Couples Swept Away

We visited for 9 nights as a group of 3 couples in January 2020. We arrived quite late in the evening and after a painful security we go to the couples lounge we were greeted by person in reception and wisked onto the bus within around 20 minutes. The bus journey was around 2 hours for us. We arrived on Friday evening at rush hour, so expect a long journey if you arrive at this time. Check in was relatively painless apart from the confusion with the bags, they need to work a better system for organising them. Room We were shown to room in which was a Atrium suite. We had requested a quiet room away from the road and I have to say, it was far from quiet. There is no glass in these rooms because you are suppose to able to hear the “sounds of Jamaica” and this would be fine if it were just the tree frogs. But the reality is that you hear cars, whatever beach party is happening that night in the local area and one of the many cats fighting. After our first night I did speak to reception and they moved me further aways from the road. This was better but far from peaceful. Leaving noise out of the question, the rooms are very nice, the balcony was the highlight for us and this is where we spent most of our time while at the room. Food We ate in the all the restaurants and for the most part the food was good. Always a good selection and many dishes to try. For breakfast we found the buffet food to be consistently good, a good fruit selection and excellent Omelettes. It was nice to have a change of scenery and go to the al a cart for breakfast however as we found with the restaurant the staff can become a bit tiresome, it felt like at times I was back at school as I was told off for entering the restaurant from the wrong place. Lunch Again the buffet was always good and sea grapes was one of our favourites. We had a vegan and vegitrain in are party and they catered very well to them. Dinner Our favourite was lemon grass and managed to eat here twice. The buffet was again good but most nights they played music which made it near impossible to talk to anyone on our table. Beach It was long and clean, the sea was very warm on our January visit. The people selling on the beach are annoying at first but you get used it. Loungers can be difficult to find at times, but for the most part it was fine. Activities Definitely one of the biggest pluses of this hotel. There were plenty of activities during the day and from pebble painting to water sports. We did the included sunset cruise, which was good fun. The scuba dive team were very good and friendly. It was a little annoying having to rush down each morning to get our names on the scuba list for the following day. The sports facility was excellent, a huge lap pool that I used everyday and an open air gym. This was a great place for also relaxing, not may people went and payed Staff Very mixed generally activity and bar. staff were friendly and memorable but staff working in the restaurants especially the buffet could come across as rude. Would I return, probably not... I would say value for money, this is excellent. Couples does a lot of things well, but is a little rough around the edges. It’s not what you would call luxury, but still very nice.

We stayed in Dec. 2019 -- I've lost count, but I think it was our 11th stay. If you go expecting a 5 star experience, you will be disappointed. However, there are many things to love about CSA: the beach, some of the staff (Colin, one of the bell staff), the spa, the water sports area, the daily activities, and a lot of the food. We also enjoy the exchange day with CN and look forward to that each time. What concerns us more than anything is the lack of care by more and more of the employees each subsequent stay. The level of service has gone downhill to a noticeable and sad degree. This goes for most areas of the resort (check-in/out and the guest relations desk included). Without tipping, service is not great. We've noticed this especially at the beach bars (hard to get service at all sometimes since the bartenders are very wrapped up in themselves) and worst of all in the Palms. Service here was terrible our entire week. We were given the distinct impression we were disturbing the staff by dining there, and they mostly seemed to be there for their own camaraderie rather than to help the guests. Do I hope the staff enjoys spending time at their jobs? Absolutely. But should it be at the expensive of those who have paid a LOT of money to vacation there? Not at all. The rude behavior and responses there from several really tainted our experience as a whole. And forget getting a palapa unless you are willing to pay a staffer to reserve one for you OR you get up at 2:00 a.m.; they are gone by 5:30. I can deal with the "rustic" accommodations for the most part since I know what to expect, but service is something that is non-negotiable, especially given the fact I save all year long for my vacation and that Couples hangs its hat on this (and on no tipping). I wish the management would not only read these reviews but then take action to make changes to the culture there at CSA. It's not what it used to be, and I'm sad about it. I want to go back again, but not sure it's worth it, especially when our friends go elsewhere in Negril and rave about service and other things.