Travelled here for our honeymoon
Accommodation: 2 nights in Grand Overwater Villa (dream island)
2 nights in Grand beachfront villa (main island)
Diamond all inclusive package
This was a really nice hotel, but needs some organisational changes to become a great hotel
The booking process, boat transfer, and check in was all very simple. Marta (staff member) was lovely and checked us in, whilst explaining clearly all the inclusions of our package
The overwater bungalow was incredible, had amazing views from the deck, as well as an underwater light to attract fish (though no glass bottom). Lovely bathroom, comfy bed and lounges, and an overall really nice feel.
The main restaurant was quite nice, with themed dinners (ie Spanish, Mexican, Indian, barbecue etc) and a very good selection of dishes, breakfast was especially good.
The all inclusive package was fantastic, there were 2x pages of cocktails available, as well as red/white/rose wine, beer, gin/vodka/tequila, and soft drink, coffee, tea, water etc...more than enough choices!
We also had dinner at the Plankton Grill, which was very romantic, and tasty! This was included in our honeymoon package, which was a nice bonus
The beach villa was also very nice, except it had an “outdoor” bathroom, which sounded nice, but practically was very hot/humid and also caused the floor to get a bit dirty
We did the snorkel safari which was a nice way to spend your morning - boat trip, then 3x different snorkel spots, seeing plenty of fish, turtles, coral etc and some nice sun!
Areas for improvement:
- communication!! Everything when on the island is done in island time. We were told we would be notified in the afternoon about when we would need to change rooms. When I hadn’t heard, and I called reception, they said I would get a letter that evening before dinner. After dinner, there was still no letter, so eventually at 10pm, we were informed about the checkout/room change procedure for the next morning.
- similar thing happened with our actual check out letter (received around 9pm)
- the checkout process: unfortunately we had a very poor experience with Shamu at reception, who again was working on island time, and didn’t quite understand our frustration with the lack of reliable information that we had been told regarding our checkout. The breakfast was also incredibly poor (cold bread with jam and butter, cold croissant, 1x muffin, 1x piece of banana bread)
- transport to and from the dream island: this is a real issue that they need to fix. It is a long way from one island to the next (~25min walk each way) and then depending on where you are on the jetty, it could be another 5min to your villa.
The buggy service runs every 30min, but never seems to go on time, and will often leave slightly early or late, meaning that a lot of the time you can be waiting 20++ mins in the heat (or torrential rain) for a car.
This is especially evident at peak meal times, when the buggy can also fill up and you may not get a seat
I think they need to run this service every 10min, especially as they seem to be building more villas on the dream island, otherwise I would stay somewhere else
- the adults only pool: unfortunately isn’t adults only, as the generic rule sign next to it says that children can be accompanied by an adult. When you have young screaming kids swimming/playing there, it really detracts from the otherwise quiet and peaceful environment that an adults only pool creates
Overall, we had an amazing time staying here, and will remember this trip fondly. There were a few gripes, which unfortunately had a decent impact on our stay, but those aside, it really was a “dream island”
