My wife and I just returned from a 5 night stay at the Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort. We had a great trip (which I’ll post about separately), but I have mixed feelings about the Westin. Overall, if we return to Grand Cayman, I’d prefer to try another resort next time or, better yet, see if we can find a reasonable vacation rental / airbnb type of thing. Our primary complaint with the Westin was simply the bedroom itself. It was ordinary and despite my 75 night elite status we were stuck with a parking-lot view. If we had been upgraded to a nicer room I think that our overall impression would have been much more positive. So, to some extent, it was just bad luck on Westin’s part that their hotel was completely full during our visit.
Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort Basic Info
- Location: Grand Cayman. Seven Mile Beach
- Hotel chain: Marriott
- Point price: 50K per night standard. Category 6 hotel (50K standard, 40K off-peak, 60K peak). Book 5 nights for the price of 4.
- Platinum Elite perks: Free buffet breakfast. $10 per day food vouchers (they can all be used at once). Welcome amenity or 1,000 points. Chance of room upgrade. Late checkout when available. They also gave us a fruit and cheese plate as an extra welcome gift. I’m not sure if that’s standard.
- Resort fee: $65 per night
- Closest airport: Owen Roberts International Airport (GCM) is a 10 to 15 minute drive away.
The Westin’s best features
- Location: 7 mile beach is great, and the Westin is right in the middle of it. We loved walking the beach at sunset each evening. And the weather was always perfect.
- Food: Most of the food we tried was very good. The Sesame Crusted Tuna (ordered rare), in particular, was fantastic.
- Beach chairs: The resort was completely full throughout our stay, but we were always able to get beach chairs when we wanted them. This is in contrast with some other resorts where it’s necessary to grab chairs early in the morning.
- Housekeeping: The housekeeping staff was friendly and efficient. Every afternoon they brought us clean towels, extra bottles of water, and two individually wrapped rum cakes. Yum!
The Westin’s worst features
- Resort fee: In my opinion, they offer very little in exchange for the $65 per day fee. Here’s their list of what’s included.
- Bedroom: We were disappointed to find that our bedroom was similar to what you might find at a mid-scale airport hotel. We expected better. To make things worse, since the hotel was completely full, we were stuck with an ugly parking-lot view.
- Front desk interactions: I’m pretty sure we were just unlucky but we had a few disappointing interactions with desk staff. The most irritating to me was at check-in when the staff member told me that she was giving me $10 per day in dining vouchers
and full breakfast (rather than continental breakfast)as a way of making it up to me that she wasn’t able to upgrade us to an ocean view room. In reality, all Platinum Elite guests get these things even if they also get upgraded. UPDATE: I’ve just been informed that Platinums usually do have to pay $10 per day to upgrade to the full buffet breakfast, so that was a nice gesture.
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Do you know what the hold amount is on the CC for incidentals at this hotel?
the only issue i have found in hotels in GCM is that the AC is not very good and it is sensor driven so if no movement no AC… I tried to have engineering fix it to no avail. not good
LOL, I forgot that we had that same issue. It helped bit to override the thermostat limits and set the temp very low: https://lifehacker.com/override-your-hotel-room-thermostat-and-set-it-as-hot-o-1462595059
I hate that the hotel engineers refuse to do this!!niw I know what to try
Heading there in 3 weeks for 5 nights. Do you think it is worth upgrading to the Ritz? I already have the Westin booked with points.
Yes, if I were to return I’d first try for the Kimpton, then maybe the Ritz (but would probably look first for vacation rental options)
room looks better than when i was there 10 years ago, still not worth it
Who would have imagined that the Marriott Platinum breakfast policy would be confusing?? It baffles me that they can’t even be consistent across brands. Also, that resort fee is ridiculous. I hope something is done about these
We are going to Kimpton Seafire end of Feb, early March for 5 night. 3 are free night certificates and 2 are points. I am Inner Circle so I am looking forward to an upgrade but this time of year who knows?
I was last in GC in 1995, it will be interesting to see the changes. Restaurant suggestions welcomed!
Greg mentioned “Really enjoyed getting fresh caught fish at Casanova, The Cracked Conch, and Morgan’s Seafood Restaurant.” Enjoy your time there and a mini review will be great.
How was your stay Deb? Were you charged resort fees for all of your nights? We’re planning to stay beginning of May with 3 FN certificates and I’m wondering if we’ll be charged the resort fee $70/night.
Greg, did the hotel offer up breakfast for 2 or just 1 $10 voucher?
Yes, Platinum guests get daily continental buffet for 2. They upgraded us to full buffet and also gave us $10 per day towards other food. We used 3 of them for just 2 drinks on the beach.
The upgrade to full buffet was because they didn’t give you an upgraded room? Will all platinums get the upgrade to full buffet and $10/day toward other food?
My understanding is that Platinums usually get just continental buffet, but yes all get the $10/day vouchers.
Wondering where have you been after January. Wow, you were at a great place!
Had a one day visit to Cayman on a cruise and always wanted to do a land vacation. Would love to stay at the Ritz looks like a beautiful resort .
Boonie
That’s how I got there 2x then I came back 25 years later for the nite time sub dive .One small problem with that if u don”t feed them @ nite the fish stay hidden .
Opp’s
Great timing! Headed there in two days for 6 nights with my wife and 18 month old son. Refunded an old Cat 7 travel package to cover the stay and used up my skymiles to get us there. Despite all this will still be a pricey trip with fees, taxes, incidentals etc. We’ve read it’s great for kids, any particular recs for young families? Fingers crossed for an ocean view room!
I didn’t pay attention to the kid stuff. The resort fee appears to include a lot for kids, so maybe that’s where the value is
I don’t think you’ll be upgraded. It’s sold out around this time of year. Even Greg didn’t get upgraded.
Circling back here….fantastic beach and resort, good food and solid service. Love the laid back nature of GC. We did end up getting an upgrade to ocean view halfway through the trip once Kaboo music festival ended (Counting Crows played in the hotel lobby which was neat). They said the upgrade was because I’m gold but I’m skeptical that was the sole reason since the hotel was still sold out and we were “roomless” for several hours during the switch. Makes me wonder, was this hotel trickery to temporarily accommodate more guests? If not, I guess I’m still in disbelief I actually got upgraded as gold.
I just stayed for 5 nights at the Kimpton Seafire two weeks ago. We used 4 Chase free night certs and 70k points for the last night. It’s a fantastic hotel – very new, excellent service. My main concern were the $70/nt resort fees, which to my surprise were waived for the four Chase nights (I had to ask, but they didn’t argue or anything!). The resort fees covered snorkel gear, evening wine hour, GoPro camera, parking, etc. Get 2 more certs good anywhere (as they’re issued before April) and planning to go back next year.
That sounds awesome.
We’re staying one night there at the end of the month, I hope they don’t charge us. What did you say to get the resort fee waived?
I printed out the confirmation from the IHG website that clearly showed that all taxes and other charges were “FREE.” When I checked in and the desk clerk mentioned the resort fee, I pulled out the confirmation and told her I assumed the resort fee would be only for the night I was using points for given it WAS mentioned for that reservation, but was not mentioned on the ones I used a Chase free night for. She asked to make a copy of the documents and it was waived after that. Good luck!
John, were you offered an upgrade? I don’t want waiving the resort fee to make them provide me with inferior service or not offer me an upgrade. We’re staying for our anniversary as well. I”m assuming you’re a platinum member as well from the IHG card?
Can I wait until checkout to ask to have the resort fee waived?
I specifically asked for an upgrade upon checking in and they said they upgraded me to a suite, but it was facing the sound and not the ocean. At first, I was pretty bummed about this, but the room was very nice and the view was technically of the ocean as well, given you’re on a strip of land with ocean on both sides. I’d have preferred the ocean side, of course, but in hindsight the view was not bad and certainly way better than what Greg got with his room. We were on the 4th floor, which is the lowest floor with suites, but is still high enough to not be staring at cars (the parking lot is much lower than the hotel anyway). I’m PLT given the IHG card, yes. I did reach out via email to them and told them we were staying for our 10th anniversary and they had a bottle of Justin Cab (nice bottle) and some chocolate covered strawberries in the room for us upon arrival. If you want an ocean facing room, you want an even numbered room. Odds face the sound or north (the ones that face north are partial ocean view as well). You might have a good chance for an upgrade given you’re only staying one night…we were staying 5.
Anthony, Did they waive the resort fee for you? I’m planning to go beginning of May on three FN certificates.
Kate, no they didn’t unfortunately. I tried to push the issue but they gave us a REALLY nice room for our Anniversary facing the ocean on the first floor that walked out to the beach and brought champagne and a fruit and chocolate platter so I let it go.
Thanks for the reply & congrats on your anniversary 🙂
I paid $85 I think for Taxs on the SW flt with points and 1 stop .Then the costs went Up from there . The people were very nice but the Gov does like to Tax.. HaHa
CHEERs
bad luck on your part. My wife and I was there a month ago for a week. A few days before we arrived, got a email from their customer service specialist asking if they could do anything for our stay. I mentioned we were there last year and was a little disappointed with the room,and also it was my wife’s birthday on one of the days we were there. I just have gold status because of the Luxury card.Upon check in the guy said he saw a note to upgrade us if available. They put us on top floor, middle of hotel, ocean front! Could have not asked for a better room. WE also received a personal welcome back card with a fruit and cheese tray. On my wife’s birthday, again sent a personal note with champagne and chocolate tray wishing her a happy birthday. We couldn’t have asked for better treatment for our stay.
That’s great. As I said in the review, I think we would have had a very favorable impression if it wasn’t for the room. Also, I think the customer service specialists were on vacation because one of the issues I had was that I was told that one of them would contact me but he or she never did. But, actually, we did get a very nice fruit and cheese plate which I forgot to mention in the review. I’ll update it now.
Greg, thank you for the timely review: my wife and I will be headed to Grand Cayman at the end of the month for an anniversary weekend trip. We are using our 2 Ritz free nights and we planned on trying one night at the Westin (to try it and since it offers free breakfast) and one night at the Ritz (and trying one night at the Kimpton Seafire).
Should we switch to two nights at the Ritz based on your review here and forego the free breakfast or is it worth trying a night here? Is it even worth using our free nights? Your advice would be appreciated!
I haven’t stayed at the Ritz or the Seafire, but my guess is that you’ll like them both more than the Westin. Again, the Westin is pretty good, but the bedrooms are disappointing. If it was me, I’d stay 2 nights at the Ritz but partly that’s because I hate switching hotels. It often takes quite a chunk out of the day and makes it difficult logistically to plan outings on the switch days.
I just stayed at Seafire. Maybe do 2 Ritz and 2 Seafire as they will be more similar as far as service and quality.