so much.) We had buffet for breakfast on Saturday. They had many options but the drink servers were slow and I never received a mimosa before I was done eating.

On Saturday, they made paella by the pool that was yummy. We were not impressed with the poolside pizza that everyone raves about in reviews. The whole fish from the poolside grill was so good but difficult to eat with the tiny bones.

We discovered that you can pretty much order whatever you want from a pool server. No menu showed chicken strips, yet they had great fresh made ones. The fried shrimp tacos were very nice as well.

We did order room service for breakfast one morning. The food was the appropriate temperature and delivered on-time. The server even brought a little vase of flowers for our (coffee)table! Try the churros.

Service: what everyone says about this resort is true. The service is phenomenal. We never wanted for anything. Everyone was so kind.

They had a cart go around the pool everyday to clean your sunglasses for free! I kept dropping mine in the sand and Julio cleaned them multiple times a day.

Every server was kind. Everyone we countered tried to teach us a few Spanish words. I just can’t say enough good things about how well the staff at this property takes care of you and goes above and beyond.

Preferred Club – Was it worth it?:

Private check in/check out – maybe

Building Concierge – we had Roberto. He made a reservation for us and decorated our door. While he was very kind, I don’t know that a concierge is necessary since most places don’t require reservations.

Beach Club – I LOVED the beach club. Its beautiful. The bathrooms are way nicer than the pool bathrooms and can be accessed from both the pool and the beach. Most importantly, there is a fire pit and it was the most lovely place to finish the evening – on the beach, in the breeze, by the fire

One Day of Beach Bed – we did this on our final day and it was the best! Highly recommend paying the $100 if you aren’t PC to get a server, ice bucket of water filled all day, beach front view, and food/drink brought to your bed

Activities: I really wanted to do the kayak tour but it was too windy our entire stay and got canceled every day. The fire show was beautiful. We didn’t take part in any other activities.

Beach: This has the most perfect sand I could imagine! We had quite a bit of seaweed but it was not slimy/smelly and they ran the tractor most of the day to try to clear it. The sand really did it for me but I think the water was no prettier than Cancun hotel zone or Nassau.

Overall, I would recommend this resort if you are getting a good price and/or going for a short trip. The food was pretty good but the drinks were way below expectations for $1k a night. The gorgeous facilities and fantastic service make up for it a bit