Rating:
"The hotel was fantastic! This was my wife's first trip to the Caribbean so I was concerned about the choice of hotel and food. The room was clean, the staff was friendly and the food was amazing! We ate the buffet each day and did not see a reason to eat at the specialty restaurants (although I heard that they were outstanding as well). My only complaint would be the time it took to check in. The lineup was long and there was minimal staff assisting with the check-in process. Aside from that, the entire booking process was easy, the flights were fun and we met several nice people. We are looking forward to heading back soon to watch the amazing sunsets!"
Reviewer: reviewer7587
Date: Apr. 26, 2011

Rating:
"Overall this was an excellent vacation. The food is excellent, especially the Asian a-la-carte restaurant. Very very clean resort, probably the cleanest resort i have seen which is important. The rooms are similar to other all inclusive, no mini fridge though. The ocean front view is worth it. The beach is great, went snorkeling every day and saw manta rays, eels, etc. it was amazing. Pools were great. Only down side was the mood of some of the staff. Most were very friendly but some were not! Also, pool towels were not often available for exchange, and you may not have a safe key for your first night or two. Amazing view from the buffet restaurant and lots to choose from. There is a water park for kids but the place was not overrun with children at all. We went on two excursions into two both of which were great. Get a room in Tower A or floor 5 of Tower B (these are the renovated suites). If you have a ocean-view room in Tower A you will hear the entertainment at night, it didn't bother us though. We had a great and very relaxing time and would recommend it to anyone."
Reviewer: montego bay 555
Date: Feb. 10, 2011

Rating:
"The Sunset Beach Resort, Spa and Waterpark was overall a very good resort. The food was probably the number one aspect. The room itself was quite and hotel amenities were kept clean and well maintained. Our room on the 9th floor in Sunset A tower (Family First room) had a spectacular view of the ocean and beach below. The beach area was not as great as some beach areas in Varadero, but swimming and lounging on the beach were still enjoyable. The resort could work on combing the seaweed in the shallow water to improve the swimming area, as well as invest in some weed/debris removal equipment on the beach sand itself. Although the beach is quite small, the resort should still try to accomodate the amount of its patrons by putting up more sun shelters. People fight for them every day. Unless you go out at 7 am in the morning to claim a spot, you'll burn in the sun all day. The resort could also improve on increasing their snorkeling/watersports equipment. It was very difficult to get the sizes of snorkels and flippers for our children and we had to wait so long for the use of one of the few paddleboats. The other amenities of the resort are great. The waterpark with nice little lazy river was enjoyable as were the pool areas and mini golf area.

The staff at this resort are generally friendly. They are not over-friendly, but accomodating and professional. The Sunquest reps are all helpful. However, one should explore a little outside of the advice they give about tours and taxis. Do not use the Juta taxis they encourage you to use that are parked within the gates of the resort. Very expensive! Take a walk outside of the resort gate and you will find plenty of taxis that the locals take for much cheaper fares. If you choose to take a taxi from inside the resort gate to downtown, expect to pay $20 American. If you go out to the road, you can bargain and get a fare for $5.

The only negatives of the resort are the entertainment and the Caribbean A la Carte restaurant from our experience. We only tried the one a la carte because we were so turned off from this one, we didn't think it worthwhile to try the other two (Italian & Asian). However, you can preview the menus for each located at the information/tours booth. The experience we had at the Caribbean was pretty disappointing. The music they were playing was 4 or 5 Aretha Franklin songs playing over and over, which was also playing for days in the lobby. The menu included a variety of things, but Caribbean authenticity was lacking in taste and presentation. The "roti" we ordered was not roti at all, but tortilla wraps you find at the lunch buffet. The entertainment was the biggest disappointment, unfortunately. In our view, people visit Jamaica to experience at least some real aspects of Jamaican culture. Despite staying in a resort, you should get to experience authentic music and cultural flavour. The entertainment consisted of toned-down, North American-styled reggae music. In fact, my husband, who is from the West-Indies, said Bob Marley "would turn over in his grave" if he heard the house band's version of his songs. The house band played every night with first, the band doing lounge-like instrumentals, then the female lead singer coming out to do just 3 songs every night. There was no variety except for a very talented steel band one night, but even with them, the music played were not authentic Jamaican music. The in-between acts were just some young hotel entertainment workers who wasted time making tourists do stupid things.

Despite the disappointing entertainment, we could consider this resort again and would also recommend it for great value and location."
Reviewer: Carlotta
Date: Feb. 09, 2011

Rating:
"Although this resort is nice and I would recommend it for it's attention to activities for children, I would NOT recommend it until their renovations are complete. The children's pool, waterslides and kids club are great. The buffet is just "okay". I wasn't excited about any of the extra tours that you could take although our spouses went zip lining and really enjoyed it. The spa is very expensive so we didn't take advantage of that. Our main concern was the ongoing renovations in our tower. We got into our room very late as they were trying to complete the renovations on the floor that they booked us into. We were on the 7th floor and floors 1-6 were still under construction. Banging and drilling etc. all through the day and into the evening. Not great when you have kids and therefore spend more time in your room that an adults only group might. Also, they had all of the stairwell fire exists nailed shut on floors 1-6 because of the construction. We dealt with 2 fire alarms (false alarms) while we were there! The 'no tipping' policy seems nice on one hand, however I think it affects the staff's attitude as well. These were the least friendly and enthusiastic staff I've ever seen in any resort I've been too! Maybe they should lift the no tipping policy so that the staff have an incentive to be more friendly! Overall our experience was not terrific and I would rate this resort as a 3 star rather than a 4 star."
Reviewer: suzanne
Date: Dec. 08, 2010

Rating:
"I would give this resort a 3/5. I stayed there the week of February 15, 2010.

The resort was well kept and clean. The room was also clean and up to date. The only problem I had was with the balcony door which was quite hard to open and close but that didn't bother me too much.

The food was average. No complaints. There was a variety of cooked dishes every meal with lots of choices for salad. The disappointing part was the fact that the "kid's section" most of the time only had choices of fries and chicken nuggets. That doesn't sound like a very healthy every day meal, especially for children.

The service was pretty good although because it said in the package that tipping was included, the hotel staff did not go out of their way to help out.

The beaches were quite nice and kept clean but it was pretty hard to swim as there were many rocks and algae in the ocean. There was also a variety of ocean creatures, so that was great for snorkelling.

The entertainment every night was unbelievable! Really great performances, dancing and many activities that involved the tourists.

There were also daily activities which kept both adults and children entertained.

I consider this a decent family resort with good food, great entertainment, and nice beaches."
Reviewer: reviewer446
Date: Jun. 23, 2010