My family has stayed at this hotel twice before and had excellent experiences. This 3rd stay did not live up to my expectations, however.

The hotel is a little run down, but what can you expect for a place on the beach exposed to a constant bombardment of sand and salt. Our rooms in all 3 stays were clean and well kept with very comfortable beds. We did the standard tropical view so we didn't have a view of the ocean but the balcony was still nice.

Unfortunately the "good" ended there with this trip. At check in there was a mandatory $25/night "resort fee". This fee covers parking, wi-fi internet access, and other amenities (fitness center, etc). In previous stays all of this was included in the room cost - now they are sneaking in an extra charge at the last minute which you can't even opt out of (they try to make you feel like you're getting a deal with this fee by saying if you paid for all of these amenities separately it would be "worth" over $200/night).

The parking is also very frustrating now. They've added a new lot to the North of the property and parking in the South lot is limited and hard to get. If you end up in the main building (called the Jacaranda) prepare to walk several blocks to get to your room.

This resort has a very nice kids program called KONK (Kids Only, No Kidding). In previous stays most of the activities were free to registered guests (with the exception of activities including a meal, understandable in my opinion). Now virtually all of the kids activities, with or without meal, cost money. The fees range from $15-$40 per activity depending on the time of day and duration.

There was a dance conference going on while we were there as well. Even though we were on the 4th floor, the music and talking around the base of our building kept us up well past midnight - not the kind of relaxing vacation I was looking forward to.

The final straw in making this my last visit to the hotel was the resort staff was borderline rude in many situations and completely unsympathetic to my frustrations. I did eventually get a manager who verbally apologized for my inconveniences but his only offers were to remove the resort fee (which I accepted of course) and to move us to another room for our last night (which I declined because of the hassle for just 1 night).

Bottom line: be prepared to be nickle and dimed when you get there and plan on some extra walking. Even if you have stayed here in years past, I'd highly advise you not make my fatal mistake of assuming things would be the same and instead re-investigate your options in this area.