Royalton Blue Waters

I stayed here from 01/02/19 to 01/07/19 with my wife and one-year old daughter. Overall, the trip was fine, although it was not without some annoyances and minor problems. The good: 1. I did not regret getting a swim-out suite. Although the water you swim out to is very cold and doesn't really connect to any other water in the resort, the balcony area is worth the extra couple of bucks. 2. Overall, the room was clean and mostly well-maintained. We did not experience any problems with the power or the hot water. 3. The food was mostly quite good. Lots of options for every taste. My wife is a vegetarian - and while the food for her was adequate, nothing stood out to her as being especially good. 4. Food again. Each of the specialty restaurants we visited (steakhouse, Mediterranean, Italian) were excellent on both food and service. Some members of my party were frustrated that the Italian place was out of certain options but it didn't affect me so I can't complain too much about it. The mozzarella sticks at the Italian place are enormous (they look more like egg rolls than cheese sticks)...they were excellent but I would have appreciated it if they came with more dipping sauce. 5. Entertainment: We were kind of trapped in our rooms with the one-year old but we could hear the entertainment from the room 'balcony' - we were sad we couldn't see the shows because they sounded very good. 6. Bars: Excellent, excellent, excellent. I didn't have a single problem at any of the bars. They do use paper straws which kind of fall apart but no big deal. 7. Beach: The beach for both the Blue Waters and the White Sands is beautiful. At least when I was there, there were plenty of chairs to plop your stuff. 8. Pools and slides: No complaints. Great stuff, something for everyone. The not-so-good: 1. One of the cushions on our chair on the outdoor swim-out was missing, and after several calls to housekeeping we never received it. At one time someone called us to inform us that it was on its way. 2. Vendors on the beach. Some of them seem innocuous, selling bracelets, shawls, etc. but others look like they're up to trouble (and selling drugs). Not a fan of any of it. I discovered that they only walk along the waterline, so if you sit far enough from the water they shouldn't bother you. 3. The light switches in the room are quite confusing. There is a 'master switch' without which no other light can be turned on. While tiptoeing around a sleeping 1-year old this was quite frustrating. 4. The bubbles in our tub did not work. We tried it every which way, nothing. 5. The place isn't terribly kid-friendly, at least not for kids under, say, 3 years old. Nearly all of the public and even private areas are very hard surfaces, which is a major hazard for people who are just learning how to walk. This isn't so much as a complaint as a warning to other parents of very small children that you may have to pay a LOT of attention to your child as there is really no 'safe' place for them to be. 6. On the very last morning, we were due to leave at 10:05 AM. We got back to our room at about 9:35 in order to finish about 5-10 minutes of last-minute packing. We discovered that our room was locked and our wristbands no longer worked to open the door. The front desk and security people were able to handle it in time, but it wasn't pretty and I was pretty panicked that we weren't going to make our bus on time. It turned out that the door lock batteries were out and the unit needed to be reset. On one hand I was glad that not everyone had access to our room, on the other hand it was a bit frustrating to wait for security from the other hotel (White Sands) to get over there while we were counting seconds. The odd: 1. Stray animals. There are a few stray dogs and cats that wander the property at all hours. They seem mostly harmless, but I thought it worth mentioning because it was kind of odd. Overall, I'd recommend a stay here, although prepare for something to go wrong at least once and to annoy you for your entire trip.

The most spectacular person on the resort is definitely Leo. He is so high spirited and full of energy. He provided everyone with impromptu entertainment making the trip very memorable. I wish I had gotten a pic of him serving cocktails in his tuxedo out in the ocean. If you are able to travel to Royalton, make a point to meet Leo!