Reading the reviews before our trip I had trouble understanding how the reviews could be so varied. Having been to the resort I can now understand. Parts of our time (1/12 thru 1/20/12) there were absolutely fabulous and other parts left us scratching our heads and chuckling to ourselves.

The front desk staff was great. We had emailed asking for an upper floor non-smoking room and on check-in they made mention they had received our request and were able to accommodate us. I also watched them process a full bus full of new guest in less than 15 minutes all while making every one of them feel like they were the most important person there.

The bell staff was friendly and very professional. Never did I see them with their hand out or waiting for a tip but they were always appreciative when you showed your appreciation with a few bucks. This was true of all the staff we encountered.

We enjoyed the golf course and the staff at both pro shops. Juan was very helpful with making tee times for us at the 18-hole course and we enjoyed visiting with him. A real gentleman. A crew of a half dozen or so was hand aerating the greens will we were playing. They would stand aside while we played up. When my wife chipped one in from about 50 feet off the green I don’t know was more excited them or her. I do wish they would have had golf balls with a logo on them but no problem.

We only had trouble with chair hogs on two of the days and only at the pool with the swim up bar.

We were in room 3841 which is the north-east corner of the non-smoking building. The room was nice with plenty of storage space. We did have a musty smell once or twice but it cleared quickly when we opened the doors. We did lose power one night and water for a couple of minutes one day. Hot water was plentiful. The room attendant service was all over the board. Some days were good and some bad. The only thing consistent was the room was never attended to until after 4:00. Then she’d be back around 6:30 to turn the beds down. It sure seems like a waste. Why not just combine the two visits. Getting pool towels for the next day was always an adventure also. The mini bar is also a bit of a misnomer. We did need to call maintenance twice to address problems with our safe. The first time was kind of freaky, in a good way. I called the front desk and before I could sit down there was a knock on the door and they were there with fresh batteries. The guy must have been standing outside our door because it didn’t take him but 20 seconds to get there.

We had no complaints with the bar service at the beach or the infinity pool but at the other pool it was a different story. There were times I saw the pool attendants come around twice before the bar wait staff came around once and when they did they sometimes wouldn’t bring your drink back. Smiles and cash didn’t seem to help. It was easier to get up and get a beer myself.

The restaurants were the biggest disappointment, especially Thalassa. The first couple of mornings the service was good but the food so-so. To make scrambled eggs they would crack two eggs on the grill, cook them a couple of minutes, flip them, cook them another couple of minutes, and then chop them up and try to scramble them. Other mornings we found empty bins of bacon and hash browns that never seemed to get refilled. The last morning we went to the family side and found we should have taken all of our breakfast there. They knew how t make an omelet, scramble eggs, and their food bins were attended to. The service at Thalassa was another problem that didn’t change from breakfast to dinner. (We didn’t try lunch) More than once we were seated and got up and left after not being waited on or even acknowledged after 20 minutes. I could maybe understand it if they were busy but they weren’t. Rather than complain it was easier to get up and walk to a different restaurant or skip breakfast. Our meal at the Italian restaurant was probably the best followed by the Japanese. We found the Mexican restaurant food bland but the workers tried hard to make it a nice experience. The steak house staff also tried hard but the best steak I had wouldn’t measure up to the local Sizzler/Ponderosa. We did enjoy the SeaBlue restaurant although their menu is limited.

At the end of the day we probably wouldn’t come back here but I wouldn’t discourage others from visiting. We just felt it didn’t measure up to other AI in the same price range that we’ve visited.