I would like to start off by stating this is our first all inclusive resort, maybe these are common things that occur when staying at all inclusive resorts? I don’t want to complain because I am not one too, so I hope others just take what I am saying into consideration when staying here. I’m writing just as a common curiosity for families to know of the experiences when traveling here! When we booked almost 8 months in advance we’re told about the resorts amenities and activities and were very pleased with what they had to offer for the price. When we arrived we were greeted by very sweet and helpful staff. Upon checking in they immediately started to try and up sell us on EVERYTHING from our room to shows that were not included to different day passes at the resorts and it was very overwhelming. Every time we had a question it was an upsell and you could never get a straight answer. When booking we’re told that we could access the slides and other resort for $15-16USD. Can’t tell you how many different answers we got for that one once arriving. We were told ranges from $24 all the way to $55USD. Trying to book reservations for restaurants was near impossible and we were also told a handful of different answers as to when we’re able to make them. Nobody had a straight answer. They told us to take pictures of the resort map incase our app was not working. Just few short hours into walking the resort we quickly realized that many many of the things to do on the map were no longer available. which is very disappointing and misleading.
-casino
-cigar lounge
-pool with cave / waterfall
-ice cream & crepe store
-Mexican party night with fireworks
-steak house
ZERO of the water features throughout the resort were on, half of the ponds were empty and the ones that were filled were dirty. which most definitely took away from the beauty of the surrounds
Food-
The food is subpar. Food wasn’t super flavorful, a lot of things were not labeled and or labeled incorrectly so unless you’re familiar with the food sauces and such you might not know what your getting into. Also VERY hot while eating, no air conditioning. There are fans but they never had them running. 3 of our 7 nights we ate at the burger joint in the shopping mall area which has wonderful burgers and fries.We did enjoy a dinner at the Brazilian & hibachi restaurants which were very wonderful.
Cleanness-
The pools were not the cleanest and they did not seem to clean them at all throughout the day. The kept rooms very clean although the rooms were VERY hot & you cannot adjust the thermostat, unless requested but even then, they do not get comfortably cold.
Entertainment
Was great the first 2 days then we realized it was the SAME exact entertainment every single night. Started off with singers from the resort which were wonderful, had great voices. Then it moved into a game of Jenga, then a game of trivia, then to karaoke. Karaoke was great the first night because it was legitimately karaoke (large screen and you could sign up via app) the remaining of the nights was karaoke sang off the workers phone. spending a week there is hard to stay entertained especially with little ones.
Pool entertainment - Pools close early. Entertainment was the same almost every single day. There was 2 days that included a foam party and pool party which were fun, but they need something like that every single day. not much entertainment other than that happened at the pool. Music was off half the time. No jets in the middle area unless requested, then once requested they were shortly shut off after. The same ninja warrior game was played 3 of the days and the kids were not allowed to join which was kind of upsetting for them. Found it strange that we paid adult prices for 8,13, and 17 year olds who could not partake in any ADULT activities. We quickly realized it was not a very kid friendly pool setting. Which was a mistake on our part for choosing one with non kid friendly pools.
I do think the staff bartenders/entertainment/servers were all so so sweet and really helped in making the trip a little more enjoyable.
Overall I think it was a decent resort, but will not be booking with Iberostar again