Cap Ju-Loser

Cap JuLuca Is A Loser............But Let's Not Stop There.

As the days of my Caribbean holiday passed, my mood mellowed. All of the negative things that irritated me the first week still existed. They just didn’t irritate me as much anymore. It just comes with the territory. The Caribbean is notorious for poor service. Any savvy traveler is well aware of this. It’s just when each "top of the line" hotel opens, you expect, hope, maybe this one will get it right. They just don’t, or can’t. There is minimal time spent training their staff. My husband‘s father used to say “Anybody can learn. It just takes some longer than others”. The fault lies with the management. They are in a hurry to get the place going, and they fail miserably left and right. Anguilla, and specifically Cap Juluca, has come a long way since our visit in June. The vegetation is all very young, but there are new plantings, and it will take years, assuming there is not another hurricane of the magnitude of the one in September 2017. In general, Cap Juluca looks great. It had to be originally copied from La Samanna in St. Martin. You walk directly from your room onto the sand. Such a rarity. The buildings have the same look. The stone walks are the same. They are both on a crescent beach facing south with the same view. Our room was truly stunning with a beautiful well-appointed terrace. All of the furniture is brand new. The furnishings consist of two chaise lounges and a round table with wicker dining chairs. The cabinetry throughout the room is very functional and very good looking, and most of the place is brand new. The bathroom is exceptional, but if you look closely at the finishings, you will see that they are subpar. However, the overall look is warm and great. Everything is travertine with brass fixtures and stunning oval mirrors. There is an area that you can access through the shower which we thought was an outside shower, (which would have been very doable and incredible) but it’s just an outside space and I guess you could open the outside shower door and pretend you’re in an outside shower. The location is beautiful. The beach is beautiful. The sand is white powder. The beach furniture is top shelf Frontgate with thick cushions that are exceptionally comfortable. The umbrellas are fabulous fabric and square, with a pretty fringe. The umbrellas are Italian Tucci and they do their job very well. So what could be wrong?????????? Anguilla has no vibe, but that we knew. It is not a St. Martin in its heyday, nor a St. Barths. It is VERY quiet. Our first dinner was at Blanchard‘s as we were told it was still the best restaurant on the island. There is something to be said for longevity. The food was OK, not amazing, but OK. The service was good. It was Caribbean pretty. There was not enough reason to go back after the last two times we were there, and the last time had to be at least five years ago. Taxi drivers on the island are efficient and that is how we get around. It is just a pity that we had to take a taxi four times a day to and from lunch and then again for dinner because it was impossible to dine at Cap Juluca. We had lunch at Cip (Cap Juluca), which is supposed to be a take on Cipriani in Venice. Wrong. Lasagna was made with pumpkin and was sent back. The small macaroni with tomato sauce came out as a spaghetti with a funky sauce. Bread was half stale and half very good. Greens salad was boring. We were not sure the veal Milanese was meat. My beautiful looking macaroni was beautiful looking. PERIOD. On the way back to the lounges, my husband commented “that lunch was barely edible.” And the restaurant chairs were so uncomfortable. They cut into your mid back. The staff has NO idea which end is up. BUT.......The sky is blue. The clouds are billowy. The sea is turquoise. The view is incredible. And we still enjoy each other. First night, dinner at Quintessence was a lovely meal with fine service in a rare setting. We were surrounded by lush old foliage. This area was not hit by the hurricane, so all the old foliage is intact. It is also a hotel and we were taken on a tour of five rooms. They were outstanding but we needed to see the property during the day. It was not doable due to the hotel's narrow mindedness. We lunched at Mosaic at Cuisinart. Brings back a myriad of memories. We used to come here with our children when they were young, and the hotel was new. The food is very well done. Lasagna. Lobster tails. Fried asparagus and cauliflower au gratin. Quinoa salad with orange and grapefruit and pomegranate seeds served on romaine. The foliage here also took a big hit with the 2017 hurricane, but things look OK. All of the hotels are trying to get back to normal. The problem here is that the property is missing people. Cuisinart was at 13% occupancy. Sitting at lunch looking out at the sea.....and food and drink are good, weather great. Clouds look like cotton balls in a child's diorama. Little breeze. Can’t beat it. I think the difference between a Quintessence and a Cuisinart compared to a Belmond (soon to be LVMH), is that Cuisinart bears the name of one man and Quintessence bears the name of one man. Belmond/LVMH is a huge corporation not associated with a particular person. You shouldn’t be allowed to get away with more but it seems they do, especially in the Caribbean. I guess people don’t expect that much, or don’t know any better, or you just want to get out of the cold. When your name is on the building you try harder. Dinner at Veya (a local place) was very good. We shared six appetizers. And they made me a fresh ginger ale, which was almost as good as mine. We have dined there numerous times over the years. Got up to try breakfast at the hotel. It was at CIP. If you could eat the view, the meal would be perfect. It was a very decent breakfast but the Latte and the American coffee were undrinkable. Omelettes were good. The green juice was like sludge. The fruits fresh. It was a one and done. (And it was included in the quite expensive room rate.) We spent the day on the beach today, under an umbrella, because the sun is wicked hot and not a cloud in the sky. The breeze fools you into thinking it’s not as hot as it is, but you burn mighty quickly. I walked the beach daily and it was breezy and the negative ions were flying all over. I was just trying to breathe them all in and have them devour me. We didn’t feel like taking a taxi anywhere one night so we made reservations to dine at the Peruvian tapas restaurant at the top of the hotel. We should’ve known better when there were only 2 tables occupied. We literally ordered eight of the 10 items on the menu. Two were inedible and had to be sent back.....cold and soggy. The others were ok. End of story, the assistant restaurant manager bought us dinner after he asked how we enjoyed dinner. We never allow that, but my husband was fit to be tied because that was the third bad meal at Cap Juluca. No more. We give up. We dined out from then on. Now to the staff. There is ZERO professionalism. From what we can see there had to be no training time invested in these people. The hotel just opened a month ago, and 80% of the staff is new. Previous experience: "the local supermarket". They should be pulling out all the stops and have the WOW factor going so people will be talking about this place and will want to come back. From what we heard there was no shortage of talk, and none of it was good. Let’s begin with check in.

I had emailed the hotel requesting certain items we wanted in the room. I didn’t get a response so I emailed them again and I got a response to half of the letter, so I know they received it. So I emailed them again. End of story, when we got there nothing that was requested was in the room. No big deal. Only took 4 phone calls to get it done.

The man who showed us to our room was supposed to explain everything and let us know where everything was. He never did that. We asked him to put the air conditioning on and make it as cold as possible. That never got accomplished because the room keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter. He put it on the wrong setting.

It took us about an hour to find any sockets. He never informed us that they were IN the night table drawers. The maid service is beyond poor. They don’t clean. They tidy. Tonight we came in and found the housekeeper brushing the baby powder AROUND the bathmats with a hand towel. A dead bug sat on a table for two days. I just wanted to see how long it would take for it to be picked up. The servers in the restaurants have no idea what is going on, what they should be doing, and when asked for something they stare at you like a deer in the headlights. There is zero comprehension. Everything has to be explained at least three times. But that is not my job. It is the job of management. And it becomes exhausting as a guest on vacation. The beach boys put the towels on the chairs and the coolers with the ice waters are put on the tables. You don’t see them for the rest of the day.

The concierge is useless...........they were unable to print an email, retrieve a fax, make a correct dinner reservation (upon arrival at Blanchards and Dolce Vita, neither restaurant had our dinner reservation), unable to print a menu. They did book the return boat correctly. Reception did check out efficiently.

Never saw any management in the 8 days we were there.

There is a spa, but I hesitated to use it. I had asked the spa for a male therapist and they told me they would look into it and get back to me. Four days later I made an appointment with the male therapist I had previously used at the Four Seasons. There is a teeny weenie gym. I would rather walk on the beach. There is also one tennis court and a basketball court. For the rest of our vacation, we enjoyed the magnificent beach and we dined off premise.

The Four Seasons has a very good sushi bar, which we visited. Dinner at Santorini at Cuisinart was superb. The best meal on the island. And the most professional staff.

Lunch at Eas, a very local place, was ok, but they really tried. Dolce Vita was excellent Italian food. Worth the 20 minute drive. There are probably about 10 good restaurants on the island. We have been to this island no less than 10 times and we are finding that it is too quiet for us to come to alone. Maybe we will return as a family. And even though Saint Martin is only a four-hour flight from New York, it still took us 9 hours to get to the hotel.