My wife and I just returned 10/31/09 from a week at the Ritz in ST Thomas, greeting was great, cold face cloths, and spiked rum drinks made the arrival with the view's from the hotel bluffs. Escorted to the room swiftly by very friendly staff members. Rooms need updated in a detailed way, burned out porch lights, rusty door handles, interior door bottoms rotted, not fully detailed like one would expect from the Ritz Carlton! Had issue with a room function and were switched to even a less kept room! No call from any manager to confirm we were pleased. When ordering a-la carte for breakfast instead of buffett you better have time on your hands. Pool side staff fantastic, as well as the FANTASTIC FOLKS on the catamaran sail excursions,friendly desk worker, place needs some attention to detail in the buildings and grounds! Greatest meal, the Banana tree grill at bluebeards tavern(not at the Ritz), THE BEST!!!! Still a great time, not much can spoil a ST Thomas vacation, plenty of places to choose from!! Go to ST John to really relax!!!

After a great stay in St. John, we boarded a public ferry that took us from Cruz Bay St. John to Red Hook, St. Thomas. From there we hailed a cab and had a short ride to the Ritz Carlton St. Thomas.

The Ritz is a stunning property, lush tiles and beautiful marble buildings surrounding a gorgeous landscape with all sorts of flora and fauna (including mangroves), it really is unbelievable.

We checked in and had a free mango punch, were taken to our rooms on the east side. The rooms are great, we had a nice balcony with great views overlooking the property/beach, nice bed, huge bathrooms, closets. No complaints on the room. They even left us strawberries and champagne due to it being our honeymoon.

We ate at each restaurant and found them all enjoyable. Yes, it is really expensive to eat here, still we did not have one single bad meal and the staff took precautions with my wife's food allergies, which I appreciated. All restaurants were great, we had a beachfront dinner from Bleuwater (flagship restaurant) which was out of this world but I also enjoyed the room service which we also got at one point.

The beach is nice, shaded chairs with towels on them is pure heaven, from the beach you can see many islands across the small lagoon. Hotel offers free (sort of, included in your resort fee) sailboats, kayaks, snorkels, and windsurfing boards for you. Plenty of wind and it's fun to try the different things (you can get lessons for everything, for a price). Note that the beach has a lot of rocks/shells, I did not find out until the last day that the resort provides free reef runner shoes for you, you should use them, could have saved me some cuts. The infinity pool is also very beautiful and the temperature was perfect.

The service at the Ritz is unbelievably great, everybody was helpful, friendly, and just pleasent. All concierge was helpful in booking restaurants and other requests, staff was polite, always a hello. I just can't say enough about it, they really did whatever they could to make our stay more enjoyable. Plus laying on the beach being waited on hand and foot was great, chilled towels, free samples of new drinks, the ability to flag a server if you needed anything, all wonderful.

The hotel has a few other activities as well, the Spa is world renowed (wife very much enjoyed her massage) and we took a Sunset Sail on their Lady Lynsey sailboat which I highly recommend.

Downsides? I have one gripe, included in your daily resort fee is free high speed internet in your room hooked up to your laptop. We did not bring one as it was the last thing we wanted on a honeymoon, I was hoping to send off a quick email to family and went to see if the concierge had any computers. They did, for a $10 minimum charge and $1 per minute fee. This to me was a little outrageous. They couldn't have a computer standing by to send out a quick email like at many other hotels? I don't get that, as if we don't pay enough money.

Overall though, this is still probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at, it is most certainly very expensive but I feel in this case we mostly got our moneys worth. It was a great end to a fantastic honeymoon. I highly recommend it.

As a wedding gift, we were given a trip to this amazing resort by our family. They had been here on THEIR honeymoon and had such a fabulous time that they wanted us to experience the magic of this place. It truly was the most beautiful, relaxing and enjoyable vacation we have ever been on. (Granted, most of our traveling has involved trekking across rainy, wet countrysides, so we guess we don't have a lot to compare it to.) But if you have worked hard on your wedding and need a romantic getaway where you can unwind and begin to process the celebration that you just came down from, this is the place.
The service was impeccable, first of all. We have never felt so taken care of and pampered. The staff is always smiling and greeting you with a friendly "hello" or "good morning, evening, etc." no matter where you go. In fact, we began to feel as if they were there JUST for us!
The grounds are kept superbly manicured but what really struck us was that we never even saw or heard them being worked on for our entire stay.
Our room was on the second floor and we had spectacular views of the ocean and the resort from our balcony. The bathroom was glorious, with double sinks, lots of closet space and a fantastic shower. (The luxurious toiletries must be tried!) The King bed was deluxe, with a wonderful assortment of pillows and soft sumptuous linens, and the turn-down service each night was such a special touch.
The pool was sparkling and immaculate, and the beach was pristine. We found some lovely shaded chairs on our last few days, although you can create your own shade with their cabana chairs.
We snorkelled and kayaked, using the hotel's equipment, and it was always totally clean and ready-to-use. We never had to wait to use anything, including machines in the fitness center, which was another great feature of the resort. State-of-the-art equipment, personal tv screens, headphones, and always spotless.
We ate lunch at Sails almost every day, either under the canopy or by beach service. Good food, but even better drinks! The Mojiots are not messing around. Service here was wonderful.
We ate breakfast twice at Bleuwater. It's your best bet to get the buffet, which includes coffee and juice and a superb spread. We must have eaten our weight in smoked salmon. It was delicious.
We had dinner one night at the Great Bay Lounge, which has outdoor seating. It was our first night there and it was very casual, easygoing way to start relaxing into our trip. We had some sushi and a couple of appetizers. But the dinner at Bleuwater was exquisite. The wine selection, while not huge, is unbeatable, and the cocktails were just perfect. One of us did the Prix Fixe and one of us ordered a la carte. The chef sent out samplings of dishes in between our courses, and our server was perfect, attentive and then out of sight with excellent timing.
It was so difficult to leave, but we know we'll be back. If you are looking for a beautiful and rejuvenating romantic escape, you won't be disappointed with the Ritz.

Choice of Barac Obama in his presidential election campain. Over $700 per night. Nice if you can afford.