Blue Waters Antigua, Trip Report

Purely our own thoughts………

Blue Waters – Small, un-crowed, very sophisticated but at the same time extremely relaxing. Very much service orientated. From the Guest Services and Reception Desks to the Restaurant managers, waitress and waiters to the Pool and Pelican bartenders to the maids and the grounds keepers. Every single employee at Blue Waters deserves their own 5 star rating. The place is in every since of the word Marvelous. Just guessing, the overall nationality ratio at Blue Waters would seem to be about 95 percent British or UK, 3 percent other and 2 percent American. All very congenial to each other exchanging pleasantries and such. Blue Waters is worlds apart in difference compared to places such Sandals and the much larger resorts that feed on the crowds and party types.

222 pictures available at http://community.webshots.com/user/dhornick

Rooms – Ours was a Deluxe Beachfront room in the 600 block of rooms. I specifically requested room 605 on the advice of some other couples that had previously stayed in the room. Overall the 600 block of rooms have extraordinary views of the Caribbean Sea with the best being on the second floor with balcony’s. They are extremely nice and the size was very adequate considering that you only spend a limited amount of time there. The Deluxe Beachfront rooms have a TV (which we never turned on once), a bedside radio alarm clock (which we never used once) and air conditioning. They have a fully stocked mini bar which providing you take the All Inclusive package they restock daily the way the guest wants it. More on the All Inclusive package later. The bathrooms are as nice however we were a bit taken back by the hand pump flush toilet. But soon mastered it with no problems.

Pools – They have 2. We are definitely beach people and did not use either pool other than maybe a 5 minute dip. They are very nice and well kept. The main pool is where the pool bar is located. This bar also services the beach. The second pool is located further away from the main pool, restaurants and overall foot traffic but has no bar.

Restaurants – They have 2. The Palm restaurant is where they have breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea for those who choose and dinner. The second is Vyvien’s. It is to be considered the more formal of the two. A note about the dress code. We anticipated the fact that I would have to wear slacks and some form of dress shirt for dinners at both restaurants but I had intended to wear nice open toed sandals with the slacks. I was turned away the first night. Thankfully, I had brought a pair of deck shoes which worked out nicely. My wife wore a selection of evening dresses, simple but very nice. Now a word about the food at both restaurants. Every meal, every course simply scrumptious. Absolutely wonderful. Nothing else to say.

Bars – They have 2. The main Pool bar and the Pelican bar. As stated earlier the main Pool bar services the main pool along with the beach. Any one wanting a drink during the day has to use this bar. The Pelican bar does not open until around 630pm and is the gathering spot before dinner. The same dinner dress code is enforced in the Pelican bar.

Spa – If there was one thing that we could think of that needed improvement it would be their Spa facilities. The are at best adequate. We had been given gift certificates for his / her messages and her a facial and pedicure. Everything went well and it all turned out very nice but it just didn’t seem to us that the facility was up to the standards of the surrounding hotel property.

Night Entertainment – They usually have two forms of nightly entertainment in a gazebo that’s located between the Palm restaurant and the Pelican bar. One from 7pm until 8pm and then another from 8pm on. They range from traditional steel bands to piano soloists. There is at no time loud obnoxious music blaring much like you might find at some of the larger resorts that are geared towards bigger crowds and the younger party goers.

Gift Shop – Very nice and well stocked with anything from souvenirs to toiletries to newspapers. Just about anything you might need. We actually did a lot of our gift shopping there.

Water Sports / Beach – They have just about anything you might want to do on or around the water with the exception scuba diving (Guest Services can certainly arrange that if you choose). For use are ocean kayaks, small sailboats of different types, snorkeling equipment and floatation mats to lay out on. We choose a small Hobie cat to play with for a day. On other days we simply used their sun mats and lounged around just off the beach in the swimming area. Let me make one strong suggestion about the Water Sports area. They offer to take guests out to a secluded beach for a 2 to 4 hour outing. We choose to go in the afternoon and take a box lunch that the Palm restaurant had made up for us. We had a fantastic time, it was truly something to remember from our trip and should not be missed. Now a few words about the Blue Waters beach, because of the fact that we are beach type people we always choose to spend as much time as possible on the beach rather than a pool. There has been much written about the size of the Blue Waters beach. Yes indeed it is to be considered small but it’s all relative. There are only 77 rooms at Blue Waters and considering the fact that not everyone enjoys the beach some of which choose the pool(s) or even the sundeck area. The size of the beach never comes into play nor is a concern at any time. Matter of fact without reservations we found ourselves in our same favorite spot any day we choose to go the beach.

Guest Services and Reception Desks – The combination of these two areas cover all the bases. I can honestly say that anything we needed or wanted they handled without question or hesitation. They were simply the icing on the cake. They were so gracious and concerned that we had a good time that they continually went out of their way to get what we asked for. From booking outings to lining up taxi’s to recovering what we thought were lost taxi charges (we had to cancel one outing due to weather) they never ceased to surprise us.

Our personal thoughts on the All Inclusive package – We choose the All Inclusive package mainly due to the fact that we had never been on one and liked the fact of not having to continuously shell out money or tips. I suppose this would be true for most who chose the AI packages. The only problem, if you can consider it a problem is that you find yourself feeling tied to the resort. I had spent the better part of a year creating what I thought would be an itinerary for our trip of things to do once we arrived Antigua. Half of which we never did. Now this is not to say that we felt forced at anytime not to leave the resort but more the fact of simply enjoying the resort more than we had anticipated. I guess what I’m saying is that yes we would definitely do the AI again but now know not to try and over schedule outings and tours. In the case of Blue Waters you find yourself loving every waking moment of being pampered and enjoying the incredible food and drink that you just don’t want to leave.

Tap Water – To drink or not to drink that is the question. We have spent a great deal of time in Mexico so we are always very cautious when it comes to drinking foreign water. There is a simple answer to this never-ending question. Drink it!!! It’s very good.

Bugs / Animals – On different web sites there are always question about bugs or insects such at mosquitoes. I wont say that we never saw any but I will say they were never a concern, to us anyway. And Tarantulas or spiders, always questions about these. We never say one spider of any type. Just bring your bug repellent and you should be just fine. In the evenings there were to us Americans some very odd but beautiful sounds. On our first night there we were told they were toads. Later someone else told us they were crickets. Whatever they were, the sounds were very soothing. And the cats, I can’t forget to mention the cats. Besides the resident airport cat there are what look to be two resident Blue Waters cats who are always roaming the grounds in search of the tiny lizards and any other items they can consider food. They are well kept and do not harm a sole.

Other –
Power Outages, there is one very small inconvenience, sporadic power outages. They come at the most inopportune times. Evidently this is normal and Blue Waters has a emergency backup generator for these times but still a inconvenience.

Alexander Parrish taxi service is very courteous and prompt with Airport Hotel transfers that Expedia had lined up for us before hand.

Island Time – always 30 minutes late, considering the fact that we both work for North America’s largest railroad we are used to timely functions. Island time was a bit hard for us to adapt to. Things move much slower on the island. Just be patient.

Heat / Humidity – we anticipated the heat but definitely not the humidity. It was difficult at times unless you were around the water to cool off. Knowing ahead of time that the Sun is much more intense in Antigua than anywhere in the States we both tanned at a Tanning Salon a month before our trip. This was a huge benefit and allowed us to better enjoy our vacation.

Baked Beans - . It seems this must be a British tradition for breakfast. Highly unusual for Americans by all means but to each their own as they say.