Royal Islander Review
I'll see if I can find out why it hasn't posted. Meanwhile, I'll just paste it here!
Royal Islander:
We were at the Islander for weeks 24 and 25 during 2008. For week 24 we got an exchange into a ground floor oceanfront unit, and week 25 we were in our own unit over the lobby.
Both villas were immaculate. We arrived a few days late for week 24. There were several housekeeping and maintenance employees finishing up some work on the unit. We had informed the resort that we would be arriving late, so it looks like they took advantage of some down time to work on whatever needed to be done.
The Islander was great, as were the other three tri-Royals. We pool-hopped and went to most of the restaurants. The grounds were very clean, as always. Week 24 was very quiet; week 25 was a bit busier, but there was still no problem getting pool chairs by 11 AM. This year we did not notice any issues with people leaving their stuff on chairs and going away for long periods. One morning there were no pool umbrellas, but the staff soon brought them out – they had taken them down because of wind.
Overall the weather was good. We did have one rainy day, and a few short periods of rain for maybe an hour, but the rest of the time was fine. It was often somewhat cloudy, which was just fine with us.
There were not as many turtles this year as in previous summers, possibly because the rocks at the edge of the surf was an obstacle. Even so, there were around 3-4 each night. The guards did a good job of keeping the guests from bugging the turtles – this year we didn’t see any problems with flash pictures and so forth.
We used the wireless internet quite a bit. At the Islander, it worked only in the restaurants and the pool area around the restaurants, but not in the lobby. It’s ok to walk in to the restaurant and use your computer at one of the couches or some tables set up near the entry. It was pretty slow – pages took quite awhile to load, and I gave up on some files I needed to download. They were taking up to 45 minutes per file, while at home it took about 2 minutes to download a whole folder of 15 files! It was convenient, though, an easy way to check email. We noticed – and heard – some people using Skype for cheap phone calls.
The rooms used for the Business Center and the membership room are now used for office space. Computers for guest access are in the mini-market, in the area that used to house the deli meats, which are no longer available. The mini-market also has a good selection of recent DVDs for about $5 a night, quite reasonable we thought. Two nights – Tuesday and Thursday I think – were rent one / get one free nights, and there was a special on other nights for free popcorn if you rented two.
We usually got takeout at the Express at the Royal Caribbean or ate at the pool. The ribs are super, as are the guacamole, salsa mexicana, soups, and salads. The chicken is ok, though it would be nice if they had chicken gravy at the take-out or mini-market. We were not impressed with the meat loaf or lasagna. One of my favorites – turkey bacon avocado club on multigrain bread – was no longer on the menu, but no problem, they made it for me anyway.
We ate at most of the restaurants at the Tris, and enjoyed them all. Shrimp night at the Islander was particularly yummy, as is just about anything upstairs at Pacos Tacos. We had some dinners made to order at the seafood bar – choose shrimp, scallops, mussels, and/or salmon, choose your vegetables, choose the pasta and sauce, then watch the chef put it all together into enough for dinner and lunch the next day. I was very pleased that the chef asked me (Mom) if it was ok to add wine to my teenage daughter’s Alfredo sauce.
The beach was still showing hurricane damage (hence my rating of 9 instead of 10). Quite a few rocks are still exposed, though there are areas for clear entry into the water in front of the 1 building of the Islander and the A building of the Caribbean. (There may be other open areas, but I can’t remember.) The water was fairly surfy, too much for us, though there were always some people in the water.
Probably our only disappointment – and it wasn’t a big one – is that there is no more Taco Party lunch. We had always looked forward to it, but it’s gone. The cocktail party is gone as well. I believe those still exist at the Haciendas; I’m not sure about the Sands or VCI.
We did a tour of the Haciendas one day, and VCI another day, both times with brunch or lunch. Both were very nice, and pricing at VCI is pretty good. As always, no pressure. Lunch at the RH was especially nice, with Jorge Duran playing the guitar. We got a CD and enjoyed it once we got back to the states.
We didn’t go anywhere else – we’ve done most of the tours in previous years, and would rather just relax. Our kids love volleyball and spent hours at the pool and beach with other kids and adults. They met kids from all over the states and at least 4 other countries – nice! We also met lots of new people, as we always do, and expect that we will see some of them again next year.
All in all, another great time at the Royals.
