Ocean Blue and Sand: Good and Bad

The resort itself was good. The grounds were always clean, the room and food was excellent, and the staff were amazing. However there are three issues that we had with the resort. First, for the a la carte restaurants, it was based on a first come system. That meant if you did not line up at 4pm, the chances were you would not get in. The second issue was the beach. It was small and extremely crowded. It was our understanding that a storm washed away at least 15 to 20 or more feet of the beac [... read more]h, reducing it to a patch of sand. The last issue was the persistence of the "vacation club" sellers. They would not leave you alone and essentially ruined the holiday. They would not take NO as an answer.

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: The good, the bad and the great!

Rooms - Nice and modern Service - Friendly staff Food - I got food poisoning...buffet was not the best. Many restaurants were closed throughout the day and only snackbar available. They did run out of a lot of food and we ate ham and cheese sandwiches most of the time. Only good restaurant was the italian. So definitely lacking in the food department here but so is all of Cuba. Entertainment - Nice water activities, yoga, stretching, dancing, shows.. Beach - Spectacular clear water.. [... read more].this is truly what made our trip Pool - Two large pools each with a swim up bar/volleyball net Location - 2 hour bus ride from the airport but very secluded and safe Value - For the price this was a great deal at a newer resort as much of Cuba is very out dated.. Overall - 6/10

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Wonderful

Everything about this resort exceeded my expectations. It was clean and modern. The food was far better than other Cuban resorts we've been to. The staff were wonderful. This resort is more suited to couples, quite mellow and relaxing. The only things I didnt care for (not the hotel's fault ) was the long bus ride to get there and the beach was dependent on the tide.

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Great NEW resort with amazing staff

- room was very modern and clean, shower was walk in with raindrop head (amazing and romantic) - pool was a little on the cold side but the pool bar staff on the left side made our trip unforgettable and the entertainment staff are very energetic and have activities each day by the pool - the beach seems rocky at first glance but once the tide is out, just a minute walk from the left side walkout is amazing white sand (if you love snorkeling or collecting shells, this beach is for you!!) - [... read more] food was great if you are brave enough to eat their cuisine (fish, seafood, rice) otherwise mediocre - a la carts are no reservation which meant getting there 10 minutes before they open to ensure a seat, otherwise first come first serve - if you plan on tipping the cleaning staff or even the entertainment staff instead of money bring items of everyday use (shampoo, toothpaste, clothes, sandals) these items are very expensive for cuban residence - loved this resort and would return in a heartbeat!!!

Ocean Coral Riviera Cancun: Nice resort

Ocean Coral and Turquesa is a nice resort. Very well kept always cleaning or fixing something. Found the service a wee bit slow in the buffet area as far as coffee and water were concerned. We have travelled all over the Caribbean to several different resorts and this was the first 4.5 star all inclusive where there was an extra charge for lobster and certain cuts of steak. I strongly disagree with this and based on that alone I will not return. The beach looks great but weather didn't permit  [... read more]use while we were there. However the hotel itself and the staff were all very nice.

Ocean Coral Riviera Cancun: Wonderful Vacation

This was a wonderful resort, very clean, great staff, good food and lots to do. Lots of pools and restaurants to choose from. The buffet restaurant was terrific. Already planning next year's return trip!!!

Ocean Coral Riviera Cancun: Great Place!

Ocean Coral & Turquesa was a lovely resort. Well laid out with a kids section/pool, leisure section/pool, and more of a bar scene pool with a swim up bar. Live music at night around the pool bar and also up in the lobby. Always different activities going on each night. Food was excellent, buffet had pretty much everything you would need, lots of options for a la carte restaurants with excellent service. They even had staff on the beach bringing drinks right to you. Room was pretty decent, fairly [... read more] large and nice view from the balcony. Overall excellent place to stay with lots of walkable beach! Lots of conch shells and coral in the water (but not crazy rocky)- a little more seaweed than I would have liked, but they cleaned the beach constantly and our section of the water wasn't too seaweedy compared to other resorts further down the beach.

Playa Vista Azul: Alright Resorts

The resort itself was nice, by really understaffed. The food wasn't very good. The beach was nice once it got cleaned up. The rooms were clean and the most of the staff was nice, there was a few rude ones.

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Wonderful, Relaxing, Perfect Vacation!

Ocean Casa Del Mar was absolutely breathtaking. From the beachfront property to the immaculately clean resort, we would go back in a heartbeat. The service was the best we have ever had. Thank you all!

Playa Vista Azul: Rooms 5 Grounds 4 Food 3

Mixed feeling about this place. It is only a couple of years old so most of the facilities are in perfect shape. Stayed on the ground floor (poolside/jungle) in building 6.No musty smell and not a single bug of any type in the room. The showers were excellent. Hot water in an instant at any time of day.Room cleaning was pretty good but no attention to detail. Long hairs left on floors for days and bathroom countertops left with ring marks and soap spills.Bed was too hard for the wife but OK for  [... read more]me. The sidewalks are EXTREMELY dangerous when wet. No texture on the surface. The wife slipped and caught herself before falling but put her back out. That spoiled most activities for the rest of the week. The Jacuzzi pool had warnings about the high temperature but it was the same 65°F as the pool. The infinity pool looks fabulous. I have had better food at most 3 and 4 star resorts, limited selection and very repetitive. Peanut butter and catsup still in bowls but jam in mini jars.Didn't see bacon till the 4th day. A stir fry section would be good. Most of the staff was good, some excellent, a few servers in the buffet should not be working there. Completely scatterbrained. We always tip the dinner servers but quality of service varied. Our favorite buffet server was Gnetter Marie. She was exceptional. She seems to anticipate our needs and was always pleasant and helpful. We usually seek out staff like this and and always give them some extra gifts we bring along.The equipment in the buffet was modern with electronic temperature displays to show hot and cold. Still at 1 minute after opening the hot food in the trays is cold. There is a microwave there to warm up your cold food. There seemed to be no managers on the floor to see things done properly. No staff briefings before the doors open as in other resorts. They need to entice some good managers away from other resorts and they could make this place a true 5 star. Anet and William at the lobby bar were always happy and fun.Drink selection was great.Entertainment staff were great bringing drinks to us in our lounge chairs by the pool. Yanelis recognized us from another resort from last year.Keep the Bug fogger cart away from the lobby driveway. They buzzed the lobby twice one night sending a choking blue fog you couldn't see through billowing in. I jumped up and ran out the other side of the lobby and still had a headache from it. Idling buses and other diesel vehicles out front are not pleasant either. I would recommend this place with reservations. If you want a place that new and clean and doesn't suffer from everything broken down syndrome, then this place is OK. I always say if you see Airline crews staying at a place you know it's good.One showed up on the last day there. We booked last minute and got a good price but still feel we did not get as good a value for our money as we have had at other 4 stars. We probably won't return.

Playa Vista Azul: High end resort for Cuba

The grounds, rooms, restaurants and public washrooms were immaculate. The food was better than I expected for Cuba. Staff were friendly and accommodating. The only drawback we found was that there was only one closet sized store in the hotel, would of liked more selection. The small beach was rocky but one could navigate it, the large beach was a bit of a distance to walk to and had no washrooms which was a huge drawback. They did have a hut for drinks but again it was not in a convenient locati [... read more]on it could been closer to the beach. As well some people had coffee makers others didn't. This was a bit of an inconvenience for me as I am a early riser and would of liked a coffee first thing. Everyone complained about the pillows and those need to be replaced to a better quality and comfort level. Other than that things were very good.

Playa Vista Azul: 2nd time around, not so amazing...

We stayed at this hotel in May 2016 and loved it so much that we returned January 2017. They have made some initial improvements since were last there i.e. not having to make reservations for the restaurants. However, for a hotel, or chain of hotels that classify themselves as 4+ star resorts...they should never have bathroom stalls without toilet paper and this happened more than once. Unacceptable at any level. The cleanliness of the hotel has definitely gone down. The clearing and cl [... read more]eaning up of tables in the main lobby and outside patio by the infinity pool, was extremely poor. Hours would go by with dirty cups everywhere and ashtrays were hard to find so cigarettes were being put out everywhere including your coffee cups. It didn't seem busier to us in terms of guests and so the fact that they were saying it's the start of their high season...to us implied and felt more like they were either understaffed or didn't have the same wonderful staff they had before when we visited in May. The room we got was facing the back of the resort where all the workers started construction work on the pavement every morning before or by 9am, loud trucks - if you know you're doing construction then disclose that or don't book those rooms out. They were concerned about music/noise at 9pm for the rooms above the lobby yet not about the rooms they were disturbing at 9am. They have a ping pong table and fuse ball table yet when my husband asked for the balls at the bar no one ever knew if they even had one. But when a woman scantily dressed with cleavage asked, miraculously they found a ball. Surprising especially for Cuba who tend to be respectful towards women. Never felt this before but their turn over of great staff has left them lacking in the service department. Also if you're going to have a hot tub...then it should be hot, regardless of the weather and it would have made a huge difference with the cold front that came in for the guests that week. As for their beaches...neither side is sufficient space for their vacationing guests especially once the other hotel opens up. And tonnes of sand flies biting...we couldn't stay on the beach for very long. I can see the ratings for this hotel go down very quickly. I would also add for such a large resort their gift/smoke convenience shop is pathetically small! It's so small that at any given time two people in there are too many...give me a break, your bank/money exchange room is bigger. Have a bigger store - even if you don't want to sell a lot of product can more than two people get in there without getting hit by the door. I would still recommend it to a friend but only because there are a lot worse hotels in Cuba, however, this time with some reservations and warnings. And so just to be clear, in case anyone was wondering...my husband and I are generous tippers...money didn't make a difference...and it's not cheap to stay at this resort either.

Ocean Coral Riviera Cancun: Lovely Resort

Fantastic vacation. The staff was so friendly and accommodating. We greatly enjoyed the efforts of the staff to ensure we had a great time. The food was top notch. The buffet was great, with many choices. The restaurants were amazing! Such unique flavours and dishes and so many unique choices. Also appreciated the grounds and rooms were very clean. The beach was nicely maintained to keep the seaweed manageable. There are 4 four pools with a different focus at each - kids pool, regular pool with  [... read more]music and activities, adult pool with music and bar, and the quiet pool.

Playa Vista Azul: great resort

The starting point was not good because the AGENCY (Victoria Sullivan) DID NOT MENTION THAT THE resort do not HAVE DOUBLE BEDS to accommodate families like mine (2 adults 2 kids) The solution (once in Cuba) was that 2 adults and 1 kid sleep in a KING bed, and the other in a small sofa bed. That is not supposed to be a good vacation if you have to share your bed with a kid (not smal...9 years old) Because i was so upset, and taking into account we paid 6770 CAD to have a good holiday, not [... read more] a mediocre one that i can have in some cheap resort in miami.....I complain...and in that sense, they were very helpful and give us an unexpected upgrade. I acknowledge that the conditions I received (after paying) said 2 DOUBLE BEDS (NOT GUARANTEED) were there...but it would have been much helpful TO KNOW IT IN ADVANCE, SO I DONT HAVE THE SURPRISE BEING ALREADY IN CUBA. Besides that, and because only of the well predisposition of the resort, we had an excellent time. My appreciation to OCEAN VISTA AZUL. tks

Playa Vista Azul: Great resort

We found the Ocean Vista Azul to be a very nice resort. The room was great, large, good view of the pool and very good bed. The staff were amazing. they were so accommodating and very nice people. There was a large assortment of food at the buffet everyday. The 3 restaurants were average. The food wasn't that good. I guess we are just used to such a variety of food in Canada and many great restaurants. We were treated so nicely by Nestor, Yoalkys and Yarilis. we had forgotten our charger so Nes [... read more]tor gave us his camera to use with our SD card. We so appreciated that. He's a great guy.

Valentin El Patriarca Varadero: Pleasurable Stay

First of all great variety of foods each day. That's a good thing for Cuba. I read many reviews complaining about disgusting rooms and facilities on Trip Advisor. Glad they were wrong. Maybe some people are expecting The Ritz. Was it perfect? No. Was it worth every penny we payed for? YES. We asked for 1 room with King bed and the other with 2 Doubles for or daughters. We got 2 Double rooms. Our agent did everything she could to get us in to this resort even though every site I visited said it w [... read more]as booked up. Thank you Tripcentral.ca. Property was not the best we have stayed at but grounds staff was always busy and friendly. Rooms were well layed out and comfortable. Showers leaked out into bathroom floors in both rooms due to poor ledge design but if you pulled door in further it kept it to a minimum. Maid service was good but tipping her really helps. Pool is shallow so great for just hanging around in. Foam Party once a week, great fun for all ages. Pool bar staff were busy but good. Entertainment staff by far the best we have encountered. Carlos is now an Email friend. The day before we left was not the best weather so bring out sound system was a No. Carlos joined us under the cover of the pool bar and entertained our 10 year old nephew. They are now dancing friends. Beach restaurant has the best lunch meals we have had. Beach is excellent. I think my wife brought home 5lbs of shells. Beautiful turquoise water.

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: A Tale of two Vacations

Context: I have travelled to Cuba more than 10 times and love the country. I also have a good idea of it's limitations so knew what to expect going in. We made the most of our time and had a blast... Having said that, this resort was not cheap... so I one still expects value for their money.. onto the review.. Part 1: New Years 2017... was a disaster. The resort experienced a flood of Cubans (500+) for the New Years weekend that it was not equipped to handle. Which of course would [... read more] be difficult, given that these guests were taking massive hunks of cheese and hiding them in their purse. Grapes and Apples were stowed in pockets. When that ran out, the butter was taken by the basket until the resort had none. Then the bread.. there was a 1 day period where the resort didn't have bread... at all. The lineups for the only 2 open a la carte restaurants (where people tried to take refuge from the crowds of angry locals who were yelling at the buffet staff when they ran out of something) were massive. The staff became on edge and help for any issues was slow if forthcoming at all. The management did not respond at all to the issues until the sunday.. where they began controlling access to the Buffet.. so now there was a line there too. The staff were aware of the incoming storm of Cubans, and knew it would be like this. (I spoke with many staff regarding the issues) If only we had been warned before booking! Oddly, the beaches, snack bar and pool were not busy during this period. We learned our lesson, and avoided the Buffet and "rode out the storm". The experience made the resort feel much more like a 1 star for the duration. Part 2 The Storm Passes As quickly as they arrived, the large group left. Our experience for the final 4.5 days of our trip was fantastic. The staff, now much more relaxed, were friendly and helpful. Food was plentiful and pretty good for a Cuban resort. My wife in particular loved the Pizza stand. (choose your own topping and they cook for you.) There was also (in the buffet) a Sandwich stand, Pasta stand, and a few others. The omelette and smoothy stands at breakfast were great. The A la Carte restaurants if I'm honest, could use soem improvement. The food, for the most part was ..ok. Enough with the food, I don't go to Cuba for the food anyway! The coffee bar was awesome, from the espressos to the frozen frappes or whatever they are called. The bars were great also. They had alot of higher quality drinks. 7yr aged dark rum, etc etc. The nightly band that played almost daily from 8-9 was great, as well as the Retro show they put on one evening. The pools were clean and beautiful, the beaches gorgeous. Really a very nice resort.. now back to some negatives. 1. The entertainment in the theater was dreadful. I mean seriously cringeworthy. Do not waste your time. 2. The Towel exchange was rarely manned, and half the time the guy working there had no towels. (not really a big deal) 3. Severe lack of entertainment staff. Very little entertainment outside of the nightly live band. (which is a plus for some people that prefer quiet) 4. Spotty wifi ( I expected this going in, but if you aren't familiar with Cuba.. the wifi is down more than it's up, and the bandwidth can barely handle Facebook.) 5. Posted event/dinning schedules were not updated until a few days into the following time period. So had no idea what restaurants would be open, who was serving what etc etc. 6. Gift/smoke shop literally only held 1 person and was closed more often than not, even during it's posted hours. 7. The best show we saw (and one of the highlights of our trip) was not advertised anywhere in the resort. We just happened to be there when they started setting up. What else did we miss??? 8. The good entertainment (live bands/retro show) were sooo bloody short. (retro show everyone expected to last all night ran from 7-8:30.. wtf?) The live band was only 1 hour a night. I place blame for all the (real) issues on the management staff. They really dropped the ball in so many ways, and did little to improve the situation. The resort has so much potential, I really hope they work on the issues and make use of the beautiful resort they have. I wish I could rate the resort higher, as the staff, when not stressed (lol) deserve rave reviews. However the overall experience left alot to be desired.

Ocean Coral Riviera Cancun: Content de notre séjour

L'hotel a une très belle plage, chamber proper et trés bonne nourriture. Le restaurant italien est WOW, nous avons été trois fois.Ce que j'aime est que les restaurants ont pas besoin de reservation, tu arrives et peut entrer s'il y a de la place, si non, ton nom est sur une liste et on te dit le temps d'attente. Je recommande cet hotel

Ocean Coral Riviera Cancun: great resort would go again

All the accommodation where No 1, we particular appreciated not having to reserve restaurants and that we could do a la carte dinning every night. we especially loved the Italien restaurant where we dined 3 times. Even the show that are normally of poor quality were great for a change. The only negative is the fact that you need to take a taxi to Cancun or Playa del Carmen if you want to do any shopping or Bar hopping and at $40 us for two cabs( they wont take 5 passengers)

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Worst experience in Cuba in 15 years!

Our family decided to take a vacation and get away from the snow. At first the review for Oceans casa del Mar were really good. But it was a lie. In the first couple of days the food did not sit well in our stomachs. We all had some type of food poisoning in which we had to stay indoors for a few days. In the new year we seen more Cubans that entered the hotel. This is when the food was completely gone. We were lining up outside of the restaurants to try to get breakfast. Trays were empty [... read more] and dirty. The chefs gave the best to the Cubans. When asked in the snack bar for sandwiches or bread they said it was all gone. Plates in the buffet filled up to the top with just one item. Cheese, pork, ham. For New Year's Eve we went to the ranch restaurant and spent one hour in the line and the food was horrible. So we decided to go to the display buffet which we had to wait for 30 minutes to get ONE slice of turkey for 3 people. It was incredible to see that the Cubans were stuffing their handbags with cheese and other edibles. We have traveled to Cuba more than 10 times and we know not to have high expectations for the food but this experience was the worst we ever had. My family has decided that this is the last time we step on Cuban grounds. We guarantee that the locals will ruin the tourism in Cuba.