Couples Swept Away

Our most recent stay was for 10 nights over the Christmas holiday. It’s our 12th visit and 11th Christmas in a row. Overall we had a lovely, relaxing stay. We decided to take Tim Air over and upon arrival to a very busy lobby, we found out 2 busses had just arrived. Despite that, check in ran smoothly and we even got one of the atriums we requested. Most days started with room service breakfast than gym or Patios for my favorite banana French toast. Chantal was our server most days and she was an absolute delight. We were happy to see Scotch Bonnet (aka the Grille) back to serving snapper sandwich and other dishes we missed the previous year. Overall, food was good except one later dinner at Patios and lack of pico de gallo at Seagrapes for the fish tacos. We didn’t have trouble getting dinner reservations and ate at both Feathers and Lemongrass 3x each. The lamb chops at Feathers were amazing as always. We did notice a lot of new staff and on various days they did seem short staffed. Usually Lemongrass and Feathers had the best service but we did not experience that this trip. However, the food made up for it. Devon at Patios was the best dinner server we had. Friends joined us halfway through our trip and we took a private pickleball lesson with Larry. I had played before but learned a lot and what a character. Hope he’s back next year. My friend took advantage of the free daily tennis lessons. The sports area is one of the best things about this resort. Towards the end of our vacation we used our repeaters money to book a couples massage and upgraded to 50 minutes. Once again McNeil was fabulous and Charlene was great with my husband and his neck issues. Highly recommend. Catamaran cruise was great like always. We love walking left of the resort and always stop for a drink at Tony’s beach hut. The water was clear and beautiful during our visit and there is nothing like grabbing a float and chilling in the water. Piano bar is still fun but more of karakoke every trip. Great to see Marvin bartending at the Aura bar. Martini bar is always a great time and we spent more time with Tyrce and Sally at Sunset bar. Great seeing Shanna K at pool bar and Shanika at sports bar. Xmas Eve party was great as was Santa’s arrival at beach. We love spending Christmas here. However, we did notice a few missing aspects including no flag service , fresh fruit, or cold towels on beach. No fresh fruit at bars except occasionally bananas. No music at sunset anymore (used to have sax player sometimes). I always comment that they need more live music. Patios bar is beautiful and so underused. We love the atrium rooms and Ophelia did a great job of keeping it clean for us. As stated, they seemed short staffed at times and management needs to do something to keep the staff they have. With new mega resorts being built, the competition for retaining the best employees will get harder. Also, I can never understand why staff has to train as long as they do. I worked part time in restaurants for 20’years and no one ever trained for the amount of time as the staff here do. Lastly, I want to end with a medical emergency my husband had. After traveling all day we went to bed early our first night for him to wake up at 3 am in excruciating pain. He couldn’t move his neck at all. We eventually had to get a doctor to come to our room and with his help and the resort nurse , Temoya, he was able to get the help he needed (she even picked up the prescriptions for him) My husband lost 2 days of his trip but was able to relax and enjoy the rest because of their help. However, at no time did management reach out at all to check on us or to see how he was doing. In other resorts, we’ve had issues with dining and heard from management throughout our trip yet here it was crickets making this more of a 3 star resort (with a 5 star beach) This will not prevent us from returning but should be an heads up of what to expect and not expect when visiting CSA. So if you read this much, this resort has an amazing beach, a fabulous fitness area and some wonderful staff. It is not a 5 star resort but you can make it a 5 star vacation. Read less

CSA Christmas and New Year celebrations were outstanding the professional entertainment food and decorations including the entire team made this holiday memorable. The resort is rustic with lush and well kept grounds. The beach is simply stunning with the water-sports team working hard to keep it pristine. We has an Atrium room with a huge comfortable bed, this room had shutters with without glass enhancing the sounds of nature and wildlife. We have previously stated in a beach front room and to be honest we preferred the Atrium room. Read less

We went to Couples Swept Away for Christmas 2024. When we first arrived we received our welcome drink and check in was fast. We booked the Oceanview Verandah Room. We found the room to be very cozy and thoroughly enjoyed the spacious patio. There was no tv which was ok. The mini fridge was restocked daily and you could fill out a paper to tell them what you wanted more of. Housecleaning was remarkable and did and great job cleaning the room daily and replenishing towels etc.. I will mention that the bed was comfy and we appreciated turndown service. The only thing we did not like about the room was that it was so dark we couldn’t see, especially at night. There needs to be more lighting in the room. Now for the food… I hate to say it, but most of it was bland. The grill that had the fish tacos, geesh there was no seasoning at all. Palms had a wide variety of food, BUT my husband who is a strict vegan had a difficult time finding something to eat. He mainly stuck to callaloo or vegetables and potatoes if they didn’t put butter in it. The head chef did say that they were trying to expand their vegan options. I will say that my husband got to meet with a chef at the different restaurants like Feathers and Lemongrass. Chef Carlos Hylton cooked an amazing meal for my husband in which he thoroughly enjoyed. The grill that served jerk chicken was good, but they DID NOT have patties the whole time of our stay which was disappointing. Also, I have no idea why the workers there seemed to have attitudes and did not want to be bothered it seems like. My 2 favorite bartenders were Keshia and Harold. Keshia thanks for making “The Keshia’s Special” for me. You absolutely rock! Harold always had an amazing smile and ready to make my favorite drink and dis it well!!! There were also two servers that stood out, Joshshia and Talencia. Thank you for being so kind, working so hard and smiling the whole time. For the beach, it is simply beautiful and calm. They do such a great job keeping the beach clean daily. No seaweed or anything, it was amazing. My husband and I did enjoy the water bikes and Catamaran Cruise. The cruise was so fun and the rum punches are yummy! We also enjoyed the glass bottoms boat. These things are free with your stay, so enjoy. I will say as far as lounges and floatables, you had to get up early to claim a spot and I did not like that. Overall, we did enjoy our stay and would probably come back. Read less

The resort has a policy of only smoking in designated areas and not in the rooms or on the balconies. Unfortunately for me this policy is not enforced because the first hour we were there we saw 3 rooms surrounding us with people smoking on their balconies. We complained but the following morning cigarette smoke came up to my balcony on the second floor from 2 separate balconies below me. It seems to me if the resort wanted to enforce their policy they could tell people at check in what the policy is. There were supposed to be no smoking signs on the balconies but we did not have one on ours. Finally, if any security was walking around in the morning they would notice this. Really disappointing Read less