Review: Hyatt Ziva, Rose Hall (Jamaica) Ocean Front Butler Suite

Next to the Presidential Suite, the One Bedroom Ocean Front Butler Suite is the top suite offered at the Hyatt Ziva and Zilara. It’s a bright and spacious suite with 1,083 square feet and some great views of the ocean. Here’s a review of the Butler Suite and I’ll have a more in-depth review of the hotel itself later.

The bedroom

The bedroom is very spacious and comes with a king size mattress that’s remarkably comfy — the type of bed that’s hard to get out of in the morning. The bedroom has a separate AC unit from the rest of the suite so it’s easy to monitor the room temperature. During our stay, the AC worked great so we were able to keep our room comfortably cool, despite the tropical heat outside. If the heat does become an issue, drawing the window shades closed should solve that problem.

In front of the bed is a large ottoman, which comes in handy when getting doing things like getting ready since the bed sits pretty high from the floor. One of the night stands beside the bed has an alarm clock with multiple USB ports on it making it easy to keep your devices charged.

On the other side of the bed is an interesting lamp which is held up by an ornate pineapple. This probably intrigued me more that it should’ve but I always appreciate unique and fitting decor in hotel rooms.

Other than the pineapple, there’s not a whole lot of decor in the bedroom. You’ll notice some art work on the wall and then a chase lounge chair that comes with another lamp and small stand — perfect for reading.

There’s also a decent-sized TV that sits on top of a dresser in the bedroom, which we actually never even turned on so I’m not sure about its entertainment options.

There’s a walkway with a mirror and table that connects the bedroom to the bathroom, which is also where you’ll find the closet.

It’s a huge closet that houses an iron, iron board, pillow, and two umbrellas along with some shelves. If you need an additional blanket you’ll need to ring the front desk, since we didn’t spot one in there. There’s also another smaller closet in the living room suite area, so you should have plenty of room to store your clothes and luggage.

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The bedroom balcony

The highlight of the bedroom is the balcony. From our room, it looked out over the bright green lawns and the pool area of the Ziva. On the balcony, there are two chairs with a table between them. The view from our building gave us a great view of the sunset and it was also fun to do a little bit of people watching.

You can also see a clear view of the pools for the swim-up rooms below you. One reason why I wasn’t big on the swim-up rooms is the lack of privacy, as it’s kind of odd that so many people can watch you from above, not to mention from either side. Then again I guess if you wanted to be seen they would be perfect.

The bathroom

The bathroom of the Butler Suite is decorated with marble all along the walls and floors and is also a pretty good size.

The standup shower could be bigger but it’s big enough for two adults to fit into at once — it just might be a bit of a tighter fit than you’d like. The shampoo and conditioners offered by the hotel are high quality and I didn’t regret not bringing our mini-bottles as we typically do. We did bring our own body wash, though, so I didn’t try out the soap supplied by Hyatt.

The toilet has its own door.

There are two sinks with a marble counter top area and a magnifying mirror on the right side of the countertop.

I was hoping for a whirlpool in the Butler Suite, but it was just a standard tub.

This hotel received a lot of complaints a couple of years ago about plumbing issues, but everything thankfully worked like a charm for us.

Overall, it’s a nice bathroom. Not too luxurious or unique but big enough and nice enough that you appreciate having that space to freshen up.

The bedroom connects to the main hallway/entry way of the suite through two swinging doors, which have glass panels in them. Six interesting sculptures are set on the wall and they each cast a shadow that looked like a bunch of airplanes to me.

If you’ve ever been to the Dubai Mall, these sculptures probably remind of you of the giant sculptures on the waterfall, at least they did for me. They’re a bit odd, but there something to look at least. Just make sure you don’t bump into them when turning the corner to leave because they protrude pretty far from the wall.

The second bathroom

The suite has a second bathroom, which while smaller than the master bathroom, is still very nice.

The mini-bar

Right at the entrance to the main suite area, you’ll find the prized mini-bar. Since this is an all-inlcusive resort, all of these in-room beverages are complimentary. The standard offering for spirits were: Jamaican Appleton rum, Old Tom Gin, and Skyy Vodka. They also offered some wines, which we never touched.

Inside the fridge you’ll find Red Stripe, Miller Lite, juices to mix up your own cocktails, and sodas, such as Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and the Jamaican soda, Ting. They also supply you with at least six bottles of water at a time, but you can always request more.

You’ll also have a supply of snacks, which include Doritos, Nature Valley bars, and Banana chips. And finally, there’s a stash of coffee (including decaf) and tea. Overall, the liquors aren’t the most premium options available, but if you’re just trying to mix you up a cocktail to relax in your room, they will certainly do the trick.

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The living room

When I first entered the suite’s living room area, I found a welcome letter addressed to me which is always nice touch.

In addition to that there was a plate of fresh fruit, which sadly went mostly uneaten.

Now for the living room. It’s a wide open room, with two large windows that allow in a lot of natural light, which is when I think that the room looks its best.

There’s a chair and a sofa, the latter of which folds out to a bed if you need it.

There’s a TV and then a table with two chairs which sit next to the window. This is where your room service will drop off your dishes so try to keep it cleared. Speaking of room service, it’s pretty awesome to watch them bring in your trays while perfectly balancing the trays on top of their heads (more on the service later).

Like the bedroom, the decor overall was pretty standard and simple.

Overall, the living room is pretty simple but it’s always a luxury to be able to look out a window and have a view of the ocean, which brings me to the balcony.

The balcony

What really makes this suite special is the view. The living room opens up to the fantastic view of he ocean and surrounding beach area.

When the sun is sitting at the right height and surf isn’t too strong, the ocean has this amazing sparkling blue and turquoise color to it. It’s kind of mesmerizing, especially with the sound of the ocean washing up on shore. It was really hard to leave that balcony come check out time….

It’s a big balcony, so there’s plenty of room to bask in the open air. We were given room 2344 that has a palm tree which acts as a wall to the balcony, allowing for maximum privacy. The tree didn’t have any coconuts on it, and I wondered if that was intentional to keep drunk idiots excited guests from falling from the balcony while trying to snatch up coconuts.

The ocean front balconies offer some great views for sunsets, too, even though the action is not directly in front of you.

At the right hour, the sun shoots straight into the balcony and illuminates the walls. I think whether or not an ocean front room is worth it or not just depends on the person. If you love the possibility of sitting up on your balcony while reading a book or working away on your laptop while listening to the waves break on the rocks below, you’ll get a lot of out of these rooms. If that doesn’t excite you much then save your money and go for a room with pool view.

And finally, once the sun sets, the stars come out in a big way. There’s limited light pollution out there and as long as an event isn’t taking place on the beach below and limited cloud coverage, you’ll be able to see thousands of stars out over the ocean. In late May, we enjoyed cool nights up on our balconies with light breezes blowing through.

Butler service

With this room you also get butler service. Basically, you get a dedicated line to call whenever you need anything and they’ll help you plan things out or take you to the front of the line at dinner etc. I’ve got to be honest, we didn’t use this service because we just never needed to. We always arrived at the restaurants right when they opened way before any lines formed and otherwise just called in a couple of room service requests. Thus, I can’t comment on the value of this service but if that’s the kind of thing you’re into, maybe you’ll get more out of it.

Final word

This can be a pretty expensive room, so it’s not for everyone. If you catch it at the 50% discount, then it still can be $500+ a night and if you book it during peak season, this room can cost up to $1,500+ a night. Still, if you love ocean views and having a lot of space to roam around, you’ll probably love it if you can catch it at the right price. For others who simply want a view of the ocean, a standard king room with ocean front view would probably suffice.