My wife, daughter, and I stayed at Wyndham Rose Hall over Christmas 2000. Overall, we enjoyed our stay very much.

The grounds are quite beautiful and are kept very clean. The whole place has a "first class" feeling to it, with great attention to all the little details that change the guests' experience from so-so to spectacular. The water park, as other e-pionionators have mentioned, is loads of fun and attractively landscaped. The beach is fairly small and quite crowded at times (but keep in mind our visit was during one of the busiest -- if not the busiest -- week of the year). I will have more to say about the water park and beach later.

We found the staff helpful and friendly. On our first day at the water park, we asked one of the staff where we could get inner tubes (they had to be signed out at other parks we had been to). It was a hot day and most of the tubes were in use, but he spent a good ten minutes locating one for each of us. At all other times the staff seemed happy
and enthusiastic, always smiling and wishing us a good day.

We were on the all-inclusive plan during our stay. Drinks and meals were charged using a credit-card like card. Each charge had to be signed for. It seems like nitpicking, but I found the scheme inconvenient at times, more inconvenient certainly than at other resorts where the mere wearing
of a wrist bracelet is all that's required. The extra steps involved in swiping the card, printing a receipt, giving the receipt and a pen to the guest for signature, waiting for the signature, then collecting the receipt and pen added extra time to each transaction, resulting in
sometimes long delays at a busy bar manned by a single bartender. Long lines often formed at the main buffet-style Terrace Restaurant in the central courtyard as each party's card was swiped.

We ate breakfast and supper in the buffet area (the Terrace) and lunch in the Gazebo Grill and Java's Cafe. Food in these places was good, and sometimes surprisingly good. Understaffing made service at the Gazebo, where guests
are waited on, slow at peak times. The Gazebo is a kind of open-air roof structure located adjacent to the beach, so the scenery is always spectacular though it can be breezy. Some friends had dinner at Ambrosia's one night (after we had left) and described it as among the best meals they'd ever had. Java's Cafe had an institutional cafeteria ambiance, with florescent lighting and a hard, echoing interior. The incessant canned Christmas music played in reggae style didn't help. The food was good and the service was generally brisk.

Our room was clean and well appointed. We opted for a "deluxe" ocean-view room with a balcony. Our room was on the fifth floor, facing the golf course. Quite unfortunately, there is a huge diesel generator on that
side of the building with a tall, multi-story smokestack. The smokestack blew black, oily particles over the balcony. The balcony was cleaned by housekeeping every day, but the particles would be back by the end of the day. Stepping onto the balcony in bare feet resulted in smudges on the tile floor and necessitated a foot bath. I don't know if
this situation existed in all rooms on that side, but it certainly made the balcony in our room next to useless and required that we keep the window closed and air-conditioning on at all times. I would avoid a room on the golf-course side of the hotel if possible.

The room had an in-room safe which required rental of a lock at the front desk. The rental fee was nominal, but I resented having to pay for security.

We like to camp out on lounges on the beach during the day, picking a "home base" in the morning and returning there after meals, drinks, swims, walks, etc. There were too few lounges for the number of guests, so finding available lounges in the morning was a chore, and more often than not after a walk we'd find our towels, books, and sunscreen dumped on the sand and our lounges vanished. You might think we were inconsiderate for attempting to claim the lounges when they weren't being used, but I see no reason there couldn't be enough chairs for all guests. In the first few days of our stay, so few lounges were available some guests were offering staff tips (some might say bribes)
to locate chairs for them. One day mysteriously more lounges
materialized, but still not quite enough. We go to a resort to get away from the day-to-day, competitive world of the rat-race, not to hone our skills.

The beach and grounds are fairly small. Walking from one end of the beach to the other took no more than five minutes. This is no fault of the Wyndham resort of course, but if you like to explore you may find you run out of space quickly. Leaving the resort generally means you
will be swarmed by aggressive vendors, so venture out at your own risk.

I don't think we would have enjoyed our stay nearly as much had the water park not existed. Pools are a great way to escape the heat, but floating on an inner tube in a gentle current, bobbing and bouncing harmlessly off the tiled walls, with warm sun above and cool water below, is a powerful relaxant. As I mentioned, the water park is
beautifully landscaped, with fountains and bridges and statues placed to surprise you around every corner. At night, the park is attractively lit and makes for a nice after-dinner stroll.

Entertainment was offered in the courtyard most nights, though rain on several nights during our stay limited that. The bands were competent. During the day an electric band played the inevitable reggae music near the water park, and at lunch a three-man acoustic calypso ensemble entertained guests at the Gazebo. Night life and entertainment are not
terribly important to us, so I can't offer much of an opinion here.

It's easy to overlook the things that are done well or work right, and the Wyndham Rose Hall is bristling with them. When you hear horror stories of other peoples' experiences with tropical resorts, from rooms crawling with insects to backed-up plumbing to lost reservations, it becomes easier to appreciate the attention to detail that keeps problems
like these from occurring in a top-notch place like Wyndham. We would willingly return to Wyndham Rose Hall, and recommend it to those looking for a four-star Caribbean resort.


Recommended: Yes