CSA Review---our 3rd visit

We had a fantastic 3rd trip to CSA the 2nd week of February. It had been 2 years since our last trip. Most things remained unchanged...in a wonderful way. It was our 1st time in Feb instead of January. We enjoyed the Super Bowl on the beach experience. The resort was more crowded than we were used to from January visits. This didn't cause any problems as far as participating in activities like tennis or waterskiing, getting restaurant reservations, or spa appointments. There were just more people on the beach. The beach itself was beautiful, and plenty wide, as wide as on previous trips.

Overall, I would say that service was even better than on previous trips, which is saying a lot! We never encountered an unfriendly or unhelpful staff member, from check in to check out. The food in Feathers and Patois seemed to have improved a notch. Lemongrass was the same. The food was still very good, but a little predictable by the 3rd trip.

We were in a 3rd floor, corner OVS. We missed our beloved beachfront Verandah Suites, but none were available. We don't mind the simple rooms, but think a couple of easy fixes would lead to a little better experience. The beds could use new mattresses, in keeping with the luxury mattresses that higher end resorts offer these days. The bottom sheets aren't fitted and slide around and off during the night, which is a tad annoying. And, I really wish there were a bedside digital clock. There is a clock and iPod docking station across the room, but it's hardwired in and cannot be moved. As a myopic middle aged person who likes to be able to see the time during the night, having the clock so far away did not work for me at all.

The tennis was wonderful as usual. We met great tennis players and had so much fun. The Couples pros, particularly our favorite, Hopeton, were wonderful as usual. The visiting pro, I am afraid, was the absolute worst in our 3 visits. The sports manager quickly became aware of this, but I believe they are hired by someone offsite and there is little to do once they are there. He just seemed at a terrible loss--unable to run a decent clinic and clueless about how to run a round robin. Pretty basic stuff! There are so many good pros around who would probably love a teaching vacation at CSA. Perhaps a little more screening would be a good idea. But Hopeton and Brenton, plus the wonderful guests more than made up for this.

My husband enjoys the waterskiing, but is wondering what happened to the good ski boat. He would suggest a better ski boat and a longer rope with better cushioning on the handles to get it back to its previous level.

Overall, we had a great trip and can't wait for #4! Please feel free to ask any questions.

Couldn't agree with you more about the mattresses! By the end of the trip I am HURTING and it is so hard to sleep because they are hard and lumpy.

When we were there in Oct many (or all) of the boats were damaged in the storm the week before and they were using replacements. Many boats at all sorts of resorts were damaged so I think there were not as many good replacements as were needed. Since so many were damaged all over the island they thought it was going to take a while to fix them all. I imagine it's a pain to order replacement parts too since everything has to be imported. The ski boat probably hasn't been fixed yet.