So the resort looks great in photos, but so much was wrong with it. I'll start with the check-in hiccups. When I arrived via South Sea Cruises, my room was not ready. I waited by relaxing at the poolside bar, and was told about an hour later that my room was available. I was led to my room, which I realised did not have its own plunge pool, though I had booked a room with one. Clarified this with reception, who then told me to wait again at the pool bar, which I did for the next half-hour. When I finally got to the correct room, I realised that it had not been properly cleaned. This was evidenced by the fecal matter that stuck to the underside of my toilet seat (see photo). At night, I would further discover that the pillowcases on my pillows were in fact also not clean, and had stains from the previous guest (see photo). I will say that though I had indeed booked a room with a plunge pool, it really was, on hindsight, not really worth the money. It was small, and more a gimmick than anything. Due to a lack of proper separation between villas, I saw other guests traipsing around my pool area just to check out what the plunge pool villas looked like.
The hotel also has a massive problem with accommodating guests in its dining establishments. Although I had asked the front desk to make a reservation at its grill restaurant for a certain time, when I got there at that time, I was told that many other guests had booked for that time as well, and that I should wait while they got my table ready at the pool bar. As I observed that there was a large table of 8 or so that was not occupied, I assumed that they were going to split this table up into smaller tables so as to accommodate the still-unseated guests that had booked for that time. I was wrong. I would find out another 20min later that that table of 8 had been filled, and the restaurant was intending to let me wait until someone finished their dinner. This is unacceptable. I don't see what's so terribly difficult about a restaurant not accepting reservations that they know they can't accommodate. It really shows the poor coordination of a supposed five-star resort, and I don't think I'll be returning.
