Royalton Blue Waters

Me my girlfriend and son went to Royalton Blue waters for their birthday and had a blast. It felt every bit of a 5 star resort.

I chose this resort to celebrate my daughters 16th Birthday. We visited from September 25 through 30. We are from Queens, New York and come from a working class home (Middle Income) Latin Caribbean Background. I believe when it comes to expectations and values, where you are raise and where you come from makes a difference in understanding perspectives. After the reviews I read about this resort, I was a bit skeptical about how my time there would turnout; However, I did not experience the issues that a lot of other people on trip advisors and other review sites experienced. A lot of people complained about the staff being tremendously rude, no hot water throughout their stay, or no water at all, WiFi not being available when you are supposed to disconnect from the world while on vaca. (A bit of sarcasm in that last sentence. Keeping in mind we visited when the summer was over, so maybe the amount of people in September does not have the same effect as the summer months would. Within itself the resort was beautiful all around. I purchased the diamond club option because it was available and wanted to avoid any restrictions I might of had without it. I believe it was worth the extra cash, although this was my first time there and have never experienced the resort without the diamond club option. With the diamond club option, you are assigned two butlers. Donville and Paul were assigned to my room and were very much respectful, helpful and accommodating when we needed something in particlar. They always extended their services even when we did not request anything. ALL of the rooms have an Ocean View. The way it is presented as an option on this website is very much FALSE Advertising and the extra amount paid for an ocean view is quite deceitful. All of the employees at the hotel were very polite and helpful; besides that, I believe that the servers around the pool and at the beach were too overwhelmingly aggressive 75% of the time with offering drinks and or food. I was unable to really RELAX and enjoy my time with my daughter without someone always there trying to spark up conversation aside from there work duties. I hate to use this word but I felt kind of baggered most of the time. There was always one of the guys on duty over extending conversation with me and or my daughter and there was no concept of space and time for them to keep it moving. I believe because it was just my daughter and I, and I was not accompanied by a male that they felt I could be approached more often than usually. This should be addressed and corrected by management. I spent about $300 on tipping which is a lot. It also felt like I had to tip everyone at all times. Because of this I kinda do did not enjoy myself like i wanted. I shouldn’t feel like a sense of obligation to tip without it being earned. I was turned off about this and wouldn’t consider returning to this resort. I cant even call this a spectacular vacation base on tipping factor being overly emphasized. Even the tour guides, went out of their way to mention to save some of the tips for them when going out on an excursion. I really do understand that the employees are mostly working for tips and the importance of tipping at an all inclusive, but during a vacation this should be one of the last things to worry about. There were too many of them and it seemed like husseling for their tip was more important than the importance of customer service and accommodation of guest comfort. I was unable to relax at the beach because there was either a beach peddler hounding us to buy something or a waiter coming around to try to have an extensive conversation on top of asking if we needed anything. Keep in mind this is occurring at least 10 to 15 times per day, which was getting overwhelming with the repeating of NO THANK YOU, NO THANK YOU... Of course I am not the type of person to be unpleasant, rude and dismissive, so I felt like I had to deal with it. Now going back and re assessing my experience I feel like I should have been a bit more dissimive because I sacrificed a lot of my relaxing and bonding time with my daughter. I strongly believe that when you are paying for a vacation it is to have this time to relax and occasionally enjoy having someone at the resort offer to attend your needs. This factore is not one of the things people should be worrying about before leaving your room to go onto the premises. Is it just me? Now the on food, restaurants and entertainment. I was not able to get to all the restuarants. The entertainment was amazing though! The resort had something different every night and Buffets were included in the middle of the white sands and blue waters resort with a different theme/entertainment. The Buffets were very enjoyable, not exceptional but the food was fresh. The restaurants we dinned in were not great at all and a bit under regular. I’ll do a comparison, to maybe give an idea of what my tastebuds were experiencing. - Score Sports Bar - nasty food, it seems they are cooking frozen preserved food or even serving reheated food that was just sitting around. (Should not even exist of this property) - Tex Mex (Armadillo) - a step under Chipotle, and we waited too long for the appetizers and main meal a 45 minute wait after appetizers. (-1 Stars) - Hunter Steakhouse - Services was great, Sort of like an Outback or Applebee’s (maybe 3 Stars) - Zen Japanese Restuarant - Service was great, a step under Benihana's, not even close to non franchise habachi restaurant (mom and pop) that would be 5 stars (2.5 Stars) - Grazies Italian - Service was great, This one was unique, My dish (mix seafood plate in a red spicy sauce) Tasty! (3 Stars) - Diamond Club Grill & Bar - Service was great, unique, food came out fresh, on a timely manner, drinks were great (4 Stars) This resort is more for groups and or couples. For a teenager and mom, its too big. I wouldn’t go back...

CHECK-IN: We arrived at the Royalton Blue Waters around 4:30pm. We were not greeted by anyone other than the bellman who tagged our bags. We wondered inside the lobby to the front desk and stood in line. After a few minutes a trainee asked us to have a seat and they would bring us some paperwork to fill out. At other Resorts (Mexico, Dominican and Jamaica) we’ve always been Greeted, seated, and given drinks/cold towels. Not a big deal- but it’s the little things that stand out in the service industry. We were checked-in and escorted to our room after about an hour. An hour is the normal check-in time for most resorts so expected as much. I can see how the checkin process could take longer and be disorganized when the resort is busy. FIRST NIGHT: When we arrived in our room we noticed there was only one king size bed. This was a problem because we had 2 children. It would have been nice for the Front Desk to have shared this information with us when we checked in. At 5:45pm I requested a roll-away bed, TWO sets of bedding for TWO children and extra towels. The large chair in the room turns into a bed. I needed extra towels because my daughter became sick with fever and was vomiting. After MANY calls and VISITS to the front desk and THREE hours later they brought the roll-away bed and two sheets. No Blankets,No Pillows, No Towels and only enough for ONE bed. The young man who brought the items said he would return with the rest of the bedding because he wasn’t aware that we needed two sleeping areas? REALLY, because we had called and gone to the front desk MANY TIMES. There was obviously no communication from the Front desk staff to the house keeping staff. After all of the crap, he finally brought pillows and another set of sheets. He then I formed me that they were OUT OF BLANKETS!!! W-H-A-T RESORT runs out of blankets??? I was frustrated to tears. We ended up using one king size bed and calling it a night because we were exhausted. At 11:30pm Housekeeping knocked on our door with the extra towels we had requested at 5:45pm. BEYOND Upset and Disappointed. As much as I’ve traveled, I’ve never experienced suck LACK in service. BUT we are here for 4 days so I’m going to try and make the best of it. ROOM 4012 Swim Out: This room was in a prime location. It was the very end swim-out suite closest to the beach and pool. If you have kids or need to go back and forth from room to pool, this is the spot. It is also one of the more quite suites. The swim-ups on the other side of the resort have more foot traffic and are closer to the restaurants, water slides, lazy river and entertainment stage which is incredibly loud until about 10:00pm. Our suite was a bit small compared to other resorts we’ve stayed at but it did the trick for sleeping, showering, and had lots of drawers for our stuff. We didn’t use the swim-out very much but it was a nice upgrade/option to have. HOT WATER: We had NO problems with hot water on any of the days we stayed. We showered around 5:00pm each day. The other couple in our party were without hot water the last night of our stay. This occurred around 9:00pm and affected the entire resort. BUFFET: Typical Resort Buffet. I’ve had better buffets at other Jamaican resorts. Keep in mind that they are trying to accommodate many different cultures— so there is a little something for everyone. On Wednesday night the outdoor BBQ had fresh grilled Lobster, ribs, chicken, and a plethora of sides, salads, fruits, and desserts. The food was REALLY really good. BREAKFAST: I wasn’t that impressed with breakfast as most of the pancakes, french toast and other food items were not very hot. Omelet/Egg stations were fresh and warm. Service was okay. We only had to wait a few Jamaica minutes for drinks and coffee. HUNTER STEAK HOUSE: Our food was cold and our steaks were chewy/over cooked. The children’s petite filets were very good. Go with Filet for sure, skip the Ribeye and NY Strip. GRAZIE TRATTORIA ITALIAN: AMAZING! I wish we’d have eaten here first. We ordered many items off the menu and ALL of it was amazing- Lasagna, wood oven pizza, mozzarella sticks, Alfredo pasta. YUM SANDS BEACH BAR: We enjoyed this spot overlooking the beach each day for lunch. We had nachos, burgers, hot dogs, steak caesar wraps, and yummy chicken quesadillas. OVERALL SERVICE: 4 star My only complaint is that when you ask for EXTRA of anything it seems to be an issue (as if they are put out) and you have to ask multiple times. When kindness is given, kindness is received. BEACH: Stunning! The BEST beach we’ve stayed at so far. We’ve been to multiple parts of Mexico, Jamaica, and Dominican Republic. POOL: Absolutely lovely! I can’t say enough about how great the pool and lazy river are. We received excellent service at the pool bar. WATERPARK: Five Stars. Our entire family enjoyed the waterslides and the smaller water park. AIR CONDITIONING: The room temperature was warming during the day BUT was incredibly cold at night. It was more than comfortable for sleeping. You’re not in the room during the day—so No problem Mon. The restaurants are somewhat air-conditioned. They certainly keep their restaurants as cool as other resorts I’ve stayed at. ROOM SERVICE: I ordered room service twice. It took 45 minutes to arrive which is completely normal for most resorts. However, the food was cold. POWER OUTAGES: There were brief power outages two of the five days we stayed.

Let’s start with the bad first. Room services takes 1 hour and 45min. The powers keep going off that’s something I’m use too. Room services takes forever to pick up the dirty plates. The things we wanted to keep in the room they took like the birthday cupcakes the hotel give us. Everyone is friendly and willing to help. The rooms was nice and the view as well. I had a problem with my clothes zipper one of the ladies was able to help me fix it. They made us feel like home