TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Article about the new Secrets All-Inclusive

An article about the new Secrets All-Inclusive. If it's been posted before please delete.

Secrets All-Inclusive Resort

I think it will be a hit. A/I is a huge segment of the travel world and this is a new location for many people. Most of them could care less about what’s on the rest of the island unless it is an included excursion.

Yes, you could be right. Other A/Is on the island have generally been pretty low class. This one might succeed, because of the quality of the resort.

Twice daily housekeeping?? Really. While I haven't been there to make a mess which most people don't do or do They??

That's pretty normal for upscale a/i's. Full maid service in the morning, and then turndown service at night.

Secrets is a class act resort.

Twice-a-day service is common at many of the finer AI's in Cancun. I think it's a good way for the maids to get tipped twice in the same day! Regarding Secrets it may do quite well, but the key will be their pricing. It's important to evaluate this cost when opting for an All-Inclusive rather than a hotel where you choose your own local restaurants. Throughout Europe they use a common concept known as 'half board' or 'full board'. Half Board provides your daily breakfast, where as Full Board covers both breakfast and a choice of dinner times. We love the half board concept because it allows us to dine at local restaurants and what's the point of visiting a foreign country or island if you choose not to sample their cuisine? Personally, I can not imagine going to St. Martin and dining at the same resort every single night, night-after-night. It's like going to Disney like we did with our kids years ago and staying at a Disney resort on the Disney property and dining only at the Disney restaurants. For St. Martin there are far too many great restaurants to choose from and way too many awesome beaches to visit as opposed to being locked-in at Anse Marcel. Just my thoughts.

The ariticle states opening Feb 1, 2020.....is that a pipe dream, as from what I can gather or have read, nothing much is happening at this point? I also agree that a high end A.I. should do well, but pricing is an issue.
As I stated in a previous post...I was offered an exchange into this new resort for Jan 28-Feb 4 through RCI,,,but a.I. was mandatory, which personally I did not want. The cost was to be 248.00 per person per day for the A.I. charge. That was a no brainer for me,,,not interested. But for some that may be reasonable?

I called RCI and told them, that from what I had found out,,,this resort wasn't even going to be open Jan 28,2019.....they were unaware??!!

Nevertheless, I do hope, when opened they will be successful, with options for travellers to opt out or partially opt out of A.I. costs. That would be the way to go, especially on SXM.

Meg

I can't imagine going to SXM and not dining at all of our favorite restaurants, and reconnecting with the owners of those establishments.

There is probably a market for Secrets on St Martin but not the kind of resort I would want to frequent given what all the island has to offer.

Secrets is NOT cheap, so those who stay there do have the funds to be able to go out to eat, even though they are doing a/I. I think it is possible that Secrets may introduce some people to SXM who haven't been there before.. So that is a good thing.

I agree.

There is the safety factor as well, some people just want to stay on a resort and not deal with the unknown