Ambrosia is my first choice in Key West.

We always stay at Casa Marina-not in town tho.

I'd advise you to go back to trip advisor, but instead of reading reviews, go to the Key West forum. There are several destination experts who live in Key West and LOTS of regular posters who travel there frequently.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g34345-i53-Key_West_Florida_Keys_Florida.html

I haven't stayed there for quite a few years -- when it was an all gay property.

But I just looked at the Trip Advisor reviews. There are a couple of very similar negatives mentioning and discussing "it isn't what it used to be", but ironically all those reviews are either single postings or in one case the first posting by a new person who then added three other Keys posts a month later. Sorry, but those are signs of disgruntled former employees or something else. I'm always suspect when a supposed "major traveler" posts a negative review, but has never ever stayed anywhere else worth writing a review on -- good or bad? The reviews posted by people who post many reviews of various places all seem to be pretty glowing!

I will say, I always loved the "feel" and the location of Cypress House.

Cypress House changed ownership around the first of January. The new owners promptly managed to get rid of, I'm not sure how, the long time manager, (also King of Fantasy Fest this year, Dave Taylor).

We've stayed at Cypress House for years. By far our favorite place in Key West. The location is perfect. The rooms are decent. The breakfast was very good, and the daily Happy Hour was legendary.

My understanding is the new owners have done some major renovations to the rooms.

I understand the breakfast isn't as extensive, and the Happy Hour is pretty much a joke.

That said, if you've never stayed there, and don't know how much fun it was before, I'm guessing you'll have a great time.

I suspect that at least some of the negative reviews have been written by people who have been long time visitors and they aren't at all happy with the changes.

I'm pretty sure we won't return. That said, if we'd never been, it would be high on my list.

The most extensive breakfast I've found at a B&B in Key West was at Coco Plum Inn. It's on Whitehead, so a busy street, but, we heard nothing once we got in our room. Good thing, since it's so close to the Green Parrot......

Thanks for the replies. Cypress House sounded very interesting - thank you JeanH for the update. Unfortunately, we have a reward night from Hotels.com to use and it turned out that Cypress was not on the list where we could use it. Choosing from those on the list, we chose Lighthouse Court mainly because I know exactly where it is and like that location. It had pretty good reviews as well.

if your choice of Lighthouse Court doesn't work out, consider www.historickeywestinns.com

Thanks garyt22 - Actually, Lighthouse Court is in their group. The location is directly across the street from the Hemingway home.

That seems really weird that Lighthouse Court would be ok, but, Cypress House wouldn't, since they're not part of the same group.

I like the looks of Lighthouse Court, although I've not stayed there, just went to a Kelly McGuire concert by the pool one year.

Jean, Hotels.com has two different types of listings. One where they charge you upfront, the other where they make the (supposedly) discounted reservation for you but you pay the hotel directly. Only the former are eligible for their rewards program and Lighthouse Court is one of those. Cypress is part of the latter group.