Back from Melia Jardines del Rey two days ago

This is our second time to Melia Jardines del Rey. The hotel has recovered from Hurricane Irma very well. All the facilities, restaurants, bars and pools are open, except a few bungalows which are under renovation. The beach is bigger and nicer. The service are excellent. Everyone is trying to provide good service and with a smiling face. We enjoyed our vacation and will go back again.

Really Nice Resort

Room were large and clean, we had hot water and pressure all week Food was good, lot of choice, not always hot but warm, never waited too long even if it's a big resort. Nice beach but they should clean out the weeds....more often if they do. Pools are really nice and huge. Personal was helpful and friendly. We had a nice week at this resort.

Un autre séjour tres agreable au mélia jardins del rey

de retour le 30 janvier 2018 , un peu froid mais mieux qu a Montréal, un peu de pluie,3 belles journées a la plage chaude et ensoillées,.Les resto a la carte nous en avons vu 3 Mexicain bon service tres lent mais nous en avons beaucoup blager pendant le repas ( fou rire).Francais surprenant,Assiatique poche.Au 24 heures pour déjeuner( pas besoin de courrir pour le buffet )tres bien.Nous avons appréciés diner a l extérieur ou lorsqu il ouvrait la deuxieme section qui est beaucoup pl [... read more]us calme et moins achalandé.Nous avons eu la meme chambre, merci a Issa au service administratif de réservation .Merci a notre dame d entretient du bloc 9 dernier étage et a tout le personnel du résort.Le hic SUNWING il change les heures de départ et retour et ajoute un escale lorsque nous avons acheté sans escale le 20 décembre pour un départ le 23 janvier et le 2 janvier il change tout sans excuse sans raison puisqu il ny avait pas d urgence 21 jours d avance et cette journée etait la tempete du verglas qui a terminé a 2 heures et notre vol de départ était a 3h30 pm nous aurions évitée tout les retard le déglacage d avion pour leur faux départ a 10 heures am .

Beautiful beach

I found the staff very conscientious and happy. The rooms were quite nice and kept very clean. As per usual the beach was beautiful and the pools very clean. My disappointment was with the food. It wasn’t that there was a lack of variety but that it was poorly prepared. To see so much food being thrown away because of lack of knowledge in the proper preparation was sad. The International restaurant seemed to do the best job and the grill stations were also good. Roast pork leg at the Beach gri [... read more]ll was excellent. The smoked salmon and fresh papaya at breakfast was also very nice. They have a different way of checking in which went really fast for everyone. When you get off the bus you leave your luggage and go into a big room, then they take your passports to verify. They call your name to come and pick up your package with keys etc. And you are shuttled to your room all very quickly. Over all I would go back. It would be nice if they took a few lessons from Jamie Oliver’s five ingredient meals😜😜😜

Ups and downs and a few tips

This review is my opinion only....getting our keys on arrival was a breeze and our room was already done (depending on your arrival time ) I had asked for a closer unit as for my mobility and they honoured it with the first unit near the lobby...the complex is fairly large Our room was great and cleaned nicely everyday ( shower only no tub )Replenishing the fridge was a constant hassle ( Dear MANAGER there are many reviews with this problem can you not fix it ? ) after a few nights we just didn' [... read more]t bother with it anymore.Since we upgraded we had our beach towels in the room and there is a problem with exchanging them as they run out quickly. The chair game is always there so you need to play it.The food is up and down line ups are huge (TIP ) breakfast go upon opening lunch and supper go at least a half an hour later to avoid the rush i found that cooking stations are the best bet .Pool are good no complaints The beach ( Wow ) walk right 1/4 mile and your in heaven we loved it when it was not windy but unfortunately we had a terrible week weather wise Bring bug spray as the mosquitos are out dusk and dawn like the vampires ;-) and for you ladies wear covering clothes as they are aggressive I found drinks are better made in the little alcove bar with the lights around it The entertainment is good and the staff is great didn't have any problems . Money changing is no problem There is a small market there or you can take a trolley to a small mall for goods.I bought all mine at the airport Overall i would rate this hotel a 3.9 Would i go back Maybe

Great resort

This hotel offers a variety of activities for all ages , great lobby , lots of music and talented musicians, pools for all ages, beautiful beach, the buffet seemed repetitive but I could always find something to eat. Lots of walking but there is carts available if you want to ride,staff very nice, they work very hard to please people. A la carte restaurants very good, internet available in the lobby and around the pools and snack bar. Been to Cuba many times, this was the first resort I woul [... read more]d like to visit again.

Would not recommend

The first day we didn’t have towels. Anytime we wanted a bottle of water we had to ask 2-3 times, they said they would send the water to our room but it never came. The pool was very dirty. The last day our maid stole my apple headphones, and after spending most of our last morning in customer service they did nothing about it. I left the resort with over 30 mosquito bites. The rooms were overall nice and clean and 9/10 of the staff were amazing. Good night time entertainment, not much throug [... read more]h the day. Overall The resort was over priced

Rest and Relax

Melia Del-Ray is a nice resort overall all though it has its problems still from staffing to service . The check in was ok we arrived at late evening we had our rooms already assinged but ut still took time before we got to our room. There were few issues with resort no water to resort to start our vacation but was fixed by end of day some building were effected for few days and they had issues with no hot water. Room service was good but found out our fridge was not being restacked daily had [... read more] to speak with customer service to get them fillled multiple times also beach towel was a problem all week not having clean towels which is inexcusable they also ran out of some liquior towards week-end. Again besides all the problems the beach and staff makes it worth while visiting . I just wish that they mentioed some of these issues before we arrived we would of been prepaierd for it.

Nice place poor food poor service

Stayed Jan 10-17 2018.The hotel was good about requests we made thru the travel agent, getting us what we requested.We asked for a room close to amenities on the ground floor, due to mobility issues. We got a handicap equipped room. Room quality was a 4. Booking in was a pain in the butt. It looked like 2 bus loads arrived just before us at about 12:00 noon, which of course is also check out time. We were herded into a conference room where they were trying to give two briefing meetings at th [... read more]e same time.There was a table full of stemmed glasses filled with blue drinks. We passed . Glad we did the next morning the table was still there looking the same . Half the glasses full, 1/4 partly drank, 1/4 empty or spilled. I guess they were leaving them for the next bus load of Suckers! Due to all the talking with people trying to figure out what was up, people were screaming and shushing at each other. They collected up our passports and went to the front desk with them to scan them. Some people got an envelope with room keys and welcome info.The other 75% were told to check with the front desk after 3:00 pm. We were lucky probably due to getting a handicap room and got an envelope.We saw people from our bus in the lobby at 5:30 still waiting with their luggage.They were not happy! The hotel was mainly suffering from being overbooked for the amount of staff.Because of the size of the resort and lack of management we received very little personal attention mostly at the Buffet. Bars were pretty good with service but ran out of things at times. Hit and miss at the pool and beach. One day at the pool staff served us drinks. The next day there were no servers around the pool for over 3 hours. Animation staff was very limited one day no one from noon till 4:00 then only for only 1 hour. Another day from 3:00 till 5:00.The pool walls had about 25% coverage with algae in the remote corners. The pool bar area was cleaner. At the beach the bar had a lineup of 40 people for hours and the next day they had a second bar set up at a table next to the bar and the line up was only 6 or 8 . Hardly ever got the same server, so service was poor.We are tippers but finally gave up tipping in the buffet the last couple of days due to the poor service.Last day for breakfast couldn't get coffee or juice, asked 3 different servers. The last one who actually got us some said it wasn't her table. The table beside us finally got up and walked over to the servers station to get their own coffee.We don't usually eat at the a la Cartes as we can find what we want at the buffet.The selections in the hot tables all looked overcooked, brown, and unappetizing.Fresh fruit was limited. No mangos and bananas for the first couple days then sporadically for the next 3 days. Pasta and morning egg lineups were usually more than 30 min. There were two buffet areas one large and one small that were attached. The large one never opened at the posted time and they diverted people through the grass to the small entrance.Once we waited for the large to open standing sixth in line then once we were let in the staff shooed us away from the nice tables into the small buffet later letting people sit in the area we wanted ???. Very badly organized staff. Usually most places are having a staff meeting inside the doors before they let people in. We never seen this once. Some of the servers were great and helped make our meals pleasant. We tipped them well. But mostly the management of the staff was severely lacking. To be fair they had a fair amount of entertainment in the lobby area and a bit at the beach. A marque to announce the entertainment schedule for the theater, foam party, etc did not exist. I wouldn't recommend this hotel. Nobody seemed to be getting sick from the food but I would rate the quality of the food and service in the buffet the worst I've had staying about 20 times in 10 different 3,4,and 5 star places in Cuba. NB: Don't use the bank outside arrivals at the Cayo Coco Airport. It seems a scam. It was 2 points worse than the hotel and did not give receipts as official banks usually do.

Melia jardines del rey

Beautiful hotel.. but if it’s almost full good luck for chairs at the beach. Spent 4 days searching the beach area for chair.. even in the p.m still no chair available. At the pool there is plenty of chair but if you are a beach person better wake up in the middle of the night to get one. Too little buffet for all those people and the beach restaurant it is like a zoo in there. I don’t mind waiting but i wont wait 1hour 25 for chiken so i ate fries and cucumber all week. People are nice reso [... read more]rt is beautiful but they need to fix this issues asap. Also missing piña colada at the lobby bar or miami vice almost every night. No champagne...

Poor Resort - Would not Return

Firstly, let me say that this trip was our 15th time to Cuba so we really know what we are comparing this property to. The property is very tired looking – mainly the rooms. It is understandable that the grounds are not perfect due to the hurricane. They are doing a lot of replanting to get it back into shape. The hotel is understaffed to suit the needs of the large number of guests in this property. The lack of English on some of the basic words was a huge problem. For example, 1 egg  [... read more]means many eggs. And so on. Staff seem very disorganized. Some were very hard working while many others just stood around talking to each other or the guests and looking for handouts. We spoke to one of the newer workers that had just come in from another property to help out and he told us that “nobody works here”. There were many water leaks everywhere at sinks, toilets, urinals and underground water pipes. Some garbage remained in the same place on the sidewalk throughout our stay of 11 days. There were not enough loungers at the beach. If you didn’t claim them by 10 am, you were out of luck. Many or the loungers on the beach and at the pool were mouldy. Many of the drains around the pool were plugged so when it rained the guests had to walk through an inch or two of water. The music at the pool was so loud that hardly anybody sat close by to the speaker. The entertainment staff said that this is what the guests wanted but everybody we spoke to said it was deafening. The same was true of the night shows. We had to leave every night due to the pounding on the eardrums. On the day of our arrival, when we entered our room, it smelled extremely musty. It was very tired looking and was missing light bulbs. There was no hot water. Really needed a shower after the long day at airports. The mattress smelled like a public toilet. The patio door lock was broken and it needed 2 people to push it shut. We asked our Air Transat rep about transferring to another property but we were told everything was filled. We did learn later the others had transferred out. After complaining to the rep a few times, she basically ignored us and tried to look busy or picked up the phone when we walked by. Forty eight hours later we were given a new room and we finally got to shower in tepid water. For the next 3 days we were without water or without hot water or had no water pressure. Once the water stopped in the middle of my shower and I had to towel off the soap. There were numerous stains on the couch. There were cigarette holes and brown stains in the blanket. (see attached pictures) On one day the fresh towels smelled like urine/vomit. That was disgusting. On one occasion, the wet towels from the floor of the shower were just folded up and placed back on the towel rack. On two days, the bedding was placed on the suitcase stand and we had to make our own bed. The patio door lock was broken. The toilet was continuously leaking throughout our stay. When it rained, the water ran down the hallway and pooled outside our door (approx. 1 inch of water) and seeped into our room. We had paid extra for the elegance service. NOT WORTH IT AT ALL. There were NO dedicated rooms and all we got for the extra money was 1 peso WIFI card for each day of stay and a bottle of rum which we had to fight for. One day while walking out of our building, I almost got nailed by a huge laundry bag that was tossed of the second or third floor balcony by a staff member. That could have broken a person’s neck. Missed it by about 1 second. As for the restaurants, they seemed inadequate in size and staffing to suite the needs of that many people. On several occasions, we had to walk around about 50 or so empty and soiled tables in order to find a clean table with cutlery. By that time our warm food was cold. There were lineups outside to get in occasionally but very long lineups at the egg or grilling stations of up to 30 minutes. All members of our party of 4 got diarrhea. I got it on 2 separate occasions. At the snack bar, it took 45 minutes to get a hamburger and the other order never came. The a la carte restaurants were very poor in quality and served cold food. Several menu items were not available. My wife has an allergy to cilantro and we told the servers this. She was still served cilantro. There was little or no signage over the food in the buffet – bad for those with allergies. The bars and restaurants were constantly running out of menu items – juice, pinna colada, water for coffee machines. About half of the coffee/expresso machines were out of operation at any given time causing huge lineups at those that were working. Bar service was poor – unless you had money in your hand. So now for some good points now that I have vented some of my frustration. The property has a nice beach and a lovely pool. The customer service manager (Ansiel?) was very nice and tried to be accommodating. He realized that there were many problems and said he was doing the best that he could. The staff at the Cuban restaurant were awesome at arranging a special table and a birthday cake for my wife. The Bistro restaurant was great. The best food of the whole trip and the staff Yipsi, Michal and Enrique were full of smiles and were the nicest of all the staff. Finally, we met the new hotel manager half way through our stay. She realizes that there are very serious problems with this hotel and seems very committed to making sure all problems are corrected.

Love Cuba but won't be going back there!!

Well, what can I say. We booked this hotel for 11 days with our friends and we were very excited about it especially with it being a 4.5 star. This was our 15th time going to Cuba and the second time in Cayo Coco. We had nothing but problems from day one. No Hot Water, No Water at all, no pressure - if you had water. We had to argue to have our room changed but things didn't get any better Air Transat Rep was rude, unprofessional and didn't help much. Paid extra for Elegance but got no [... read more]thing of what was listed for this level. Waste of money. Food, sucked big time. I know you don't go to Cuba for the food but this was almost uneatable. Had the Ala Carte restaurants included but would only recommend the Bistro or the Japanese ($) which they gave us because of all the problems . Noting exciting with the rest of the ala carte. Be careful if you have food allergies as they did include Cilantro in my TexMex even after I told them I have an allergy to it and they told me they could accommodate my food allergy. Staff was lazy and didn't care for anything other than tips. When serving you, they stood for a few seconds waiting for their tip - each time. Music everywhere was played at a level that was probably heard all the way to Jupitar, giving visitors a headache. Could not watch the evening shows because of the reverberating base sound. Couldn't sit by the pool because of the level of the music and when asked to turn it down, they said no. Grounds were beautiful - even after the hurricane. and the layout of the pool was pleasant to the eye. Not enough beach chairs and just enough pool chairs and the ones you did find were moldy 24 hour restaurant service was slow and the food everywhere - even the ala carte was always served at room temperature. Coffee sucked and 5 expresso makers you were lucky if 2 worked at any given time. Bar was always running out of liquor and there wasn't any Pina Colada's for the first 6 days. If you are considering going to this hotel, think again. They did get a new Hotel Manager and the last couple of days, things did get a bit better with the service but they have allot of work to do. Hopefully she can get things up to par. Give them time to bring it back up to a 4.5 star.

Worst of them all

A quick overview.the grounds are lovely need a little work but lovely.the hotel wa too busy and could not properly give service to their paying customers. A manager from Melia confirmed this . Customer service did not exist for 5days then got better In Some cases. Food ran out on one day I was there not sure what happened the other days . The towels and linen Were not clean . For the first time in my travels I gave the happy dance for going home. I did not get what I believed I paid for They s [... read more]hould not take people if they cannot look after them. The beach was lovely .

Nothing special

Big resort I would rated most 3 stars For few reasons 1. Not enough service people.2.all inclusive is not actually All. 3. Personel didnt really care What was going on 4.its to much to write it But over all was ok at least Ocean Beach and Weather

Good hotel

I stayed there with my husband Jan 11. We liked the hotel, and had a good time, but had some obstacles. Thought after reading some of the reviews I would add my two cents. Irma: unfortunately due to Irma, the weather is still out of sorts. Nothing that the hotel can change, but thought people booking at the last minute may like to get the heads up. We had two days of sun, two of rain, and the others were like typical Canadian fall days. Not what you would expect from Cuba. Rooms and  [... read more]grounds: our room was always very clean and well maintained. No holes, cracks etc. Always replenished our mini bar. The grounds are clean and beautiful however the lighting on the pathways to get around the hotel was not great. There were times that we could barely see the ground. The property is huge. If you don't like walking long distances just to get to your room or the beach, perhaps this isn't the place for you. They do offer little golf carts to get around, but most of the time I saw them they were taken. Food: food was ok. Typical buffet style food. Seafood was amazing!!! A few problems: nothing was ever hot. Luke warm at best. Not sure what temperature they keep the food under the heat lamps, but I could have served a small baby this food without any harm of burning them. The a la carte restaurants left a lot to be desired. After having stayed at many other resorts, the a la carte restaurants were disappointing. They tried to be "fancy" but failed most of the time. Also, good luck finding a salt shaker anywhere. When I did find any, they were so clogged that nothing would ever come out. Not a big deal though in the grand scheme of things. The thing that disappointed me the most of the food here was the lack of restaurants. They close down the buffet early in the morning for breakfast and the only place to eat is a snack shack. I ate there twice and refused to go back. There is no little snack place for desert or coffee, or French fries for example. It's much needed. Bar: lovely drinks in glass and not plastic. However, by around 9 pm they ran out of glasses each and every night. It's ok, we brought our own bubba mugs, but here is the thing. You could go to the same bartender five times in an hour, ask for the same drink and get a different thing every time! They put what they want, with the amount of alcohol in that they want each time. There is no baseline. Very disappointing. Shows: the shows were very well done and better than expected. Staff: very friendly. location: far from the beach and overall not a great location. If what you are looking for is pool and beach with drinks this is the place. But if you want to visit the real Cuba, go on walks, etc... Cayo Coco isn't it. Beach however was probably one of the best I've ever seen. Very calm water and bright blue. Gorgeous. As for excursions, being where they are, they are very limited. We wanted to much more excursions than offered, as the next town over is quite small and not a lot of cultural excursions. The one complaint my husband had since day one was the cleanliness of the men's washroom by the buffet. It was filthy. Out of orders signs on all but one of the toilets, nose excretions smeared all over the walls (that were there since day one), just plain dirty. All while the cleaning ladies stood right outside the washroom all day talking. They watched everyone go in, would mop the floor and then continue to stand there. This was heard by many other patrons. All in all, we were happy about our stay there, but not sure if we would recommend to friends and family. It was our first trip to Cuba. We will be going back, but Varadero next time. Not sure what I think of the Melia brand right now....

Could be better.

The good:large well kept resort, nice beach,clean rooms, short drive from airport, entertainment not bad.Hotel seems to have recovered well considering the area got hit with a hurricane not that long ago.The not so good:buffet food quality is not great, food that should be hot too cool,lineup for cooking stations far too long,could do a better job informing quests of up coming activities on resort,inconsistency and lack of knowledge mixing fairly common alcoholic drinks.

Somewhat disappointed

Let me start by saying the staff on the whole are lovely as always the hotel grounds the rooms the lay out of the hotel and pools are great and the beach amazing sadly to say the owners of the hotel needs to step up to the plate there is no need for guest to be with out water for three days off and on especially in the evenings when guest is getting ready for dinner had to ask the front desk three time to fix the no lights in the corridors of our floor pitch black at night thank to foresight we  [... read more]have flashlights.and not to sound like a complainer food is food in Cuba but they need to be serving they guess hot food a very simple thing to ask!!!

Just Okay....

Melia Jardines del Rey THE GOOD - the resort, layout, grounds and rooms are beautiful. The Beach is beautiful and lots of chairs available. Water pressure was good and hot water was always available. Nightly entertainment was very good the dancers and singers really put on a great show. THE BAD - Food at the buffet was consistently the same (breakfast, lunch and dinner) cold and flavourless. The food at the ala carte was much better but I felt that the food at the ala carte should have [... read more] been the level and quality of food that you received at the buffet. And there was room for improvement at the ala carte and it could taste much better. Snack bar items were limited and tasted okay. How can you go wrong with fries. Burgers had no buns they gave sliced sandwich bread. fried chicken was good but only available between 1pm to 3pm and some days there was no chicken. THE UGLY - If management was around they did not make themselves known to the guest. I have to assume the people who were out of uniform wearing jeans with walkie talkies were the managers. And if they were they were not dressed appropriately for their role on the resort. Food and beverage, Bar and Resort management were anonymous. ACTIVITIES - Not posted anywhere for the times of salsa lessons, volleyball-(waterpolo), Bingo. Activities staff did not go the extra mile to encourage participation at the resort. With the young 20something year olds possibly but for my week at the resort I was never approached by activity staff. What this hotel lacked is overall service. The inconsistency of the service at all levels was so disappointing. Especially since this hotel carries the Melia name, there was a certain standard that was expected. This was my fourth time in Cuba and definitely this is my least favourite resort. Go to Cayo Coco but don't stay at a MELIA. There are far better resorts on the island.

Nice place, too bad about the service.

They have done an amazing job of bringing the resort back after the damage from Hurricane Irma and the beach is still very nice. The resort was at full capacity for most of the time that we were there and this proved to be the problem. The service was at best hit and miss - lineups that were too long, servers that may see you or may ignore you. The food never varied, it may have been good if wasn't always served luke-warm. The a la carte restaurants were hard to book, even though they didn't app [... read more]ear to be fully occupied, and the food was hit/miss there too. I felt bad for the servers at the bars and restaurants - they didn't appear to be happy at all - they were overworked and tired. The room and grounds were attended well, and these workers had some time to share with you. Our room was well maintained and we met and talked with grounds people who were always friendly and helpful. The resort was always noisy - everywhere except the beach. We won't be returning here - and that's too bad because it could have been an exceptional place but they haven't figured out the management of the services correctly.

Great Family Resort

We loved our stay at the Jardines Del Rey. All of the facilities were upgraded and the rooms were in great condition. The food was tasty (smoked salmon every day for breakfast and lunch!). The entertainment staff was great and the daycare ladies were caring. The beach is simply stunning.