Awesome recovery from a devastating hurricane!

We felt everything was good, however having said that, there was room for improvement regarding the 1. plumbing issues, in rooms (water pressure) and also public areas and also 2. air conditioning .. in rooms and the main buffet!!! The beach was incredible .. increased in size BECAUSE of the hurricane..the food has improved since I was there 2 years ago!! YES, we will return.

Good resort

Resort was gorgeous, beautiful lush gardens, unreal beach, pools were nice, rooms were decent, nice buffets and a la cartes ! We up grated to diamond club but felt there was no extra services ! I wouldn't recommend the upgrade. Late check out is at 2 pm. No separate beach bar and server in diamond club section on beach. We were suppose to have one king size but ended up in a room with two doubles, the hot water broke the first two days in the room. Lovely workers and nice resort. Had some ove [... read more]r cast days and its windy so bring a few long sleeves.

Great resort

Had a great time at this resort. Staff and hotel were nice. Only problem I had was a hamburger at the Snack Bar ( next to the pool). It was cooked on the outside and raw in the middle. Was sick for a full day . Heard from 3 other people who got sick for the same reason , same Snack Bar. Maybe someone should let them know.

It was ok.

Memories Flamanco Our flight was right on time. We had a stroller that had a red ticket on it that stated “bring to gate immediately” that the airline put on there. When we arrived in Cuba it was not brought to the gate, we were told that it would be inside. So once we cleared the security and went to the baggage area we collected all our luggage and we were still waiting for our stroller. I had asked 4 or 5 different people where the stroller was. After approximately 30-40 mins it was fou [... read more]nd and we were able to make our way to the transfer bus. Once at our hotel we were informed that the rooms were not ready... we had about a 3 hour wait. So we went to lunch. We had 2 rooms and we requested a crib and cot for one room and a cot for the second room. We were one cot short in the room when we got to the room and there were no bedding or pillows for the cot or crib. Tired to call the front desk from both rooms but the phones were not working. (These did not work all week) I did see an extra cot down the hall not being used so I took it to our room. Once we got changed we went to the front desk and informed them of our shortage of bedding then went to the beach. When we returned about 2-3hrs later there was still no bedding. It just so happened that there was a maid cleaning Another room down the hall so I went and asked her for bedding. She came with a sheet for the crib and two sheets for each cot. When she left I thought she was going to come pillows and blankets, but she never returned. We informed the front desk but no pillows or blankets arrived the night. The next day I informed our sunwing rep at our meeting and she said she would take care of it. After a full day at the pool we returned and still no bedding. Once again I approached a maid cleaning down the hall and asked her. She came with all our bedding requests. Our morning maid service didn’t restock our in room water or beer. The pool areas are beautiful with lots of chairs and cabanas. The pools also have the coldest pool water I have ever felt in any of my travels. The baby area is amazing. They after free babysitting. The staff are extremely friendly. The play area is very bright and cheerful. My little guy had a blast there. Unfortunately this resort has a lot of stair so you are forever picking the stroller up and down stairs. The snack bar “Bites” has great pizza and chicken burgers. Hamburgers are ok. Tuna sandwiches are fantastic. But the wait in the food there was crazy. Our lunch was over 40 mins most days. And you had to flag down a waiter to serve you. The buffet restaurant is very large. It has a large selection of food at every meal However I did find that it was all cold at breakfast time. There is no fans or air conditioning in there so you start to sweat buckets as soon as you sit. It makes it very unpleasant to eat. Due to technical difficulties they cancelled one of our a la carts. They offer three per week but it is very hard to get in as they are all booked. Then once you do get booked they cancel you. We never got offered another a la crate to make up for the cancelled one. There was a lot of confusion as to where and when the remaining a la crats were as many of them were having technical difficulties. We went to the Asian a la carts and had to leave it was so bad. When we were approaching the restaurant there was a large amount of water that was running over the walk way and someone was cleaning it off. It smaller of water that runs out of the back of a compost truck in the middle of August- nasty. We never gave it another thought until our main meal came out and it tasted like that water smelled. The soup was a sea food broth soup. They had to have taken whole Un-cleaned shrimp and other shell fish and cooked them then try to purée it because out of the 4 spoon fulls were we’re able to stomach we were picking pieces of shells and shrimp antennae’s out of our mouth. We couldn’t eat it. The best part of this meal was the wine and the dinner roll. We walked out after one bit of our main meal. We didn’t want to try deserts. After that evening I ate tasted like that nasty water. We never went to our other a la cart we had booked. Just couldn’t bear the thought of it. One great thing about CCC is that it is over an hour drive for local to get to this part of the island and no one lives here so there is no one that bothers you on the beach. When it was time to check out we stoped at the front fest to ask them to send a buggy to get our luggage. We gave them over an hour notice and They said that it wouldn’t be possible. They couldn’t bring it to the front for us. They had no problem taking it there when we arrived and informed us that if we needed they could drive us from point A to B around the resort as it is very large. But all of the sudden we are leaving and they can’t help us. I am undecided if I would return to this resort. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t fantastic either.

Memories Flamenco Beach Resort Jan 23rd to30th 2018

Our stay at this hotel was amazing. We did have a few minor problems with our room when we arrived but once that was sorted out it was awesome. The staff were great and so much fun. The family gathered there from across Canada, we celebrated a birthday all while having a great time. If only they had a direct line to the sun :) I would certainly go back.

Surprisingly okay after hurricane

First let me say cuba had a hurricane hit only 3 months ago. They have done remarkable things to get open so quickly. It was a typical Cuban vacation on the most part. Cuba always does things 90 percent when it comes to construction. Paint slopped over and grout not perfect etc but that just what makes cuba. This resort had alot of water issues sometimes water pressure sometimes hot water. But they just had a hurricane pass and are trying to fix it as problems arise. It's not perfect but w [... read more]e always had a shower. The buildings may have issues in the future with mold due to quick work to fix things. The washrooms needed severe help. Constant needed cleaning as people kept flushing paper and other products down the toilet clogging them and backing up. The bright side food choices were good and never went hungry. The staff are always amazing and helpful with knowledge about the city of moron. However everyone i know had diarrhea for several or more days. Not full on sick and throwing up from water but diarrhea. I had An enjoyable vacation for the most part

Janurary 2018 - 2 weeks

let me start with the checkin experience. there are 2 counter for checkin. One for Diamond Club and one regular checkin counter which was abunded by about 60 people. the waiting was horrible. some people waited for more than one hour to get checked in and the Diamond Club counter could not be bothered by pitching in. The hotel is big and it only has 1 buffet restaurant and one snack bar by the pool. They also have 3 or 4 specialized restaurants with minimal seating. During our stay the hot [... read more]el was full . The line ups were unbearable at times and not enough staff to cater to everyone. This hotel has major water and sewer problems. The public washrooms by the buffet, reception and lobby bar was always closed due to backups of toilets and floor drains. We went 2 full days without water and always no pressure. Hot water was an issue frequently. Everytime it was reported to the reception, they kept on saying the hotel has no water. I walked in to the lobby bar washroom at 2 occasions where the floor was full of poo..... As a diabetic , there never were diet coke and sweeteners were very scarce. They actually ran out 6 days after my arrival. As for the diet coke , I always need to run to the lobby bar to see if they had any. Snack bar, buffet and swim up bar never ever had any. As for the service, if you dont tip you dont get the proper service. you do wait a very long time to get a drink. As for the beach it was nice but the sand was full of broken sea shells that were very sharp and my granddaughter got her foot cut . They really should try and remove or grind the shells down. I was not impressed with this 5 star hotel. I have been to Cuba hundreds of times and this is the worst hotel i have ever been to. I do quote this hotel as a 3 star. Will never go back to this hotel again.

Another great time in Cuba

Considering this area was hit very hard by Hurricane Irma just a few months before our trip on December 19th, 2017, it was in remarkable shape and fully functional with the only noticeable damage being the amount of rooms that were still unavailable due to repairs. This was our first time in Cayo Coco and this was definitely the nicest resort we've stayed at in Cuba as we normally opt for a different travel experience than this, but it was a nice change to just sit back, relax and enjoy the a [... read more]mazing services of a nice resort. We've been all over Cuba, from Varadero to Holguin, for a total of about 6 times in the last 5 years and the main reason we had not done Cayo Coco before is the lack of local connection. There is no town or village to wander through and meet locals, its just completely isolated. You don't find many locals on the beach or at the shopping center ($5 CUC bus fair per person, return trip included), so its just tourists and resort staff. We love to spend our time making friends with Cubans, eating at the small family restaurants, and getting away from the resorts. But you won't get that here, unless you rent a car, or hire a taxi and spend a few hours traveling. The beach is typical of a Cuban beach, mind blowing beautiful. The hotel food was better than you expect for Cuba. As far as rooms go, its Cuba, so there are some issues, and my profession being in property inspection, I could tear it apart with an endless list of issues. But who goes on vacation for the room? You're in paradise, be happy and don't worry about the little things that don't matter! The staff as always were amazing, including at the kids club where we left our son at for a few hours each day, though most of the time he ended up being the only child, the staff were great at playing games and he would ask us to take him back! We checked out the nightly entertainment about 5/7 nights and it was good each time. For later night entertainment there is a disco / night club off the resort which you will have to pay for your own drinks, beers were $3 CUC and locals go too (which is great to us, we loved seeing one of the kids club staff there enjoying herself!) This was about our 10th time booking through Tripcentral.ca and about our 5th representative and once again, they made sure everything went smoothly and remain the only travel site, agency, etc., that I recommend!

Beautiful beach and fantastic staff

The beach is beautiful! The staff is amazing. The resort is still recovering from the hurricane. There was an awful smell of sewerage around the resort during our stay and the public washrooms were dirty. The resort is a nice but definitely not five-star hotel. The al carte restaurants are nice but the buffet was very repetitively. The entertainment team was excellent.

Memories... and Irma forgotten!

Ok... so I'm back in snowy country and am suffering post-Memories blues... And here's my report :-) First things first: Did we get 7 days of sunshine and hot weather? No. It was cloudy almost everyday and the temperature varied from the low to the mid 20s. To all who complained (Canadians are great weather whiners), I replied these words: Do you see any snow?. The beach was awesome although strong winds disturbed the ocean floor making snorkelling a bad idea. Staff was awesome as it always is an [... read more]d the food was delicious! I had beef, yes, BEEF once a day and it was also delicious! (See Enrique at the grill, in the buffet). Most of the resort shows no sign of Irma. Construction was going well (not at Canadian speed) for two beach bars (currently, only the Diamond Club beach bar is opened and it does serve everyone - there isn't a "special" Diamond Club beach as of yet) and it was, overall, an awesome week of unplugging from this world! Spent a day in Ciego de Avila, over one of the staff's place, had an excellent day and meal :-). Cannot wait to book my next visit, in the first quarter of 2018 :-)

Wonderful Resort

Trip was Nov28-Dec5/17. The resort has done a lot to clean-up given it is only into its 2nd week of re-opening. Not all bldgs were opened at this time. We were in bldg 4, air con worked great but room definitely needed painting, new curtains, etc. Our room had not been upgraded. Be mindful if you have mobility issues that the tub is very high which makes it difficult to get in or out. There are only 4 rooms on this resort that are accessible (walk-in shower) so this must be reserved far in adva [... read more]nce. Beds were extremely comfy. Resort itself was clean and staff AMAZING! This Resort had the most palapas I have ever seen, you never had to sit directly in sun if you did not wish to. What makes this Resort are the Staff.......they want to do anything they can to keep you happy. Money exchange was HIGH, from CND to Peso's you were paying 42 cents on the dollar YIKES The staff cannot exchange loonies/twoonies or American Currency yet everyone keeps giving them out for tips and then they need to find guests who will exchange for them. The exchange rate was troublesome as we enjoy tipping but had to cut back due to the high rate of exchange. It changes from day to day but never better than the 42. We did bring gifts, baby clothes etc. and staff were grateful to receive. The food was good although slightly repetitive. We would return to this resort, the beach is long and very wide, you won't be disappointed and the pool is huge. No it is not heated, given the heat the coolness is welcomed. We had Diamond Club which gave us specialty liquor which is located in the main bar area, a wonderful special dinner in the Italian Restaurant, lobster/steak, soup, dessert, preparation superb and on the beach there is a special section just for DC. This came with our package when we booked, nice to have but not sure I would have pay for it as an extra as you get great service regardless. We will return again to Memories Flamenco. Customer Service was always quick to come to your aid to help out no matter what problem you are experiencing.

Wonderful, relaxing time

I was travelling with 2 friends who had been before, this was my first visit to Memories Flamenco Beach. First of all your staff is AMAZING!! With all that has happened with the weather in Cuba, you have pulled together a wonderful resort experience. We enjoyed how friendly everyone was and they went out of their way to make our vacation great. WE loved the new Foam machine...fun, fun, fun. The food was good and the food service was fabulous! The only thing that did not impress was the gift shop [... read more] service, it did not seem ready for good customer service. Other than this we had a wonderful vacation, thank you all. Elizabeth Davis

Wonderful Time!

This was my 3rd time to this resort! I wasn't disappointed at all. They have worked very hard to restore the resort after Hurricane Irma. Things look better than ever. My 2 girlfriends and I had a wonderful time and would return in a heartbeat! The Cubans were as friendly as ever.....love them!

Very nice

very nice place, good food/service, beautiful beach. only issue we had was pool bar, all the children hung out there........................................................................................................................................................................

AWESOME RESORT

We actually had to cancel memories flamenco, due to hurricane Irma, BUT we have stayed here before and the resort, people and food was really good. entertainment was non stop at the beach , pools, theatre etc. we really wish we could have went back to this resort, and we hope they get everything cleaned up for us to go back again next year!!! we didnt have ONE complaint about this resort, amazing for families with smaller children! thus why we booked this resort again!!! see you soon memories [... read more] flamenco!!!

Grand Bahia Principe -Jamaica

We were supposed to go to Cuba but unfortunately due to the hurricane we had to rebook for our 1 yr wedding anniversary. We were very pleased with the choice of the Grand Bahia Principe in Jamaica! Our agent at Tripcentral made all the necessary changes and made the change seamless...thank you!

Great Beach

The resort was well kept, food as usual in Cuba was they only step back. Some of our group was ill upon returning home as well we have read that other travelers during the same time frame where ill as well so food may have been the issue. Out flight back was to be in the morning on Wednesday September 6th just as Hurricane was on its way. Our flight was delayed by Sunwing from 10am to 10pm as the planes where being utilized to transport other vacationers from the path of the Hurricane which was [... read more] great however Sunwing never informed any of the Cuba travelers about this until we all checked out and where waiting for the bus. We then waited an hour to get our rooms back until only noon. Luckily the resort staff (manager) stepped up and allowed us to hold our rooms until 4pm as Sunwing would not cover the additional cost for the rooms. With the temperature at 32 C feeling like 42 C it was nice to have somewhere to get cool and shower before we headed to the airport. Overall the resort is well kept and clean, air conditioning in the rooms was great, as mentioned earlier the only set back would be the food.

The beach is the only thing that made it all worth while!

My first thought coming to the hotel was cool there's a pirate ship out front maybe there will be a theme to go along with it, no there wasn't. The colors of the tiles on the floor and the paint on the side of the main lobby building were outdated, there was nothing spectacular about the landscape around the resort. The only place that had the nicest looking flowers was by the main lobby, everywhere else the grass looked dead and the other plants had hardly any flowers made it look dull. The pai [... read more]nt on the buildings is chipping off, the tiles in all the pools were falling off and I even hurt myself on the broken ones. There was an awful odor coming from the swim up bar and in another area of the resort wasn't pleasant at all, literally smelled like poo. I overheard another guest complain about it he was quite upset and I don't blame him he had been smelling it for at least 2 days, and the person he was speaking to she looked dumbfounded and didn't really know what to say. We couldn't check into the room until 4 pm which I have never heard of anywhere, we had got there at 11 am and more than half the people that had come on the same flight as us were able to check in and the rest weren't and we were part of that group.We had come back 2 hours later to see if the room was ready, the lady at the front desk didn't even check and immediately said "No!" the staff weren't very friendly to us at all it was actually really disappointing and frustrating. (I had never heard "No!" so many times before at a resort it was really annoying and after awhile and we eventually gave up and stopped asking) I had traveled with my sister and her daughter down for my niece's birthday and we emphasized that to numerous staff members and none of them made her feel special or welcomed. After us asking if they could check to see if one of our rooms was ready, the lady finally did and sure enough mine was ready all along. We get to my room half the lights in my room weren't working properly, there was an ant infestation in my bathroom, my toilet broke several times and had to get someone to come and fix it, it was really annoying. My bed broke the first day I was there and they didn't end up replacing it until that night at like 10 pm at night, when I was getting ready for bed after a long day of travelling. My sister's room wasn't any better her TV wasn't working, her toilet also broke at least 5 times, her safe locked her out, her card keys would stop working and she kept having to go to the front desk to get it replaced. The scary thing was all she had to do was say which room she was in and they gave her a key, without asking what her name was or any identification. So literally someone else could go and do the same thing and get a key for any room and steal your stuff, that made me feel really uneasy. The only thing that made this trip and the resort worth while was the beach, it was absolutely beautiful! The sand was so white and the water was so clear blue, the tides weren't super high so we were able to enjoy swimming in the ocean. The water wasn't overly salty which was nice too especially for my niece who just turned 8 and is still getting the hang of swimming. The only thing about the beach is that there isn't a lot of shade, the only shade there is by these tiki huts that always have towels on them no matter what time you go at. Found out from another lady at the resort that the staff members go early in the morning to throw towels down, they see you looking for a spot to sit so they go and grab one for you and make it look like their doing you a favor so you end up tipping them to show appreciation. It's such a big scam, all you want to do is relax when you go away and not having to worry about where you're going to sit and we even went in the slow season so we couldn't understand why they were all being used! We made the best of it despite all of our frustrations and needless to say we couldn't wait to go home by the end of it, which is actually kind of sad because you should have the feeling of not wanting to leave.

Air conditioning hell

I read numerous reviews before we picked this trip. And the best part is the ocean and the sand. It truly is amazing!! If you go make sure you don't get a room in #9 area. It is too loud with air conditioners. Which I changed rooms 3 times with this one week visit each room air conditioners did not work and they don't change your room right away you have to wait a day. I slept in 28 temp which is almost impossible. Bring your bug spray they do come out at night Nd bite fast. The food is g [... read more]ood. There is no salad or Lactose free foods. But those that say the food is bad is very picky We still made the best of this trip and enjoyed the water as much as possible. Yes. I would go again but I will make sure air conditioners work in the beginning.

Amazing beach!

The hotel is an older one and it is showing it's age. The beach and staff makes up for the it. This hotel is remote so there isn't a lot of activities close by so be prepared to travel up to 2hrs to get to any activities. And bring strong bug spray or cover up after 6pm.