Honest Review

My honest review. This resort is definitely an older resort. The resort was kept clean on a daily inside and out. Of course they can not keep a cleaner at ever public washroom all day so on occasion there was a mess on a toilet or on the floor. That is no fault of the resort. Our room was a superior oceanfront room. In my head an oceanfront room is actual right close to the ocean. That is not the case an oceanfront room is actual a straight on ocean view. This should be specified. Our room wa [... read more]s in unit one on the second floor. We were lucky and got two balconies as our room was a corner unit. That was a pleasant surprise. Our room was also the top unit which there are usually 4 floors but this section was only had 2 floors. I mention that because in many reviews there was leaks coming from units above. Just because we didn't have a unit above us did not save us from having a leak coming from above when it rained. We booked with airtransat. They sell you an oceanfront room that comes with many perks. However there was really nothing in our room that was supposed to come with it. That being said im a seasoned traveler and knew if I left notes for the maid daily and tipped with money and treats that she would bring us what we needed. She gave us new towels when requested. Stocked our fridge with pop and water. Left us beer and rum when requested. She was a lovely lady and did a fine job keeping our room cleaned and supplied with the necessities. Our room was definitely on the smaller size but ample for us as we don't spend alot of our time in our room. One issue was that we booked two superior ocean front rooms and one was in unit one and one was in unit four. That should not happen in my opinion but we made it work. We got up early Sunday morning to stand in line to reserve the a la cartes. We were able to book 4 right away but were told that we'd have to come back the following Sunday to reserve additional a la cartes. We stayed for 10 days but chose not to wait in line the following Sunday. Partially because we didn't want to line up but also because the buffet has a theme each night and the food was actually good in my opinion. My group of 5 adults also felt the same about the food. We ate at the Italian, Japanese, Dominican and Mexican a la cartes. They were all good. We had a surprise, one of our group members daughters showed up to surprise her and each restaurant allowed her to join us. Thanks for that. There was a smaller buffet by the swim up bar pool also a pizza place that served at lunch right above that buffet. We spent some days at the swim up bar pool. There was also a very shallow pool to the one side where you could sit on the bottom and relax in the water. That shallow pool hardly ever had anyone in it. That was wonderful. We of course had our favorite pool bar girls. She would bring us drinks wherever we were. We gave her money tips and fed her snacks that we brought from our country. She was a pleasure. The quiet pool was right in front of our room and we spent a few days there also. There is a bar by this pool also. There was only one day that they played music around this pool. If you want pool chairs you must get up early to put your towels on them. I hate that people do this but if you don't you will be shit out of luck. There are ample places for chairs they just don't have enough. That is definitely something the resort should rectify. The beach was stunning. Beautiful color, beautiful sand. Lots of palms on the shore line for shade. Once again a shortage of chairs. There were no umbrellas on this beach. The ocean was always wavy. This would be a deterante for some but a fun time for us. There was a different show nightly. I caught a few shows and they were average for a resort but entertaining. There are also on site shops, over priced just like other resorts. There was pool tables, a casino. Im not a gambler but was talked into going in with my group to try our luck with 20 dollars each. I left with 150 in my pocket. They have a weight room climbing wall and a trapeze. Also a disco for the night owls. Would I go back? Yes I would. This resort is bigger then I like but it was a good resort. I was worried after reading reviews but there was no need to worry. We got what we paid for.

Terrible! Shut it down?

The bar staff were the worst in the world. They stand around talking to themselves, roll their eyes and stare at you if you want to order drinks. They purse their lips when handing them over, one even kissed their teeth at me. There are queues everywhere, sometimes an hour long to get into the buffet. To order a la carte, after queuing for over 40 minutes at a time, the staff will tell us they can't book it now, and can't book it for future, but we need to book in advance, but need to book i [... read more]t on the day. It makes no sense. The management must surely be absent, it felt like an unorganised mess, but most importantly the whole bar staff must be fired and replaced. Waiting ages for a drink while they stand around talking to each other, pretending to be busy as the queue just builds up, is so unacceptable. The beach is great, the pool is nice, the room was good, but the staff make you feel so unwelcome and an irritance to their day makes this a 2 star hotel at best, only saved by the facilities. The staff ruined what should have been a brilliant holiday.

Amazing week

I have no idea what all the negative reviews are about this resort. The view, the pools are amazing! People were friendly…. Food always A LOT Of options from salads to fruit, meat and Sides! Is the service fast NO ur I wish people would put things in perspective… it’s 30 Degrees, they work 12 hr days, with few hours off in between and your ON VACATION!!!! Is it that terrible the extra minute for your Pina Colada! You want fast based go to North America! I would highly recommend this resor [... read more]t to anyone.

Don't waste your money.

This resort is barely mediocre. I was disheartened on so many levels: the food, the service, the entertainment, the rooms. I was surprised by my experience, as it had been advertised as a 4.5 star resort. Our room never had towels. We had a broken toilet. Instead of feeling relaxed and regenerated, I left this resort feeling sick and tired (literally).

Okay resort

Beach area was fantastic! Food at buffet was okay. Premium package breakfast and lunch was excellent. Did not get everything promised within the premium package. Music was extremely loud all day long.

Okay resort

Beach area was fantastic! Food at buffet was okay. Premium package breakfast and lunch was excellent. Did not get everything promised within the premium package. Music was extremely loud all day long.

3 Star Resort

The beach is 5 star. Rooms are 2 star. Staff vary depending who you get- our housekeeper was 5/5 she was fantastic, however some of the bartenders should not have been in customer service. We lucked out with a good room however our friends had non stop issues for 3 days without any resolution. The beach is the best part of this resort however I wouldn’t go back.

Extremely disappointed

I am extremely disappointed with my experience at the resort. Your company advertised it as a 4.5-star resort, but it barely meets a 3.5-star standard. We encountered plumbing issues, there were no towels in the room, and the food quality was subpar, with an abundance of low-quality options like hot dogs. This experience has made me hesitant to book future trips through TripCentral, as I feel misled by the representation of the resort on your website.

Group trip

As a group we found this hotel may be suited more for the party environment yet there were a lot of kids. We found the over all noise level loud especially eating at the buffet and evening entertainment. We are a group in our 40 s . The daytime staff are friendlier than the evening staff and booking a la carts is next to impossible. We found our booking was done on wrong dates and came across others with the same issue. Rooms had to be moved due to broken facilities and it took 3 days to accommo [... read more]date this. We sent booking numbers to have 3 rooms booked close together and we ended up at completely different ends of the resort. At times it felt the staff was making things more difficult than needed to be.

An honest review for families with small children

I wanted to write a review of this resort, something I don't normally do but there are some standout things families travelling there with small children should know. We were a family of grandparents, and two families with an infant and a baby 20 months. And very experienced world travellers. 1. If you want your rooms together, be sure to book together. We emailed the resort all reservations to get our rooms together. Despite initial responses asking us for more information and at least [... read more] 6 attempts to connect with them, we were eventually ghosted. 2. Upon arrival we went the resort for assistance in getting our 3 rooms moved closer together for childcare reasons and I showed them our previous requests. We offered to be downgraded from ocean front to regular rooms to accomplish this - but every visit to the front desk we were told there was nothing they could do. Eventually, the resort offered that if we paid an additional $350USD they would give us a suite and another room nearby - but the third room would still be far away from these two rooms. So, our view is that they were not helpful. 3. They shut off many of the elevators during the day - so getting strollers down to the lobby proved challenging every day. Two people had to move the stroller and baby manually down the staircases on numerous occasions. 4. Getting milk by the bottle was accommodated, but we ran into difficulty getting anyone to give us more milk for the night feedings. Bring more than one bottle to be filled for your baby just in case. 5. The resort would NOT confirm a crib for the two babies before our trip, and there were none in the rooms despite the babies being on the reservations. This we felt was unacceptable and we were thankful to have brought the travel beds. 6. For toddlers, note there is nowhere to get them a meal between 4-6:30 pm. After a day in the sun, the toddler was exhausted and couldn't last until 6:30 - we had to bring a travel plate with lid and make their dinner from the lunch buffet, then run it up to the room fridge for storage. There should be an early dinner option for families. 6:30 is the earliest. 6. The Pools was dirty! Balloons, bugs, hair ties and other items just floating around in the pool and water had a grey cast to it. Need better skimming and testing of the water for safety and health of the guests. Folks - this is not whining and I am a very well travelled person who has never written a resort review before. I did write the hotel to give them this feedback but the concerns I outlined in our holiday week with the Occidental Caribe were glossed over in their reply. They said 'hopefully the beach and setting made up for the issues we experienced". I was aghast at this response. Occidental Caribe needs to do better here and most issues we feel are with the management and staff attitude towards families with children.

It's a trap

Cons ? Shower has no pressure and the head is for short people, have to hug the wall to get wet ? No welcome drink, as advertised ? No servers at the pools to help with drinks ? Says mini bar in room on dis but it’s actually mini fridge it 0 liqour in room ? Toilet barely flushes and if it plugs you wait 3 hours for them to fix it ? Pillows are clumpy and old and they dont give new ones ? No fitted sheets just sheets used instead ? Food has no flavour or horrible flavour. I was disappoin [... read more]ted every time we went to the buffet usually only 1 or 2 items seemed edible ? Room service doesn’t show (waited 7 hours for toilet paper and still had to go find a janitor to get some) ? The service desk only has 2 people working and your waiting forever ? Room cards constantly stop working and got locked outta my room. Had to wait at least 30 for them to reactivate my cards which only takes a min ? Bar service sucks. Barely anyone making drink or they’re annoyed that they have to 6 people behind to bar 1 making drinks at a time ? Barely any AC and it was humid ? The power goes out every night couple times a day ? Every pushy with trying to sell you stuff CONSTANTLY ? Excursion that sounded so nice was horrible. Sorna island. Boat ride was way too long and the drive. They fed us horrible food and it says it’s 9 hours long but we were gone for 13 mostly just travel not enjoying the ocean. Also a couple having sex in front of little kids. 9 hours travel 3 hours on the actual excursion ? Hard to get into the restaurants that you need to make reservations at ? Very busy on the weekends cause the locals come in and they seem to be very entitled. one lady threw her drink at the bartender for serving us after we waited 10 minutes for service. if you dont speak their language they ignore you. ? Our room got too hot and we wanted to air out our room and they told us we weren’t allowed to have our room door open to let the air circulate - You have to be at the pool by 5 am to secure a spot at the pool as people will go down and save spots and make it impossible to have seats at the pool. - Lots of false advertisment and lack of care. - Constantly try to trick you into time share meetings with sister resorts. - pool closes at 6:50 Pros ? The beach is beautiful although the waves are a bit rough if you’re wanting something a bit calm ? They have some stores and can charge them to the room ? Two big pools ? The japanise restaurant was entertaining and great food ? The theatre is great and great entertainment ? They clean the rooms well, well at least the floors. More Date of stay: April 2024

Needs updates

This hotel was getting some fresh paint outside, stairwells and balconies. The rooms inside are in need of updates to plumbing, air conditioning and cosmetics. Many beach chairs were broken or in need of repair.

Beautiful resort

Day 1- get here at 9 pm room isn’t ready, the lady at the front desk tells us to go to the restaurant and wait. Doesn’t tell us where restaurants are, not given a map or any information about what is when or where. Finally get to room about 45 minutes later and call down for room service only for them to tell us it’s closed even though the room service card says 11:30. Tells us the snack bar is open but can’t tell us how to get there other than “umm it’s orange and white?” We decide to give up a [... read more]nd just go to bed. Day 2- we got drinks no problem and found the buffet on our own. Food was delicious. Went to one of the shops, they don’t take cash just CC but machine wasn’t working. No big deal, they can charge to your room. We decided to go to the pool. Plenty of chairs, nobody saving with towels and we found two under an umbrella. Pool is perfect temperature to make you feel refreshed. Although it was a little gross, there were bubbly sections of whitish sludge. Pool is huge and majority is quite clean. Our maid is so sweet and everyone else has been very helpful and friendly today. I’m not impressed with the amount of cockroaches I keep finding in the room. Called room service for water, never came. Asked for towels from a maid in the hall, Said shed be back in 5 min, never came back. Beach is beautiful and warm. Hard to find a lounge chair. The guys that set up tables to sell stuff are extremely pushy and touchy feely. They are very flirty and will use any tactic to make a sale. Buffet always has something delicious. We have eaten everything and not been sick. A doctor recommended taking a chewable pepto bismol each morning and I guess it works. No tummy issues. After a few days more people started saving lounge chairs by the pool, so bad to the point people were sitting on the cement on their towel near lounge chairs that had been saved with nobody on them for hours. The beach was beautiful but very wavy, some days the undertow was so strong but they did have the red flag up and were on top of the warnings. Overall I had a great time, it was extremely humid so the water always felt great. I probably wouldn’t go back due to how busy it is and no control over saving seats.

Not the best

Wasn’t a fan of this resort. The food, pool and beach were great. Bug the customer service was terrible and the rooms were badly kept. There were 2 days when I didn’t get my room clean and had to call the froth desk multiple times to get a cleaner to come in. Won’t be returning here

Large resort but relaxed

It is a large resort the beach is beautiful my room was clean and functional. Food was adequate, the drinks were plentiful. I was there to relax swim and read books and had a good time. Not high end but felt safe and didn’t have any issues.

Breathtaking views

Resort is beautiful and well maintained. Food is amazing at breakfast, ok at lunch then suppers were great at the buffet. Pizza place is amazing above the snack bar. The ocean and beach is so clean and breathtaking! Loved my time here.

Honest Review

The beach is large with lots of chairs, it’s honestly spectacular. The pools are a great layout for families although they were far from clean and if you want a shady area to sit you have to go out at about 5 am to mark your spot. The food was enjoyable and the a la cart restaurants were very good. It was difficult to get an early reservation in order to eat before the babies had to go to bed, you have to go down to guest services very early and request this and then go back later in the day t [... read more]o confirm. The service was overall quite poor, that’s not to say all employees were unhelpful but it was a mixed bag depending on who you got. I had to fill bottles of milk for my baby and many employees would give me a carton for the room but I did have one woman flat out refuse and only offered me a cup which wouldn’t fill even the whole bottle. Also there is no non-dairy milk option so if you or your child has an allergy this would be an issue. We were travelling with family and young babes so we asked for rooms to be close together ahead of time and were refused any help both ahead and at the resort when we landed. We also asked to reserve cribs and we’re told they were first come first serve so we had to bring our own travel cribs to ensure our babes had a safe place to sleep. If we didn’t ask ahead we could have shown up with no where for our babies to sleep. The rooms are dated which wasn’t a big deal to us but the toilets didn’t flush very well and the room wasn’t always cleaned daily, we each had a day where a room wasn’t cleaned or towels weren’t replaced. Overall the resort is a great size and the pools and amenities are great for young families but I would say the service really needs to level up to match the same standard.

Great vacation destination!

We loved our 9 days at Occidental Caribe. Check-in was slow but afterwards, everything was just perfect. The hotel is gorgeous, room was dated but comfortable and clean. The grounds are spectacular. The buffet had lots of variety and we always ate too much. The a la cartes were enjoyable. The pizza at the beach was to die for! We would definately go back! This resort is very large and also very noisy, has a party vibe so is not ideal for those looking for peace and quiet. But if your looking for [... read more] a magnificent beach and lots of fun, this is the place!

2 star

The hotel looks very nice but unfortunately when you get your room regardless of upgrades or new room selection they are all very un clean … our rooms bathroom was really dirty the toilet paper roll was missing so it was left on the garage can that was dirty the shower had soap scum all over the glass and the tub was stained really bad… under the sink you could see dry blood on the walls. The bed was comfortable but the sheets had holes in them. Our patio door was broken if an emergency we wou [... read more]ldn’t have got out. The tv didn’t work they finally sent someone to fix it on the last day of the trip. The air conditioner was really dirty and I believe the reason I left with a chest infection as so did other guests and they also figured it was from poor air. It took hours to check in and get the room situation figured out I feel I wasted a good part of the day especially when you only have a few days. The food was ok always the same but fruit was always fresh. The washrooms in lobby were always being cleaned…well mopped I didn’t see any cleaning other then a mop. The main pool outside was full of algae that was transferred to my husbands white t shirt …kinda gross.. The beach was beautiful and clean I wouldn’t recommend or return to this particular resort.

Beautiful beach!

The hotel was clean and mostly well maintained. The beach was great, clean and the chairs were well spaced out. It was difficult to get a 2nd coffee or glass of wine, probably to lack of staff. The food was plentiful and ok.