The resort was beautiful and the rooms were nice. The restaurant staff the individuals working the bars they were all great and very friendly and they made this Resort stay enjoyable. My friend and I usually do not stay in all inclusive because we spend a lot of time in the city and just out exploring but this vacation was all about relaxation, so this was our first all-inclusive and I was a little disappointed.

However there were many cons.

1) Wi-Fi- it was an additional cost. For those with thier own data plans, the resorts "blocks" your usage depending on your "resort". My phone Wi-Fi always worked in the main lobby and in the areas of their higher end property.

2). The Food- shrimp scampi is not made with tomato sauce. Our first night's dinner was supposed to be Mediterranean and there was only one Mediterranean item on the menu, instead I had Thai shrimp. I would say that three maybe four of their 12 restaurants were consistent in their food. Dinner reservations was almost impossible to get even though we were told to book them two days in advance they were always sold out or full even when the restaurant did not look full because they wanted to push you towards their mediocre Buffet.

3) Service- so I don't expect my room to be cleaned every day in those instances I will put the please do not clean sign on the door but when you do clean my room I expect you to refill everything so if you take my face towel replace the face towel if I drink out of a cup please give me a new cup. So usually when I travel, I do not leave a tip until the end of my trip, and that tip is truly based on the service that I received. So my traveling buddy in her room left a daily tip for when she wanted her room clean one day she left a tip... the tip was taken, but the room was not cleaned. Guest services does not assist you and travel back to the airport instead they send you outside to talk to the Bell hop so they can help coordinate picking up your bags and getting to the airport. Even though if we had stayed in one of the higher end hotels at a minimum they offer shuttles that you can pay for to get to the airport.

4) All-inclusive- there are no snacks provided to you in your room or even at the pool. There were a lot of pool bars but no food and I understand that you wanted to keep the Critter population down so they did not allow you to eat at the pools even though they allowed you to drink to the point where people were obnoxious. So there was one little rest convenient restaurant that had sandwiches or ice cream or cookies but that was a walk so it wasn't anything convenient about that. So they were severely lacking in this area is it related to quick items.

And if you went to the gift shop to buy a bag of chips which you shouldn't have had to do because this is all inclusive restaurant a package of Lay's potato chips was $17 that is absolutely unacceptable.

New experience--we vacationed during a hurricane! El Cid staff was on it. They provided daily updates and secured the property to avoid as much damage as possible. A few things could have been handled differently, but overall we were very pleased with their disaster plan.

Shout-outs to a few that made our stay extra special: Alma and Luis were superstars! Daniel and Carlos in the Mediterranean restaurant were attentive and so very accommodating. So happy to see Daniel back in the Italian restaurant--great surprise! Calmo and Pedro are always welcoming in the French restaurant. Rudolfo and Abmael make breakfast and lunch enjoyable. Lastly, Noe, Adrian and Francisco are the best bartenders you could ask for!