Sunscape Curacao Resort: Great value for the money - relaxing vacation!
My husband and I went to this resort with two other couples from Jan. 10-17, 2016. It was a very relaxing yet fun vacation. One great thing about this resort - NO WRISTBANDS! Was that ever a nice change. They had security on site asking people to give room numbers if they didn't recognize you. Free Wi-fi in lobby. Good sized Casino if you're into that.
Food: really good at the a la cartes but slightly repetitive at the buffet, but all in all you can still find something to eat. We are not that [... read more]fussy, and never went hungry. We ate off the resort one night, and be prepared for Canadian restaurant prices. Food is good and very safe off the resort. There are also chain restaurants in Curacao (ie. McDonald's, Subway, KFC). The water on the island is safe to drink.
Beach/Pools: The beach is very nice with a break wall to calm the tides coming in and makes snorkelling/swimming easier. When getting into certain areas of the beach, beware of coral at the beginning, but you can walk around this. Once in, it's beautiful! The snorkelling is amazing and is the best we've done from any resort we've visited. We could even feed the fish right out of our hands! The pools and areas around them are always kept clean. We had no issue at all. And although the resort was at full capacity, we could always get a beach/pool chair. Granted, we're early risers but during the day even saw empty chairs. Yes, people saved them, but this didn't bother us. We did the same. The beach is long enough for a nice walk. Getting towels was never an issue for us.
Bars: They seem to rotate their bartenders often, so finding a favourite one to tip exclusively was a bit hard. Most were friendly, but not over the top. We found the female ones to not know the drinks as well as the male bartenders, but just tell them what you want, and they'll gladly make it for you. The only issue we might have had, which isn't a big one, is that down at the swim-up bar part, they don't serve you as often as most resorts we've been to. The drinks are good, and have "drink of the day" everyday. They serve a lot of premium alcohol such as Crown Royal, Bailey's and Jack Daniels. Amstel is the main beer there, but run out often because we found the local beer they served not as nice (called diNos).
Service: We never really wanted for anything; if we asked we got it. Most staff were extremely courteous, happy, and genuine. Just treat them like a human being and you will get the same in return. Be a good guest, you'll get good treatment. We loved Yvonne and Raysa in the Coco Cafe, the coffee bar there. There were also some staff in the buffet restaurant, World Cafe, that were excellent. You will get a "Bon Dia" no matter where you go.
Rooms: The rooms were always kept extremely clean and tidy, the beds were very comfortable, and very few, if any, bugs. Really, we were there to mainly sleep in the room, so not much time was spent there. There is a free in-room safe which worked for us just fine. We were in room #2218. There was a plumbing smell when we first got into the room and on a couple of days there, but just running the bathroom fan, a/c and flushing got rid of it. It wasn't bad enough, or even frequent enough, to bother getting another room. Again, we don't spend our time there, and this was NOT an issue for us. We tipped the maid daily with chocolates and US money. If you need anything, just write a note and we never had a problem with getting it.
All in all, a wonderful, relaxing, fun vacation. We would come back in a heartbeat!! If we had any cons, here they are:
Need more upbeat music after breakfast. They had parlour-type cover songs (ranging from BeeGees to current songs) playing over the speakers, which is fine, but even island type music would have been nice afterwards.
Lobby bar is small (we walked by it two times not knowing it was there!), but it's a smaller resort so no biggy.
The only problem we had for a la cartes was at the Italian restaurant-the wait time there was over 2 hours! They initially said 30-40 minutes, but they don't seem to service the tables as fast in order to have proper turnaround.
Recommend: Either reserve the free shuttle into town (must be done a day ahead) or do like we did and just use the public bus. It's $2/person each way. Takes you straight into Willemstad. They run constantly, but just be sure you look which bus you're getting into to get back to your resort. We felt completely safe on and off the resort. Plenty of shopping, restaurants and things to see.
Rent a car for a day or two and explore! We met a couple who did this and found a beautiful beach and restaurant to eat at. Wish we had done the same. From Sunscape, there's about a 5 minute walk to Mambo Beach where there's more boutique stores, restaurants and a really nice beach. You must pay to use the beach, but it's cheap. You're paying for the upkeep of the beach.
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HaveKidsWillTravel -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Fantastic resort!
We had a great experience at this resort as a family with 2 small children. The food was great, beautiful kid-friendly beach with hardly any waves. We enjoyed the variety of food and there was always something of please everyone. The entertainment team made sure that the guests were kept busy the entire time - virtually every hour there was an activity going on, plus a fabulous kids club. We are seriously considering coming back th this resort the next year. Curaçao is a beautiful island with v[... read more]ery friendly people, you will not be disappointed!
Low rise buildings make the resort feel more intimate and welcoming. Rooms were clean, spacious, and well maintained. Great multi-lingual staff. Good mix of guests from around the world. Dive shop on site, Ocean Encounters, is top-notch. A breakwater has created a calm 'lagoon' for swimming as the ocean is quite rough. Food at the specialty restaurants is good, though a line-up is unavoidable. However the hot dishes at the main restaurant buffet are sometimes cold so you have to watch what you c[... read more]hoose.
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Mvlapk -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Wonderful as always
Great place to relax and snorkel. Nice island and great people. Mostly for water fun and swimming. Town is quaint and island tour well worth it to get a feel for outside the resort. Great weather and lots of fun.
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Nanker13 -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: A REAL HIDDEN GEM TO BE EXPLORED!!!!
An absolutely great resort! The Sunscape Curacao and Air Canada Vacations have the best check in ever.NO WAITING. You don't touch your baggage and wait in line at all. They drop you off in a convention room where hostesses treat you to drinks, hors doevres and a cool hand cloth.Your room key card, info and baggage tags are already there. You simply identify your luggage and the porters put the room number tag with it and deliver it. Best check in ever!
Each of the restaurants on site by themselv[... read more]es can stand up to any restaurant in Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York or Vancouver. The food was excellent, well prepared and well presented. The resort is to be complimented on their culinary attributes.
The large dining area which had the buffet was also great.We went to the St. James Club in Antigua last year and thought that their buffet was huge and delicious. I must admit that we were blown away by the buffet at the Sunscape. It was larger and had many more choices than you could imagine. Absolutely well done and delicious.
The rooms were clean, the grounds were immaculate, the pool areas very nice.The beach was protected by a rock break which made snorkelling great.The staff was probably the best we have encountered on any trip so far. hey are friendly, helpful and always smiling.
They had entertainment each night and even a small Carnival.
My wife and I have travelled to numerous islands in the Caribbean. You should not overlook The Sunscape Curacao.You will be pleasantly surprised.
And by the way, the Capital Willemstad is a must to visit!! An incredible experience and the best shopping in the Caribbean.Forget the larger islands and get to Curacao where smaller is better!!!
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Lorrie N -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Beautiful... A must go
Best vacation ever.... Beautiful resort wonderful food.... I will definitely be going back ... Not one bad thing to say... Beautiful beach rooms were very nice staff was excellent as were the drinks.... Perfect weather everyday
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Caribbean Guy -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Really Enjoyed
Customer service was amazing. No issues. Everyone friendly. First resort I have been to where members of management asked on a continual basis if all was good. Great for snorkelling. Room in Sunclub A+
Great food, incredible beach, beds are really comfortable. Rooms are clean. Staff is always happy and smiling. Loved everything about this place!!!! We stayed in the new part of the hotel it was great!
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Sandra61 -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Beautiful resort grounds
The grounds for this resort were beautiful with multiple pools and the ocean a stones throw away. The food for the most part was good with Japanese, seafood, Italian and rib/steak house restaurants to choose from, as well as a cafe . We found the cafe food not as good as the other eateries.
The rooms were not as well appointed. We were moved on the third day because our room was musty and damp - even the bedding. The first room was not nicely appointed (e.g., had scrape marks on the floor where [... read more]the door gauged the tiled flooring). There was a dirty glass in the bathroom. The coffee machine had no coffee with it and only one cup. The second room was in a different building and seemed better. At least there was no musty odor. We found the rooms still basic. It took us three days to get a wash cloth which we held onto for the rest of the visit as the replacement of these towels seemed haphazard. For example one day we would have 5 bath towels and no hand towels or bath mats. Small details but showed a lack of attention to details.
The people we dealt with on the resort seemed quite nice. There was nightly entertainment.
Having said all this, we enjoyed our visit overall. The weather was great and we enjoyed the uniqueness of this country.
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Melicasti -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Nice resort
Room was clean and nice, beach was gorgeous, grounds and workers were nice, food was average, needed more of a variety for buffet, weather was hot and beautiful each day, great location from airport. Anna, Juliette, Christina were my favorite staff
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AngieAB -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Amazing Staff
This resort had a very accessible location, great food and amazing staff. Our luggage was delayed five days and everyone, including the manager was so helpful from resort vouchers to a couple of free shirts from the hotel. The snorkeling on the beach was perfect - better than some of our snorkel trips we have paid for at other islands. We can not say enough about the level of service we received.
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Cachiam76 -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Average Resort
Resort needs some updating, Rooms are average/we toilet back up everyday.
Food was a three at best, la carte restaurants where not very good.
No activities , poor service.
No service at beach. Needs updating and better cleaning....
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KfromON -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Lots of Fun
The daily activities were fun the entertainment team did a great job to accommodate us with football and pool volleyball. Dinner was good at most restaurants, we did not enjoy the Italian restaurant. All the beer except for the beers in the mini bar in the room were not enjoyable. All other drinks were good. Night time shows needed more seats to be able to sit and enjoy, after the show the guests all when back to their rooms not much nightlife unless you go off the resort.
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Robd -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: A Good 1st stay with a few glitches.
Resort has beatiful location, rooms are bit dated ( 7000, 8000 buildings). Beatiful beaches, perfect for snorcheling.
This hotel has lousy entertaiment staff (not much going on all day long! There is no disco at night, so You' re better off at Mambo Beach, righr next to the resort.)
The food at A La-Carte Restaurants is allright ( no reservations needed)
Main Bufet is very repetitive. (Lousy service)
We upgraded our room to VIP ( worth the money to my oppinion, room # 7222), beatifull panoramic [... read more]ocean view. Bathroom dated with bad layout.
The best bar service is definitely at VIP section ( 8000 building), thanks to perfect service of bartenders Rosio and Keneth ( well done gyus!)
I would come back, but only with our kids ( very kids friendly)
Travelled as a couple in mid August.
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Juli33 -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: It was okay. .
The beach and locations was great !!
However rooms were pretty run down , food was mediocre and drinks all tasted the same.
The staff sat around talking alot instead of serving and when serving the were very slow !!
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Ethan -
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Sandals Royal Curacao: customer service
The trip started off on the wrong foot as we did not have transportation to our hotel. Fortunately we were able to get a ride from one of the vendors there. Once at the hotel our Canadian bank cards did not work. It was our honeymoon and we were treated as regular guests. Service at the resort was poor until we complained about our service at the pool bar and then the service improved drastically. The beach was very nice, it if a great resort to go and get away from everything. When we were leav[... read more]ing we were worried about transportation as the vendor who was supposed to be picking us up from the hotel emailed us the day before and said they were not coming. Thankfully we contacted our travel agent and had that sorted out.
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Fred Flintstone -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Good resort
This resort is nicely located a short bus ride from down town Willemstad.
The bus ride is $1.50 while a cab ride is $15- and takes just as long.
The rooms were large and clean although the cleaning during the week was not as thorough as we would have liked. The beach was small but safe and clean while the break wall makes for easy swimming and or snorkeling right in front of the hotel. The food was quite good especially at the a la carte's which do not accept reservations by the way. check in wa[... read more]s a breeze and no bracelets is nice except for being asked your room number multiple times.
Mostly a good deal for the money
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Jo122 -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Very nice resort
The food and drinks are excellent. Plenty of variety. You can drink the water. The rooms are not very large but you can be right on the beach with a nice terrace. It is a windy area but with the heat and the humidity, it's a blessing ! We loved every bit of it and we will go back.
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CeCe -
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Sunscape Curacao Resort: Decent Resort
Overall our stay was pleasant. It met our expectations however there were opportunities of exceeding expectations such as, food options like more exotic fruits, better entertainment and more frequent replenishment of water, toilet paper etc in the room. But nonetheless the resort is true to a 3 star in North America.