Not what we expected!!!!

First off, I never criticize any resorts in Cuba. I've been there over 20 times and understand the situations they face in that country. That being said, I was very disappointed in the service and lack of variety in the food. I stayed at a different resort in April, 2022 and had a much better experience(food, staff and everything in general). The covid excuse has warn it's welcome with me and feel the resorts should be more prepared than this one was. Calling it "Grand" Memories is a overstateme [... read more]nt. Staff was not friendly, cleaning ladies arguing while cleaning the rooms (literally yelling at each other across the hallways), and then still not cleaning the room until 4 or 5 o'clock. Now the food, things are always a little scarce in Cuba but this is the first time I never had one piece of chicken and only had a omelet once for breakfast, was told no eggs only pancakes. And we paid extra for the Diamond Club!!! I stayed at Club Tropical right in the town of Varadero and never had these issues. Needless to say I won't be going back and won't recommend it to anyone. Oh yeah, we found huge cockroaches in our room on the last day...nasty!!

Good resort

Hotel was nice beautiful beach friendly service food could be a little better.I enjoyed my vacation there .My service from trip central was excellent I will use them again next time hopefully soon I will be able to get away again

Five star experience!!

The staff, the entertainment and even the food was great during our stay! Yes the rooms a little dated, but other than sleeping, we weren't in the rooms. Our family had a blast the entire stay! Julio (the show man) was our favourite! We never knew from day to day how he would dress up and we have many pictures with him! We definitely will return to this resort!!

One of Kind

A complete Place for Vacations relaxing. Every Single point of view is simply amazing. Every Single worker is doing their job so incredibly. Every kind of service is highly admirable. All kinds of facilities have so much value of admiration. Every single penny is accountability so worthful. 24/7 services are so impressive. All kind of food taste is mouth-watering. GOD BLESS MORE GRAND MEMORIES RESORT. Mirza Baig

NOT SO GRAND MEMORIES.

We arrived at the resort around 10PM on September 6, 2023. Having read previous reviews before we arrived, we were hopeful that we could get a room in building 10 as it had been recommended by previous guests at the resort. We spoke politely to the lady at the hotel reception desk but noticed that this woman, Nauta, was neither friendly nor welcoming. She coldly told us that there were no rooms available in building 10, and our third-floor room had been prepared for us in building 23. We asked i [... read more]f this room was close to most hotel amenities like restaurants, pools, and the beach, and she said yes. We mentioned that both of my wife and I had problems walking long distances and climbing stairs, and Nauta claimed that there was nothing else available at the time. She even mentioned that there were resort vehicles that could pick us up from our room and take us where we wanted to go (this turned out to be false, as we later discovered). Let me mention here that I had paid extra to have a Diamond Club Superior Room for myself, my wife, and our son. While making our bookings, we were informed that we would have a personalized check in/check out, and that turned out to be false too because we had to stand in line with everyone else to wait for our turn to be served. We were looking forward to our “Superior” room but what we got was a horror show. The king-size bed had springs coming through the mattress and the spare bed meant for our son sank to the floor when you sat on it; the fridge was rusted and its door was broken; the television was one of those outdated tube ones with a remote control that did not work; the washroom had ants crawling about; the shower area looked mouldy, and there was moisture coming through the ceiling and walls of the whole washroom. On top of that, the cupboard and balcony doors were badly jammed and hard to move. The whole room was run down, dirty, and smelt really stale. We could not imagine spending even a single night in this place. Since the phone in the room (or in any of the other rooms we later occupied) was not operational, it meant us having to walk the terribly long distance to the hotel lobby to ask for a better room. We were already exhausted from our journey, but Nauta was not very sympathetic or even helpful. She first gave us a key card to look at an even worse potential room in building 20. We noticed how there were neither any lights in the stairs, nor in the corridors of the buildings we had been in (the lights are either kept switched off, or the light bulbs just don’t work). All the extra walking and climbing of stairs was really taking a toll on us. The service of two bell boys who had initially driven us to building 23 in a resort golf cart was not offered to us while we wore ourselves out trying to find an acceptable room to sleep in for the night. The third time that we had to go back to the lobby, we humbly requested for any decent second-floor room (because climbing the stairs repeatedly, especially to the third floor, was brutal on our knees). Nauta finally gave us a key card for a second-floor room in the same building 23 where our original room was. It was marginally less dilapidated than the first room that we had gotten. We were told that there may be a room free in Building 10 the next day, and we could try to come and see the concierge people after 4PM. We made our way back to our first room so that we could collect our son who was waiting there with our luggage, only to discover that its key card no longer worked (we had issues with the room key cards every single day of our stay and sometimes had to go to the hotel reception as many as three to four times a day to get the key cards reactivated and/or replaced). Luckily, because our son was already inside the room and still awake, we managed to get into our original room, gather our belongings, and bring everything down one floor into the room that was now assigned to us. After more than two hours of running back and forth, we were finally in a position to go and eat something from the 24-hour snack bar. The next day, we kept our luggage packed and ready in case we were fortunate enough to be able to move out of the shabby room that we were being forced to stay in. We had breakfast and decided to go to the lobby to make sure that the concierge staff was informed about our possible room change. Fortunately, there was another woman at the reception desk (she had a much better personality than Nauta), and she kindly asked us to talk to the customer service people. We met Bleysis who introduced herself as our butler! She was new at the job, but she took the time to listen to the issues we had faced the night before. She ensured that we got a room on the second floor of building 10 after 4PM that same day. We were much more satisfied with the next room that was assigned to us (Room 10201). At this point, I wish we could say that our stay was great after the room change but our problems were far from over. The maid in charge of our room’s upkeep (Maria was her name) was rude and had a hostile manner whenever we encountered her. My wife gave her money and gifts every single day (which she took and kept as if she was owed these), but even those things did not sweeten her temperament at all. The extra bed that our son was sleeping on was already made up with a single blanket and sheet. However, there were two blankets that were kept in the cupboard for the king-size bed that my wife and I had to share. The first night in the new room, my wife was setting up these two blankets for our bed when she discovered that they stunk of concentrated urine. Both blankets smelled like someone had repeatedly urinated on them, allowed them to dry, and then just folded them and placed them in the cupboard. To say that we were disgusted is an understatement. Not even in the cheapest hotel that we have ever stayed at have we experienced such filth and unsanitary conditions. We discarded the soiled blankets immediately and tried to keep warm by using the three beach towels that were provided in our room. We spoke to Bleysis about this experience the next day and requested that she get the two foul blankets changed for us. We also asked for another spare blanket for our son because the room got really cold at night. Maria reluctantly took the disgusting blankets but claimed that she had only a thin white king-size duvet and a thick bedsheet that she could give us. She was clever enough to make my wife smell this duvet for unpleasant odours while it was still folded. My wife really should have taken the time to open the whole thing up and look at the whole duvet properly because there were several urine stains and odours hidden inside (which we later discovered)! Maria said that she had no other blankets to give us, so we had to manage somehow with the duvet and thick bedsheet instead. Then she told us that we should be okay to clean our room ourselves that day. We were taken aback that a maid can talk to you like that after just receiving yet another tip for not even delivering what was requested of her. My wife told her that she only needed to take care of the washroom for that day, and we would tidy up our room ourselves. My wife was making our bed later that evening when all the awful, filthy patches of stinking urine inside the duvet were revealed to us. We needed to be warm at night so my wife emptied a whole bottle of fragrance spraying the duvet and used the thick bedsheet that Maria had provided to form an extra layer of protection for us (away from all the soiled areas). Maria did not change this dirty duvet for us even after we hesitatingly told Bleysis about it and she asked her to do so. Besides having Bleysis as our “butler”, there were not many other benefits that we gained by paying extra for our Diamond Club Superior Room. According to the website and our tickets, we were supposed to get a single bottle of rum, a bottle of water, two cans of beers, and two colas – everything besides the bottle of rum was supposed to be replenished daily! Needless to say, we got none of these when we arrived, and upon enquiring, were told that they would get the maid to bring us the bottle of rum, but they would only be providing one bottle of water and a single can of beer daily. It was naturally Maria’s job to put the water and can of beer in our fridge, and she had to be asked to do so most of the time - she only provided the single can of beer on some days. Three nights in our second room, and we were woken up by a continuous loud, banging noise around 7AM in the morning. We reported the problem immediately, and someone came two and a half hours later to check and see where the noise was coming from. We were told that our air conditioning unit was broken, but their very competent resort mechanic would be able to fix it. We waited all day for the hotel mechanic, but he did not make it to our room until after 5PM. It was a lucky chance that my wife heard some noises of people talking in the room next door to ours and saw someone was working on the AC unit there – she asked the repairman if that AC unit was also broken. It turned out that the hotel mechanic had gone to the wrong room! The handyman advised us that due to recession, he did not have the parts to repair our AC unit. That meant another room change! Quick communication with Bleysis through WhatsApp helped us secure another room four doors down from our current one. Unfortunately, because it was on the same floor, Maria would still be our maid. We had to pack up our belongings yet again and set ourselves up in a new room but at least we did not have to move to another building. Bleysis actually came to make sure that the room change went smoothly. The same extra bed that my son was sleeping on had to be moved to the other room (the maid, Maria, was not happy about having to do this). Maria told us that we would have to use the same old soiled duvet in the new room because the bed there did not have a duvet, and she had the nerve to take our three beach towels away, claiming that we had already had three of them in the new room (we did not, and my wife had to ask her to return them). She had previously removed two out of the three glasses that we had in our other room. We were not allowed to have the clean bath towels in the new room and had to bring our used towels from our former room. After behaving so terribly, Maria still had the guts to tell my wife to leave our beach bag for her when we left! We continued to give Maria tips just for providing the bottle of water for our room, but every day after this room change, we told her not to clean our room – we just did not want her negative presence around us anymore. Besides the one time she tidied our washroom, this woman only cleaned our room once the whole time we stayed at the resort. She got much more than she deserved from us, but I made sure we did not reward her further by also giving her the beach bag she wanted. We found that building 10 was a little too far from the beach but closer to the quiet swimming pool, hotel lobby, and restaurants. Besides Nauta and Maria, the rest of the hotel staff was more pleasant. We had come prepared so we would not run out of any essential toiletries and toilet paper during our seven days stay. We even had spices, lemon juice, hot sauces, and ketchup to season the mostly flavourless food at the resort. Everything that people write about certain food shortages in Cuba is true, and that is true about the resort too. You just have to keep your expectations low and make the most of things that the resort is actually be able to provide for you. Something that they really need to work on is the filthy state of most of the public washrooms in the resort. My wife and I are going to miss Ernesto and Niurys from the 24 hours snack bar for their positive and ready to serve attitudes. We were not always impressed with what was being offered at the 24 hours snack bar, but their happy and welcoming smiles made us glad to be there. The entertainment shows and discos were not bad. The staff in the Diamond Club section of the buffet restaurant was much nicer than in other areas. Even though the Diamond Club daily lunch a la carte restaurant had repetitive menus, the servers were really friendly. The food at the Japanese and Italian dinner a la carte restaurants was pretty decent. We understand that Cuba is going through tough times, but so is the rest of the world. We are not rich and have had to struggle to save up the money to even be able to afford a vacation after all this time. We expected better standards and some level of comfort and care when we picked a resort that claims to be among the top ones in Varadero. They did not deliver on this front. We cannot recommend a place that we have no intention of ever going back to. Date of stay: September 2023 Trip type: Travelled with family Room Tip: Carry toiletries and condiments. Also, towels and blankets if you can.

Good resort

This resort is older with aged furniture, it’s a mixed bag of quality for beds, tvs, AC’s. You won’t know until you get your room. I stayed in the Diamond section and my room was good but I was with a group of 5 and there were several different issues with the room. Although there were issues, I praise the hotel staff for dealing with these issues quickly and correctly. The hotel staff were tremendous, their priority was our comfort. I have nothing but praise for the hotel staff. Many of  [... read more]the tourists Canadian and Russian had high expectations and weren’t always very friendly, through it all the staff continue to do what they could with what they had. I’m sorry to say that I will not be returning to Cuba any time soon. The system can not recuperate from COVID, from loosing their trading partners. There was always something to eat but it wasn’t great, we had eggs two mornings, local beer was non existing, there were 2 mornings with no coffee and other days when the coffee would run out, I went 2 days without bottled water and had to call for it even though it was part of my Diamond package.including soft drinks and beer which we didn’t get. There is very little gas for the vehicles outside of the tourist industries, classic cars, taxis, tour bud and airport shuttles will always be available but very little left over for the Cuban population (15 litres per month). Overall I have to say that Cuba has lost so much over the last few years and is in no way able to accommodate tourism and is not worth the rate the airlines are charging. I have been travelling to Cuba for 20 years but the situation is no longer tolerable and the effects on the infrastructure is to great, until this situation is resolved it pains me to say that I will not be returning to this beautiful island.

Tired Resort.

Very tired feeling resort. We were suppose to be allowed to check in at 4pm, our rooms weren't ready until 6ish. Rooms were falling apart and 2 out of the 3 rooms we had, had a bad mold smell. None of the safes even worked. We also lost power in one of our rooms. Many little things were out of order. (Waterfalls etc) The buffet was pretty bad, all the alacarte restaurants served the same things prepared differently. Seemed like they had a shortage of food. The BBQ lunch wasn't e [... read more]ven really BBQ. Bring your own ketchup packets As long as you Temper your expectations you will be ok, it's advertised as a 4.5 star but it's a 2.5.

Not worth the money

Visited in august. Rooms very dirty. The house keeper was not listening to my request to simply sweep the floors. Absolutely disgusting finding dirty qutips in my bathroom on the day of arrival. Door frame was broken to the point that my doors wouldn’t lock, and if they did close i was not able to open it and most of the time had to use my patio doors to get back inside. Beach area is beautiful and the beach stuff was amazing. Inside the buffet had hard time finding a seat also service was ter [... read more]rible. Servers would pass by me and not offer any drinks or coffee at the breakfast. Just overall its not worth the money they are charging.

Great beach and amazing entertainment crew!

Our family vacation at Grand Memories Varadero was truly amazingly! The entertainment crew specially Liliana and Eliecer were such great hosts. Very friendly and helpful. The beach was gorgeous. Couldn't have asked for anything more. We had great memories to bring back to Canada!

Great staff and amazing beach!

The buffet staff Arelys and Rigoberto provided great service throughout our stay. Liliana the guest hostess at the front is excellent. Friendly and helpful. The beach is amazing. This is the place to stay with your family!!!

The beach perfect, grounds was perfect, 75% of the time the main Pool Swim-up bar was not open, was messy and smell. The quiet Pool i refuse to get into, dogs always on the rocks above the pool and if they urinated or Mess on the overhead rocks it will end up in the pool.

This Hotel is listed as a 4*, for me its a 2* The rooms were terrible, i changed rooms 4 times. Toilet seepage, other room water always on the floor, another water falling from above. My last room water coming in from somewhere and unto the floor. The manager asked me if i wanted another room, i said no. My family was frustrated and fed-up of packing and moving. The manager tried his best, not his fault the resort is poorly maintained. I get my daughter for 2 weeks in July and 2 weeks in  [... read more]august. Always take her on a vacation, this was wasted time, time i could not get back. Twice my towels were not changed. I have been to Cuba 9 times prior, never had this experience. the food was the worst i ever had, some days no butter or eggs, July 11 the food was ok, but coudn't enjoy the dinner, had to rush to get the bus. My worst vacation, i don't think i will visit Cuba again in the near future. i am now looking at how to get a refund, after-all it was listed as a 4* and it was overrated. False and Misleading Advertisement

Mediocre resort

The hotel room was very outdated and needed repairs. There was a severe musty smell and the door lock was not working and our third floor flooded the second day we were there. Not very impressed it was stressful the first two days, after complaining with customer service we were upgraded to the diamond service. We struggled to have clean towels every day and we had to use the same beach towel for three straight days which was not acceptable. When attended the pool towel station we were told no [... read more] clean towels keep the one you have. We were upgraded to diamond service on the second day, we were able to order mojito drinks and we were allowed to eat at the gourmet restaurant which was decent. Overall we made the best out of our vacation but will not go there again. I do not recommend this hotel.

Worst ever.. I want my money back

This was the most unsanitary place on earth.. we tried to get flights outta there but Sunwing wouldn’t… I will be fighting for my money back.. there were so many things wrong and unsanitary! No running water for 12 hours in the whole resort including the rooms.. people were just pooing until the toilets were over flowing.. no place to wash your hands or the STAFF HANDS.. The septic over flowed from one of the buildings and the poo was everywhere on the lawns and the pool had to be closed for [... read more] 2 days.. THIS PLACE SHOULD BE CONDEMNED!! My husband and I are very sick after coming home and I’m going to see my dr about mold testing.. the place was covered in mold.. all of the rooms..I can’t believe Sunwing would not help us when it was such an unhealthy environment!! I’m getting my money back if I have to get a lawyer..

The scoop on the Grand memories

Well the trip overall would be a 3 star group we’re good minus the sewage issue and backpacking ng up around the main pool bar not into the the pool. The better pool for us was the one by the disco or bungalow 10. The food shortage was so so buffet was weak but there were 2 days was ok. Pro tip breakfast skip the buffet goto snack bar for omelets or bacon and egg had all days except 1. Last day the water was shut off for repairs but was back up that night. Room were hot and miss we lucked out [... read more] with pretty good room needed some tlc which most do but some were awful. Seemed like a lot on bottom floor were musty and more isssues Lobby bar only had 2 staff so took awhile for drinks. I wouldn’t upgrade to support room again or do the diamond club no difference and the same service and they gave you top shelf alcohol suvh as absolute vodka and Jamisons. Again ground were great no bugs at all. Service was so so but to be expected with a bigger resort. Shows sound was too loud and tried hard but I seen much better.

Very pleasant Resort.

I have few negative comments to make. It was my second stay here. One was before Covid and I must say that little has changed except it's four years older. There is quite a lot of staff . Grounds keepers, house keeping staff etc. My room was kept very clean, fresh towels everyday, bottled water in the fridge as well as beer and a bottle of rum. This was of little interest to me but some people found it great. The only thing which needs to be updated is the bathroom. It is old and looks the same  [... read more]as four years ago. One problem I had was with the wifi reception. Often I could not log on but the hotel had a young lady installed in the lobby to help with that. This needs some attention. All the buildings in the resort are freshly painted and the grounds and pools well maintained. Receptionists were friendly and very helpful especially when the found out that this was my first trip alone. My check out time was extended giving me plenty time to rest and get ready for the flight home because of the very late arriving time in Ottawa. I have to commend the concierge staff for their way they treated me and arranged reservations at the various restaurants in the resort. Food was plentiful, well presented and although some items were not available every day, there was absolutely no shortage of food. Beautiful fruit and salad trays. I am not a great eater but there was always something I liked. All in all I Had a very Pleasant stay. As a foot note. I would like to thank Sandra for the help she gave me arranging this trip and the information she provided helped a lot to make things easier.

Worth the money

Beautiful and clean beach and pool, food was good but not so much variety which is understandable because of all the global shortages. The only thing that needs to be changed is the Mattresses in the bedrooms. They are extremely old and uncomfortable to the point that I was better off sleeping on the floor

The worth resort ever!

We came home on march 25 2023 from Grand Memories Varadero. 1. There are no toilet seats, not in the room and not in public washrooms. 2. There is no hot water. 3. For 7 days they cleaned the room about 4 times and bathroom is about 2 times. 4. In the public women washroom there are no toilet paper, toilet seats either and doors have broken locks, so you can not close the door. 5. Eggs and milk were available about 3-4 days, no butter and beef. 6. There is no hot tub in the pool and no [... read more]t enough chars on the beach. All the rest is ok.

Places to avoid

If you go to this resort with zero expectations, then you won’t be disappointed. We have been to several resorts in Cuba and by far this was the worst experience we have ever had there. And it will be our last time going to Cuba.

Good vacation

Even though food was okay and didn’t rise to a 4 star standard as well as the room booked, the ease of booking and induction available both online and at the resort was good. Transportation was provided with the price of the booking.

Good vacation with some challenges

Beaches & pools great, resort layout good. Food is challenge, poor quality and shortage of staples (pasta, eggs). Have to request clean towels multiple times. Would return though bc cheap & great beach.