Iberostar Ensenachos & Grand Village Suites

Browsing around I just realized that one of our favorite resorts Royal Hideaway Cayo Ensenachos is being re-branded into Iberostar Ensenachos and Iberostar Grand Village Suites.

Iberostar Ensenachos will still welcome guests aged 13 and over exclusively until Oct. 31, 2011.  After that it will be a family resort.  Iberostar Ensenachos Grand Village Suites will be a resort that welcomes guests aged 14 and over.

This property is one of our favorite resorts.  The best beach we have ever been to is at this resort and it is amazing that families now can come and experience the beauty and snorkeling of this resort.  I'm still glad that Iberostar will be making an Adults Only section since the atmostphere of this property is meant for romance, relaxation and serenity.

Congratulations Iberostar on getting such a wonderful property.

I wonder if we should go back and do our second re-branding post, similar to the one we did for Now Larimar back in June.  I'm very interested to know what changes Iberostar will do to this wonderful property and I hope that they take immense measures to make sure that the beauty of the beaches are kept in pristine condition.  Only time will tell.

Resort Tour Post: Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana

We had a chance to check out Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana during our stay at their sister resort next door, Now Larimar.  Secrets Royal beach is an adults only resort and shares the majority of the restaurants with Now Larimar.

Walking to Secrets Royal Beach takes literally a minute from Now Larimar. You can access the resort through a pathway just off the courtyard of Now Larimar or from the beach. Our first impressions of Secrets Royal Beach was "WOW! It's really quiet over here!". You don't hear the hustle and bustle of the resort next door and a quiet, relaxation atmosphere is definitely achieved. The courtyard at Royal Beach is a lot wider and in the evenings, is a great place to enjoy a drink and listen to some live music.

The pool is very different form the ones you see next door at Now Larimar. There is a main section where the pool bar is located and a lazy river goes through the middle of the resort.  The palapas are spaced out accordingly and really promotes personal space which is key at an adults only resort.  The only unfortunate thing is that the color of the pool isn't the sea green color that Now Larimar has.  We really love the look and feel of that pool but I'm guessing you can always go next door to use it.

We had a chance to eat lunch at La Riviera restaurant and the restaurant is decorated wonderfully.  It was nice to eat outside while taking in the great ocean breeze and a nice break form the sun.  You can also eat inside but the view is just too good to miss out on.  The selection of the food at La Riviera was a lot better than the Carnival Buffet at Now Larimar.  This was of course expected since it is a 5* resort compared to Now Larimar.  The food was fresh and I really suggest in getting some of the kiwi that they have there.  I swear it was one of the biggest I've ever seen and eaten.  It was awesome.

The beach atmosphere at Royal Beach is much quieter and they offer more relaxing activites such as Yoga and Stretching in the morning and for those that want something more exciting, they have Beach Volleyball twice a day.  I found that it was a bit more competitive than the other side since of course it was all adults that were playing.  The one thing that you don't get at Now Larimar that you do at Secrets Royal Beach is beach service.  They have waiters taking your drink order and bringing it right back to you, but really the beach bar is no more than a 2 min walk from where ever you are.  The left side of the beach is where the majority of the palapas are situated and the right side is where you will find a more open area where you can still get some shade from the abundance of palm trees that are located there.  There are hammocks as well towards the back of the beach if that's what you fancy.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience more so we can't comment on the rooms and the other restaurants since the week we were leaving, it wasn't offered out of Toronto.  You can always do an upgrade once you get there if you run into the same problem as us.  It's a great resort from what we saw and if it does get too quiet, you can always go next door to get more of a different vibe.

Below you can view the 360 videos we took of the resort.  Hopefully this will give future guests better idea of how the space looks.  We are finding these days that videos are a more reliable resource of how a property really is.





For more information on the resort, you can visit the Secrets Resorts website here or to see what other people think, you can visit here

RESORT REVIEW: Melia Cayo Santa Maria

Trip date: April 16-23, 2011  
Location: Cayo Santa Maria

Beach junkie rating (out of 5 stars)
Beach: 4.5 / food: 2 / room: 3.5 / pools: 4 / snorkeling: n/a

First of all, I have to mention that I won this trip a year ago. How? Through Metro News, a local Toronto paper. All I had to do was fill out a form online and that was that. This contest was sponsored by Transat Holidays and the resort itself, Melia Cayo Santa Maria. I was hesitant on booking this resort because of all the cats and outdated room photos I saw on Trip Advisor. But with my year deadline almost up to take this vacation and stress from work, I booked for my husband and I to go from April 16-23, 2011. The flight times were ridiculous - 5:25 pm out of Toronto (our flight was delayed until 6 pm) and we landed at 9:30 pm and by 10:30 we were on our way to the resort. If you have never flown into the Santa Clara airport, please note that all the resorts in Cayo Ensenachos and Cayo Santa Maria are close to 90 minutes away. Therefore we arrive finally at MCSM at midnight. We are not thrilled with this resort and all I can say is, thank goodness it was free.

Check in
The one good thing I liked was that after you land, go through immigration, security and collect your luggage, as soon as you give the tour rep your hotel voucher, they give you your room key and ask you to fill out the registration form on the bus. It was all so easy and I think it is because we were arriving so late. Once we arrive at the resort, we were on our own. Everyone got off the bus and didn’t really know what to do since there were no bellboys there to help us out.We had studied the map before leaving Toronto and knew where our room was. Before heading to our room, we passed by the 24 hour pool snack bar and got hamburger and French fries along with some beers.

Room
Even though many reviews said that the room are outdated, I agree with them but I was pretty impressed with the room. It was clean, no rusty faucets, the toilet was clean and the bed sheets were, for the most part also clean (a few stains here and there). Two week prior to arriving, I emailed the resort (to an email address recommended by many Trip Advisor members), requesting for an oceanview room (with my contest winning, my contact at Transat Holidays graciously upgraded us to an oceanview room) in building 17 on the second floor with a king size bed (preferably room 1725). When we received our room key, I was relieved and surprised we got room 1722. I say this because in the Trip Advisor forums, most members said they received a email confirmation saying their request would be fulfilled. So my request was fulfilled except for we had two double beds instead of a king. I will share with you a little hint when booking rooms in most resort in the Cayos, all second floors rooms are two double beds pushed together and the king size beds are on the first floor. You have to pick your battles and decide what you want more, the second floor or a king bed. In my opinion, go with the second floor (you can avoid ants, cat fighting outside your balcony and other insects coming into your room).

In the room you have your beach towels, a day bed, coffee table, single chair, bed with mosquito netting, two very comfy body pillows and square pillows, a desk, TV, mini-bar (filled with one large bottle of water, one beer, one cola and one orange pop), safe in your closet, ironing board and iron, hair dryer…all your standard room amenities.

Speaking of the mini-bar, it took an arm and a leg to get it re-filled. At first we thought it wasn't getting filled because after our room was cleaned, we would leave on the "do not disturb" sign, so the next couple of days we didn't put on the sign and waited to see if the guys would come to re-stock. No such luck. Water is treated like gold here. You must save the first bottle you receive and get it re-filled at one of the bars. There is no way that you can get a new bottle at the bars, you must get it through the guys who restocked the mini-bars. I called the guest service line (which I think was front desk) and asked them to send the guy with water. No luck again. So we went to our tour rep and he said that we had to talk to customer service. After waiting in line to speak to the customer service person, he said he would send someone. I told him we really needed water and if he could please just give us a bottle (mind you, there was a truck right beside his desk filled with water bottles). I looked over to it and he said, "I shouldn't be stealing it but I will do it for you". I swear it's like pulling teeth to get water. Finally on our second last day, the guys came twice to stock our fridge. Just a heads up to keep your bottles to get re-filled otherwise, you may be out of luck.

Our maid, whose name I never got was very nice and had our room cleaned by 1 pm almost every day. She left us some great towel and blanket art. When we ran into her one day, she thanked us for the little gifts we left for her (toothpaste, lotion, makeup, along with money).

The beds were somewhat hard, a bedspring dug into my hip while I slept but the pillow definitely made up for it. The one thing that I didn’t like in our room was that the balcony door didn’t lock (thank goodness we were on the 2nd floor) and by mid-week, we couldn’t even open it, it would jam and we were too nervous if we opened it, we wouldn’t be able to shut it. We just had to admire our oceanview from the inside.

Food
I must start off by saying that we are NOT picky eaters. We will eat anything but we need to be able to have something to choose from. We found the resort lack tremendously on variety.  I can make due on meat and veggies with rice alone but I could never find rice so I settled for pizza and fries every day for lunch.

Breakfast - you can eat at the buffet from 7-10 am or at the poolside restaurant from 9 am to 12 noon. We ate at the buffet on our first day. I read about these delicious omelettes and french toast but the omelette line was too long and the French toast was no where to be found. I did find these delicious mini donuts. I lost my appetite this morning while sitting by the window and seeing three feral cats hanging out by the door begging and waiting for food. What grosses me out is the amount of people who pet these wild cats before heading into the restaurant and who in turn use their hands to pick up food due to the lack of tongs and serving spoons. We only went back one other day, the other days we ate at the poolside restaurant and got a fried egg and toast every morning.

Lunch - We ate at the buffet and again didn’t find much selection. I noticed that they serve the featured pasta that was served the night before. We ate twice at the beach restaurant but we took the paella, sausage and roasted chicken with BBQ sauce to our room because the place was surrounded by cats begging for food. We heard that at dinner (the seafood restaurant) and lunch, the cats stare at you and sometimes even jump up on the chairs and tables looking for food. So instead of dealing with that, we ate at the poolside restaurant for most days. On the menu, are sandwiches, burgers, hot dog, french fries and tons of pizza.

Dinner - we ate twice at the buffet, on our first night and Tuesday. The buffet is open from 7-10 pm. Thank goodness we only were having 6 dinners at MCSM and four of them at a la cartes. We ate at the Japanese and French restaurants and twice at the Mediterranean one.

"El Portulano" (Mediterranean) - Both the red and white wine is pretty good here, as in all a la carte restaurants. We went to this restaurant twice since we opted to not eat at the Seafood restaurant because of the cats. Portions are small so don't go there hungry. Some dishes we ate were smoked salmon appetizer, rice with squid ink, grilled vegetable appetizer, cod fillet, styled lamb, pork tenderloin with orange, gazpacho and various desserts.

"Sakura" (Japanese) - Go to this place hungry as you will get a lot to eat. First you get cold noodles with pickled cucumbers, then a sushi and tempura appetizer and then your teppanyaki meal (beef, chicken, shrimp and fish, along with fried rice and vegetables). For dessert was ice cream. It's all a bit salty.

"Le Bistro" (French) - This was our favorite restaurant, mainly because of the atmosphere. The food was okay but better than the other two. Some of the dishes we had - smoked salmon appetizer, shrimp cocktail (shrimp with loads of mayo), lobster bisque and lobster with chicken (chicken was dry and there was very little rice). I can't remember what we had for dessert but I was all excited that they chocolate mousse but when I went to order it, they said they didn't have it. 

Bars
There are a couple bars around the resort. A 24 hour lobby bar and pool bar, one swim up bar, one beach bar and a nice bar between the Japanese and French restaurants. We drank beer the majority of the time, had wine with dinner and drank a lime slushie when we needed something non-alcoholic. We attempted to get a mojito from the beach bar and it tasted like crap. Considering Cuba is known for the mojito, they sure don’t make a good one. The best was in Jamaica - who would have thought?! Elvis, the bar staff who goes around the pool taking drink ordered was great. He remembered everyone’s drink, so you never had to ask him again.

Beach
The beach at Cayo Santa Maria is absolutely wonderful. If you’re lucky enough to experience a green flag day while at the resort, you will get to see the Caribbean at its best! The water is absolutely clear and the color of the ocean is to die for. On yellow and red flag days, you really get to see the power of the ocean.  It’s still beautiful to look at, the waves get pretty big and is fun to play in. The beach does get really windy on these days and if you are near the lip of the sand bank, you will get sand blasted.

The stretch of beach at Melia Cayo Santa Maria is broken up into 2 parts, the East side of the resort has 2 rows of palapas and is where the beach volleyball court is. You will also see the wedding gazebo on this side. The West side of the beach has one row of palapas and a higher sand bank to climb down on to get to the ocean.  The Beach Bar is right of the middle pathway of the beach.

The week we were there (and we are only speaking for the week we were there) it was impossible for us to find a palapa. One of the days, we couldn’t even  find a couple of loungers on the beach.  Even broken ones! Loungers and shade were pretty much spoken for by 6am on the beach. You can get shade and loungers on the beach later on in the afternoon when everyone else was headed back to the pool but that’s usually when the wind picks up.

You can snorkel at Cayo Santa Maria. You will have to walk west towards the Sol Resort and just past the nude beach is where you can snorkel.  We didn’t venture out that far so I cannot speak of the quality of the snorkeling but from people we met, they said it was just okay.

Pool
There are two big pools in the resort and one by the spa but you need to book an appointment with the spa to get their water treatment if you want to use that pool. If you are with Transat Holidays, you get one free hour to use the spa facilities (jacuzzi, steam room, sauna and spa pool). We were thinking of doing this when we couldn’t find any seats on the beach or pool but opted not too. The pool is really cold but very refreshing on those hot days. One thing that bothered me about the pool is that the washrooms near the pool side restaurant are disgusting. Out of the three stalls, only two were working but both doors didn't lock. The floor was filthy and there was no soap.

Entertainment
We didn’t watch any shows even though we had late dinners and finished around 9:30-10:00 pm. Our entertainment was mainly watching movies on TV and reality shows on VH1. We came to relax so we went to bed early and slept in. The animation team does a lot of activities poolside - tai chi, merengue ans salsa lessons and scuba lessons. They also have aerobics in the pool in the morning.  The only think I didn’t like was them yelling on the mic, “WAKE EVERYONE, WAKE UP! I get doing it in the afternoon but in the morning when everyone is reading or sleeping is not ideal. They do a great job in entertaining all the guests.

Staff
Maybe it was the fact that the resort seemed to be at full capacity (because we went during the Easter holiday) or the rumoured fact that it was going to be the beginning of low season so staff were getting their pink slips but I found the staff not to be so great. Yes, they are hard-working and I appreciate that . We are on vacation and they are waiting on us hand and foot but they didn’t seem all so friendly. Especially the wait staff at the buffet. They were definitely understaffed. The servers at the pool restaurant were great and same with our maid. Raul, the tour rep gave a great  intro to the resort and was quite funny but I didn't find him all too helpful. We tipped when tips were deserved but we also left a tip even if we felt it wasn’t deserved. These people work hard to please us and make our vacation wonderful even if they are miserable.

Check out
Our flight on the way home was at 10:25 pm but luckily our flight arrived early so we left at 10 pm.  Check out is at noon. The day before we paid $35 CUC for late check out at 4 pm. We were able to use our beach towels and soak up the sun until going back to our room to shower. The bus picked us up at 6 pm on the dot. The bus ride was uneventful was we have seen the cities on the way to the airport the last time in 2009. The rep did a wonderful job giving us tidbits about the causeway and the cities we passed through on the way to the Santa Clara airport. Check immigration and security  at the airport was a breeze. Save some CUC’s if you want to buy some alcohol at the duty free shop and if you want to grab something to eat before you board.

Overall
The resort was okay. Nothing exciting, we have been to better in general and in the area. The trip was free so we can’t complain. We talked to a lot of people who were on our flight and some who arrive on the flight the day before us. We came to the conclusion that if this is your first time in Cuba or your first time to an all-inclusive resort, you will enjoy this resort but if not, I hope you paid very little to stay at MCSM. A special shout to the lovely people we met - Pam & her family from Richmond Hill, Barry or Gary from Ottawa, Jocelyn & Jason from Niagara Falls, Serena & Graham from Toronto, Glen & Lynn from Brampton and Benjamin & Margaret from Toronto - they made our trip much more enjoyable.

Still not convinced? See what others think here.

RESORT REVIEW: Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton

Trip date: August 21-28, 2010  
Location: Lucea, Jamaica

Beach Junkies rating (out of 5 stars):
Beach: 3.5 / Food: 5 / Room: 4 / Pools: 5 / Snorkeling: 5

Intro

We found a great deal to Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton for a one bedroom suite flying into Montego Bay with Air Transat. For this trip we were traveling with two other couples, one of them brought along their 22 month old little boy. Our sold out flight left Toronto at 12:45 pm and we arrived on time in Montego Bay at 3:45 pm. Customs and getting our luggage was quick. Let me warn you that there is one washroom before you hit customs but you have to wait because everyone from the plane is trying to use it. There is another one after customs but it is a single stall. We found our bus and had our luggage loaded in a separate trailer truck that would be following the bus. We have never experience so many people going to one resort. There was two buses going to the resort. We arrived at GPLH around 5:30 pm.

Check in

We were greeted with a glass of rum punch. Check in went smooth and quickly. Our group all got rooms in the same building. We got our map, room cards and activities schedule. We grabbed a whole golf cart to bring all seven of us plus our luggage to building 33. When you view the resort map, everything looks so far away but it’s not. After a short ride, we dropped off our luggage, checked out room and the view from the balcony, or should I say two balconies.

Room

We were assigned to building 33. We got room #3330 on the top floor facing Coral Beach and the adult pool. One couple was in the room next to us in room #3331 and the other couple with the child was in room #3318 on the second floor. All of us booked a one bedroom suite. This suite includes a living room area with a pull out sofa, TV, two chairs, table and desk where the mini bar can be found (two bottles of wata, two cokes, two sprite, two diet coke, one bigga orange and two Red Stripe); a bedroom with a king bed, desk and TV; huge closet with a safe, beach towels and bathrobe; a bathroom with stand up shower, toilet and jacuzzi; and lastly, two balconies, one off of the living room and the other one from the bedroom. We loved the location of our room, therefore when we realized the air conditioning wasn’t working, we didn’t complain. We didn’t want to have to move rooms in case it couldn’t be fixed. We endured a very hot two nights but after my hubby turned off the A/C, it stopped circulating warm air and cooled down the room immediately, or it could be that someone came to fix it slightly (we did mention to the front desk and our tour rep but we didn’t want to make a big deal out of it). The sofa bed was a tad dirty, the bed was hard but bearable. We loved the pillows and there were many channels available to watch. There are some standard toiletries in the bathroom and the water pressure in the shower was great, better than my own at home. Building 33 is right beside the adult pool and bar and a very short walk to the beach. It’s about a 5-7 minute walk to the lobby or to Sunset Cove.

Food

The food at the resort is amazing! Anyone who disagrees with me must be the world’s pickiest eater. I did some research ahead of time to find out what the theme nights were at the buffet. In our group, some of us had special requests - to eat at the buffet on Jamaican night and for me, on Mexican night. I’ll explain our favorites for breakfast and lunch and then give you a breakdown of what we ate each night for dinner. Note that if you are booked with Imperial Club with Transat Holidays (white bracelet), you are entitled to five a la carte reservations per week. An added touch is in front of the buffet, they have a listing of what dishes they are offering at the buffet.

Breakfast - made to order, omelettes, french toast, bacon, ackee and salt fish, rice and peas, smoked salmon, hard boiled eggs, chocolate donuts, chocolate croissants

Lunch at the Buffet - it just your usually buffet fare. I liked to make made to order panini sandwiches.

Lunch at Poseidon - you must try the jerk pork, it’s super spicy hot but really good. The fish tacos are delicious too. This is an outdoor restaurant so it can get very hot in the place even with the fans going on. There is also an ice cream machine here.

Lunch at the Jerk Hut - The line up is long but worth it. You can either eat your plate of food on the beach or bring it to Poseidon. You can get Jerk chicken, corn on the cob and paella.

Jamaican night at the Buffet - this is the best themed night all week. It’s on Saturday night so make sure you don’t schedule an a la carte dinner, better yet, check with the reservations desk to find out the exact night, just in case they change it. At the buffet you can find, curry goat, jerk chicken and pork, rice and peas, collard greens, coleslaw and yummy banana fritters covered in cinnamon sugar or chocolate.

Lotus - the Asian restaurant had too many items to select from, it was hard to decide. Some of the dishes we ate were: Wakame Salad (a fave), Tempura Soba, Vit Quay (Crispy Duck served with pancakes and Hoisin sauce) and Japanese Fried Rice. Any of the Maki rolls are equally delicious.

Mexican night at the Buffet - yummy steak and chicken fajitas. There was also tacos, Mexican rice, quesadillas and so much more.

Gala night at the Buffet - I was very disappointed with this themed night. In most other resorts, Gala night = lobster or lots and lots of seafood. There was none of this and really, nothing that stood out to make it a gala night. I would make sure to book an a la carte for this themed night.

French night at the Buffet - also another disappointing night. I will admit that the beef bourguignon was good but nothing else. This was the night that we were suppose to eat at the seafood restaurant, Poseidon but we missed our reservation.

Bhogali - this Indian restaurant was probably our favorite restaurant. The service was much slower here but it didn’t matter to us. It was nice to eat at a poolside restaurant. Some of the dishes we ate were Subzi Samosas, Vegetable Pakora, Kerala Shrimp Curry (a fave), Butter Chicken and Tandoori Chicken.

Xaymaica - the Creole restaurant we decided to leave for last. We thought it would probably be the best dinner but it was okay. The salad bar has many conch type salads, breads and ackee with beans so make sure not to fill up on it. Some of the dishes we ate were Cod Fritters, Crab Cakes, Coconut Shrimp, Seafood Gumbo (a fave), Island Rack of Lamb, Rasta pasta and Tilapia Jambalya. The grilled pineapple dessert was a favorite but most of us were not pleased with our main course.

In total, there are seven a la cartes restaurants - the ones we didn’t try were Poseidon (Seafood), El Mariachi (Mexican), Bubba’s Restaurant (Steakhouse) and Pastafarian (Italian). In my opinion, I would make sure to eat at the buffet on the Jamaican and Mexican nights and then book the other nights for a la carte. All of the restaurants are in the main building except for Poseidon, it’s close to Sunset Cove.

One last thing I should mention about food is there is a Sports Bar in the lobby that’s open 24 hours. It’s tucked away in the corner by the theatre on the ground floor. Here you can get fries, jerk pulled pork sandwich, really, really delicious beef and chicken patties (order by the dozen and trust me it’s worth the 20 minute wait), popcorn, nachos and ice cream.

Bars

There are several bars located all throughout the resort. Infinity lobby bar, Woogie Boogie disco bar, theatre bar, sports bar, swim up bar, Las Brisas pool bar and Coral pool bar. My favorite bar was Coral Bar by the Coral adults only pool. It’s my favorite for two reasons: 1) the bar is right next to our building and close to our spot on the beach and 2) two of my favorite bartenders worked there, Sedrick and Oneal. They served us mimosas, Red Stripe, Miami Vice, Rum Punch, Mojitos and Sedrick’s secret drink. If you want the most delicious Mojito (even better than Mojitos in Cuba), go to the bar that is between Lotus and Xaymaica restaurants and look for Dexter. He makes the best tasting Mojito ever.

Beach (this part is written by my husband since I don’t snorkel)

La Brisas Beach - Beautiful. This was our main spot for the mornings and the afternoons. Snorkeling is great right off the beach, you see lots of urchins, fish and I saw 6 lion fish in the coral. Closer to the rocks towards the back, I saw some squid as well. The middle part of the beach is rocky so if you want to swim, stay towards the ends of the cove.

Coral Beach - This is the adults-only beach which is next to the adults-only pool. The snorkeling off of this beach is awesome. There are 2 sting rays, and an eel that I saw that live here. There are also a bunch of sea urchins towards the right of the cove so please be careful. The water here is always calm and snorkeling here is easy.

Sunset Cove - This was my least favorite. The beach had a lot of birds, bugs and the water reminded me of a lake. Not my cup of tea but it was for many other people. This is where the water sports center is located and there is some great snorkeling here to the right of the cove. I saw some fish I never saw before and an eel and a VERY VERY BIG Barracuda! There also is an octopus here somewhere but I never did find it.

Pool

There are four pools, Roselle Relax pool on the Jamaica side, Coral Adult pool on Lady Hamilton side, a pool at the Spa and Infinity main pool. This main pool is the biggest pool I have ever seen at an all-inclusive resort. There are lots of chairs and palapas surrounding the entire pool and two volleyball nets. We did spend some time here but most of the time we were on the beach. What we liked was that you can exchange towels at any of the pools rather than there just being one place. As I mentioned before, the Coral adult pool was right next to our building (#33). This pool has night swimming so it’s open until midnight. The first night we arrived, we went for a dip. I am 5’2 and after I walked down the first couple of steps, I got to the last step and it had a very big dip. I could not touch the ground. Needless to say, I never went back in, I would only sit on the steps or lie on the loungers. Another reason why we never went back in was because in the next couple of days, a bunch of topless, drunk girls took over the pool. Being topless and drunk does not bother me, we are all on vacation and after all, it is an adults-only pool. What did bug me was when we noticed that they were totally buck naked.  Call me a prude or uptight but I think it’s a bit unhygienic to be chilling in a pool all day naked. There are other resorts that let you prance around naked, it’s called Hedonism.

Entertainment

We didn’t see much of the entertainment that took place by the pool but we know that they did trivia pursuit, had reggae lessons and organized beach volleyball tournaments. The one day we hung out by the pool, we met Smiley. He got everyone around the bar drinking shots. We never made it to the disco as it started late and we were tired from waking up early in the morning to make use of our day by soaking up the sun. The animation team does organize nights out to their local clubs. This info is posted by the pool towel hut. As for nightly entertainment, we missed most of it because we ate dinner at 8:30 pm and by the time we finished dinner, the show was over. On our last night (Friday), we were able to catch the show. It’s the one show I heard a lot about and it was the one I was looking forward to. Not sure what exactly the show is called but it has a steel drum band playing top 40 hits and a bunch of breakdancers. This was so entertaining. There is also live music at the Infinity bar by Miss Lou’s. It was nice to hang out here, enjoy the pool view, grab a drink a listen to the talented band/singers.

Staff

The entire staff is awesome. Out of all the resorts we have been to, we find Jamaicans the most friendly and helpful. To those reviewers who complain about the service they get, think about this...if you are rude to them, of course, they will be rude to you. Treat them with respect and they will respect you back. If roles were reversed, wouldn’t you treat someone with kindness if they were kind to you first? Do not make demands to the staff as if you were the Queen. Some of the staff that made our stay wonderful - Sedrick and Oneal at Coral pool bar, Lawrence at Las Brisas pool bar, Romaine at the Negril buffet, Winston at the Infinity pool, the security guards, Brenda and Ian and the bell boy who made our check out a breeze. Unfortunately, I can’t remember his name. I also want to thank the GM, Dimitris Kosvogiannis for his warm welcome and attentiveness to my emails. He runs a every tight ship here at GPLH.

Check out

Check out was a breeze. We called the bell boy to pick up all seven of us and he was at our building in five minutes. We brought down all our luggage and didn’t even mind waiting for one of the girls who was running late and letting us say by to the bartenders at Coral pool. When we got the lobby, we checked out, did some shopping at the gift shop and hung out at the sports bar to eat more delicious beef patties. Our bus arrived on time but because there was a torrential downpour, the loading of the two buses got a little chaotic. The team of bellboys handled the situation professional and didn’t lost their cool with all the demanding guests. Everyone who was on our plane rushed to get their luggage onto the separate trailer truck and to board the bus. We patiently waited for the second bus and it all worked to our advantage because since we were the last to board the second bus, our luggage was the last to go on the trailer but first to get unloaded at the airport. We checked in at the airport in no time which left us with an hour to quickly shop. The Montego Bay has great shopping so save some money for it. There is a Havaianas store that sells the flip flops for $16.

Overall

I would definitely recommend this resort to everyone. Despite some of the bad reviews it’s been receiving, those should be ignore because those are people who think they are the Queen and should be waited on hand and foot. We paid a good price for this resort and especially for Jamaica. We would definitely come back because the staff made our stay very enjoyable. There is plenty to do within the resort since there is the big main pool, three beaches and lots of restaurants to eat at. Yes, the resort is far from the excursions but if you do your research, you will know this. We booked to stay at this resort because we had no intentions of leaving it.

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RESORT REVIEW: NH Real Arena

Trip Date: December 2009

Location: Punta Cana, Domincan Republic

Beach Junkies Rating: (based on 5 stars)

Beach: 5 / Food: 4 / Rooms: 5 / Pools: 5 / Snorkeling: N/A

We went to NH Real Arena from December 18-25, 2009. Yes, we saw all the negative reviews but it did not stop us from booking this resort. Prior to us leaving Toronto, we emailed Roberto and asked him for a top floor, ocean view room with a king size bed. We flew with Air Transat (happy that they now serve hot meals) and arrived on time to a beautiful sunny Punta Cana. A good thing about this resort is that it's only a 20 minute ride from the airport.

CHECK IN

Because we had booked a Mirage Deluxe room with Transat Holidays, we were check in privately. Surprisingly at 12:30 pm, our room was ready. We were given a map, keys and coupons, and were told to see the bell boy to bring us to our room. We had asked about a la carte reservations, they showed us where the desk was and since there wasn't a line up, we booked two of our five a la cartes. We were then brought by a golf cart to our building which was a 60 seconds away from the lobby.

ROOM

Our room (#2441) was in building 2 (I think it's the Punta Cana building) on the top (4th) floor. To figure out where your room is located, follow this: 1st number represents which building you are in, 2nd number represents what floor you are on and the last two numbers is which room you are in. The rooms are very spacious. You have a closet with bathrobes, slippers, iron & board and a safe (you program the code yourself). There is a bathroom with a toilet and shower, the doors are made of frosted glass, some toiletries and a jacuzzi tub. There is a big hole in the wall but that didn't bother us. It's where my husband put his luggage. We had a king size bed. The sheets and duvet are comfy, the bed is on the hard side and the pillows were nice and fluffy but we could have used more than three. There is a fridge (stocked with coke, sprite, water and beer), coffee maker and ice bucket. Also in the room is a flat screen TV, a desk (but no paper or pen to be found), a chair, table and a pull out sofa. The balcony is great. If you are in building 2 and the last digit of your room number is an odd number, then you will have a great view of the pool. If you are on the 4th floor, you will also have a view of the ocean. The rooms are immaculately clean. There was a slight odor near the toilet but we just sprayed with febreeze and it was fine.

FOOD

For breakfast, we only ate at the buffet once and ordered room service twice. Room service is much better. I had read in so many reviews about Felix who makes the best eggs. When we went to the buffet, we didn't see him, probably his day off. For lunch we ate at the poolside grill for most days. Some things to eat - salsa, chips & guacamole, rotisserie chicken, pasta, grilled chicken and fish, hot dogs, hamburger, french fries and paella. Each day there was something new to eat. At Festival Buffet (main buffet), there was pizza, pasta, rice, potatoes, the usual but it was much nicer to eat at the grill where you have a view of the ocean and pool. We ate at the main buffet for the Mexican and Spanish themed nights. I wasn't that impressed, their buffet is smaller than other resort buffets. At the Mexican night, we discovered the beef fajitas. They were delicious. It's too bad that we found them after we had already eaten a lot. We ate at all four a la carte restaurants:

Senses (French) - This was our favorite restaurant. We had a gin mojito granita, a tuna carpaccio salad, red snapper/lobster main entree and a chocolate dessert. This is the restaurant decorated in all red. The service was quite fast.

Shore Grill (American/Surf & Turf) - This restaurant looks like a saloon and is more casual than the others. We had an appetizer platter of nachos & cheese and really yummy wings. After was caesar salad on bread (we thought this was odd but it tasted delicious). My husband had the rib-eye and I got the garlic shrimp. I have to say that I was really disappointed with my shrimp dish. All the resorts I have been to in the past have served jumbo shrimp. This is the first time I received small "cocktail" shrimp. For dessert was cheesecake and a brownie.

Cinque Terre (Italian) - This was our least favorite restaurant. I believe we started off with a soup, then an arugula salad, two pastas (the mushroom fettuccine one was amazing and the olive tomato penne was okay). The mains were seafood gratin or beef encrusted in herbs. The service here was extremely slow. So slow that we didn't even wait for our dessert. We just left.

Asian (name speaks for itself) - Teppanyaki is usually a fun meal with the chef entertaining you. Our chef just did his job, he cooked, served us our food and left. Before having our meal of cooked beef, chicken and shrimp with vegetables and fried rice, we had miso soup, tempura and some sushi. All were very good. After we had fried ice cream for dessert.

Christmas Eve Gala at Shore Grill - For Christmas Eve dinner, the resort was serving the same meal at all the a la carte restaurants and I think they had an elaborate buffet at Festival. We chose to eat at Shore Grill (this is before we knew what any of the restaurants looked like). The dinner was six courses and took us over two hours to eat. Our waitress kept the champagne flowing. Our glasses were never empty. We ate liver pate (I will admit that I would never eat pate, let alone liver pate but I tried it and it was delicious. I ate the whole thing), lobster salad, fish in a pastry puff, gin mojito granita, beef fillet and a double chocolate cheesecake for dessert. We were stuffed.

BARS

There are many bars located around the resort - Alisios Bar in the lobby (never went), Arenas Sports Bar (never went), Olas Bar (good to get limonata- frozen limeade), Wet Bar (we are not pool bar people) and Tanhtra Rooftop Bar. When you are in the courtyard watching the show, the resort has makeshift bars around the perimeter but there are servers taking drink orders. We didn't drink much during the day except for beer at lunch. At dinner, it's either a beer or wine. Their red house wine is better than the white. I also like drinking champagne in the evening while watching the shows. Another good drink is the mojito at the pool bar, it's made with the lime slushie.

BEACH

The beach is gorgeous and no seaweed to be found on the shoreline. The beach chairs are quite different from the usual ones you see at the resort. They are plastic wicker-looking chairs. It makes the resort look modern and classy. They are not that comfortable but I am not going to complain about it. There are plenty of palapas with chairs and tables but you will find that the one closer to the water are taken early in the morning. Don't worry, all those taken spots will be evacuated by 2 pm when everyone leaves for lunch. The activities that I have seen are volleyball and aerobics. When you are facing the water, towel and water activities hut is to your right and to the left is the massage hut. Past the massage hut is a quieter area but you do get the yelling from the vendors asking you to come see what they are selling. But don't worry, there is a security guard there and an invisible line they can not cross.

 POOL

There is a large pool where all the activities take place and the pool bar, and a smaller pool where most people go to relax and read. The water in the pool looks green because the tiles are green, not the usual blue. We like this look of the pool, it makes for a unique quality that the other resorts don't have. The same type of wicker furniture surrounds the pool. I must say that this is the first resort that provides tables beside every two chairs.

NIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

Most shows take place at NH Plaza or in Tanhtra Bar. Both the circus show and the white party are fantastic. Be sure to catch these when they are on. You can check the activities board by the main buffet to see what the nightly entertainment is. Before the main show in the plaza square, there will be some musical act or a giant inflatable screen playing a music concert. On the 24th, a booklet describing their Christmas program was left in our room (along with a little Christmas gift). They had a great program for the holidays (Dec 24-Jan 5) but unfortunately it started on our last day at the resort.

STAFF

The staff are great and very hard working especially when on our last day there was a torrential downpour. All hotel staff were either mopping up water, towelling down the 1st floor rooms, evaluating the pool, etc. Yes, many of them only speak Spanish, but I find that if you try to speak Spanish, they will try and speak English. Please be respectful and learn a few key phrases before you head down. It will impress them. Some of our favorite staff are Ronaldo at the Mirage Concierge, Mirabel at Shore Grill, Henry at Shore Grill/main buffet and Ronald from Senses/Shore Grill. Another person who was extremely helpful was Roberto, who fulfilled our room request. Danny, our rep from Air Transat doesn't work for the resort but he lives there, has to be hands-down the best rep we have ever had.

CHECK OUT

Check out was simple as ever. We checked out at the front desk and then hung out at Mirage Concierge to enjoy the TV and free wifi, along with those delicious mini donuts and Dasani water.

OVERALL

I would definitely recommend this resort to others. I would like to try staying at NH Royal one day (but only if there is another operator offering it besides Sunwing), although I like the pools better at Real Arena. Guests at NH Royal have access to everything at Real Arena. I don't know why people complain about this resort. There is honestly nothing to complain about. I love the modern look of the entire resort and the staff are fantastic. You won't be disappointed. Click here to check out more photos we took at the resort.

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DID YOU KNOW...Air Transat serves hot meals

As of December 1, 2009, Air Transat will offer up hot meal service to sun destinations plus, a glass of champagne or a mimosa. Click here to view their announcement. Keep this in mind when you are choosing which tour operator to go with for your all-inclusive vacation.

We have had excellent experiences when travelling with Transat Holidays/Air Transat and now they are improving their service. On our recent trip to Punta Cana, our morning flight offered a choice of a spanish omelette or eggs florentine (we passed on the food because we were sleeping) and on our afternoon flight back home, it was shepherd's pie or veggie pasta. It also included cranberry wild rice salad, bun, fudge and a lindt chocolate.