CSS or CTI?? Never been to Couples..help!!

[daisymae]

My husband and I just booked a 7 day stay in October at CSS to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. I had read quite a bit about the resorts, and was leaning towards CTI, but our travel agent recommended CSS and he booked the present as a suprise birthday gift. I have a couple questions, particularly for those of you who maybe have been to both CTI and CSS..

- We have a 1 bdrm beachfront suite...do these offer good views? IE by beachfront, does it mean you're on the bottom level? We definitely want to have great views of the ocean/pool...any building in particular we should request?

- Is there a bar down by the regular beach and the AN beach? Do a lot of people go to the AN beach? I was kind of looking forward to the island at CTI, so I'm curious what the AN beach is like?

- I know that CTI has more restaurants than CSS...does CSS feel limited in your food options?

- If we wanted to do the passport thing where we can visit one of the other resorts, how much does that cost for the day?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks so much!

[Vickyj]

We prefer the island at CTI to the beach at CSS but that is us. I do like the bigger pool at CSS, but that was it. I didn't go in the ocean as when we were there, there were many children at the public beach across the river. We didn't eat lunch at SSB and went back to the restaurant, but we do that at the island also just to get out of the sun for a bit. With Trading Places, if you register to be a Romance Rewards member, there is no charge to visit the sister resort--CSS to CTI. We have only visited and haven't stayed at CSS so I can't answer your question about the room.

[Lindad]

We preferred CSS to CTI, the area is much larger, and imo actually more private. The "children" referenced above are across the way, and I don't believe they could tell if you are AN or not. You do occassionally have fishermen coming down the river that empties at SSB, but they are so use to it they don't even look anymore. The pool at SSB is much larger also. The Beachfront room is just that. They are in blocks A & B. If you have the upper floor rooms you would have view of the beach/ocean. The first floor rooms are ground level. If you are more interested in the view you need to book the One bedroom ocean view, or the ocean veranda, or the penthouse rooms. No matter which type of room you get they are all great.

You can do the trading places if you sign up for Romance Rewards before your trip. Then, sign up at the resort for the day you want. They do it on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and only take 10 couples on a first come basis. We visted CTI that way. After that visit we were glad we had choosen CSS. But, everyone has their own preferrences.

[excruzr]

My husband and I just booked a 7 day stay in October at CSS to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. I had read quite a bit about the resorts, and was leaning towards CTI, but our travel agent recommended CSS and he booked the present as a suprise birthday gift. I have a couple questions, particularly for those of you who maybe have been to both CTI and CSS..

- We have a 1 bdrm beachfront suite...do these offer good views? IE by beachfront, does it mean you're on the bottom level? We definitely want to have great views of the ocean/pool...any building in particular we should request?



- Is there a bar down by the regular beach and the AN beach? Do a lot of people go to the AN beach? I was kind of looking forward to the island at CTI, so I'm curious what the AN beach is like?

- I know that CTI has more restaurants than CSS...does CSS feel limited in your food options?

- If we wanted to do the passport thing where we can visit one of the other resorts, how much does that cost for the day?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks so much!

Daisy, my wife and I just visited Couples Sans Souci for the 1st time in April, so I will answer your questions based on our experience.

- We stayed in a beachfront Suite in the A block on the 2nd floor. The view was great and we overlooked the main pool and the beach. Every morning we sat on the balcony and drank coffee before the main restaurant opened. When we return next April we will stay in a Beachfront Suite again.

- There is a bar at the main pool, at the main beach and also at the AN beach. We spent 90% of our time at the AN beach. The first day my wife gave me some grief about trying it. We have previously been to Orient Beach and Haulover beach for AN and my wife had some bad experiences of weird people coming up to her trying to pick her and starting random conversations. She was thinking it would be the same thing at SSB. The second we took our clothes off and sat down she apologized for giving me such a hard time because it was nothing like she had envisioned. No gawkers and plenty of space.
. By the next day it was not even a question as to which beach we were going to. I even asked her if she wanted to go to the main beach one day and she said no because SSB was perfect.

- We did not feel limited by the food. During the day you can eat at the AN Beach, main beach grill or Palazzina. We mostly ate at the main beach grill. We fell in love with the jerk chicken and beef patties. For dinner, make reservations early for Palazzina and Cassanova. We ate twice at Palazzina and once at Cassanova. We missed our second reservation for Cassanova because I drank too many Bob Marley's and was in bed by 7pm. My wife stayed in and ordered room service and said it was excellent. Both beach buffets were great. I would get there early to get the best food. The Tuesday night buffet was great, I tried the curried goat and it was pretty good. The entertainment Tuesday night was awesome as well. Steel drum band and a fire breather. I do not remember much of the Friday night buffet and show, too many red stripes at SSB during the sunset.

-We had signed up to do trading places to CTI on the Wednesday we were there. Tuesday night we went back to the lobby and took our names off the list. We decided we loved CSS and SSB so much we did not want to waste a day somewhere else. We spoke with another couple who went to CTI that day and they only spent 2 hours at CTI and requested to come back 'home' to CSS.


Hope this helps.

[Jeffmon]

- Is there a bar down by the regular beach and the AN beach? Do a lot of people go to the AN beach? I was kind of looking forward to the island at CTI, so I'm curious what the AN beach is like?

At SSB (Sunset Beach the AN area at CSS) there is a large floatable pool with waterfall grotto, swimup bar, full beach grill, his & hers bathrooms, outdoor shower (to wash off sand), large hot tub, massage cabana, and a large private beach area.

The children that Vickyj is referring to are at least 500ft away and can only be seen at the waters edge. From that distance no one can really see anything and can see nothing while near the pool area or the majority of the beach.

Here are some photos from early morning (sunrise) last year of the SSB area.


Entrance View of SSB - This is what it looks like as you enter the Sunset Beach area at Couples Sans Souci.


SSB Massage Hut - This is the massage hut at Sunset Beach. It seems like a great place for a massage. Just walk over from the pool, get a relaxing massage and walk back to the pool when you're done.


SSB Pool in the morning


Sunrise at the SSB Pool

[Jeffmon]

Here are a couple of more photos of the SSB area at CSS.


SSB's New Hottub


Sunset Beach Grill


SSB Pool Swim-up Bar


SSB Beach Area

[Jeffmon]

Here are a couple of more photos of the SSB area at CSS.


Sunset Beach in the Rain


SSB Pool Swim-up Bar - Here is a view of the sun rising over the pool as seen from inside the pool bar.


Sunset Beach - View of SSB Beach area looking back toward the pool area. The sandy area to the right is where the children were playing as Vickyj has pointed out. That part is a public beach but as you can see it is pretty far out and people would have a hard time being able to see you.


Morning in Paradise - What a place to spend your morning in paradise!

[Wally]

Css

[winlove]

Jeffmon, great photos -- you captured CSS beautifully.

Daisymae, we have stayed at both and our strong preference is CSS. Both are great resorts, just different -- you can not go wrong with either choice. But for us, CSS is the one we now book and then will spend one day at CTI on one of the trade days. We also stay in the One-Bedroom Beach Front suites as they are on the ground level where most of the activity is located -- just our preference. They are also much closer to SSB. While we do get a great ocean view at CTI, it has more of a hotel feel. To get to the Island at CTI you take the boat, and sometimes the boat/Island is closed due to the rough water. When we were there a couple of days we could not get out until after lunch. The food on the Island is all precooked and brought over whereas at CSS it is an actual grill. Since we like the feel of the sand and beach, that is another reason for us at CSS as there is no beach on the Island. CSS seems more laided-back, while CTI is a little more active.

Could go on and on, but it really is about preference that fits best for you. Would suggest you try both. And notice posted today is tomorrow's Couplicious Wednesday Escape which is a really fantastic deal. Four different room options all priced at only $239.

[KarenON]

We have stayed at CSS 3 times now, and have been over to CTI on the trading places program twice. For us, SSB is so much nicer than the island at CTI, one of the main reasons being that you can swim in the ocean at SSB, but not from the island. We have so many good things to say about CSS, much more than we could ever write here, it would take up too much space on the board LOL!! If you'd like, send us an e-mail to pellis4@cogeco.ca, and we'll send you lots of information about CSS and SSB, as well as some of the pictures from our trips.

[Jeffmon]

Css

A man of many words, but in this case, enough said!