Private Beach Dinner - CSA

my fiance and i are honeymooning at CSA from 10/17/11 - 10/22/11. this is our first time at an AI, and first time out of the US. i've been stalking these boards and we're both SO ready, and SO excited that we chose Couples.

i've been scouring the message boards for almost a year now, but i'm still curious about the private beach dinner. in theory, this sounds fantastic, romantic, and delicious. i have followed all of the website instructions and have contacted and heard back from a romance concierge, who sent me a contract asking me to select a date, time, and location (beach vs. gazebo). my questions to you all are:

1. how "private" is the dinner? are there other "private" tables 10 feet away, or is it REALLY private?
2. if you've had the dinner was it worth the extra $170?
3. is there a dress code (i would imagine not, but don't want to be surprised)?
4. how does the food at the private dinner compare to the food at any of the other delicious (from what we've heard) restaurants at CSA?

thanks in advance!!!!

We did the private dinner at CSA a few years ago and we've done it at CN a couple of times. We don't care too much for the idea of getting dressed up and eating in the sand. At CSA we instead opted to have our private dinner in the wedding gazebo. Probably much more private. It was awesome. The food was wonderful and it was incredibly romantic. AT CN we had a private dinner in the treehouse last Feb. That was super romantic!! If I could talk my husband into popping for it every time, I would always do a private dinner. 2 of the times we did a "package" - I think it was Everlasting Love (not sure they still have it). It included some other things and was really a great bang for the buck. The last one we just did the dinner. You should get a choice from 2 meals. They are yummy. It is a splurge but one I really enjoyed. Other people seem to like having it on the beach.

Honest replies
1. Very private, great location
2. IMHO no! had a PD at CSA on Valentines Day during our honeymoon in 2009 - main course was cold when delivered to our table (suspect that they had taken on too many people on V Day!) - to be fair when I complained we were given another night PD.
3. No dress code
4. I would say feathers standard (very good).
Don't let me put you off, it is very good...think Spa teaments are better value....

Hi Istell03,
I booked the private dinner 2 years ago for my husband for our anniversary and it was worth every penny. I booked the Love and Romance package last year and it included a private dinner, but unfortunately it was rained out and it was our last night at the resort (again our anniversary) so we weren't able to reschedule. We got a refund for the dinner.
1) There are other diners on the beach, but they aren't very close and it's so dark you can't see anyone else. It felt as if we were the only people on the beach. We couldn't hear anything but the waves crashing on the beach and each other.
2) The food is amazing, we had no problem with it being cold. It was totally worth the money, in my opinion.
3) I don't believe there's a dress code, but we did dress up. The resort photographer came around and took photos so I'm glad we did.
4) As above, the food was incredible. The portions were larger than at Feathers, but the quality was out of this world! The wine that was provided was also delicious!
I will definitely book it again for our return trip! I hope that helps,
Cheers,
Terri

My honest review from a male so take with a grain of sand....
semi private, can see other tables but cannot hear their conversation
not worht the $170 book spa treatments followed by reservations at feathers or lemongrass
do not dress up, your on the beach resort casual a must
Overall a good time, would or have we done it again, NO not worth the money in our oppinion, However dont let my post deter you try it once if you dont like it you dont have to do it again....

We just had a private dinner on the beach at CSA on July 13, 2011 our 20th anniversary. We loved it! We both thought it was the best dinner we had. My husband had the tenderloin and I had the lobster tail menu. It is very romantic! There is plenty of space between the tables. The courses came out slow so you could enjoy the time. We did dress up but just because we wanted to. The photographer took pictures of us beforehand and during the dinner so I was glad we dressed up. I bought the Magical Memories package which included the dinner and I used my spa credit to get my hair done for the dinner.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lstell03

my fiance and i are honeymooning at CSA from 10/17/11 - 10/22/11. this is our first time at an AI, and first time out of the US. i've been stalking these boards and we're both SO ready, and SO excited that we chose Couples.

i've been scouring the message boards for almost a year now, but i'm still curious about the private beach dinner. in theory, this sounds fantastic, romantic, and delicious. i have followed all of the website instructions and have contacted and heard back from a romance concierge, who sent me a contract asking me to select a date, time, and location (beach vs. gazebo). my questions to you all are:

1. how "private" is the dinner? are there other "private" tables 10 feet away, or is it REALLY private?
2. if you've had the dinner was it worth the extra $170?
3. is there a dress code (i would imagine not, but don't want to be surprised)?
4. how does the food at the private dinner compare to the food at any of the other delicious (from what we've heard) restaurants at CSA?

thanks in advance!!!!

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Hey! I got married on July 9, 2011 at CSA. We did the private dinner on the night of our wedding.

1. The dinner is very private. There are 5 to 10 other private dinners occuring at the same time, but you do not notice it. They are too far away.
2. I definitely think it was worth the extra money. To me - it was worth commemorating our wedding and it was something we probably won't do again for some time.
3. I do not think there is a dress code.
4. The food was great. I have read reviews on here that says their food was cold and such. this is not the experience that we had. You have your own private server for the dinner. They will get you whatever you want. If, for some reason, the food isn't what you want... just request what you want. I am sure they will do what they can to accomodate.

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We've done the private dinner (either Beach or Gazebo) every time we've been to CSA. Enjoyed both locations but love the Gazebo in December. It is a totally private dinner and the grounds are decorated with Christmas lights etc... I like to think that they decorated it just for us.

The food has always been excellent and the chef always seems to have a little surprise for us. Once, our server apologized for the dessert being delayed (it wasn't). The chef had made and decorated a cake for our anniversary and wanted to surprise us with it. One year we saw him at Seagrapes and told him how much we had enjoyed some of his fish dishes. During our private dinner, he brought us a special fish entree that was not on the menu. His caring and thoughtful attitude is just one of the many things that make CSA and Couples trulyspecial.

For us, the dinner is worth every penny. :)

At CSA what other locations for PD are available other than the beach? I really would prefer not to sit on the sand.

Also can you do a private Dinner for 6 people? We would like to maybe do this with our friends and just wondering.

i believe you can have the private dinner in the wedding gazebo instead of the beach.

Randy

ditto to what the TheRabys said. ours was great and so was our son & daughter-in-laws. worth every penny!!!!!!!

Thanks, everyone, for all of the responses!!! We've decided to go for it!!

As far as I know, you can have the private dinner anywhere on the grounds as long as its accessible... for example, you COULD have it on your verandah, if you were to choose that. I really like the idea of dinner in the Wedding Gazebo at SweptAway... looks uber-romantic to me!