TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

A wonderful hotel, large rooms, serviced well. Staff always smiling and happy to help. The pool is outstanding, the beaches are beautiful. The restaurants are lovely food quality and choice was great. Overall really impressed, the staff make it!!

Everyone was complaining the aircon was broken when we arrived. It wasn’t working in some of the public areas but it was OK in our room at least. It did keep tripping off from time to time though. This was all fixed a couple of days into our stay. More generally, there are a lot of maintenance issues at this place, including: loose block paving, broken drain covers, holes in ceilings in the public areas which lets the rain in, exposed wiring, locks not working on public toilet cubicles, overflowing urinals, loose taps, and door stoppers missing in the bathroom. When I reported the urinals they quickly removed the plumbing… then left it like that. Technically it was now unblocked, but if you used it you would get your feet wet. Ghastly. Eventually they added new pipes… but it still overflowed. WiFi is patchy and slow pretty much everywhere (circa 6 mbps using an old standard called WiFi 4). Lots of the access points (the ceiling boxes that deliver the WiFi signals) are not working. I reported these too but nothing was ever done about them. In your room you can use a travel router and repurpose the TV Ethernet cable in instead giving you a nice stable 60 mbps. If you don’t have a travel router and you travel a lot, get one. It will transform your in-room WiFi experience. The TV has a lot of channels, but the only reliable English one is BBC World News. They do have a couple of Sky Sports channels but they streamed so slowly they were unwatchable. The food at the canteen-style buffet at breakfast and lunch was actually not bad if a little inconsistent regarding the choices on offer (e.g. they rarely had sushi but always had fried chicken). It’s all-you-can-eat, which plays really well to anyone not on a diet or with a BMI over 30 who isn't interested in going on one. Full disclosure - whilst I think a buffet is fine at the El Torito Grill or a Toby Inn, it’s my opinion, and almost certainly a fact, that buffets have no place in a 5 star hotel. The waiting staff do that annoying thing with used cutlery, where they take your starter plate away (with an efficiency that would make a Formula One pit crew envious) then leave the dirty knife and fork on your place mat for you to use on the next course. I can only imagine how many different kinds of bacteria are lurking on those placemats as a result. Just very wrong for a 5 star resort. Please just give us new cutlery. One of the two buffets was permanently closed with a sign saying they were “working hard to improve it” but I never actually saw anyone working on it, hard or otherwise, it in the two weeks we were there. The numerous a la carte restaurants offer a welcome alternative to the buffet but we found them a bit mixed. We were both ill after visiting the seafood restaurant. After the hype (everyone was raving about it) it was disappointing all round in terms of food, drink and service. It occupies a nice spot by the Sunset Cove beach though, so a pretty location for lunch (you can't see the cove at night, obviously). Service in the Italian was utterly chaotic, but the food was good. The Mexican was really bad with kitchen staff (including the chef) doing the table service. We wondered if the waiting staff had been diverted to serve a wedding taking place next door. Wedding receptions take place next to the Mexican and can be really noisy. The Steakhouse was good the first time, absolutely dire the second and then good again on our third visit. On one occasion I ended up going into the kitchen to get a fork so I could eat my main course. I also had to tell one of the waiters to take his time when I asked for a bread roll which took ages to arrive (he was on TikTok and I was being sarcastic). The Asian was good both times we visited, but otherwise there’s just no real consistency anywhere. All a bit hit and miss. The entertainment programme in the evening is good, with options to keep kids entertained, too (including an unfortunately named “Pido’s Pool Party”) The Signature upgrade was worth it just for the lounge access and exclusive pool and beach areas, which provide oasis of calm from the noise and chaos of the main areas. They give you a WhatsApp number so you can message the concierge to make reservations at the A La Carte restaurants. This works really well. The resort staff all try really hard and are polite - even the gardeners and cleaning staff seem to have done their customer service training, or maybe it’s just the nature of the locals who are all really friendly. There’s premium booze in all the Signature bars which is a nice touch. The gym is well equipped but absolutely rammed at 6am. 12 noon seems to be the quiet time. The main pool area is amazing but the resident DJ does a set daily for a couple of hours most mornings. If watching someone play records is not your thing you will find it unnecessary and absolutely deafening. If you’re sat near the pool bar they ramp up their own music to compensate for the noise from the DJ so you end up being subjected to a cacophony of sounds from two different sources. Horrible. (It wasn’t my thing.) Sunset cove beach is a bit of a walk from the centre of the resort but peaceful and serene. It feels authentically Jamaican. The snorkelling from the beaches is really good with lots of blue and yellow fish, small rays and a resident barracuda. All the decent sunbeds everywhere seem to be reserved by 7am so you need to get up early if you want shade, which can be at a premium. There are signs telling you not to reserve them but no one (neither staff nor guests) takes any notice. I’m British with an inbuilt sense of fair play but even I succumbed to the need to reserve a bed on the way to breakfast. One woman reserved 12 beds (yes, 12!) for hours before anyone else pitched up to join her and and the staff did nothing. Apparently the pool maintenance staff have a side hustle going where they will reserve a bed for you… for $20. People rarely walk around the pool area asking if you would like a drink from the bar. In 2 weeks we were asked on 3 days. It’s not a long commute from your sunned to the bar admittedly, but you should expect better service from a 5 star resort. I’m sure the staff would do better for tips if they did this. Accommodation is arranged mostly in “villas” containing around 30 rooms each arranged over 3 floors. They are noisy and echoey at busy times and when people are coming in from a night out. When it rains there’s standing water everywhere in the public areas. They put up “wet floor” signs but don’t make any effort to clear the water away. Accidents waiting to happen. Which brings me to the medical centre. This offers first aid and a lucrative referral service to the local hospital should you need it. It’s not included in your all inclusive package so if you need it you’re going to have to pay, but it’s reassuring that it’s there. We were constantly (like, several times a day) asked if we wanted (ridiculously expensive) spa treatments and to join their vacation (timeshare) club. This gets annoying after a while. Like really annoying. I’m not sure you can proactively sell too many massages at $300 a pop but they still try… each and every time you walk past the spa sales kiosks (strategically located outside the buffet). They also have roaming sales people pushing their services so it’s hard to avoid it. We even had people walking by the pool every day asking us to book treatments (they didn’t offer to fetch us a drink though). I reckon I could sell sun hats with “No Spa Treatments” written on them and make a killing. The Palladium app is really good for getting details of restaurant menus and generally finding your way around (but beware if you sign in with your room number you will sent push notifications asking if you want to book any of those expensive spa treatments). One morning I’d got 9 messages before 10am. One for each different treatment they offered. Bonkers. In the a carte restaurants you need to use your phone to scan a QR code in order to access the menus. I can only imagine how hard some older customers will find that one. The resort is quite large. We were routinely doing 9,000 steps a day just walking between our room, the pool and restaurants. There’s a shuttle bus (golf cart) service should you need it. This was very popular with some guests. I know I’m being a tad critical but this is supposed to be a 5 star resort, which should represent service excellence. It doesn’t. This resort is OK… on occasion it’s really good… but it could be great. It is let down by a series of negative points. Too many of them. None of these are major but taken overall they detract from the experience, so 4 stars not 5.

The Staff are friendly. There is plenty of room at the pools and beach without needing to buy upgrades . Food choices are plenty and they do a great job accommodating for food allergies. Only concern was the room sleeps hot at night but it is manageable with the ceiling fan. The spa services are excellent and super relaxing but a little pricey . It’s a huge resort so bring good walking shoes or you can catch a cart ride when needed . There are no elevators to some of the rooms. Overall we had a great time at this resort . It’s not our style of an All inclusive resort so we would not return as a couple but would return with a large family/friends group in the future .

It was an excellent stay, pool and beaches were amazing! Great spot along the coast, it is about an hour from the airport so be prepared to drive for excursions. Staff was friendly and helpful! Great selection of food/restaurants as well as drinks from the bar. Definitely apply sunscreen when out, weather was very sunny and UV was often high. Might want to pack a blanket for padding if you prefer a very soft bed, my wife did have some trouble sleeping on the firm mattress. The resort and our room was very tidy and cleaned frequently! Overall we got a great price for all the services and amenities would recommend the stay!

Absolutely amazing!! The staff was wonderful. Always with a smile. The rooms were accommodating and the mini bar was filled everyday. I recommend the Grand Palladium Lady for your vacation!!. Beautiful resort, lots to do.