I'll start by saying I don't give everyplace a great review, but the Ritz St. Thomas definitely deserves one. The rooms are extremely clean, well maintained and very spacious. The staff goes above and beyond to ensure everything about your stay is perfect. They are friendly and responsive to any requests.

Another post stated the beach here wasn't that great - too small and other issues. I did not find this to be the case. Being from Florida, I'm used to endless beaches - some full of people. That's not the Ritz. The beach is exclusive, clean and on the most pristine bay on St. Thomas (Great Bay - a marine sanctuary) The snorkeling is fabulous. The water sports are the best - we took a small catamaran out each day and loved it. Also, being an experience windsurfer , I really appreciated the wonderful service from Paul and the rest of the staff at the watersports area.

The food wasn't the best I've had and is really overpriced - I expected more. We did enjoy "Off the Hook", "Molly Malone's" (Red Hook) and "The GreenHouse" (Charlotte Amalie).

Seeing the fireworks across the channel on St. John for July 4th and the great party at the Ritz was great.

Overall, this is a wonderful place and you won't be disappointed if you stay here.

The hotel has a great yet remote location ! The airport concerige is worthless,a very lazy agent that does nothing! Check-in was smooth, bell service was professional, room was an above average hotel room, that need's renovation! If this is what one should expect at a "RITZ", stay at the local Holiday Inn, you will get the same treatment and pay less. We were awake every morning at approx 8:30 with housekeepers "yelling" housekeeping. The room attendants cleaning supplies consisted of a shopping bag and a few cleaning supplies. There is glassware in the rooms DON'T USE THE GLASSES as the room attendants clean them in the bathroom sink, or maybe somewhere else???. Shower leaked like a broken dam ! Food was ok, absolutely not worth the price, eat outside for sure. The best service was at the beach restaurant and in the bar.
Save your money , go ANYWHERE else.

My family and I stayed at the Ritz in Orlando and loved it. The service there was amazing, the food fabulous, and the grounds beautiful. We couldn't wait to stay at this Ritz.

Unfortunately, while we liked some things about the hotel, we were really disappointed in some aspects. I'm not sure I would return to this hotel.

The good:

It was fabulous to be greeted with a rum punch when we arrived.

The grounds and landscaping were gorgeous. I loved to walk around and look at all the flowers and shrubs. There are even garden walks offered (though I didn't take one).

The staff in the fitness area are very friendly. There are daily fitness walks offered in the local area. I went on one and enjoyed talking with the personal trainer and hearing her thoughts on St. Thomas.

The view outside our room (I think we were in Freesia) was beautiful--views of St. John and smaller islands.

The infinity pool is great to swim in and very kid-friendly.

The use of the sports equipment is awesome. We used the paddle boats and the snorkeling equipment several times. Yes, the beach is small, and lacks the beauty of the quiet beaches on St. John but the snorkeling is fabulous. I saw so much marine life, even a sea turtle with (I think) remora riding on its back. I couldn't wait to snorkel every day.

Some of the staff at the club level (Katrine, Carla) were so kind and hospitable.

I was concerned that the club level guests would be snobby; however, we met many other travelers whom we enjoyed talking with and liked the atmosphere at the club level. Many families with young children.

The bad:

We were surprised by the lack of cleanliness of the room and building we stayed in. This was our biggest complaint with the hotel. The room next to us (we were in a suite in the club building) was being renovated and the carpenters worked until 9 p.m. a couple of evenings. It was really frustrating, as our kids were under five and we were trying to get them to sleep. We complained and nothing was done.

Also, the hallway outside our room was filthy, most likely because work was being done on the room next door. Just terrible, though, nails all over the hall, dust kitties. At one point a crib was left in the hall for several days.

The room we stayed in had a moldy smell. I was really surprised at the dank, moldy smell of the entire building, actually.

The elevator in our building was out of service and we had to use the service elevator. No light in the hallway outside the elevator.

We had a leak in our shower one morning and had a maintenance person show up at our room at 6:30 a.m. That same morning there was a water leakage issue in the entire building. No reduction in fee though.

The food--I can't remember a single memorable meal at any of the Ritz restaurants. The breakfast buffet had a good offering of food but it wasn't outstanding. The Great Bay Room dinner quality and portion size were disappointing. Room service food was mediocre.

We stayed at the Club level and while I did enjoy the meal presentations, I thought the presentations at the Club in Orlando were better. I did think the sushi was good.

The beach never felt crowded to me, but once I saw a beach on St. John (we took the ferry over for a day) I wish I had stayed there.

While the Ritz in Orlando had family friendly activities in the evening (and I've heard this about other Ritz hotels) this hotel didn't have anything organized like that.

There were some private/corporate functions being held next to or at Sails a few nights we were staying there and the music was really loud and didn't stop until 10 or 11. Also, the atmopshere of the Ritz wasn't as quiet or laid back as I would have liked.

While we had heard that kids eat free in the Great Bay Lounge apparently it wasn't the case for us, as we got charged for our kids' meals there.

Some things that other reviewers mentioned (like the stairs) didn't bother me, though you do need to go up and down stairs to get to the beaches and pool. The "salt pond" (some called it a swamp) in the middle of the hotel grounds didn't bother me. You could hear all kinds of tropical birds singing in there. The mosquitos weren't bothersome. I liked the cats and iguanas, though I could see how watching a cat play with a dead mouse would ruin one's appetite.

To sum it up, although there were aspects of this hotel I appreciated, I don't know if it's worth the nightly rate charged.

My wife and I had a long weekend get away to the Ritz in St. Thomas and had a wonderful time. There were some pros and cons about the hotel, see list below:

PROS
- Hotel staff was extremely friendly and willing to help in any way.
- Our room (in building B) was beautiful and clean.
- We never once saw the cleaning staff.
- The pool is great
- Food was good and not to foo-foo.

CONS
- Price of the drinks and food was a little steep.
- No nightlife - If you want a bar with music to get a drink, you won't find it here. After dinner it is pretty much a ghost town.
- The beach is very narrow and rocky. The water was warm, but you couldn't stand in it or you'd hurt your feet on the rocks.
- There were a lot of kids. For us, we were trying to escape our kids for 4 days, but had to endure a number of kids at the pool.
- Resort fee ($55 per day)...didn't really include any activities we wanted to us.

Over all we had a wonderful time at the resort, we would go back. If you do go, take some extra money and take a ride on the Lady Lynsey...the sunset cruise was a great time and beautiful view.

You do walk a bit, but if you are in buildings A, B and probably C the walking isn't that bad. The resort is quiet and relaxing.

We didn't venture into town as we only had 3 days there. One night we went into Redhook, but there wasn't much shopping there. We heard for a number of couples we met that St. John is very beautiful and fun and is only a 15 mintue ferry ride across the bay. We wish we would have had the time to make that trip...next time.

Without the nightlife we went to be early and got to the pool early and basically had the entire pool to ourselves from 8am-9:30am. Very peaceful.