Royal Palms Beach Club at Grand Cayman?

Hoping Floater is back and will post some good info. We've reserved a beach cabana for our upcoming cruise and requested 1,2 or 3 since we like to be close to the water.

Just home from 17 great days. Will review tomorrow. LONG coast to coast flight home tonight

I have been trying all day to upload some photos of my group stay at the Royal Palms on March 15th Not able to do so as I get a message and had to contact the administrators.

It was a great day. I had reserved all 6 BEACH cabanas and recommend them to anyone that prefers a bit more space roped off than the OCEAN cabanas have.

Pro for Beach were nice breeze on this hot humid day. Sides of cabanas are chiffon so its easy to pull and tie them back More room roped off from the masses in loungers with umbrellas.

Pro for Ocean is you are close to the water but the not much breeze and the sides are made from heavy canvas

Con for both is there is a "service charge" for food and drinks regardless of cabana rental or just doing the entry fee to use facility. Servers "say" that is not a tip??

Any questions just ask and once I get answer to the nasty gram photo message I will try to post them.

Hope this worked Guess not

So there is a service charge AND there is a tip? Boy, they have a good racket going on.

So there is a service charge AND there is a tip? Boy, they have a good racket going on.

I should have worded that a bit better saying I did not hear that myself but was told it was said by a server in one of the 6 cabanas that they did NOT get anything out of the service charge.

With 5 ships in port that day it could have been a real money maker to the servers.

All bills had 18% service charge and it could be that the server was the racket??

If you have a reservation I would email and ask the question to be sure. Wish I had know prior to check that out. I have NOW emailed the office rep that helped me set it all up to inquire what is covered and not and will post here when I get that info

Feel free to email me and I can give you more details and some photos since I cant get the admis to let me know what the security chip thing the nasty gram message means so I can post my photos

Thanks for all the info Floater. Hope you had a great cruise.

We're in an Ocean - we like being close to the water. Our tendency is to go back and forth a lot. Did they provide any floats?

By chance did you see the pool cabana, I have one scheduled for next week. What you are saying that they change 18% for food not on the price you pay for the cabana?

Ok so here it is from the office at Royal Palms so there is no confusion. Happy I inquired as I didn't want to have out there anything that is NOT true. I thought the service charge was also 18% but since the receipt ink was so light, it could have read 15% Guess maybe a rouge server for the couple of our cabanas.

Hello Renee,

I am so happy to hear you had a great time. The service charge is the 15% gratuity on food and drink for the server. We do not add the gatuity for the cabana so maybe that is what the server meant. Do you happen to know the name of your server? If you have any further questions I am happy to help.

Sounds like the server was trying to get a bit extra. I don't mind adding a little extra if we get good service but don't like being tricked!

Sounds like the server was trying to get a bit extra. I don't mind adding a little extra if we get good service but don't like being tricked!

Exactly, we will give more for great service but don't try to pull a fast one. It was pretty busy that day with 5 my group and lots of buckets of beer, foo foo drinks and food. There were many times something was forgotten in orders but overall they did a great job.

I just wanted to confirm so no one else was taken advantage of and now we know.

I bet there will be a meeting of servers after my email to the company as she asked for names.

Hope you get the super little gal server my friends had in their Ocean cabana, she was really great.

Ok so here it is from the office at Royal Palms so there is no confusion. Happy I inquired as I didn't want to have out there anything that is NOT true. I thought the service charge was also 18% but since the receipt ink was so light, it could have read 15% Guess maybe a rouge server for the couple of our cabanas.

 

Hello Renee,

I am so happy to hear you had a great time. The service charge is the 15% gratuity on food and drink for the server. We do not add the gatuity for the cabana so maybe that is what the server meant. Do you happen to know the name of your server? If you have any further questions I am happy to help.

Hello there. What email did you use to inquire about the Cabana. I filled out the form online but did not get an email notification back. So I want to follow up with them to make sure they got my reservation. Thank you.

Hello there. What email did you use to inquire about the Cabana. I filled out the form online but did not get an email notification back. So I want to follow up with them to make sure they got my reservation. Thank you.

Yes the only way to reserve the ocean or beach cabanas is online. I used the contact us link from the Royal Palms site prior to my reservation as I had a group and required all 6 of the beach cabanas so I wanted to find out the best way to secure them by number. The people that answered that plus lots of other questions were great to make sure all was set once the 6 month prior to date came up and I reserved online. I believe I received a email confirmation after booking..

I suggest you also use the contact us link or if you email me I will send it to you. I don't want to post it.

Renee

Yes the only way to reserve the ocean or beach cabanas is online. I used the contact us link from the Royal Palms site prior to my reservation as I had a group and required all 6 of the beach cabanas so I wanted to find out the best way to secure them by number. The people that answered that plus lots of other questions were great to make sure all was set once the 6 month prior to date came up and I reserved online. I believe I received a email confirmation after booking..

I suggest you also use the contact us link or if you email me I will send it to you. I don't want to post it.

Renee

Thanks for the quick response. I think I found the email to contact them. I did make my reservation thru their site but have not gotten a confirmation. So I just need to follow up to make sure. Thanks again.

I have been trying all day to upload some photos of my group stay at the Royal Palms on March 15th Not able to do so as I get a message and had to contact the administrators.

 

It was a great day. I had reserved all 6 BEACH cabanas and recommend them to anyone that prefers a bit more space roped off than the OCEAN cabanas have.

Pro for Beach were nice breeze on this hot humid day. Sides of cabanas are chiffon so its easy to pull and tie them back More room roped off from the masses in loungers with umbrellas.

Pro for Ocean is you are close to the water but the not much breeze and the sides are made from heavy canvas

 

Con for both is there is a "service charge" for food and drinks regardless of cabana rental or just doing the entry fee to use facility. Servers "say" that is not a tip??

 

Any questions just ask and once I get answer to the nasty gram photo message I will try to post them.

We are debating about renting a cabana at royal palms.. we will be the second cruise ship to arrive in port that day (I believe Carnival and RCC will be the only ones the day we are there). Carnival will arrive at 8 and we arrive at 10:30- I guess my question is.... will it be super crowded by the time we get there around 11:30/noon-ish? And thus need a cabana? We have two young kids who most likely will want to be in the water the entire time- so ideally would like a spot closer to the water- but don't want to miss out on a chair due to crowds.. we are going in mid May. Thanks!

We are debating about renting a cabana at royal palms.. we will be the second cruise ship to arrive in port that day (I believe Carnival and RCC will be the only ones the day we are there). Carnival will arrive at 8 and we arrive at 10:30- I guess my question is.... will it be super crowded by the time we get there around 11:30/noon-ish? And thus need a cabana? We have two young kids who most likely will want to be in the water the entire time- so ideally would like a spot closer to the water- but don't want to miss out on a chair due to crowds.. we are going in mid May. Thanks!

There were 5 ships in GC the day we were there thus the crowds. You should be fine to rent chairs and umbrellas if that is what you prefer. The entry fee, chair and umbrella rental will cost you close to half of what the cabana rental depending on how many of each you rent. I thought the $100 was good rate for cabana to have the table and chairs to eat at plus a bit more free space to self.

Tough choice between cabana/no cabana or just renting chairs for our family. I like the convenience of the service for food and drinks, but not sure if it is worth the money. We will be the only ship in GC that day.

Frequent Floater - Looking at your schematic, I would assume cabana 4 and 9 are closer to the beach area. We have little ones so want to be closer to the water, but like the breeze you mentioned for the Beach cabana.

Tough choice between cabana/no cabana or just renting chairs for our family. I like the convenience of the service for food and drinks, but not sure if it is worth the money. We will be the only ship in GC that day.

Frequent Floater - Looking at your schematic, I would assume cabana 4 and 9 are closer to the beach area. We have little ones so want to be closer to the water, but like the breeze you mentioned for the Beach cabana.

IMO it is definitely worth the rental fee for cabana. You have shade all day but most important space to relax. The chairs and umbrellas for the masses can get quite busy with not much room to do anything but stay put in place. With the added roped off cabana space, you room to let the kids play without having to worry about keeping eyes on as they are right there. Ocean cabanas 1 - 3 are right on the water with a bit of sand around and might be great for kids. Beach cabanas 4 - 9 are set back more so if kids are in water, you have a hard time seeing down that way past the masses in chairs.

I am not able to upload photos that could offer a better idea for you but you are welcome to email and I can send some of actual day we were there and the space we had

We had a beach cabana on 4/20/16, and loved it! Well worth the money for us. Neesa (not sure of the spelling) was our server for the day and she was fantastic! We ordered some food from there also, which was pretty good.

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I rented an ocean view cabana at the Royal Palms on April 26 for our family of 4. Our cabana was the first one to the right of the pool area and had canvas "drapes" that could be pulled close for privacy and sun protection.

Our server (unfortunately I don't recall her name) was very attentive and hardworking. We shared a jerk chicken pizza (delicious!) and 2 appetizers and had 5 beverages for a total of $119 US plus tip, plus the $100 US for the cabana. However, in our view it was worth the money for the proximity to the beach, service and privacy.

I rented an ocean view cabana at the Royal Palms on April 26 for our family of 4. Our cabana was the first one to the right of the pool area and had canvas "drapes" that could be pulled close for privacy and sun protection.

Our server (unfortunately I don't recall her name) was very attentive and hardworking. We shared a jerk chicken pizza (delicious!) and 2 appetizers and had 5 beverages for a total of $119 US plus tip, plus the $100 US for the cabana. However, in our view it was worth the money for the proximity to the beach, service and privacy.

Yes the Beach cabanas are so much nicer for the same money. Those Ocean ones were not up to par with Beach ones.

Yes the Beach cabanas are so much nicer for the same money. Those Ocean ones were not up to par with Beach ones.

How many minutes did it take you to get back to Port. Our Ship leaves at 4pm. Just needing to plan what time to leave Royal palms, considering traffic , taking a taxi and of course Tender. I was planning on 2:30pm. I hope that will give us enough time to get onboard.

It's a short drive, approximately 10 minutes so leaving the Royal Palms at 2:30 will give you plenty of time to return to the ship.

It's a short drive, approximately 10 minutes so leaving the Royal Palms at 2:30 will give you plenty of time to return to the ship.

Thank You