This is a review I did not want to write. Guests should walk into this experience eyes wide open, however, so I am sharing my personal experience in an effort to help guide others in making a well-informed choice when considering the options they might have, particularly if they are considering this destination and stay as a solo traveler. Also, please mind any typos - I am writing this on a personal device and that brings challenges. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read; I hope it helps in making the best decision for your experience!
First, the main grounds of the resort are fairly consistent with advertised pictures. It is a beautiful and inviting-looking property. Its small size is intimate and it has an elegant feel. There is a bar on the main level that during the day wasn’t used much during my stay and typically was not staffed, so the main lobby area is pretty quiet. Typically, no one was in the main lobby area unless they were waiting on a golf cart to take them to Dreams or Il Mare or were waiting on a car. My stay was from a Monday through Saturday, so on a couple of evenings, this main lobby area near the bar transformed not to some lounge-like area, so to speak, but a musician such as a pianist would be there playing music. For this reason, some guests who gathered to listen were loud. Very loud. And for whatever reason, you could hear them throughout the resort. I guess the noise just carried.
At arrival, I cannot say I was impressed with the so-called personalized service or VIP arrival. Dominique and Max, who were kind and courteous, greeted me and I was told my bags would be escorted to my room while I checked in. Back to that. The check-in process felt like I was signing my life away for paperwork I never got copies of and that contradicted everything on the website. For instance, I had to sign something that had a check-in and check-out time, and the website says no check-in and check-out. I brought that up and got some roundabout reason about how there were but weren’t checkout times but I could call the day of checkout and maybe I could check out late if I needed to but we will see.
I had booked through Expedia, but they would not honor any of the Expedia perks. Apart from that, I kept being messaged by the resort, which offered a room upgrade and sold spa services, so I took the bait and used the so-called “upsell guru” to bid on yet another room upgrade (and paid for it) and three spa treatments. I received confirmation that the spa services were reserved and I’d be charged a cancellation fee if I didn’t show but was not able to schedule, as the website timed out. When I tried to schedule the services at check-in, I was told I would do this at the next desk, with the VIP concierge. But Lisette would take care of my room upgrade, which she did. Now, on to the upgrade. There is a hard, hard, sell on this Unlimited Vacation Club presentation at the VIP desk - no just checking in and going about your way. I ultimately broke down and agreed to go to one so I could get my key, schedule my service and unwind - I’d been flying since early that morning - and it was scheduled for the next day. I was assured my spa services would be scheduled with the first the next day after I finished the 90-minute presentation. The presentation went far longer than that - and included some misleading information - and when I returned, still no scheduled spa services and the spa was booked for the day. I was then told the upsell guru is only to request services and that it doesn’t “sell” or reserve anything. So I then had to go through the rigamarole of again scheduling the services, and only could schedule two of the three services at that time. Very disheartening and I felt unheard. Also, one had to be scheduled at Dreams, or so I was told, and was not entirely what was advertised on the upsell guru.
I tried to schedule excursions on my first day and had a map drawn out of where all the major attractions were, but even with several inquiries was not told how to book excursions until my second day after trying to sort out the spa scheduling fiasco. Then, I was scheduled via Amstar at Dreams and then I had to go to Dreams to finalize the plans with payment. So, off on the golf cart I went. I was also told for the first time it was best to arrange for a rental car because that was the best way to get around on the island and I won’t even get into the fiasco that that was because … whoa boy.
As for the excursions, they were great. I recommend the buggy tour. It only ended up being me and the guide, but the gentleman who runs the tours has a great sense of humor and is very genuine and attentive. We had a blast and he will be sure to show you a lot of the island that would be hard to see otherwise. Highly recommend! The beach tour was a lot of fun as well and they pick you up at Zoetry. I enjoyed that tour and the guide was also great. He had a bird he had rescued and the two were quite entertaining. Beautiful beaches but you will need water shoes. The beaches are too rocky to walk without them.
One thing that seems to be a constant theme about anything booking with or through Zoetry is the misleading advertising. The same is true with these excursions. For example, even though they have a lot of “snorkeling with the sea turtles” related excursions, I was told this is not “guaranteed” or offered after all because they “move” the turtles and do not go looking for them because of their protected status and for related, perhaps obvious reasons. Also, they can’t guarantee flamingo sightings though this is also featured in some of their excursions. Now, these are wild animals, so there is never a guarantee, so people should keep this in mind. But some things are also all in how it’s advertised and sold.
Back to the day before … when I finally got to my room and checked in, my luggage wasn’t there, I called after an hour and no one answered the phone, but I guess they knew why I was calling because after waiting several more minutes I went to go retrieve my own bags and met Dominique on the way to me with my bags. Again, a very nice man. I was disappointed by the lack of urgency.
I had no welcome bottom of Curacao, no sparkling wine ever placed in my room, and never saw a piece of fruit in that resort my entire stay. I also never got a welcome beach bag.
The pool wait service was practically non-existent. My entire stay, there was only one time on my fifth day that someone asked me, in passing, actually, if I was good and whether I needed anything. Towel service was slow and most often, there were no pool towels. No one has a sense of urgency and while some people wrote in their reviews that the staff is overworked, and this very well may be true - a fact to which I am sensitive being a person who has worked in and continue to work in customer service driven industries since I was a child - it appeared to me many times staff were standing around and preferred not to be disturbed. There was deliberate attempts to not make eye contacts, to not speak, to not check on tables, to socialize while people waited lengthy times to be acknowledged. Not all of them did this, but a lot of them. The male bartender at the pool bar the one time I used it was very courteous and nice.
The two in-site restaurants were slow and the food was inconsistent. Bloom struggled with the one time I asked for a “personalized” entree. What bothered me the most was aside from a young, tall man with twists and an individual who I think was a manager because he had on a blue shirt as opposed to the black uniform, the other staff appeared to treat me differently based on my skin color. My entire stay, I tipped virtually everyone for every service and was polite, not asking for much outside of typical service. It was hard to get a refill for something as basic as a water or a non-alcoholic beverage and staff sat around talking unless they were bending over backwards or pulling out all kinds of fanfare for the patrons who were not persons of color. Some of them even appeared to provide back-up service to their guests who were not persons of color whereas I had to wait for my one waiter, except for when the manager person checked on me the one night he worked. Thank you, manager person. This happened more than once and by my final day, I jut walked out and didn’t eat at all rather than sit and be ignored repeatedly. It was embarrassing and demeaning. Also, on the first night, some person got into a huge argument in the kitchen, and the more people who ran to the back to address it, the louder the dispute became. The whole restaurant floor staff ran to the kitchen at one point and all guests were just looking on quietly. Clearly, things happen but this was far from a luxury experience.
No one greeted me when I walked by or made eye contact, even when I greeted them with a smile and a hello. Housekeeping carts were constantly out and partially blocking pathways all day near where I was in the 600 rooms near the road.
Mosquitoes were abound so you need spray, as the property is not treated. On the other hand, there is a respect for the wildlife and animals on the resort, so that was refreshing.
The furniture at the pool and in the room needed a good deep cleaning. While the room was surface clean, and housekeeping came in from
What I could see, they weren’t mopping the floors and the walls had products slung on them in spots. The sofa in my room was filthy and housekeeping kept leaving the bed pillows on that nasty sofa whenever they provided turndown service, when they did turndown, as it wasn’t consistent. To prevent this, I finally put my do not disturb sign out. The beverages were never refreshed my entire stay. And towels were inconsistently restocked.
The spa is a decent spa but is not a luxury spa. The staff are nice and the receptionist handled all my questions and booked my third “confirmed” (on the upsell guru) service when I went to her directly. Again, one issue this resort seems to have all the way around is services are advertised that are misleading or are not offered. This was also true for the spa. So what I requested was not what I got on one of the services that apparently was a special so beware about that. They lap rushed through and I’m not sure the technicians are as skilled as they should be for what they are providing based on what I paid for.
The spa is no frills. I wasn’t offered a robe or a beverage or anything. Just, “here is your room and disrobe.” They rushed through the service and it was just enough to meet what was advertised. Nothing spectacular. Nothing luxury. There was no complimentary 20 minute service. All the coupons they give you at the VIP desk don’t work on everything and that in and of itself is confusing.
I never got a tour of the property, was just told where things were and was encouraged to use Il Mare. However, waiting on that golf cart got old at times so I didn’t take advantage of that like I probably should have.
I don’t know if there is an elevator for guests to use but if there are mobility issues, something to keep in mind is the main lobby is on on one floor and many, if not all, the rooms and restaurants are downstairs. Also, some large hose appeared mid-week and remained draped across the sidewalk for the rest of my stay. You have to watch your step because there are no signs warning you of its presence. Ground speakers throughout the property play music, I guess to add to the tropic-like resort feel, so depending on where your room is, they could be a little loud.
Room TVs have satellite and many of the stations are resort-related to sell their offerings. Others are local stations and then there are some stations that broadcast out of Miami, FL. So a little variety. Some stations are in Spanish, some in English, some local stations broadcast in Dutch. Plug outlets are European and American. Some reviews talked of tablets in rooms, but mine had no tablet, so I don’t know if they provide those anymore.
They push you to use an app to order room service and communicate needs and learn about the property’s offerings, but for me, this app was exemplary of the poor execution of what someone thought were great ideas. Firstly, I don’t see the benefit or advantage of being required to download an app to communicate with any business for what could only be a one-time thing. Secondly, if I must or it’s the preferred method, let’s ensure it works. I couldn’t sign in, all the menus and services were not accurate - all of them, and the one time I used it to order room service, my order never came and I had to go find someone.
To boot, the resort did not have hot water or even water that was warmer than lukewarm my entire stay. I raised this issue and maintenance came eventually and said it was a boiler issue but the boiler person would not be there until the next day. Nonetheless, they said they were going to check something to see if there was a fix they could make. They left with the promise to return shortly and didn’t. They wore their boots and equipment in the shower and never even requested housekeeping come in and clean behind them, leaving me to do it. I had to go to the front desk and request help or a room change. The front desk did try to switch rooms but told me I had to wait and they didn’t know for how long but to just wait, which was a little frustrating. In the end, I did not switch rooms because, no surprise, but the water was cold there too because it was a boiler issue. Just the same, they called a maintenance person to that room to show me the water was fine. As soon as they started to talk to him, he cut the person off and started off with the water temperature isn’t going to change, suggesting they knew there was a problem and nothing was going to be done to fix it swiftly. Still, he sat and ran the water for well over 10 minutes, only for us to end up back where we started - no hot water, not even warm water. I was told someone would follow up the next morning. No one ever followed up with me, leaving me to keep following up about it. I was essentially told at one point that they don’t mind the cool water as residents of the island because it’s so hot, and on another occasion that at least Zoetry has a/c because many people had booked Dreams and several rooms there had no a/c and guests were finding out after arriving.
There are so many issues with all of this that it cannot all be called out. But I will highlight that the hot tub was not hot; it was just an extension of the pool with jets; the spa staff didn’t even fool with it, I guess, because they just said their jacuzzi was out of service, but taking a cold shower after having scrubs and wraps made for an uncomfortable and shivering experience. And one cannot help but wonder how sanitary the food service was when staff cannot properly wash their hands or prep their culinary tools, or linens cannot be appropriately sanitized. Simply put, the diamond resort plaques on the wall are not impressive under these conditions as there is nothing luxurious about having no hot water.
I don’t know if anyone takes your bags to the front at check out. I didn’t even ask. It was too much hassle at this point so I cannot comment on this.
Most disappointing have been efforts to resolve these matters privately and directly with this resort. While Lily did what she could, management had not and will not return any phone calls. It seems next to impossible to obtain contact information for anyone at a level that may be able to meaningfully address these issues, and this is really a bad way to go when trying to build trust and confidence in a customer base. I hope that my experience is a one-off situation. For people who travel thousands of miles for respite or fun and spend their hard earned dollars to immerse themselves in Curaçao’s beauty, no one should be met with this level of stress and disappointment for some of what should be basic customer service and resort offerings, especially at a so-called Hyatt portfolio property at this level. One person with whom I spoke likened this experience to a property that was having a soft opening to identify its challenges and work out kinks, particularly on the training side of the house for staff. I could understand that except this place has been around for too long and no one seems to want to be accountable. On a note regarding the training, it seemed that everyone I talked to who shared how long they had been there had only been there a few months, with the average time being three months. If this is the case, there most certainly is an opportunity to comprehensive training and management should take the necessary steps to hold themselves accountable in doing right by their staff while also making things right with their guests and customer base. This place has a lot of room for success. There’s always an excuse and a shrug of the shoulders. For travelers seeking to explore the area and considering this property, please, please do your research. I hope this lengthy feedback is constructive and helpful to many.
Note - Dominique, Max, Lisette, Queeny, and Lily were polite and nice. So was Lake. Bartender guy at the poolside bar was very courteous. Kerry was empathetic and really tried to look out for me whenever she saw me, giving me a lot of information. I think she really empathized and I appreciate her. Room service guy also greeted everyone and treated everyone consistently. The manager-looking guy at Bloom who had on the blue shirt was attentive and also one of the most empathetic people there. Certainly some bright spots among the staff. The spa receptionist was also customer focused and kind. Thank you all for your hospitality.
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