I spent 45 days at the Breezes July/August of last year for a work trip. I did not pay for the hotel, and also drew $105 per day per diem so as far as the cost/value I wouldnt know.
Third trip for my work group of about 35, first visit to Breezes for me.
Rooms........YMMV. The room I had was clean, and didnt have any problems in it. Others from work had rooms with plumbing problems in them, and maintenance was slow to alleviate any problems.:no Usually we had to get our site supervisor to address problems with the hotel mgt. He is the money man, so then things usually were taken care of.
Food......The food in Jimmys Buffet was usually pretty good, and a wide variety of options. Since I stayed there for 45 days, you noticed there was a repetitive routine of the meals every week. After awhile, at times it would get old:sleeping_, but we sucked it up as part of a free stay including food/booze while sucking up some per diem.
One problem with the restaurant was that the people who were supposed to bus the tables were on 'island time', and tables would be left filled with dirty dishes and no places were available to sit. This problem multiplied on the weekends when they sold a large amount of day passes and the influx of non hotel guests to the dining facility.
Bar.....Usually well stocked with a good selection of booze. We worked nites, and usually only had access to the bar with bartenders for about 45 minutes, but Hubert the night manager usually hooked us up with a pitcher or two of rum and the fixins for us so we could have a few drinks after work.
Casino....Not a bad place, they charge for drinks in there though. Get a handful of drinks from the free bar and bring into the casino with you. Gaming tables usually have cocktail service, but if you play the slots, forget it, it wont happen. If you do gamble, watch your money. I had a blackjack dealer try to take my $50 bet when in fact I had tied with him. Another co-worker had a couple of instances where if he didnt pay attention to what was going on he would have cheated as well. The slots are generous to an extent, my last nite I ended up doing good. I had 8 cups filled with quarters and took to cage to cash out. Cashier only counted 7 cups and I had to keep insisting she never counted the last one. Finally, after recounting them, the total payout changed from about $560, to about $650 on the second count. Mistake? Possibly, but you need to keep a close on on any transactions in the casino.
OK the water.... I am not a diver, but all my diving friends were happy with the dive shack. If you snorkel, you can check out the gear on the beach, but they put a time limit of an hour and a half or so. They have a stone jetty that runs parallel to the beach and the resort that is great for snorkeling. On the other side of the jetty in the deeper water is the car pile wreck that is accessible from Breezes.
Overall, I would give the hotel two and a half stars. My two trips to Curacao for work and another vacation trip to Amsterdam I noticed the Dutch arent very customer service orientated in the hotel trade. Your mileage may vary.
Would I go back to Curacao? In a New York minute.
Would I go on vacation and stay at The Breezes on my own dime? Quite possibly. My last trip to Curacao, we ended up at the hilton, and the grass isnt necessarily greener on the other side.
Hope this helps you.
