The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island

An absolutely amazing weekend. The trip was nothing short of amazing, the highlight was getting engaged on the beach, having Mariah take our pictures to capture the special moment and then getting back to our room to a champagne, strawberries and a sweet note from the staff. This instantly became our favorite place to vacation to due to the resort, location and the amazing staff!

Accommodations were very nice. Staff helpful and friendly.

What a delightful Sunday Afternoon Tea experience on the outdoor terrace at Coast Restaurant. We started with a creative array of sweet and savory treats served on tiered trays. Then, a choice of our own tea blend steeped in individual tea pots. We spent a leisurely 2 hours on a beautiful fall day feeling very much like VIP's at a fancy London tea! Excellent service throughout from our waiter, Chris. The perfect start to our girlfriend trip. Highly recommended.

We went there a week leading up to the car show and it was a blast! I want to tip my hat to our representative who made the reservation and to the managers who welcomed us when we got there. They gave us access to the club and I am begging for an invite back! We believe the RC with the club service rivals the 4-S but we love 4S too. I rate this club at the top of the ones we have been to with a big nod to Kapalua. it's a close call. We would love to get back in touch with the sales team and set something up again!

Rated a 3 out of 5 since we stayed 6 nights during the week of July 4th, 2024. This was our second time at the hotel, and we returned because we loved the relaxed ambiance and welcoming atmosphere. We purposely booked during this week at this hotel to decompress. We had rented a car to drive into Fernandina Beach as well, since we enjoyed the casual vibes, shops and the Salty Pelican restaurant. The first few days were exactly what we had hoped for. Friendly staff in the halls, pool attendants with welcoming conversation, excellent meals at the restaurants and lovely spa employees. Calling down to the valet to have our car brought around worked well. Love the open spaces for kids to play just off the outdoor dining area, Our son is older now, but what a great layout for parents to be able to sit and relax while watching the kids play ping pong and mini golf. We talked about whether we should stay at the hotel for the 4th Barbecue or go into town. Sounded like a lot of fun activities, especially for kids. The later afternoon of July 3, we started to notice a change. People in lines in the lobby to check in and more people sitting and waiting. The desk and valets were overwhelmed. The day of the 4th, I got breakfast sandwiches and coffee from the coffee shop (truly excellent selection!) and headed out to the pool to read the paper on my tablet. My husband had gone out ahead of me to get chairs set up and when I brought our things out, he let me know that he had gotten on the wait list for pool chairs. ??? Walking out to the pool, I passed LONG lines of kids and hot parents waiting for the one face painter and one person to twist balloons. The pool attendants suggested that there might be chairs out at the beach. We walked out to the beach, got set up with chairs and an umbrella, excellent morning. In the early afternoon, we packed up at the beach; husband went back to the room for a nap, I was hoping for some pool time. The pool attendant let me know that there was a chair available in the "overflow" area. ??? This was a raised concrete area with few umbrellas for any shade and older mesh lounge chairs that did not meet Ritz Carleton standards. Totally understand having an extra area for larger hotel capacity, but would expect that any chairs and umbrellas pulled out of storage would match the comfort of the existing pool area. Also, towels were hard to come by at this point. It really appeared that the hotel pool area, cabanas, pool bar, etc were tremendously over crowded. I also saw families going in and out through a side gate, in back of the hot tub area and restrooms, so it appeared that more than just hotel guests were invited for the big 4th of July celebration. Condos next to hotel? July 5th morning was much more typical. I was talking with a couple at the pool, hot tub area. They had planned to host friends at the Ritz for the long weekend, but were checking out due to the chaos of the 4th. It was their first time staying at the loc

We spent 4 nights/5 days with our 5 and 2 year olds, and it was mostly good. Resort was very empty because it was the first week back to school for that area, which was good and bad. One day my son was the only one in the kids club, but there was also no waiting anywhere for anything. I have elite status and we were upgraded at check in. We also took out one of the house mercedes one night, though if you want to I recommend calling the valet first thing the morning you want it. Definitely little kid friendly. All of the restaurants had kids menus and highchairs, and the beach has a big tub of beach toys/shovels/buckets/etc. Staff overall was wonderful; my 5 year old particularly liked Nick the Naturalist who ran the shark tooth hunt and nature walks, and moonlighted as the pirate. We ate at every restaurant and the food was great. The buffet was worth it (especially appreciated the kids under 3 are free policy) and the sandwiches from the coffee shop were amazing as well. It was nice to have a quick option for breakfast some days. All of the servers were wonderful but those working Coast breakfast were particularly great. There were some little hiccups that lead to the 4 star rating. I had requested in advance a crib, and a room with a bathtub. I confirmed both at the desk while checking in, and was told yes we have your note and this room has both as requested. When we got to our room, however, there was a standup shower only. We didn't notice until we had already started to move bags around and unpack, and then had to go back to the desk and ask to change, and 20 mins later were moved to another room with no apologies or anything to make up for it. The girl at the desk just said, oops, most rooms in that room class do. We lost a lot of time, and dragged the kids back and forth around the hotel because of her mistake, and never got even an acknowledgement. This was a very unfortunate way to start and left a bad taste for the rest of the trip. Many of the activities on the weekly activity sheet either didn't happen or were very late. Some days the sign was out for the kids crafts and the room was set up, and some days it just wasn't. On Friday night there was an eager group of about 12 kids in the lobby for the pirate treasure hunt, and the pirate showed up 20 mins late. We had been at the Elite Members reception and left early to go to the treasure hunt, and instead ending up waiting around with frustrated children while no one knew what was happening. Another night we went to the drink tasting in the lobby bar, and the server had no idea what we were talking about until she went in the back and asked because we showed it to her on the activity sheet. That said - she was also lovely and very friendly and apologetic, and brought out kid-friendly bowls with goldfish for the boys. There was also a charge for a minifridge in the room, which we requested because we had so many leftovers from our dinners that we were already paying for in