We were greeted at the dock with cool rum punch drinks and a smiling staff. The room assignments for our party were goofed up and so there was some reshuffling and confusion to get started. There were twelve in our party spead out in five rooms. The staff did not come to the room for over an hour to complete registation and then only when called by us. We were supposed to have a gallon of water in the refigerator that is to be refilled at a central set of spigots that are fed from a reverse osmosis unit. The jug of water was missing and we had to call for it.
The room was very nice. It was clean and the air conditioning worked splendidly. The kitchen was well equipped. Housekeeping was consistently good and detailed. The coffee maker spilled coffee (which we had to provide) until I worked on the strainer basket and got it working. The spring in the shut off valve was too strong so I modified it to allow the basket to empty (I think the real issue was a replacement decanter that was not exactly the correct height).
The pool is of a beautiful layout and is well kept. It is not really a kid friendly pool as it has a lot of steps, a hot tub in the middle, and a deep step off near the swim up bar. No problem for us as we were all adults. There was an ample number lounge chairs. My down arrow here is that there is no music or entertainment. The bartender has a small IPod player that is discernable in the bar area but that is all. There is a volleyball court layed out in the pool, but no net or poles are available. The bar tender reported that the net and poles have not been seen in a very long while.
The beach front is beautiful and is kept clean. Seaweed collects every night and is cleaned up early each morning. However, there is no defined swimming area along the beach and the grassy bottom discourages wading in. I was disppointed at how much trash in general is in the ocean along Ambergris Caye, so you can expect to encounter lots of small plastic along the shoreline and in the shallows.
The drinks at the bar are tasty but are very expensive. Happy hour was two drinks from a select list for $12 US. You could instead get a double but it really wasn't a double pour. Our first bar bill on the evening we arrived was $46 US. We had only a few drinks each, so we ended up buying beer and liquor in San Pedro and making our own to drinks around the pool. I recommend taking a Tervis cup or the like to take advantage of the blender in your room.
The on-site restaurrant was average. The prices are in line with all of the food on Ambergris Caye; expensive. We also bought food in town and seafood at the dock. We made breakfast, most lunches and a few dinners over the week. Shop the local roadside vegetable vendors for fresh stuff and beans and rice at a locals price. There was a BBQ on Thursday night with live music. We found out about it when we saw it being set up. Unfortunately, we had already made plans to eat in town. The restaurant does not a very good job communicating their menu or specials.
The hotel is 3.5 miles from town. Water taxis are available but have a set schedule. The cost is $6 one way. We rented three golf carts for the week for $150 US each to give us mobility. I use mobility lightly as the road from San Pedro is full of potholes and deep mud holes after each rain, which occurs frequently in this part of the world. It takes about 30 minutes to make the 3.5 mile trip. Also, there is bridge over the inlet that costs $5 US for a round trip crossing. Mosquitos are abundant so take your insect repellant.
