just got back after spending 2 weeks at the club ambience .this is a lovely little place if you are over 90.staff very friendly and polite, food disgusting and very little choice (think i lost half a stone)no beach which i knew before i went , water at the two bathing areas stunk of stagnent water and was disgusting,the jacuzzi was filthy as were the room even after beeing cleaned by the housekeeper.complained to the manager which resulted in the jacuzzi beeing closed and still was when we left.resulted to paying a local to cook our meals and bring it to the complex.otherwise we would have starved.ended up going to flavours a public beach to sun-bathe and go on the jet skis.we go jamaica twice a year but this year was a complete let down.its like beeing in a sheltered housing complex.staff were great donovan,shabba and eustace the gardeners ,tony mark and omar (who will have you in stitches) the pool guys were a laugh a minute and they all brightened the days up.nothing to do at this place and we certainly wont be going back there .

Club Ambiance

Easter Weekend my partner from Kingston and we stayed at Ambiance for 4 nights…

Getting There

I flew into Kingston which I prefer… no issues… Drive from KIN was nice…stopped at Faiths Pen for some awesome ackee saltfish, came thru fern gully just as the sun was starting to set and reached Ambiance around 6:30 I believe.

Check In

No issues, got our bands and were assigned room 92 I think

Room

Was ground floor behind the grill area where they serve the hamburgers…My first impression was that the room was dated and a tad dreary… but it didn’t matter much because we were there to be out of the room more than in… there were two full beds, bedside tables, a tv, small refrigerator, closet, a/c, and bathroom with shower only… water was weird, sometimes it took awhile to get hot sometimes not, and it seemed to not be dependant on the time of the day…There was a little seating area outside and the room was set far enough back under the balcony above for this to be well sheltered from the rain, and just about all direct sunlight… If you can, request a room by the pool as I’m sure they’d be brighter (or at least an upper floor one in this section)…

The Food

There is only one buffet and it is quite small… but this was fine by us as we actually enjoyed most of the dishes on the rotation… the Jamaican and Chinese ones weren’t dumbed down…. I heard people complaining they were too spicy, we enjoyed…the soups were great…salad bar left much to be desired… there’s a made to order station that has omlette/eggs at breakfast and pastas during dinner, can’t recall if its open at lunch tho..They are a little fussity about you leaving the dining area with your food, well actually with your silver wear..they will bring you out a plastic set if you want to take your food to your room…

Dining is available mostly inside (open air still), but a few outdoor tables are set up…. Never had an issue getting a table although it did seem quite full most of the time…I think the dining room might have gotten redone more recently than the rest of the hotel that I saw, as it did seem to be a bit more elegant/modern looking (not that much more tho)

Nearby our room was the hamburger place…the burgers were quite tasty :)

There is apparently an ala carte restaurant that is extra but I have no idea on the details of it (I think they might use the same area they cook the hamburgers…

Late night they put out trays of desert type things but there’s not much in the way of food available other than that once they clear the dining area… however we did come in close to midnight one night and my partner was famished..he stuck his head in the kitchen and asked if they had any food left and they brought him out a plate full…. Was a nice touch although it might just take a Jamaican to be so bold as to ask lol…. Can’t hurt tho if you’re hungry late at night

Bars… There are three that I found, one main one by the entertainment area, one by the pool and one out on a little cove by the beaches… the drinks were all quite nice and service was generally very fast.. the bars rarely had bananas (and I made the mistake of becoming addicted to dirty bananas) so I stole a bunch from the buffet one breakfast and took them back to my room (lol), when they told me they had no banana for my drink I produced my own :)

Beaches

There are two “beach” areas and to be honest both are pretty much crap… sand is not even really sand but thick near pebbly stuff, the water has not been cleared at all and is very much rocks and seaweed…. The one to the west is better than the one to the east but is an enclosed area…. the lounger situation was kinda weird there… I couldn’t really find many in what I’d consider normal spots… ah well.. didn’t visit the c/o beach, apparently they do have one, can’t speak to it…

Pool
It’s a normal square pool… the lifeguards/bartenders are quite friendly (although that drop off quick when I was not alone lol)…. The entertainment staff seemed to engage guests in pool activities if they wanted to, but I’m not sure they have anything organized… I didn’t see a schedule, but I also didn’t spend a lot of time around here… it did seem clean enough and the water wasn’t all that cold…

Hammocks

This deserves it’s own mention :) One of my favourite parts of this hotel was the hammocks! They have this row of huge hammocks that comfortably fit two people… We LOVED these…one of the best memories I have to date was the 3 or 4 hours we spent in one of these hammocks one evening (get your mind out of the gutter!)

Activities

We rather enjoyed the fun little touches at Ambiance… the pool tables in the sand… the giant chess board (I won :) ) indoor pool tables if it got too hot or wet outside… volleyball on the “beach” shuffleboard (didn’t play this one, no idea how)… and a bunch of others… it kinda lets you do stuff in big or small groups… great to be social or just low key…

Entertainment…

Loved what I caught at Ambiance (only one night… we were in town for the carnival weekend parties and didn’t spend a heck of a lot of time after 3 or 4 at the resort… the night we watched was a live band doing mostly Marley covers… they were enjoyable, the entertainment staff got the crowd engaged quite well and everyone seemed to have a great time.. a gal was proposed to during the show… hope they are doing well :)

Daytimes they had activities in the area in front of the main bar, typically some sort of contest (bingo, trivia, etc) didn’t participate but listened one afternoon as we played pool… sounded like fun if it is your thing.. .


Staff/Service

The staff were great here… they were very friendly and usually always smiling, we were actually on the property so little that I didn’t get to talking to many staff or guests extensively but I could tell that there was great rapport between the two… and between the guests themselves…. Seemed like a place you go and everybody knows your name (like cheers)… the staff did work hard to try to get the guests who wanted to, to interact with one another and strike up conversations almost like ice breakers to get people talking amongst themselves… haven’t totally seen that at many hotels and I’m sure it has gone a long way to give this property the following it has…a girlfriend of mine used to work at ambiance ages on ages ago for a summer… she said it was hard to leave because they became like family and the guest were always just so much fun to be around..I did get the impression that not a lot has changed in that department…

Our room was cleaned daily and I never had to track down anything (towels or whatnot)… no complaint there..tipped the maid $5 on most days (one day she came while we were out on what we thought would be an hour run into town and back but ended up keeping us well into the afternoon)….

Disco

Went in here to get a drink one night (guess that would mean there’s another bar in here.. didn’t mention above, but I can’t recall if that’s accurate or not lol)… it was small but better lit than most I’ve seen on hotels… they have some sit down areas, and there weren’t many people in there save a few gals acting crazy and enjoying themselves (was kinda surprised they were alone, well unless they were, ummm together? Dunno, but I’m surprised the staff weren’t helping them act a fool;):)) we didn’t stay long but I believe I heard that they would stay open until the last person was ready to leave (and these gals didn’t look near ready… we were heading back out and I had half a mind to take them with us so they might actually party around others lol but we didn’t

Details

The hotel has internet access (computers are by the mural with the ladies butt, LOL).. think it’s 2US for a half an hour or something to that effect… didn’t seem to enforce the time when he was online, but I got bored and enforced it myself ;)

Checkout..
They insisted cutting off and keeping the bands when we checkout… not sure if that was the “resident” treatment or if is standard procedure… was a little weird because I remember trying to get my band cut off at other places and it being a big ordeal of someone trying to find a pair of scissors… I remember once upon a time I saved them for my scrap book so I do hope that they usually let people keep them as some do rather enjoy holding onto little mementos like this


All and all I felt Ambiance was a decent value for the dollar spent… it’s an older place and much of the décor screams that… but the staff, food, vibe and hammock more than make up for it… I had said that what Ambiance lacks in flash and glamour, it more than makes up for in personality… I rate the experience 4*, the hotel is no where near that, it was far from perfect but has a lot of great pluses…

if you are looking for flash, an abundance of options for dining and whatnot, huge, new or mega anything...you will likely be very disappointed..

big up all the guys and girls at CA had a brill time very personal great people great food and the rooms were spotless.look out for macho top bloke and doctor phillip behind the bar,over indulgence he will sort it out.won't forget the pool staff they were all great would'nt be able to fit them all in here but every one was ace,also check out gilbert doing his electric slide in the club..
any way got to go thanks again guys an girls for such a chilled out hol see you all same time next year..lol..shell an mark

I hate to give bad reviews, but there is very little good about our visit to Club Ambiance. One good thing to say, the food was pretty good, some of it really good. Other than that, I can't say anything else was good. The staff seemed burned-out, seemed bothered with simple questions. The beaches were tiny and very "mossy", I felt dirty every time I got in the ocean. The pool always had a film over it with vegitation debris. They ran out of pool towels and floats daily. The rooms were not kept in good repair. The water handle broke off in my hand the first day there, there were water stains on the ceiling, the air conditioner leaked all over the floor, I placed big towles around floor to catch water which staff just left there, and it needed a fresh coat of paint! The activities had broken equipment to try to use... ie:pool cues warped, shuffle board poles missing tips, torn water floats..... But, the most important complaint is this: We went two whole days without hot water and very little water flow of the cold water we did have. We spoke with staff and management, but little was done. We were even told at one point of the second day that we never told them about the problem!! Obviously poor communication amongst staff. This whole fiasco made me not want to EVER go back to Jamaica. I thought Jamaica was supposed to be beautiful, hard to appreciate while taking cold showers!!