I really wanted to leave a great review because we came here to celebrate my birthday and were genuinely excited about spending the day at the pool, but unfortunately we did not have a great experience.
We started with lunch at Garni Cafe before heading to our cabana. We were literally the only people in the restaurant at the time, but everything took a very long time. I believe we waited around 40 minutes for our food alone.
After lunch, we went out to the pool for our cabana reservation that I had booked through ResortPass. They told us they didn’t have our reservation, and after speaking to three different people, including the manager, we were eventually told to just choose whichever cabana we wanted. Our reservation included a fruit platter and drinks, but we had to remind them about those as well, and it took another 30 minutes or so for them to come out.
There was no music playing at the pool, so we started playing music on our own speaker. The manager eventually came outside, was very nice to us, and asked if we wanted them to turn the pool music on. We said yes, but the music they put on sounded like children’s/High School Musical-type music, which was definitely an interesting choice for a resort pool area. 😂
Our server was nice, but he explained that no one was actually assigned to the pool area that day, so he was taking care of us while also working the bar. Because of that, anything we ordered took forever. At one point we were literally joking that they had forgotten we were out there. Eventually we decided not to order anything else because we didn’t want to spend more of our day waiting.
Then came the check. We waited and waited for someone to bring it and finally gave up and went inside ourselves to find someone so we could pay. Even then, we stood around for approximately another 30 minutes before finally getting our bill.
And somehow the bill had TWO $250 cabana charges on it, totaling $500 for cabanas alone, even though we were only six girls, had used ONE cabana, and I had repeatedly explained that we already had a ResortPass reservation. Getting that corrected became another ordeal and more waiting.
What made the experience even more disappointing was the automatic 20% gratuity for our group of six. I normally have absolutely no issue with gratuity being included, but when the service is this slow and disorganized, it is frustrating to have no choice in the amount you’re tipping. We actually joked throughout the day that there wasn’t much incentive to provide better service because the gratuity was already guaranteed.
We were there for about five hours, and genuinely felt like we spent more time waiting for food, drinks, service, the check, or mistakes to be corrected than actually enjoying the experience.
I understand that places can be understaffed and things happen. The staff themselves were not rude to us, and we still made the best of my birthday and enjoyed being together. But for a cabana experience that you’re paying a premium for, I expected much better organization and service, especially considering how empty the property was while we were there.
I really wanted to love this experience, but unfortunately I would not book the cabana again based on the experience we had.
