Feel deceived

[JJBENSON]

Went to Couples Tower Isle a few years ago and had an awesome time! Love the private beach and cozy feeling overall of that resort. Booked Couples Swept Away and looked forward to a great time again. Wish I would have done more research on Swept Away...beach is public, lots of vendors trying to sell everything from weed to land! The cleaning service was poor, and the food service at times was S L O W ! My own opinion is that I shouldn't have to wait for over an hour for a table and then another hour for my food at an all inclusive resort that cost as much as this! Resort was clean and staff was friendly, but I would not go back to visit again!

[Ruthann]

REALLY sorry for your less than positive experience. We are making out 7th trip to CSA in March but have never waited more than 5 minutes for a table. Not sure what the problem was the week you were there. The beach. is public but only right at the water's edge. If you are sitting in your chair, no one can approach you. Security does a great job with that. Frankly, I find the kiosk owners at my local mall much more aggressive than at CSA Sounds as if CTI is your resort.

[RobinH]

Ruthann,
You indicated you will be coming "Home" in March to CSA, you should go to the CSA meetup page and join the March Maniacs posting...
We come home to CSA on 3-3 to 3-11, 3rd times the charm...

[gonegril]

Sorry you didn't like CSA - we've been there 8 times and have only had great to excellent customer service in all areas of the resort. And have NEVER been bugged by the vendors. I guess that's why there are 4 choices of resort - honestly, I think I probably wouldn't be too psyched for CTI, so to each their own....

[BobandJudy]

If you want to see aggressive vendors, go to Aruba or Barbados. At least in Jamaica they have to stay at the waterline. In Aruba, we had at least 5 people a day approach us about timeshares and they WILL NOT take "no" for an answer.

As far as the service, jeez, we've been to CSA five times and only once were we told that there would be a 1/2 hour wait for a table at dinner at the Palms. We simply walked over to Patois and were seated immediately. Which restaurant did you have an hour wait? When were you at CSA? From everything I've read, they do a lot of staff training in the low season, so I can see where the service might be a little slower then.

[ron3637]

I to was unhappy with food service Didn't have to wait ,but service was way to slow even by island standards. it seemed to me they need more staff!!!

[Fluffin]

Hi there JJ,

I am really very very sorry you did not enjoy all of your time at CSA.

We just returned from CTI this past August and fell in love with it as well. DH and I already have CSA booked for 8/12 and are thinking of adding 5 nights at CN.

Not every resort is for everyone, which is what makes this wonderful world we live in so great.....choices.

I do find it unusual that you had to wait over an hour to be seated and an additional hour to be served. In all of my visits to any Couples we have never encountered this.....not to say it does not happen.

Did you speak to a manager about it while you were on the property? Was there a problem with the meal....did you have to send something back?

We have spend many many days/nights on the beaches of Negril on AI properties. NEVER have we encountered vendors bothering us while on the resort properties. Of course CTI is completely secluded.

Feeling deceived? Everyone has a right to their own feelings. IMO, I do not think you were deceived in any way. You just did not do any research.

[mickeyminnie]

We are going for the 1st time ever to CSA and hope after all the money we saved we will NOT have to wait for service. After reading so many good reviews here i wonder if going in the winter months when it is so full that makes everything so slow?

[zaraforty]

Try CSS. It has 2 private beaches, one is au natural but open to all after 5pm for sunset, and is much smaller then CSS. We go to both and I think food and service are higher at CSS since is is smaller. You also get to know the staff and other
guests more than at CSA.

[softail19]

If I don't want to be bothered by vendors, I don't sit down by the waters edge. I have never been approached to buy drugs on the CSA beach, now off property is a different story. I personally wouldn't wait over an hour for a table either. Where did that happen? I would have gone somewhere else myself. Just my opinion but I find the beach entertaining. I was totally bored at CSS. Sorry you had such a bad experience.

[PhilMeka]

Yeah we had an awesome experience at CSA. I'm not sure what happened??? I guess everyone is "OFF" sometimes...WE LOVE CSA!

[John from NJ]

Try CSS. We go to both and I think food and service are higher at CSS since is is smaller. You also get to know the staff and other
guests more than at CSA.

As they say, your results may vary. We were at CSS last year and the service was just as slow as the other person had at CSA. Over an hour for a table and the service was dismal at best. I'm by no means in any hurry when on vacation but I also don't want to make a career out of the 2 hour meal we had either. We cancelled our next return booking there (we had booked two trips to lock in rates) and went to CN instead after that trip. CN by far was much, much better and look forward to returning there again this year.

[Indymommy]

We had an amazing time at CSS, and I would highly recommend it! However, we're going to give CSA a try this year because I am a white sand beach kind of gal and would like to try the nicer beach. CSS is a little rocky. The Au Naturel beach is even rockier, and it's next to a river that the locals use quite a bit. It's a little unnerving to try to lay on the beach and have random Jamaicans boat by...very close to the beach. But the pool area is nice, and the sunsets are amazing!

[traveler99]

I find it...well let's just say interesting that all those who felt the service was lacking and slow are brand new members and it just happened to be around that annual time of voting for best resorts??? Or am I reading too much into this? Its just that every single other person reports the times of their lives on here and even on TA but the negative reviews are always on both sites- brand new members with 1-5 reviews/posts.....just sayin!

[ChrisS]

We were just at CSA from Dec. 26th through Jan. 2nd and I would have to agree about the restaurant service. We never had to wait more than a few minutes to be served, but the service at the table was definitely lacking. Time waiting for drinks and food, customer service, and some of the food just wasn't that good. The worst experience I had was at Lemongrass. I ordered a glass of wine, which never came. The waitress brought my husband's beer, then proceeded to ignore us the rest of our dinner. Hubby got up and got me a glass of wine at the Martini Bar so I had something. It completely ruined my dinner as I was angry at the slow service we were receiving and the lack of any interest on the part of the wait staff. My meal there was also the worst meal I've had in a very long time, including being in the States. I did list this on our survey when we checked out. I was really disappointed in the wait staff service in general at CSA. It was not up to the standards I've experienced at another all-inclusive in Jamaica.

[rhallva]

Sorry you did not find CSA to your liking, but who do you think deceived you? Couples? Other vacationers who did not have these problems? I truly hope you have better luck in the future, I'm just not seeing the deception.

[ORV]

I find it...well let's just say interesting that all those who felt the service was lacking and slow are brand new members and it just happened to be around that annual time of voting for best resorts??? Or am I reading too much into this? Its just that every single other person reports the times of their lives on here and even on TA but the negative reviews are always on both sites- brand new members with 1-5 reviews/posts.....just sayin!

Yes, you are reading too much into it. Not everyone has everything go perfect 100% of the time. There are occasionally problems. While there are many fake reviews on line I don't think this is one. Of course many people over react to the problems and some people under react or are just easy going. Overall Couples is a great 3.5 to 4 star All Inclusive. My biggest concern is that they are going to price themselves beyond their customer base due to the positive results year after year on the T & L poll, which really should require one to be a subscriber to vote in.

[Margi]

I've been to both CSA and CTI and I happen to love CSA. It's all what you like and what your experience at each resort means to you. We would never go back to CTI, but can't wait until we get back to CSA.

[Questor]

It's interesting to see how people react to a negative comment. Many immediately jump to the conclusion that the person is being deceitful or they are just plain wrong. A few observations:

1) ANYONE in almost any industry will tell you that people will talk much more about a bad experience than they will a good one, so why do people seem mystified when someone seeks out a place to complain about their bad experience?

2) Couples is a great resort chain and does a great job.....most of the time. Can you people who jump on someone who complains, honestly say you have never had a bad experience at Couples? What keeps us coming back is that these experiences don't happen very often and when they do, Couples generally fixes them quickly and well.

3) If people never complained, our beloved resort would slip into a state where it would be just average and then we wouldn't want to be there. Think of the complaints as the little corrections that keep things going in the right direction.

I'm a Couples loyalist and I HAVE had negative experiences at Couples. What keeps me loyal is that my overall experience is very positive and that they generally fix the things that create bad experiences. Let's take this person's bad experience and see whether it is an isolated incident or a warning of a trend and do what can be done to fix it. Or we could pretend it never happened until the bad experience becomes the trend.....

[steveg52]

Wow I can't believe all the complaining about slow service at the CSA restaurants ruining a vacation. We were at CSA for the second time December 3-10, 2011 and had a wonderful time. We were even kept waiting at Lemongrass for 20 minutes because of a staff meeting before they finally opened for service. We just went across to the martini bar and got another drink. It was also least favorite meal of the week, but did it ruin our vacation...heck no! Where are you people going while on vacation in Jamaica that you can't enjoy your time having a meal in the restaurant? As far as being bothered by vendors selling pot or other things now that is strange. We've never been offered pot on the property and a courteous, "no thank you Mon" always does the trick. If you don't want to be bothered at all then the more private beaches of CSS and CTI are options, but we love seeing the locals on the beach. We've also been to CTI and had a great time. But we enjoy the spreadout feeling of CSA much better than the hotel feel there.
Like another poster said, "to each his own" and for us CSA is Paradise.

[Tim-n-Lisa]

We "discovered" a little restaurant that served incredible home made foods, in a cozy atmosphere. We could not wait to share the secret with friends and invited them to join us. That evening the service was lousy, the food was cold and we were mortified! We stopped going for some time and decided to give it another try, and everything was back to normal and we fell in love all over again!

Sometimes bad luck deals us a crappy hand... don't give up on Couples! Try CN some time... we are booked to land in 2 weeks! 3rd timers!

[ElaineChick]

My biggest concern is that they are going to price themselves beyond their customer base due to the positive results year after year on the T & L poll, which really should require one to be a subscriber to vote in.

Our, too, honestly. Glad to see we're not the only ones who see this potential outcome.

[beachsam]

When this kind of service happens my first though is, Did anyone as to speak to a supervisor??? I was in the food and beverage industry for many years before I went to travel industry, it got me through high school and college.
If you speak up at the time of bad service you will get an immdiate response, what are they supposed to do once you are home?? I have been to CSA 5x, CN 3x CTI2x and CSS once, I have never had a really bad, lax, could care less service. Inexperienced service, yes, everybody has to start somewhere, yes we are all spending our hard earned money, and yes we all want the 5 star service, but hey you are not in the US, and if you wanted tthings to be like home------you should stay there. I will state once more, as a person in the industry, I have travelled all over the world, I have stayed 5 star plus, I have stayed in dumps, but the only place I keep returning to time after time is a Couples resort. Speak up when you are there, the resort managers are very open and almost always walking around on the resort.

[yookster]

Wow... Never had a bad experience. Sorry to hear those have. I do think that some of the complaints are due to lack of research on where they are going (ie. public beach). We happen to enjoy he public beach but it's not for everyone. So before I spend that kind of money it's definitely something I make an effort to know. As far as service I guess no place is perfect. That's too bad you had that experience. There isn't a whole lot on vacation that we really let get to us... All we have is time. Lol But everyone is different. We have always received the same respect and kindness that we give to the staff. Unfortunately I have seen guests be rude and condescending to staff which may at times result in some of the complaints we read online. Not saying that is the case here but there are always those that are just very hard to please. Looking forward to coming "home" April 6th!