Cocobay Resort

[kyshel]

Does anyone have experience with Cocobay Resort, pkg listed on LL? I have seen some very disturbing reviews of the property--not positive at all. I was very interested in going last minute.

[weezie_lac]

Shelley,



Caribbean sounds good about now, with the cold and snow in Ohio (I live in Ohio too) My husband and I spent one night at Cocobay Resort. It was a stop over after getting to Antiqua and going to The Curtain Bluff, on Antiqua. So my experience is limited. What I can say is that the hotel was not bad, especially given that it is all inclusive.at a reasonable cost. The staff seemed friendly, the resort and beach were clean. The guest seemed nice and friendly, majority seemed to be Brits. They had a really nice infinity pool. We were in Antiqua at the end of October to beginning of November and is was their hot humid time. The room was not air conditionedand you are advised, by staff to close the doors at night. There was a floor fan that helped as it was hottttt that time of the year. . The bug netting is not for romance. There were things lurking out there, waiting to come in. I am not an outdoor camping type so I really don't like wildlife potentially entering my living environment.My husband was ok with the setting and wildlife and said he would go back. I might have grown use to it if we stayed longer. The bungalows are up and not directly on the beach, which is my preference. If you would like to see pictures we have some from the resort and would be glad to share.

Weez

[artchick]

Before my adventure to CocoBay in May of 2005, my idea of "roughing it" was slow room service; I would have thought that no AC in Antigua would be miserable, but our experience was just the opposite. It takes about 24 hours to get used to the climate without AC; we actually used covers on the bed at night, candles and mosquito netting but I don't remember many bugs. The private cabins are cozy, romantic and just rustic enough. There's a hammock on the deck overlooking the turquoise water where we spent a lot of time. We fell in love with the place, the people and the view. I have photos if you'd like to see them. We were the only Americans there which was somewhat refreshing. There were several repeat, regular visitors that refuse to go anyplace else and often stay two weeks at a time. ~amber

[disneygal]

Hi artchick, Thanks for this review. It sounds like an interesting place, and so far still affordably priced. I was expecially glad to hear that there wasn't a major insect issue. That's the main reason I've avoided this property. But now I think I will consider it!

[ntetrault]

I don't know if you have gone to Cocobay yet, but we just returned two weeks ago. I would highly advise against going. We won a 5 day auction last March and we had been anticipating a trip for our anniversary in early December since then. We upgraded to ocean front and also extended our trip for a total of 10 days. We left the resort early as we couldn't stand it any longer. We had stayed a full week, so we had definitely given it a chance.

I am somewhat baffled by the reviews that talk about how wonderful the staff are - we never experienced it. In fact, the beach person would harrass me when I walked by (he had two of his friends hanging out with him each day) so that I couldn't go to the washroom by myself without getting hollered at and commented on by them. It's as though theyhave never seen a 36 year old woman in a bikini before. The first day we got there, there were no beach chairs available. There were a large stack of them - but they were locked up with a heavy chain. That day, there was no one on the beach (it was the afternoon) to help us. We went up to reception and told that there was someone down there, we just had to find him. Reception wouldn't help, and there was definitely no one there. The second day, there were again no beach chairs, and the person that was there didn't have the key. After about 40 minutes he finally found some new ones that he brought down. There are a couple of sea cans right behind the beach where a group of guys have wave runners (not affiliated with the hotel) that they try and rent to you. They are very aggressive and the hotel's position is that "it's a public beach, there is nothing we can do". My husband was actually grabbed from behind (on his arm) as he was reading - startled him like you wouldn't believe. The guy starts laughing that my husband needs to get a better heart.

The house cleaning staff are plain rude. They came by to clean on a couple of mornings when we were still in our roomand when we asked if they could come back in about half an hour as we were just getting ready to go for lunch we were told ''no, we clean now, or we don't clean today''. Amazingly, they would come into our room without even knocking. We were sitting on our porch enjoying a rainy morning with a beautiful ocean view and one of us went into the bathroom to find that all of our towels had been taken. There seemed to be no security as we had a guy come right up onto our porch asking for money because he was fundraising for his soccer team. It felt very strange to have someone come that close into your space asking for money (not a small guy either). At dinner they would ask ''red wine or white" (they had a bottle of each in their hands). My husband asked for white, they poured red anyways. He said ''excuse me, but may I have white please" and they simply kept pouring and then walked away. We always tip when we are in the Caribbean, but after the fourth day we stopped - there was simply no point. The staff was rude regardless of whether or not we tipped.We told the front desk about our problems, and they simply said "that's too bad".

Unfortunately, I had a hard time with the sand flies - not a fault of the resort, but it certainly didn't enhance our experience. The rooms are rustic and that fine, but you definitely need to be prepared for it.

My husband and I have very busy stressful jobs and we like to go away a couple of times a year to sleep and sit on the beach and read. As long as the room is decent and the food is edible we're really easy to please. Unfortunately with the people being so rude all of the time, it really affected our holiday. This is definitely not up to Luxury Link's level and I am quite disappointed with the fact that they are offering it at all. It was because it was on LL that we thought we were getting a nice little gem of a place.

Good Luck.