Cuisinart
is located in Rendezvous Bay on the southwestern coast of Anguilla on a 2-mile
long stretch of white sand and turquoise water with views of neighboring St
Martin. Cuisinart’s whitewashed, blue-domed buildings are reminiscent of the
Greek islands. A Mediterranean-style tile terrace with gardens and a seemingly
mile long swimming pool are located at the center the property. The pool, and
its connecting water elements, are a focal point of the resort, leading your
eye from the lobby toward the blue sky and sea beyond. The Cuisinart property
hosts the island's only golf course; designed by Greg Norman, this 18 hole course
was previously called Tenemos.
The Cuisinart Resort offers 90
suites and 7 private villas. The suites range from junior suites to one-,
two,-, and three-bedroom units, which are some of the largest on Anguilla. For
example, beachfront one-bedroom suites measure 1,800 square feet, whereas
beachfront two-bedroom suites are 2,800 square feet. All lodging options offer
balconies and at least partial ocean views. The private villas offer even more
space and privacy. Suites feature tile floors throughout, accented with blue and
yellow furnishings, area rugs, and floral wall art. Note that ten main beachfront
lodging buildings (each building has three floors, and each floor holds two or
three suites) do NOT have elevators, so if you have mobility issues, either
request a room on the ground floor, or book a room in the three-story main
building, which has an elevator.
We booked a one-bedroom suite, which was enormous! A long
foyer/entryway with a second (windowless and somewhat cramped) full bathroom leads
to the large living room, which offers a sofa, chair/ottoman, coffee table,
side table, and entertainment unit (with a flat-screen TV and a DVD player).
The separate bedroom (which could be closed off with a door), features another
sofa and chair, another coffee table, a king-size bed abutted by two
nightstands, a desk, a mini-bar refrigerator, and a Nespresso machine. Each
room in the suite has its own air-conditioning controls and ceiling fan, and
the temperature was always cool and comfortable. A large walk-in closet (with
shelves and hanging options and an electronic safe) preceded the immense master
bathroom, which has a separate water (toilet) closet, monstrous pedestal soaking
bathtub with glass block backdrop, and large glass-walled shower as well as a
two-sink vanity with a small stool at which you could sit to dry your hair or
apply makeup. The hotel provides a hair dryer, bathrobes, slippers, and a large
golf umbrella. Our suite’s main terrace was accessible from both the bedroom
and the living room, and the sliding doors feature screens so that you can
allow the breeze in without the bugs. The large terrace held two reclining
cushioned lounge chairs and a dining table with four chairs. The only thing
missing was an umbrella – because our suite was located on the third/top floor,
there was no shade or sun protection on either of our terraces. (Rooms on the
first and second floors are shaded by the balconies immediately above them, so
they do not require umbrellas, but nor do they receive full sunshine.) The
master bathrooms are made of marble, and most have indoor and outdoor showers. Note
that the outdoor shower is just functional – there is nothing attractive or
spa-like or luxurious about it. The resort could do so much more with the
private solarium/terrace (located off the master bathroom) that houses the
outdoor shower if they make a little design investment. As it is now, the small
enclosed but open-to-the-sky terrace constructed with glass blocks on two sides
includes two reclining cushioned lounge chairs and a small side table, but it
unfortunately is not somewhere that you want to spend time. A full selection of
complimentary Rusk toiletries is available, including shampoo, conditioner,
body lotion, body wash, and even free hairbrushes and hairspray. Twice daily
maid service is provided, and you receive two bottles of complimentary water and
a full ice bucket at evening turndown time (which usually arrived before we had
left for our 8:00 pm dinner).
We stayed in building 1 (Athena) and the noise from Bankie
Banx Dune Preserve kept us awake on our last evening. The music began at
approximately 10:00 pm and lasted past 2:00 am, when we finally fell asleep.
(The loud music was a surprise, because the establishment was not supposed to
be open on Saturday evening. We actually went to the Dune Preserve on Friday
night to listed to a local band play, and the noise on Friday night was not
nearly as loud as it was on Saturday night when nothing was supposed to be
going on !) We suggest to the hotel that they not place guests in the Athena
building unless all other buildings are occupied; for the amount of money that
we paid per night, we expected to have a good night's sleep! We could not even
sleep with our screen/sliding doors open that evening because of the deafening
sound. The noise level would have been even louder, except for the fact that
the air-conditioning equipment on the roof of our building was so loud itself.
We are not sure which was worse - the bass from Dune Preserve or the constant
running of the A/C unit. It seemed that the fan in the master bathroom water
closet, as well as the hot water, created much noise on the roof. We mentioned
the noise issue from The Dune to our check-out agent, but she just smiled and
said a quick “Sorry”. We also mentioned the noise in an online survey that
Cuisinart asked us to complete, but they just said “Thanks” via email and did
not address any this issue or any of our other suggestions (which we will
detail towards the end of this review).
The resort offers babysitting services, mountain bikes,
bocce, croquet, billiards, children’s playground, fitness center, room service,
two lighted tennis courts, watersports equipment, complimentary self and valet
parking, and complimentary Wi-Fi. The hotel contains a media room/business
center with a few computers and printers as well as a lending library. (The
room once held a pool table, but no longer.) Several shops are available: one
sells clothing and resort wear, one sells jewelry, and the last sells sundry
items (snacks, souvenirs, sunscreen).
Cuisinart boasts the island's only hydroponic farm, with a
greenhouse that grows tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, and herbs. You can tour
the farm, lush tropical gardens, and
orchards at designated times (the resort provides
you with a daily schedule). The Venus
Spa offers 16 treatment rooms, a Turkish hammam (steam room), indoor and
outdoor relaxation areas, water-therapy rooms, and a heated seawater Thalasso
pool. Cooking classes are offered on
several days of the week: Japanese class (Mondays), pizza and cookies
(Tuesdays), pastries (Thursdays), and chef’s secrets (Fridays). Wine tastings are
available on Mondays and Thursdays, and rum tastings on Wednesdays.
Cuisinart has five restaurants and four bars:
Café Mediterraneo,
which is located poolside, serves breakfast and lunch. A daily breakfast buffet
of pastries, fruit, granola, coffee, juice,
yogurt at Café Med is
included with your room rate. You can also order this breakfast delivered to
your room at no charge. The ladies working in Café Med for breakfast
service are NOT friendly at all; it was very disappointing to see unsmiling
faces every morning. (The men we saw working breakfast were more friendly.) See our separate review of Café
Mediterraneo on Tripadvisor.
The Clubhouse
Grill (located at the golf course) serves lunch, and Italia (also located at
the golf course) serves dinner. (The hotel provides a golf cart shuttle between
the main property and the golf course.) The Lobby Bar serves lunch,
dinner, and drinks in a partially open-air environment; sometimes live piano
music is available. The Beach
Shack is open for lunch and drinks.
Tokyo Bay and Le
Bistro at Santorini (the resort’s more formal restaurants) serve dinner only. The Chef's Table is available at le Bistro Santorini on Wednesday evenings,
which includes 8 courses and wine for $195.00 per person, or you can try the a
la carte or tasting menus at Tokyo Bay. The 9-course Chef Joe's Omakase tasting
menu at Tokyo Bay was phenomenal, and the chef is very personable. This meal
was the highlight of our stay not only at Cuisinart, but on our entire 9-day vacation
to St Barth and Anguilla. The quality of the food, and the service that we
received from ALL of the employees at Tokyo Bay is truly exemplary. See our separate review of Tokyo Bay.
Now on to the not-so-good things:
The Cuisinart Resort needs to replace the umbrellas on the
beach. We walked up to the nearby Sunshine Shack for drinks, and their
umbrellas are in perfect condition, so Cuisinart cannot blame their condition on
the strong wind because the umbrellas at the Sunshine Shack are fine. Even more
disturbing – Staff at the Cuisinart Resort need to rake and remove the
seaweed/sea grass on a regular basis. Debris spoils what could be a stunning,
beautiful view. We saw no one rake the entire four days of our stay, despite
the beach attendants having almost nothing to do because no one was sitting on
the beach (In contrast, again at the Sunshine Shack, their employees were
raking seaweed daily, so it is clearly Cuisinart’s choice not to maintain their
beach. The poor condition of the beach is truly unacceptable for a hotel of
this level! (Depending on the time of year that you visit, nightly room rates
start at $500 for a basic room, and reach $2000+ per night for larger units).
The beach itself would be beautiful if not for the seaweed and the tattered
umbrellas. Beach service was incredibly slow, despite the fact that we were
often the only couple on the entire resort beach. The beach attendants deliver
complimentary bottled water in a sort of small sturdy see-through plastic shopping
bag filled with ice. The staff dispenses complimentary sorbet at 3:00 pm, and
the portion size is impressive! Although we had looked forward to using the
beautiful swimming pool, the large number of children who were permitted to behave uncontrollably and disruptively made it impossible to do so.
Regarding the concierge service, we spoke to two different employees
regarding our departure on an Air Anguilla flight, connecting from Anguilla
through Sint Maarten and then back to the US, but neither one of them (one man
and one woman) could advise us on what time to arrive at the Anguilla airport
or what we would have to do upon arrival in Sint Maarten (for example, did we
need to go through customs and immigration, or were we just in transit?). In
general, employees need to be more assertive and knowledgeable and to use
louder voices. Another example - The gentleman from the front desk who checked
us in was very friendly, but he was so soft-spoken that it was difficult to
understand him.
Our stay at Cuisinart was fine, but after coming directly to
Anguilla after an amazing stay at chic Le Sereno on St Barths, Cuisinart really
could not compare. For us, Cuisinart Resort was much too large, impersonal, and
reminiscent of an all-inclusive resort for our taste, but everyone else seemed
to be having a great time there.
