My fiancee and I stayed at Cheeca's Lodge for a week (in fact we got engaged during the trip :-). The grounds were spectacular and the food and service absolutely great. If you want to be active (golfing, kayaking, biking, swimming, tennis etc.), want to have a romantic holiday, or just want to relax, Cheeca's is definitely the right place. The staff were amazing, especially Shari in Limoncello and Jean Joseph in the Atlatic's Edge restaurant. The only problem we encountered during our trip was the poor Wifi connection on the property and in the room, but otherwise Cheeca's deserves an A++!

We stayed 2/16/13-2/21/13. There are pros and cons to the Cheeca. First lets look at the pro's.

The grounds at the Cheeca are amazing! Very well kept. The staff from the valet, check in, resort staff, tiki hut, the servers on the beach are very kind and courteous. We stayed in the main lodge in a ocean front king on the second floor and the room was fabulous. The view, spectacular! Nice large balcony to sit and watch the sun rise, the beach or people fishing on the pier. Or you can do the same thing from the large out side soaking tub. Don't worry, there are curtains you can close if you want to.

The cons, The Atlantic's Edge leaves little to be desired. Plan on spending $$$$ for a $$ meal. Cheeca promotes a family atmosphere witch they do great. But this restaurant is a little upscale for a family dinner. We actually ended up ordering room service witch was much better food. At least until we found a better place to eat off grounds.

Turn down service comes every day around 8pm. You get a knock on the door, your relaxing, get up to answer the door, "turn down service" Really? One day we were sitting on the balcony waiting to watch the sunset at 6:30pm when all of a sudden, there is a lady in our room asking if we wanted turn down service. Really? If I want turn down service, I will arrange that myself. Don't try to force it on me.

Finally, your bill ticket. Either its from one of the restaurants, bar, room service, etc... It suggest a tip amount depending on how much your bill is. Well, I tip according on the service and quality, not how much the bill is. That's just plain and simple. For a hotel to promote an up scale style, that part needs to go.

There is no question that Cheeca is a beautiful property, practically a tropical oasis mixed with jungle theme and a beach with a long pier jutting out into the water. However service is average at best. Driving in, you may quickly be informed that you're expected to drive to your room (with no luggage assistance) and the desk person points you at a small screen for hotel information, rather than explaining anything. Highly commercialized huge property totally lacks any sort of personal touch and while the staff is professional at all times, the feeling of getting any sort of "value" here is therefore compromised. Considering that they've had a major fire in their history, I was a bit surprised to see so manh tiki torches flaming alongside the trees and branches. THe room was average/nice, the funiture badly in need of replacement (loose doors, poorly fitting banged up drawers). The bathroom and shower were probably cutting edge in their time, but badly outdated today. The fake beach is very well groomed and a great place for lounging, but it doesn't quite meet the water's edge (stone edging) and the pool is far more attractive for swimming. If you're travelling down to Key West or back up to the mainland it's a nice place to spend a night. Personally not my idea of a destination although seeing so many positive reviews I'm sure it's working for some people. The outdoor cafe was very nice for breakfast, but along with the upstairs balcony restaurant, the service is really lacking. There simply are no bargains, here and by the time you add your resort fee, service charges and taxes to the room rate, you're easily $100 a night over the base rate. For $400 (garden) $500, $600 or more per night, with nothing included, it's really hard to give this beautiful property in an exceptional location anything more than an average rating.

THINGS YOU WANT TO KNOW UP FRONT

*This applies to Lagoon View Rooms-


1. Bathroom has Conair 1600 Watt hair dryer (good dryer) - It is located behind door in the middle bathroom vanity

2. Rooms have full length mirror

3. In-room digital safe - Secure anything of value in the safe. We took a Kindle Fire device which fit nicely in the safe along with our wallets, jewelry and a regular kindle reader.

4. Room has digital clock

5. Iron and Ironing board in closet

6. Robes (are hanging in bathroom) NO slippers

7. Coffee/tea maker - stored in middle of dresser behind a door on pullout shelf

8. Refrigerator filled with 4 bottles of water and creamers for coffee

9. Body lotion, shampoo, conditioner, bath cap, and nail file

10. Free Wi-Fi available - but not very strong reception - we had very poor cell reception on most parts of the complex so we connected to the Wi-Fi for phone calls

11. Screened porch with small table 2 chairs and 1 chair with ottoman, ceiling fan and outside light fixture.

12. Shower with 2 shower heads - regular head and rain head

13. Large soaking Tub

14. Bathroom has 2 sliding doors next to the tub that can be opened to the bedroom - has frosted glass so when closed there is privacy. However the light from the bathroom does shine through the frosted glass slightly and this might disturb some people who need complete darkness when sleeping if their partner gets up during the night.

15. Complimentary paper delivered to room door

16. Large flat screen TV

17. Resort fee includes: bikes, 9 hole, par-3 golf course, balls with 3 clubs (Pitching and Sand Wedge and putter); tennis - rackets and balls; valet parking - Other activities are offered for minimal fee such as yoga for $7.

18. Workout room - several treadmills, several elliptical machines, 2 bicycles - 1 recumbent; full set of weights, large mirror, water cooler, and towels.

19. Spa - connected to workout area - fee for service (massages)

20. Several pools - 1 adult pool - Whirlpool somewhere on property but we never saw it - we were told it was on the other side of the tennis courts.

21. Champagne offered at check-in

22. Check-in - There is no check-in counter. The staff sits at desks and to check-in you walk up to a desk and sit down.

23. Make-up mirror with magnification - Not lighted - Bathroom lighting is not very good for use of magnification mirror or any mirror for putting on makeup (at least for eyes of the slightly older set) - so bring your own with a good light on it if you have one.

24. We did the breakfast inclusive package - They offer a very nice buffet breakfast served until 11 daily. It included waffles, French toast, nova, bagels, grits, yogurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, omelets or eggs cooked to order, fruit and more. Coffee was delicious (Starbucks). If you want just a cup of coffee they offer it for free just outside the doors of the main lodge on the ocean side (same area where they serve breakfast)

25. They have several restaurants on the property, Atlantics Edge (pricey); Limoncello (Italian) and
Nikai Sushi as well as the Tiki Bar. If you want to eat at a reasonable time oh let’s say 7:30ish, then make a reservation as soon as possible and as far in advance as possible (especially for Atlantics Edge).

26. Parking for the Lagoon View rooms is right below the rooms - there is an elevator in the center of each unit block and stairs on both ends of the buildings.

27. The property is very easy to walk around - It is an easy walk to the main lodge, pool, golf course, or tennis courts.

28. Lagoon View rooms are very quiet and an easy walk to anywhere

29. Ceiling fans in the room as well as the screened porch. Fan in the room also had light fixture attached. This fan light seemed to have a ghost that operated it from time to time as in the middle of the night it would go on all by itself. I kept forgetting to mention this to the front desk.

30. Four pillows on every bed

31. Late Checkout is available upon request and only if they are not sold out.

32. Lights in the bathroom are on a dimmer switch so you can dim them and use them as a night light

GENERAL DISCUSSION
Arrival and Check-in - See #22 above. Check-in is really a breeze and very personalized. However, after we provided a credit card for incidentals, received our champagne we were told that we could drive to our room and here is where it is located and good luck to us (my words not theirs). No one offered to show us to our room or assist with our luggage although I did see bellmen assisting other guests, hmmmm. It seems to me that everyone should be offered to be escorted to their room and at least asked if they would like assistance with their luggage. Just my 2 cents worth.
Making Reservations for Dinner - The reservation desk for the restaurants is located in the main lodge right behind the check-in area. Their computer system seems to be confusing to the staff as they have 2 computers at the stand and they tend to peer intently at them hopping from one to the other for quite some time before booking the reservation. One time I stood at the counter with 2 people behind it and the manager had to come over to them and ask them if they had greeted me. In addition, one of the staff had their cell phone sitting on the podium and it was going off with text messages.

Restaurants -

Atlantics Edge - Service is excellent. The passion fruit vinaigrette salad dressing is to die for. We were offered many types of bread - olive bread, multigrain, French baguette etc. The lobster bisque had huge chunks of lobster in it. The main courses were as described with ample portions and were tasty. Waitress was very knowledgeable, friendly and attentive.

Limoncello - Caesar dressing did not have much flavor. I had to order more dressing as the salad came a bit dry. Local Seafood Agnolotti lacked any flavor but the ravioli seemed to be made fresh and was stuffed with chunks of seafood. My husband had the seafood with risotto. It was very tasty and he enjoyed it. The waiter appeared to be new, was not too attentive but was very friendly.

Breakfast - See #24. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast outside every morning. We did have one incident however. We arrived for breakfast and were told by the hostess that we could not be seated for 20 minutes as that was how long it would take to clear a dirty table of dishes. Well I walked right over to a dirty table and started clearing dishes on my own to the amazement of the hostess. And would you believe it, one of the staff started helping me and we were able to sits right down. The morning waiters were attentive with pouring delicious coffee and bringing juices and the chef at the omelet station was always friendly and smiling.

ROOMS - Our room had 2 queen beds which were very comfortable. However, the room felt dark with not enough lighting. Housekeeping always cleaned our room while we were at breakfast. The room was extremely clean. Towels are a little lacking though. One would think that at this level of resort that there would be towels that one could wrap entirely around oneself and call plush. But alas that is not the case. Housekeeping left an adequate number of towels every day but one day forgot the bath mat. I mentioned this to one of the check-in staff on our way to dinner and when we arrived back to the room one had already been delivered. That’s service! Turn down service was accomplished every night during dinner and chocolate mints were left on the night table. Rooms were impeccably clean (and I’m very picky) thanks to a very efficient housekeeping staff that were virtually invisible.

EXTRA SHOUTOUT TO A STAFF PERSON
During the course of our stay I needed a makeup pencil sharpener. There was not a pencil sharpener to be found on the property. The front desk referred me to the bellman, the bellman referred me to the sports office and finally I met staff person Misia there. She did not have a sharpener in the sports office but told me that she had a personal makeup sharpener in her handbag. She cheerfully produced the sharpener, disinfected it and allowed me to use it. Misia is a credit to Cheeca Lodge. She was not only helpful and friendly but had the best smile on her face the entire time. Kudos to MISIA!!


LATE CHECKOUT
You can request a later checkout time than the standard 11:00. However, you can only do so the morning of the day you are checking out. They allowed us an extra hour. Our flight wasn’t until evening so we wanted to hang out at the pool. There are showers at the adult pool area so I enquired about the use of a hair dryer and was told by the person working in the Spa that there are none available except for the ones in the rooms. She didn’t really seem like she cared that much as well. I explained that we had to check out and she stated that there isn’t a dryer I could borrow or use. I am sure that there are extra dryers around that they use to replace broken ones and one could have been found. Having one dryer available for guests who have checked out is certainly not too much to ask, in my never to be humble opinion. It’s what I call customer service.

SAFETY CONCERNS
Door to rooms open toward the outside of the room and to the outside of the building. They also do not have any additional security chain or latch. They do have a lever that you turn that I suppose disables the keyless device (I’m not sure that this works but to be honest we did not test it). I personally would have felt safer with a latch or chain on the door. I also do not like room doors that open outward especially when it’s to the outside of the building and I didn’t notice any security cameras outside the rooms.
One day my keyless key stop opening our door and I went to the front lobby and requested a new one. A new one was handed to me immediately without my having to provide proper identification. This is a real safety concern!!!

LOST ITEMS
I left a sweater accidentally on the bed in my room when we checked out in the afternoon. Once I got home the same day and realized I had left it, I called the resort immediately. I contacted the resort and the Director of Leisure Sales, Susan Ashmore, had my sweater found and brought to her. She mailed it out to me at no charge even though I offered to pay for the shipping. Kudos to all the staff involved in finding, and turning in my sweater. Thank you. That’s customer service at its best!!

SUGGESTIONS FOR GUESTS
1. Do bring an umbrella - one is not provided - our little travel one came in very handy
2. If you can, bring a lighted makeup mirror if you use one at home
3. Make dinner reservations at least a day or 2 in advance especially for Atlantics Edge

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE RESORT
1. Require proper ID for key replacement.
2. Install extra safety lock on room doors for added security
3. Provide umbrellas in the rooms or have them available for checkout at the main lodge
4. Provide lighted makeup mirrors
5. Cushions at the adult pool need to be sealed from wetness (after it rained they stayed soaking wet for 2 days). Even with towels on top of them my bottom was dripping wet. - One of the staff at the pool told me that the cushions were going to be re-scotch guarded because of this problem.
6. All guests should be offered to be escorted to their rooms at check-in
7. WiFi strength should be made stronger - It worked best on the screened porch and in the main lodge.
8. Have an extra hair dryer available for guests who need to stay a few hours after they check out.

OVERALL
We had a wonderful stay and I would recommend this resort to others.