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Hi There -- the weather was fantastic the weekend we were there. Really hot but the breeze kept us cool. We did do a sunset dinner on the beach and at the end of it I was starting to get a little chilly. But get this - the waiters had a warm towel waiting for me! It wasn't cold by any means but you might want a light cardigan at night.
As a matter of fact, we DID check out the Westin and had a REALLY hard time deciding between the Marriott and Westin. We got to the point of contract negotiations with both hoping that would separate them but they were pretty close. Westin was offering a slightly better deal, we liked the Westin's reception locations better and LOVED their sales coodinator who stays involved with the planning! They were going to give our all our guests ocean view rooms at a good rate. Still, something felt like it was missing. The pool, though really big and it looks great in pictures didn't feel like somewhere we wanted to hang out (no swim up bar and little shade). And the rooms, though ocean view, were a little dark and plain. Very clean as you expect from Westin but I wanted something cheerier... something that felt more tropical.
Marriott's rooms were bigger and brighter with a little punch of color, had brighter modern bathrooms and larger balconies. Their pool is smaller but the pool area is lush with palms and other tropical plants. We liked that its in the courtyard formed by the hotel and has a swim-up bar. There are also areas by the pool where you can get sun but its so hot we enjoyed the break.
We finally decided though, that as a place to stay we liked the Marriott better. LOVED the Marriott rooms and liked the pool better. And they're really flexible in letting you use outside vendors so we think we'll be able to make the reception locations into something we like even better.
As I said in an earlier post, I created a journal and photos of our time there... I'm adding to it as we go through our planning process. I'd be glad to share when I can send you a Private Message. I'm sure I had many of the same questions and found it to be a lot of work to get them figured out.
As far as do you have to do a site visit? Probably not. I don't think you can go wrong with either hotel. The people at both are very communicative and helpful. If you are a 'high-rise' person, those are two great options. There are a lot of other options in the 'low-rise' area as well as Renaissance Island but we decided those weren't for us.
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