PROS:
(+) Upon arrival the staff were all very friendly and welcoming in reception and checking in was made simple. We had arrived in Mauritius at 9am and were told our rooms were not going to be ready until 2pm which was not what we wanted after travelling for 15 hours. However by the time we had used the departure lounge with shower, toilet and sink cubicles and walked around the resort our room was ready by 11:30am. I was part of a wedding party of 11 and everyone’s rooms were ready before 2pm apart from the bride and grooms.
(+)The room was amazing, very spacious and clean with a lovely view from the balcony. The room was well airconned and the bed was huge as was the bathroom and dressing room we were given. Housekeeping were great at ensuring you had enough in the fridge, enough towels, etc throughout the day and did a good job of making up our room daily.
(+)The main bar Blue Bay was great and had a lot of drinks to choose from. The staff member Asven was fabulous at looking after us as he remembered our drinks orders and brought us over a few different shots to try. He was polite and provided a good service. The bar manager Christophe was welcoming each day/night into the bar and checked we were ok. A couple of days he made us Scooby Doo cocktails and Jeppetto cocktails which weren't from the menu which tasted good.
(+)The main pool area by reception was well looked after. It always felt clean and the pool service for drinks was regular. The main buffet has a different theme each night and managed to cater to me as a vegetarian. They offer fresh salad, fruit, veg, meat, fish, pizza, pasta, breads etc.
CONS
(-) Our phone in our room did not work even after reporting it to approx 3 or 4 different people including housekeeping and reception. It may not seem like a problem but we could not order any room service at all and on the day my family were getting married we had to go to the room below to order drinks to that room and then have them brought up to ours (which on the wedding day we could have done without)! We also could not phone to book a golf buggy to check us out with our luggage the day we were to leave so had to walk down to reception to do this.
(-) The service around the pool towards the end of our trip got very slow. On our last full day there was a female staff member going around the pool taking drinks orders and only asked me if I wanted anything, not my friend. When she brought me my drink my friend ordered hers which she waited for and was then brought the wrong one. I then ordered a bottle of beer which she gave to me with the bottle cap still on and didn’t realise.
(-) Although the drinks were great overall it was hard to have an overall favourite drink of the holiday. This is because there are no alcoholic measures at all so you can basically order a Mojito cocktail during the day and the next Mojito you order could taste like a completely different cocktail as the staff free pour everything. Whilst I am not complaining about being given more alcohol, it sometimes made them unappealing and almost pure alcohol as there was no room for a mixer! For example, if you ordered a vodka and coke, the vodka with ice in would cover three quarters of the glass it comes in. Occasionally I would also have an ant or fruit fly in my drink too which I think the bar do have a problem with around the fruit juices.
(-) All inclusive? Myself and everyone I was with were all inclusive (purple wristbands) and we thought all inclusive meant all inclusive however this is not the case. One of the people I went with tried to order a specific type of gin which they said isn’t included in our package. And often at the Italian restaurant and the seafood restaurant you had to pay for a lot of foods that weren’t included too which we did not consider would occur whilst here.
(-) The hotel shop is very basic with 90% of it selling only clothes. I went in there looking for a souvenir and there are only about 3 key rings and a shot glass to choose from and it is quite expensive but all gift shops are. I just would have liked to of seen a few more Mauritius related items, I don’t know why there is a need to sell so many tops with “Beachcomber” on.
