My wife and I just returned from staying at Great Bay Hotel last week. Here are some of our observations, both good and bad. In general, about 85% of the rooms on the hotel side are complete and open. The first and second floors on both the mountainview and oceanview are still being worked on, but should be completed soon. The old side of the hotel on the West end is still being gutted and turned into timeshares.
Good Changes:
1) The outside of the hotel has received a nice facelift. New stucco and fresh paint. It looks very nice.
2) The lobby has been completely redone. New furniture, lots of new granite on the floor and pillars. The new lobby bar is excellent.
3) The rooms have been gutted and completely redone. The new teak furniture is nice. The beds were firm but comfortable. The bathrooms had all new floor, ceiling, shower and fixtures. I heard that some floors have bathtubs and some have showers. We had a shower. I wish we had known that in advance. My wife Jan prefers a bathtub.
4) The balcony railings have been replaced with nice stainless steel and glass. It looks great and improves the view from the previous design.
5) The main swimming pool has been spruced up. All new coping and a fresh paintjob. However, the water was extremely cold.
6) The pool deck has been re-coated with non-slip concrete and has a wonderful designed paintjob. The old railings have been replaced with Stainless steel with a few thin rails. This creates a nice unobstructed view to the ocean and between the pool areas.
7) The new Jacuzzi and infinity pool are awesome. The new swim-up pool bar is a nice touch, although it didn’t open until Friday. It was still under construction throughout the week.
8) All of the hallways have new, modern bright lighting. The walls have been painted bright white. It’s a nice clean look, but could use some decorations or accent color.
9) The bartenders, waitresses and activity directors are all sweathearts. Jose and Paul behind the main bar always aim to please. Charlene and Gilberto in the open air restaurant were awesome. We had a lot of fun kidding around with Andrea, Tony and the rest of the activities gang. We made sure to tip all of them very well, to show our appreciation. There are many guests that do not tip on an all-inclusive vacation. We do not fit into that category.
10) The food in the open-air buffet restaurant was excellent! It was very good last year, but I thought the quality and selection was even better this year. There were regular problems with quantities, which I will note below.
11) The hotel is extremely clean! The staff are always washing, sweeping, shining.
12) The swimming pools and Jacuzzi were cleaned and maintained daily.
13) There is a scenic elevator by the pool deck that stops at all floors and holds 13 persons. It is fairly fast and seems to work every day. (For those of us who have been here before, the old indoor elevator only holds 4 or 5 people and always seems to be breaking down).
Problem issues:
1) The odor at the hotel was absolutely horrible all week. Every guest in the hotel complained constantly about it. There is some sort of drainage ditch directly next to the hotel. It has always been there, but this week it was full of stagnant, green, putrid water. The smell was nauseating and never went away until Saturday (the last day of our trip). Apparently the Governor of St Maartin visited the hotel on Wednesday to check out the renovations. He immediately noticed the odor and demanded attention. A backhoe was brought in Friday and a ditch was dug between the stagnant water and the ocean. Friday night at sundown, the ditch was opened into the ocean to drain off the water. The ditch was filled in overnight. I have pictures. Saturday afternoon, water from the bay was pumped into the drainage ditch to dilute the remaining water. This will require a long-term solution to prevent the odor from returning.
2) There were 2 fairly serious incidents due to the lack of attention to detail. A friend of ours stepped on a piece of broken ceramic tile that was just slightly buried in the sand near the infinity pool. He received a deep cut that required a trip to the hospital and stitches. He had to take anti-biotics (no more drinking) and stay out of the water for the entire week. This happened early in the week, so it really put a damper on their vacation. The other incident occurred Thursday night. The entrance to the hotel casino did not have a threshold to keep the carpet smooth to the tile floor of the lobby. Another friend of ours tripped over the lip and landed on her face. She went to the hospital and has a severely bruised face and her arm needs to be kept in a sling.
3) The running water was brown almost every day. They were working on the plumbing in other rooms. Some rooms wouldn’t drain. Some water wouldn’t run or was hooked up backwards. Ours worked and drained properly, but it was brown and there was always air in the lines. We were in room 715.
4) Other rooms had poorly constructed shower floors. The water didn’t drain because the floor was not pitched toward the floor drain, or the shower floor was not below the main bathroom floor. This caused flooding of other guests bathrooms and sometimes out into the hallway.
5) The buffet restaurant ran out of one or more of the main courses almost every day during dinner. Dinner was served between 7:00pm and 9:00pm and we typically arrived before 7:30 every night. By 8:00 the seafood entrees were all gone on seafood night. They eventually brought out some chicken and steak, but only after many guests complained about the situation. The seafood medley was never replenished. Many other buffet trays would empty out, but would not get replenished. I could understand this near the end of the restaurant hours, but it typically happened by 8:00pm.
6) The workmanship of the renovation is very poor. Paint jobs are sloppy with many missed spots. The knobs were falling off the drawers of the bedroom furniture and could not be put back on without tools.
7) There are a bunch of local neighborhood kids that continue to sneak into the hotel pools and Jacuzzi. Sometimes security chases them away and sometimes they are ignored. There were as many as 8 at a time jumping from pool to pool, while security was watching from 6 feet away. Many guests complained to the front desk (including us). These children were filthy from head to toe. Their clothes were covered in dirt and sand and that is what they wore in the pools. The bottom of the pools and Jacuzzi were loaded with dirt and sand after they left.
8) Workers were drilling, cutting tiles, etc throughout the week. It was a little noisier than I would have liked on a getaway vacation.
Regards - Jan & Rick
My gut feeling tells me I would still recommend this hotel. I love the location and the staff. I believe most of the problems I observed will be addressed. I sent a similar report to Air Transat Holidays and I have been assured they will look into and respond to my concerns.
The rest of my trip was wonderful (as all of my previous 3 trips to SXM have been). Sunday seemed like it was going to be a little overcast, so we decided to drive around the island perimeter to take in the sights. We went to Dawn Beach and Oyster Pond. The views from the top are breathtaking. The waves were pretty rough on the East side of the island. We drove by Orient Beach and saluted. We knew we would be returning for a full day once the wind died down a bit. We breezed through Grand Case, but did not stop to look around this year. We headed to Marigot and browsed the West Indies Mall for all of 10 minutes. This facility just seems out of place on this island. We walked around the marina shops and stopped at BDLG for a cup of coffee and some fresh fruit. OUCH!! $29 for 2 cups of coffee, 2 cups of fresh strawberries and 1 diet Coke. Stay clear unless you have deep pockets.
I bought a few Cuban Cigars at the Marina "Casa del Cigarro". They were Romeo Y Julieta coronas and after smoking 2 of them, my guess is they are not real Cubans.
We headed back to Great Bay and noticed they are grinding and re-paving the road between Marigot and Phillipsburg. They were working on the North-bound side and it only caused about a 5 minute delay.
Monday we hung out at the hotel pool most of the day. We ran into some other people from Rochester, New York that we met last year and we spent lots of time together. We met a few other couples from New York and shared "snow stories" all week.
Based on numerous recommendations, we had lunch at Mark's Place one afternoon. I had the baby back ribs and Jan had a burger. The ribs were and burger were awesome. The side order of scalloped potatoes topped with melted Dutch cheese were "to-die-for". Prices were very reasonable. Under $30 for the two meals including a few Guavaberry coladas. FYI, they had "all-you-can-eat" baby back ribs for $10.50. Quite a bargain if you have a hefty appetite.
Wednesday night we met some friends at Cheri's for dinner. I know some people think it is a little pricey, but we always get a good meal, ample portions and we enjoy the live entertainment. The bill was $107 (including 2 drinks each but not including tip) for 4 of us.
We had to do a little shopping in Phillipsburg before we left. I bought some "true" Cuban cigars at La Casa Del Habano. The MonteCristo was a little too strong for me, but the Romeo Y Julieta's and Cohiba's were excellent (if not pricey).
I decided to treat my new bride to a tanzanite and diamond bracelet from Shopper's Haven. Victor has always treated us well and we got a great deal on this purchase.
In summary, it was a bit cloudy all week, and it rained at least once per day. The showers were always short and just enough to be annoying and get the beach towels wet. Orient Beach got quite windy on Wednesday. It was clear and calm until about Noon, then it got windy enough to almost clear the beach near Club O. We had lunch at Papagayo (a 90 minute ordeal) and gave the wind time to die down. We salvaged the day with milder winds and a relaxing day to read and tan sans suits.
We had a rental car from Budget for the week. I had reserved a Toyota RAV 4 and it was waiting for us when we arrived. A bit pricey at $350 for the week, but we like driving around with the top down.
Our return flight didn't depart until 10:25pm Saturday and the hotel let us have a 5:00pm checkout time (normally it would be Noon). We enjoyed a full day of meals, drinks and sun at Great Bay and it happened to be the best weather all week! After checking out at 5:00pm, we dropped our bags off at the airport, checked in and got our boarding passes and then drove over to Sunset Beach Bar for a final few frozen drinks. The band was great and the place was packed as usual. We watched a KLM 747 take off. I couldn't believe that thing gets up enough speed to get off the ground. Jan was getting a little tipsy so we decided to hit the Subway at Maho for a quick bite. We also wanted a little bit of quiet time before the flight home. We enjoyed a sub sandwich and she checked her e-mail while we sat outside. There was a wireless internet connection available right in front of the Subway shop.
We departed on time and arrived back in Toronto around 3:00am. We crashed at the Fairfield Inn for the night and drove home to Rochester Sunday morning.
Can't wait to return next year.
Rick & Jan
Last edited by Administrator; 03/31/2005 04:36 PM.
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