Thought I’d share some items that might be of interest to other Divi owners from our January visit.

Slice – A new food stand selling pizza by the slice and whole pizzas has been built by the top level of the larger pool complex. There are a few outdoor tables for seating as well. It appears that the resort simply moved the pizza oven that was at Gizmo’s up to this building, removing pizza from the Gizmo’s menu. The pizzas use premade frozen crusts, so they were just OK, but it was convenient.

Mix – The new bar on the 5th level of the new Oceans building opened when we were there. The menu offers pricey exotic drinks ($15+) and appetizers. We stopped one evening and had a couple drinks and shared the Wagyu sliders – 3 small burgers that were very tasty. The bar is open air with glass panels from about waist high on three sides, so the view across the resort grounds from the cushioned seating was pretty at night. You can’t see back to Philipsburg because of the hills, but we got to watch a brightly lit cruise boat leave. It was pleasant to spend an hour admiring the starry sky, but I don’t expect we’ll spend many evenings there. The staff was friendly with good service.

Sea Breeze. The pool café is now open for dinner several nights a week, with a fancier menu and cloth-covered tables. They were featuring meats cooked on a “stone,” where they bring you the meat on a sizzling stone to finish cooking. We didn’t try it, but it seemed to have a decent business.

The resort seems to be pushing its all-inclusive program, probably as a complement to the new Ocean’s building rooms. They provide those guests with a removable wrist band, which we could see on people at restaurants. I’m guessing that’s one reason they are offering dinners at Sea Breeze, too. We ate at Gizmo’s, which still has the typical bar foods and a new menu option for dinner skewers, presented with a fancy rack they hang from, and at Pure Ocean. The more formal meal eaten inside at Pure Ocean tasted fine, but the presentation and haphazard and harried service were far from the quality we find in comparably priced restaurants off the resort. Given the limited choices and menus, I can’t imagine spending a week eating 3 meals a day at the resort.

Despite the resort being busy, there were plenty of chairs and beach umbrellas and the large pool complex had lots of seating available. There were small groups or families of cruisers who made their way to the beach most days, but not enough to be an issue.

The activity program with things like an escorted hike into Philipsburg, afternoon bingo and crab races, etc., is busy. They also had live entertainment several nights at Gizmos with some good musicians and singers, plus karaoke one night. The Manager’s Cocktail party on Monday night was a pleasant couple hours with drinks and some appetizers, lots of give aways and good music. We always enjoy seeing the many long-time, friendly staff at the resort.

At check in, the pressure to do the “resort update” is even more intense than ever. We have no interest in wasting our time on a sales pitch to upgrade, so now we aren’t even given our free Divi tote bag, since we refuse to schedule a time!