TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

We checked out early because our stay was very disappointing. You can se where at one time the hotel was lovely, but it has since lost its luster and is living off of the Fairmont name. The rooms are run down, showers leaked into the entry way. There was no beach service, half the gym equipment was broken, the valet dented our car, and the staff was more miss than hit with customer service. The price of our two rooms was crazy high though we booked through Fairmont early, even the manager could not deny we were overcharged… would have saved $3k to check out early and rebook the same day for the rest of our trip! So overall, it was not worth the stay, and I wouldn’t recommend it. I am glad we left early.

The pool and beach area is definitely a highlight here. We got excellent cabana service from Alondra. The concierge desk was also super helpful in planning excursions - snorkeling, kayaking, etc. The rooms aren't in perfect condition, though.

We booked a cabana for the day on a girl’s trip. The waiter was not very accommodating. They had my rum at a bar at a different pool but he wouldn’t allow me to order it at the cabana on our minimum $385 tab. Then when we did ask for something different than the menu he commented he needed to write it down. He forgot one of our meals (maybe he should have written that down). There were kids at every pool (no adults only as advertised, that I could see).

I feel I am shocked about this hotel. I can’t even think about anything other than my last night when on a Thursday night they let “18+” — more like 13+ — completely TAKE OVER THE PLACE (the entire lower level at least) gambling, getting seriously coked up, nearly having sex — at a 4/5 star hotel! So disgusting and absolutely terrifying if you have children. PLUS there was NO ONE to talk to/complain about it. No one at the door, no one at concierge, no one at check in. The only person was the gentleman at the car stand who said something to the effect of this is the way it is; this is normal and looked at me like I had 10 heads. This is to say nothing of the pool/beach cabana/beds — which are no where near 4 star. The pool area gets flooded and swampy and the beach beds are well — just don’t even think twice about renting — they are garbage. If you can’t afford the Ritz Bahia or Dorado just go to another island, this place is literally complete TRASH. And should be taken out as such.

Beautiful ship, terrible service. I wish I had read reviews beforehand, I've been on many cruises and wanted to to MSC, big mistake. Staff doesn't care about the guests, most will ignore you, any requests made to guest service desk go unanswered. If you don't wave cash in the air at the bar you will not be served, food is terrible, elevators are terrible, public bathrooms that have several stalls also have doors that lock from the inside to the main bathroom, other guests will go into the multi-person bathroom and lock the door so that others cannot enter, also there is no signage to find these bathrooms! Room attendant was lack luster to say the least, we found two pacifiers and food/candy wrappers in the couch and under the desk, there was toothpaste on the sink and hair in the shower! Our balcony was NEVER cleaned, crusted with salt the entire cruise, several of our companions only had one chair on the balcony and several others chairs were broken to the point of being unsafe to sit in. EVERY clothing item we wore somehow ended up having black grease on it somewhere, no idea where it was coming from. The A/C in the room barely maintained a cool environment. The carpet was stained everywhere. House keeping left vacuums and cleaning carts, trash and dirty linen bags in the already super narrow hallways, I observed several people trip/stumble over them and people in wheelchairs/scooters had to move them by hand to get around them. Am I being too critical???? Waited over 90 minutes at the restaurant for an omelet that was small enough I could have put the whole thing in my mouth, when I cut into it the "ham" was a pink paste, not ham - BLEGH! The entertainment was lame, it was like 15 people were put in charge of making the shows and they all had different ideas and decided to mash it all into one 35 min performance. THE ELEVATORS OMG. MSC now has these smart elevators where you push a button outside each elevator deck that corresponds to the floor you want to go to, it then tells you what elevator to wait for... cool idea.... but MSC Yacht club members get cards that give them priority use of elevators....see where this is going???? Several yacht club kids/teens decided at several points during the cruise that they were going to just ride the elevators from top to bottom using their cards and deny others the use of the elevators.... You could literally stand at an elevator for 15 mins with no luck, I can't climb from deck 7 to 18, great idea, poor execution. There is so much more, I wish I kept a better list, the last thing I will mention for the negative is this: We booked this cruise because it was a great price and hadn't tried MSC before, keep this in mind, if you find a cheap cruise, you will find cheap guests. I'm not a snob nor am I rich, but this cruise had some of the trashiest, rudest, loudest, and the most obnoxious and disrespectful guests I've ever seen. Cheap prices attract cheap people, be ready for their drama/attitudes! Now for the positives: The ship was beautiful. The kids water play area was the best I've ever seen. The water slides were fantastic. Sparkle stairs. LOTS of bars, like, soooo many bars. Guy playing steel drums at the pool deck was the best I've ever heard, much kudos! Bartender Moyo at the jungle pool bar was the most helpful person on the boat, and very kind, I observed him go above and beyond several times in helping other guests. Victor with the cowboy hat at the kids club was a real dude, very kind and great with the kids.