Rosewood Baha Mar

Beautiful Rooms Attached to a Carnival Cruise Ship

Our second and last stay at the Rosewood. We were a small group (5 rooms, 9 people, staying anywhere from 5 to 7 nights). Our total group bill was in the neighborhood of $150,000. The staff of the hotel is great. The rooms were nice. The housekeeping was excellent. But that's where it ends. Everything was crowded, overpriced and nothing special. It was nearly impossible to get reservations in the restaurants. When you could get in you, were confronted with obscene prices, super slow service from the kitchens, and with a few exceptions, mediocre food. The common areas were filled with underaged, overserved kids (never once saw anyone carded) and an assortment of other rowdies. If you are looking for a high-end, luxury experience, this is not it. It's more like a Carnival cruise.

The Perfect Luxury Vacation for Families

My family just returned from a lovely five-night stay at the Rosewood Baha Mar and it was truly a wonderful experience. I can't recommend it enough as the perfect destination for families with young kids who are looking for a luxurious and convenient place to get away. The Property: The property is lush and well-landscaped, with beautiful tropical foliage, a pond full of stunning koi and African cichlid fish, and spacious bright green lawn. As an avid gardener, I particularly appreciated (and envied) how immaculately-maintained it was. We saw groundskeepers fastidiously working away every morning pruning branches and carting away leaves. The front entrance and lobby to the Rosewood is stunningly-decorated and very faintly perfumed with a pleasing tropical fragrance. The gentleman at the front desk that printed out my bill for me and asked about how our stay was going stood out due to his warmth and friendliness (which I wouldn't say was necessarily true of the concierge or some of ladies check-in). The Pool: The swimming pool is spacious, clean, and offers a glimpse of the turquoise ocean just over the horizon with the beach only steps away from the shallow end. The pool is perfect for families with young kids like ours, as there is a zero-clearance entrance that gradually transitions from a few inches to several feet the further in you go. There are multiple lifeguards who watch the kids like a hawk, which was reassuring and a nice unexpected perk. They occasionally intervened politely and professionally whenever a swimming child was playing in a manner that was unsafe. The staff at the pool, both the servers and the attendants, were quite attentive and regularly checked in on us unprompted to see if there's anything we needed. We never had to wait particularly long at all for drinks or ordered food. While I'll give a special shout out to the pool wait staff Sidney and another guy whose name I can't remember but rhymed with "the man" (because he said his name was [something] "the man" lol), I commend all the guys who worked at the pool for being so friendly and on top of things. The Beach: We only spent one day at the beach but service was good (not as outstanding as the incredibly-attentive staff at the pool but still good nonetheless) and the beach was clean. We even spotted a dolphin right off the Rosewood's beach one afternoon, which thrilled my daughter and made her stay. Our Room and Hotel Cleanliness: Our well-appointed room was spacious, appeared newly-redone, and was thoroughly-cleaned daily. We slept incredibly well on the comfortable mattresses and soft linens, and it was comparably easy to have a quiet evening as compared to the other properties on the Baha Mar compound (the closer you are to the SLS Hotel, the louder it gets). The housekeepers were very warm and friendly, routinely stopping us with a smile on their faces to see if there was anything we needed. In fact, the entire Rosewood hotel was incredibly neat and tidy - one of the cleanest, well-kept hotels I've stayed in and rivaling five-star resorts I've been to in United Arab Emirates and Switzerland. Dining: MAKE RESERVATIONS FOR DINNER EVERY NIGHT. To be frank, you will have a lot of trouble finding a place to eat on the Baha Mar compound without reservations. There were long lines of people standing around waiting because they didn't make reservations before they arrived. While we enjoyed many of the restaurants on the Baha Mar compound, our favorite meal by far was at the Rosewood's Café Boulud. The service and the food were far superior to all of the other restaurants at Baha Mar. We couldn't have enjoyed this meal more - if you're a seafood lover, be sure to try the delicious Red Snapper and Conch Salad if you have the opportunity and thank me later. The recommended wine pairing was spot-on. All of the servers at Boulud who assisted with our meal were incredible; warm, attentive, and professional. This was one of my most favorite meals I've had while on vacation in a very long time. I'll also note that I didn't wake up early enough for breakfast at the Rosewood but my family did and they really enjoyed both the food and said that service was very good. Finally, I want to give a huge thanks to the Guest Relations and Quality Services Manager Ivanna Capron. She truly went above and beyond to accommodate us when we asked for a special treat to surprise our kiddos and delivered the level of service one would expect from a Rosewood property. Job well done to the Rosewood Baha Mar and Café Boulud. Our stay with you was a total hit and we definitely hope to return again in the future.

If you like cruise ships…

Best analogy I can come up with is this is a cruise ship on land. The Rosewood is nice. Nice but generic. Nothing makes it a Rosewood when comparing to other Rosewoods. Having said this perhaps it is still on the nicer side for the area. Just bleh.

The best hotel ever - a 10!

The service is amazing— Stacy the front desk manager is awesome! Professional and cool under pressure

The spa services were great but no amenities. The food and service overall is so subpar for a Rosewood. Never recommend

Incredibly subpar service and food overall not Rosewood quality. No amenities at spa, every restaurant is tough to get in and super expensive.

Disappointing

This hotel lacks rosewood level service food and generally the level of luxury. Disappointing given prices. Kids club is sub par and food was unacceptable given pricing.